Stay Tuned

Hey folks, I know I am a day or so behind on my trip reports and it is going to be another day or two before I catch up again.  Rest assured all is well, we are just trying to find the time to adequately report all the goings on.  See you soon.
p.s. Nobody is going to hell, offensive blog bomb post removed.

So many devices, so few pictures

Sorry folks, went to town today and did not want to carry the purse with all the stuff, so just put my wallet in the shorts.  And Tom chose to  take pictures with the real camera, not the phone, so you will just have to trust me that the conch was tasty AND pretty, the salad and blackened chicken with ju ju sauce was pretty great too.

Went to Mallory Square, Southernmost Point, JB Margaritaville and took several wrong turns and got happily lost downtown midst scooters and buggies and two cruise ships full of visitors.

Pictures to follow whenever they get downloaded from the camera, which is after the trip, sad to say.

Health update:  Tom is a trooper. Herc is having one of his bouts with infections, but is on antibiotics and eating again.  He is having a few problems with bleeding from his hemangiomas, but nothing too awful.  Cheryl, the klutz, has a fully recovered back (thank you Magic Golf Ball) but twisted her ankle and fell today.  Ice, elevation and Capt. Morgan are all doing their job.  So now she limps on both legs and at least it is matching gait.  

Because it is all we have to show you for today, here is the swollen turned ankle, the trooper and the dog blissfully sleeping off his first meal in 36 hours.

Greetings from Milepost Zero

Well folks, we finally made it.  We are in Key West.  We managed to get a waterfront spot on the base, and while it does not have hookups, we have a generator and they have dump stations and water fill close by.  You probably could not find a prettier spot here on Key West.  Duval street is just down the road a couple of miles, which only takes a few minutes on the scooter.  In fact, it takes more time to put on the required safety equipment (gloves, closed toe shoes, long pants, long sleeve shirt or jacket, helmet with face mask and at night, a reflective vest) than it does to scoot from the base to Duval.

Shrimp boats and jet skis are in the bay in front of us, the local Sunset Bar at the marina (1/2 mile) serves shrimp, conch, burgers, salads and beer.  Duval St. is nonstop bars, restaurants and tourists, so this little oasis is a welcome respite, too.

Gators and Glades

I have bit more time to post now, so I thought I would bring you up to date on our adventures of yesterday, traveling from St. Petersburg to Key Largo.  I would give you some photos of the scenery but it was one of two things, either a commercial zone that could have been plucked from any city in America, or it was mangroves and grass.  You already know what the commercial zone looks like, CVS across the street from a Walgreens, a supermarket next to that, a gas station, some fast food joints and then stir and repeat.  Here, then, is the part that is the Everglades.

Miles and miles and miles of it.

Fortunately, about halfway through it, we found Wooten's Airboat Rides and Gator Show.  We skipped the kiss a gator and hug a gator opportunities, but we did see a particularly happy gator while waiting for our airboat ride.

Forty minutes later we had mud splatters and wind blown hair, but we thoroughly enjoyed our ride with Capt. Robbie through the glades.  

Key Largo

We are safely here in the Florida Keys. Not much time to post right now but I'll try and get back later, in the meantime enjoy the view.

South

Today dawned too early.  Or at least too early to make our intended departure of 8 am.  We did manage to leave at 9:30 and poor Tom has had to do all the driving today as Cheryl ended up with a back spasm between her shoulder blades.  Don't know what caused it, don't know what finally fixed it, but after a large glass of wine she can now take a deep breath without paroxysms of stabbing pain.  

One of Tom's goals this trip was to see the Dali museum in St. Petersburg.  Last time he was here, about 12 years ago, it was closed.  This time, they closed the road but the museum itself is open. We found a parking spot in the alternative lot, and Tom toured the museum while Cheryl tended to her back . (Nope, had not yet discovered the wine effects.  She was on her back with a golf ball under her shoulder.  It sorta got a little better as long as she did not have to move.). He forgot both his camera and his phone, so the only picture you get is his wristband.  He says there was a Warhol exhibit, too.

Late afternoon found us at the campground du nuit, this one called Frog Creek.  It is actually kinda cute, with many tree and a meandering creek suitable for fishy and canoeing.

Tom wants you to know the sign on the tree says "Beware of Alligators".

Moving On Over...

Somewhere after the late lunch at LuLu's, and the receipt of a lovely copy of her cookbook (Thank You Matt) we ended up at the one-and-only World Famous Flora-Bama Bar and Music Mecca.  We opted to have Bushwackers for dessert as they are mostly ice cream freezes with five different liqueurs. We don't know the top secret recipe but we do know it contains milk, and the five liqueurs include some sort of cocoa, chocolate, coconut and rum with whipped cream and a cherry on top.

After all that, it was early to bed for an oh-dark-thirty departure this morning. Slight adjustment to original plans today; we discovered the beach route we had thought of doing was going to be lots of stop and go driving and would take waaaaay too long to reach our destination.  So we tootled on over via  I-10, found us a nice little park with a lake full of ducks and Spanish moss-filled trees above.

We are just here for a quick overnight stop, and then it is off south tomorrow (tailwinds!)