1-2 March 2020 Key West, FL

We finally spent time exploring Key West. On Sunday, we drove the one hour drive (38 miles) into the city and parked not far from the ferry terminal ($4 and hour) (since we knew where that parking lot was located and that it could handle the Behemoth). From there we walked to Kermit’s to get a slice of authentic Key Lime pie. It was delicious! Our Cousin Beth had recommended it. From there we walked down to the Little White House where President Truman went for summer respite during his presidency. At that time, it was on the Key West Naval Station grounds. It has since been sold to a private non-profit to run as a museum. We did not go in since we were running low on time to get to our next destination. From the Little White house, we walked along the exclusive Front Street residences before cutting up to Whitehead Street. From there we walked south and came across the southern terminus of US-1. US-1 goes from Key West Florida all the way to the Canadian boarder in northern Maine. Just beyond US-1 is the Hemmingway House where Ernest Hemmingway lived and wrote several of his books. We wanted to tour the house, but they wanted $15 per person entrance fee and only took cash. We just don’t walk around with much cash on us anymore. So we did not have enough cash for the entrance fee. We did see one of the famous six toed cats that live on the grounds of the house. From there we made our way to what is advertised as the southernmost point on the contiguous 48 states. It’s a bit of a misnomer since you can see right behind the marker is a point that sticks out further and is therefore further south, but it is on the Key West Naval Air Station (Truman annex) and not accessible by the public. But in truth, there is a small sand key further south than even the point, but it is not accessible except by boat. After waiting in line to get our picture taken, we walked to Duval Street and made our way up Duval Street with the intention of getting to Mallory Square for the sunset. Along the way we stopped at a wine shop and enjoyed a nice cold glass of Pinot Grigio. Duval Street kind of reminds us of the French Quarter of New Orleans with back to back bars and tourist shops. It was very crowded and dirty. As we walked along, we noticed there was a heavy deck of clouds moving in which meant there would not be a good sunset to view. So we stopped at Bogobelle restaurant for a wonderful seafood dinner before heading back to the Behemoth and home. 

Monday was another beautiful day in the keys. We headed back down to Key West intent on catching the sunset at Mallory Square. After poking around on the narrow streets near Mallory Square, we were finally able to find a parking spot for the Behemoth ($25) for the evening. We wandered toward Mallory Square and ducked into the Hogs Breath to grab a couple of beers to take with us. Apparently it is not legal to carry an alcoholic beverage on the public street but we were told enforcement is pretty lax. We saw another group doing the same thing so we felt there was strength in numbers! As we headed toward the square, Leslie stubbed her big toe (the one with a blister on it from our hike in the Everglades) pretty hard on a lip in the sidewalk. But fortunately she did not spill a drop of her beer. Wandering into the square about 30 minutes prior to sunset, there were a lot of people milling around. There were several street performers in the square vying for attention and other folks were staking place out on the waters edge for the sunset viewing. We stopped and watched one performer that was doing a combination balancing, juggling and comedy act. Fortunately he did not fall or cut himself. We found a good spot along the sea wall and absorbed the beautiful slow setting sun. There were lots of sailboats on the bay making for some great photographic opportunities. After the sunset and a cheer was raised in the square, we headed for the harbor. We had dinner at the Commodore Restaurant overlooking the harbor. Our friends Gale and Michael had recommended it. It was delicious and the view over the harbor was beautiful. This was the second night in a row we had stayed out late which meant Etta was home alone and her dinner was later than normal. So after we finished dinner we rushed home to the Wanderer feeling guilty for making her wait. 

Kermit Key Lime Pie!!!

The Little White House

Souther Terminus of Hwy US-1

Hemmingway House

"Southernmost" point of Contiguous 48 states

Street Performer in Mallory Square

Rays of sunshine light up this sail boat

Us in Mallory Square

With a few thousand friends

Golden cloud

Sailboats captured in the rays of the sun

Going

Going!

Gone

28 Feb 2020 Dry Tortugas NP

We made reservations for the ferry to Dry Tortugas NP back in July ($360). So we could not have known what the weather would be. There were small craft warnings up for the Dry Tortugas with wave heights of 7-10 feet. So we were a bit concerned the ferry would be canceled due to the weather. We were up at 4:30 in the morning to get ready and out the door by 6am. Leslie commented getting up that early felt more normal than sleeping in after 23 years of B&B mornings. We were concerned about leaving Etta alone for 12+ hours, so we set up the Furbo so we could monitor here while we were in cell phone range. It is an hour drive to Key West ferry terminal where the Yankee Freedom III docks. We arrived in time to catch the pre-boarding briefing. They were planning to make the run, but they were strongly suggesting everyone get a dose of Dramamine to prevent motion 

sickness. But, neither one of us get motion sickness so we decided to skip it. The ride out was 2.5 hours. The first part of the trip was in water protected by a chain of uninhabited keys so it was relatively calm. But after we cleared the keys, the waves grew in height and soon we were bouncing around pretty good. People started getting sick all around the boat. The crew was busy running around and handing people vomit bags and cleaning up messes. Luckily, they also pumped in plenty of fresh air to help keep the odors down. As we pulled into sheltered harbor at Fort Pickens, there was an audible sigh of relief in the boat. Unfortunately, many folks on the boat were going out to the key to go snorkeling, but the water was so rough it was not practical, plus the water was very murky due to the waves, and the temperature with the wind was in the low 60s. After 2.5 hours on the boat, we only had 4 hours on the key before we had to be back to the boat. Only Garden Key was open to the public, the other six keys that make up Dry Tortugas were closed due to bird or turtle nesting. The park is almost 100 square miles, 99% of it is under water. Most of Garden Key is taken up by Fort Jefferson. The first thing constructed on Garden Key was a lighthouse in 1826. The lighthouse was later moved to Loggerhead Key. Fort Jefferson is one of the largest masonry buildings in the US. Built from 16 million bricks imported initially from Pensacola (like Fort Pickens), until the start of the civil war, and then from Maine. Construction started in 1846 and was halted in 1876. The Fort was built by a combination of slave and prisoner labor. Fort Jefferson remained in Union hands through the Civil War. It never saw any action, was never finished and never fully armed (only 146 cannon were ever placed in the fort and it was built to hold 450). The fort was built at this location because in the 1800s, following the Louisiana Purchase, a large portion of the shipping between the port of New Orleans and the east coast had to sail past the end of these keys. Fort Jefferson represents the end of a large coral reef that runs from Biscayne Bay to the Dry Tortugas. In addition, it was the only protected anchorage between New Orleans and Key West. As the US Navy built up during the civil war, it reached a point where it could defend the US coast and it was decided to halt construction on all 42 coastal forts. In addition to being a defensive fort, it also served as a prison. The most famous prisoner was Dr. Mudd who was imprisoned after he set John Booths leg after he assassinated President Lincoln. After construction on the fort was halted, two coaling stations were built to refuel US Navy ships. The seven keys were made a wild life refuge in 1908, then a National Monument in 1935 and a National Park in 1992. Between hurricanes, settling of the massive structure and being in a tropical environment, the fort is slowly falling apart. The park service does some maintenance and restoration, but they are not keeping up. 

We signed up on the boat for the guided tour of the fort. Hollywood, one of the boat crew, gave the tour. He had some facts that were not in the self guide tour book that made the tour more interesting. He had so much enthusiasm for the park, it was infectious. Following the tour, we went back to the boat for lunch and then continued touring the fort on our own. We walked the moat wall part of the way until the waves started breaking over the wall, and followed the self guided tour route to see where Dr. Mudd was imprisoned, and where the soldiers lived and worked. The boat ride home was smoother than the ride in the morning and no one got sick. We arrived back in Key West at 5:30. Etta was very happy to see us when we got to the Wanderer. She had held it for 13 hours and was very happy to get outside to relieve herself!

Entrance Sign

Fort Jefferson as we approach the harbor

Fort Jefferson

Two stories of gun positions

Inside the Gun Emplacements

Gun emplacement

looking out a gun port at the moat

Looking down the side of the fort from the moat wall

Front of the fort with the moat and draw bridge

Looking out a gun port at the moat and moat wall

Looking out a gun port at the Gulf

looking across the inside of the fort

Dr. Mudd's prison cell

26 Feb 2020 Ohio Key

The drive from Homestead down US-1 to Ohio key was only 89 miles. A portion of the drive was on two lane bridges over the ocean including a 7 mile stretch just before the RV park. We are staying at Sunshine Key RV Resort ($129 per night, no discounts available) on Ohio Key. Other than the wind blowing us around a bit, it was a pleasant drive. The RV Resort takes up the entire western side of the key (the eastern side is swamp). It’s a very large resort that is packed with snow birders. But it is set up for big rigs, so we had no issues getting into our site and getting set up. On check-in we found out that WiFi is not included in the ridiculous price. But the WiFi is through Jabba and we have an account with them from previous stays at other RV parks. So although it cost $15 for a week, at least it works very well! We are here to go to Dry Tortugas NP, visit Key West, and go to the southern most point on the 48 states that you can drive to. 

24 Feb 2020 Everglades Day Three

We decided we need to get in some hiking before we left Everglades NP behind. On Thursday we had got some hiking suggestions from the ranger and we also researched the available trails on the AllTrails application. We headed to the Royal Palms area of the park. There we hiked two trails, Anhinga (0.9 miles, 0ft of elevation gain, 332 calories burned) and Gumbo Limbo (0.4 miles, 0ft of elevation gain, 138 calories burned). On the Anhinga trail, we saw almost a dozen alligators, tons of fish, and a wide variety of birds close up (a couple of Anhingas, several very showy Cormorants, Giant and Little Blue Herons and a little colorful bird with a couple of bright white tail feathers contrasted against his blue and green melded chest and wing feathers….trying to name him still).  A good portion of the trail is boardwalk over a marshy/shallow lake area. The whole southern portion of Florida sits on limestone bedrock formed over millions of years of coral and mollusk carcasses. There is a very thin layer of soil on top the bedrock. So inches of elevation above sea level mater. A few inches lower and the water is deep enough that grasses can’t grow, a few inches higher and its forest. We then hiked a portion of the Long Pine Key trail (4.1 miles, 0ft of Elevation Gain, 815 calories burned). After hiking in for two miles through a Long Pine forest with occasional meadows (where it was too wet for the trees because it was a few inched lower), we had not seen a single bird or animal! It was very flat and boring. But it was a good way to start breaking in our new hiking boots. SO we turned around and headed back rather than proceeding on. We had followed the rangers suggestion to wear long pants and long sleeve shirts because of the bugs, but they turned out not to be an issue. Luckily there was a nice breeze to keep us cool. Yes, we walked farther in Disney World than we did in Everglades NP. Following our hike we headed over to the Schnelby Winery/ Miami Brewery, which was more or less on the way back to the Wanderer. On the same property was the southernmost winery/vineyard in the US. After talking with the bar tender and finding out the wines are mostly sweet, we headed for the brewery since we are more into dry wines than sweet wines. We had a couple of the local brews to sooth our aching feet (these new boots are going to take a few miles to break in), we headed back to the Wanderer. The beer was ok, but nothing special.

Gator lurking in the lily pads

Fish in the gator pond

Blue Heron looking for a meal

This is a small gator!

Gator looking us over

Gator going for a sunny soak

Long Pine Trail

23 Feb 2020 Everglades day two

Leslie had wanted to go for an airboat ride in the everglades. But we found out that those are only available at the northern part of the park, an hour and a half drive away, plus very high wind warnings. So we decided to do a boat cruise in the southern portion of the park.  After checking out the options online, we settled on a evening cruise on Florida Bay. In the morning we went to Rosita’s for our Sunday Mexican Food fix.  It is actually pretty good Mexican food with a good level of heat. In the afternoon we drove back to Everglades NP and stopped at the visitor center to see the park movie we had missed on our previous visit. David found a tee shirt/hat package so he could get his park hat and Leslie could get the tee shirt. We then had to head for the Flamingo area of the park (38 miles from the visitor center) to meet the boat. We arrived just as they started boarding the boat. After dousing ourselves with bug repellent, and getting our wrist bands (tickets), we headed for the upper deck of the two story open deck boat. The wind was still blowing pretty hard and there were still gale warnings up on the east coast. But it was not rough on Florida Bay and the wind kept the bugs at bay. We learned that Flamingo was named after the pink Flamingos that used to be in this area. But the pioneers figured out the flamingos were pretty tasty and the plumage could be sold to hat makers, so the species was hunted to extinction in this area of Florida and they have not returned. We also learned the difference between an alligator and a crocodile.  An alligator is fresh water and slightly brackish water creature and a crocodile is a salt water and brackish water creature. Crocodiles are lighter in color and their nose is sharper in profile. We saw two crocodiles as we left the harbor and headed into Florida Bay. They took us first to Murray Key and then over to Frank Key before heading back. We saw lots of birds ( egrets, ibis-of which they have a Super Colony, meaning over a hundred thousand,  a roseate spoonbill, great blue herons, little blue herons and tricolored herons) and a wonderful sunset and that’s about the highlight of the cruise. On the way out of the park, we could hear something hitting the Behemoth that sounded like rain, but there was not a cloud in the sky. It was bugs! The Behemoth got covered in squashed bugs on the drive out. 

Crocodile

Keys out in Florida Bay

Crain standing in the middle of Florida Bay in the setting sun

Sun setting on Florida Bay

22 Feb 2020 Key Largo, FL

Having heard of Key Largo in songs and movie, we were excited to go there ourselves. David also researched the most southeastern point in the 48 contiguous states. It was located on the northern portion of Key Largo. The drive from Homestead along US-1 was pretty anticlimactic. Everything is so flat, you really can’t see much. Every once in a while you get a glimpse of the ocean. As we came onto Key Largo, we made a turn north to go find the southeastern most point. After driving 15 miles to the northern portion of Key Largo, we came up to a gate at the entrance to a gated community. When we pulled up to the gate guard, David explained we were trying to get to the southeastern most point in the 48 states. She laughed and told him that it was an exclusive gated community and we could not go in search of the southeastern most point. So we turned around, satisfying ourselves that we had gotten as close at we could, very much like the southwestern most point (its on an Air Force Base in California). Our fifth extreme point. So we proceeded down Key Largo expecting to find a cute downtown area or historic district. What we found was a ten mile long traffic jam due to a ‘Giant Nautical Themed Flea Market” that was being held on the south portion of the Key. After crawling through the traffic, and finding no downtown or historic district, we decided to find the nearest brewery to wait out the traffic before heading back. We briefly considered going to the flea market but there were so many people and the parking was crazy, and since we are not “Nautical” people, we settled for some great beer at Florida Keys Brewing Company. On the way south, we had noticed a restaurant called Snook’s which was located on the gulf side shore of Key Largo. It had good reviews on line, and it look like a good location for a sunset dinner. So we stopped there on the way north and had dinner. The location was excellent, the sunset was beautiful, but the food was not that great. Etta was happy to see us when we got back to the Wanderer.    

Florida Keys Brewing company

Sunset from Snooks

21 Feb 2020 Biscayne Bay and Coral Castles

This morning we headed for the national park on the other coast of Florida, Biscayne NP. We knew as we headed over that there would not be much we could do in the park. Over 95% of Biscayne NP is water. The majority of solid ground in the park is on the keys in the park. A key is different from an island. An island is formed by geological forces (volcanoes, uplifts) and keys are formed by biological means (coral, sea shells, etc). Without a boat there is not much you can do. With gale warnings up for the next several days, getting our kayaks out on the bay was not an option. We arrived at the visitor center and explored the exhibits, collected our 71^stpassport stamp, and strolled through the store (David bought his hat) and watched the park movie. Established in 1958 as a national monument to protect the bay from development, it was enlarged and turned into a national park in 1980. We talked with the ranger about hiking options and there was really not any on the mainland. There are a couple of trails on the keys, but without a boat they were not an option. There are commercial tour operators that take you out to one or another of the keys, but with gale warnings, we did not want to take that ride. There was a short trail by the visitor center along the waters edge and out onto a seawall which we walked before hustling back to the Behemoth as a rainstorm moved in. Since it was lunchtime, we looked up a local seafood restaurant since watching all the fish in the park movie made us hungry for sea food. The Black Point Ocean Grill was on the water and just down the road from Mount Trashmore (the garbage dump for Miami). As we walked in we notice two tables full of Miami-Dade county motorcycle cops, so we knew it was going to be good. It was Delicious!

After lunch, we went to the famous Coral Castle. Built by an immigrant from Latvia, Edward Leedskalnin, in the 1930s, he mined coral limestone in massive megalithic stones that he shaped and moved by himself. It is not clear how he lifted and moved the stones weighing up to 15 tons without any modern equipment (no hydraulics!). It was an interesting side trip. 

Entrance Sign

Biscayne Bay

Coral Castle

North wall of Coral Castle

Sea shells form abstract art in the coral rock