Key West up to Bonita Springs

     Amazingly, here it is January 5, 2015, nearly 3 weeks since I've updated our travels.  There are several reasons for this....Christmas Season....MAE visiting from Syracuse....days too short & having a great time.  But the most compelling reason is because a few weeks back, I stupidly placed the laptop on the ground next to my chair after checking emails and such, and as I stood up, I stepped directly onto the laptop.  I realized it before all of my weight was on it, for that surely would have caused major damage.  But I did manage to completely destroy the LCD screen.  As I turned it on, the screen went completely haywire, and I was unable to do anything with it.  Not a tremendous problem I thought, for I had a backup plan.
     Last year after Debbie's other laptop's LCD screen went haywire, we purchased another monitor, so all I had to do was plug this laptop into the new monitor, and I was back in business.  So I pulled out the box containing the monitor, but found a few things missing.  NO CABLES!  Somehow I had managed to pack everything up in the original box, but failed to include the cables.  So after settling into Bonita Springs and after the New Year, I located a computer store down the road and scored a monitor cable and a power cable for $5!  What a deal!  Back at the RV I plugged the latest broken laptop into the monitor with my $5 cables, and everything works fine again.  So now I knew the LCD screen was the only thing needing replacement. After a visit to You Tube for directions, a visit to Amazon for parts, and words of encouragement from Debbie, I gingerly started the process of replacing the LCD screen.  Ten screws.....how difficult can it be!  To make a long story short, I was successful in my 2nd attempt, (didn't quite get the cable connected) and everything is back working like a dream.  Well kinda.....the clips that hold the laptop shut are not seated properly, so right now I can't close the lid, but that's just a minor problem.  I've got a pretty good theory on how I'm gonna fix that, but that will be another day.  Now, when Debbie told this story to MAE, she thought it was hysterical.  Then she threw in the story of my dealing with Directv, and that fiasco, and I guess MAE was nearly rolling on the floor.  Some of these things you just can't make up.  I think she's got a warped sense of humor myself.
   

         
     MAE's week in Key West passed too quickly, but the weather held nicely for her.  She was able to spend several days at the pool which she really enjoyed.   We toured around KW a day by tram which saved a tremendous amount of walking.  Parking is a problem especially downtown, but the tram had several stops around town and got us pretty close to our car at days end.

     The day we picked to venture over to Fort Zachery Taylor State Park for some swimming and snorkeling turned out to be a little too windy.  MAE and I attempted to swim out to the rocks and snorkel around but the waves and current were a little rough, and the visibility in the water was minimal.  The water itself was a nice 74 degrees which went along nicely with the air temp. of 75.   MAE spent most of the day working on her tan.  I spent most of the day with my factor 50 sunscreen on, up in the shade under the trees.  At the end of the day, we were both successful.  At the end of the day we wandered over to Mallory Square to watch the sunset and to be entertained by the street performers that fill the square every evening.  They hawk the tourists pretty hard for a few $'s tip, as they eat fire, swallow swords, juggle knives and work to keep the tourist's attention.

 Sunset is nice from the square and everyone seems to disperse into KW after the sun goes down.  We stopped for a cold beer at the Hogs Head Tavern in downtown KW which is something every tourist has to do.....once.  It's quite honky, quite noisy,  but something every visitor has to experience.
     Being able to share our experiences with our kids is special for Debbie and I, and visiting KW with MAE, we hope, is something she'll talk about and laugh about after we're long gone.  She seems to be catching onto this game of life, and tolerates all of our wild ideas.  As we start thinking about our upcoming visit with Ben, Joanne, and the PGD, we hope they realize that we think of them often on this Journey Across America, and hopefully someday all the families will get to settle a little closer, and everyone will get to enjoy our madness.

     The day after Christmas, we took MAE back to Ft Lauderdale Airport for her trip home.  It was a 3 hour ride from KW to Ft Lauderdale and we made it in plenty of time.  Quick goodbye's were made curbside, with the local Sheriff doing his best to keep the traffic flowing.  Remember those days when you used to be able to walk your party all the way to the gate?  We stopped for a quick breakfast before making our way to U.S. 1 and our return to BWK.  I was glad we did.  MAE arrived in Albany long before we arrived back in BWK.  Traffic was backed up at the beginning of US 1 into the Keys and didn't let up till almost the end.  It took us nearly 6 hours to get back, and we were absolutely amazed at the amount of people and traffic that were SB toward KW! 

     The following day we headed out of the Keys and checked in for a month at Imperial Bonita Estates in Bonita Springs.  But that's another story for another day.