Geiger Key Marina / Key West, Fl

     Monday morning arrived, and I hate to say it, but it was another gorgeous day at Blue Water Key RV Resort.  There was a nice breeze coming from the east which made it very pleasant to sit under the tiki-hut for morning breakfast.  We spent the day lounging around the site, and walking up to the pool and club house area.  Debbie located the laundry which I'm sure she'll be visiting soon.

     Debbie located our snorkeling gear inside Weezy and after a little coaxing, I was able to get her into the water.  That first dip of the season can be a challenge.  The water had to be a balmy 75!  We snorkeled around the dock for a while chasing minnows and looking for shrimp and lobster which we were told we could find.  Not today I guess, as our search for lobster was unsuccessful.  Amazingly they seem to sell them on the street corners out on U.S. 1 so we'll probably be successful in our next attempt.

     Dinner time came and we decided to head over to Geiger Key Marina, after reading so many praises on Trip Advisor and recommendations from the locals we have met here.  We weren't disappointed.

I apologize for this being a little out of focus, but I snapped the photo to show everyone the color of the drink that Debbie ordered.  They call it Iguana Juice!  Don't know what's in it, but I was able to get a sip from Debbie before she went to work on it.  It was actually quite delicious, although Debbie remained strong and quit after just 1.  Friday and Saturday nights there's live music and from the look of some of the characters walking around the place, I bet it's pretty lively.  It was very interesting watching customers dressed prim and proper cautiously walking around the pier and into the bar/dining area.  There were some real characters looking quite comfortable bellied up to the bar.  The wait staff was extremely friendly and made everyone feel welcome.  

   Our waiter Patrick, who we assumed was a key West local, was actually from Pennsylvania, and told us he was actually headed to Alaska in May.  He said the weather is quite pleasant up there in the summer, but no one needs to be there in the winter!
    Debbie order the Hogfish Special which she said was quite delicious.  I'm not much of a fish person, but I gave it a try.  There was really no fishy taste at all.  I may give it a try next time we go over.  I went with the ribs/mac and cheese special which was very good, but really too much to eat.

That's the band stage behind me.  Gonna be nice and cozy on Friday night!  We stayed long enough to enjoy a nice sunset from our seats.  Not like being in Mallory Square, but a lot less crowded.  

I'm sure we'll be back here a few more times before we leave.  

     On Tuesday we decided just to do a little wandering around and ended up at the Key West Botanical Gardens.  It was a nice little diversion from the crowds down in Key West and it was nice and cool walking around the assorted palm trees.  There were a few unique looking ducks which I should have identified, but didn't.   At the end of the tour they had a small display of some of the boats Cuban refugees utilized to cross the 90 miles.  Obviously it was a good thing the Coast Guard was out there to rescue them.  They didn't appear to be very seaworthy.

 On Wednesday we headed up to Marathon, Fl, a little north in the keys, to look over the area Debbie visited with her parents many years ago.  We stopped at the Bahia Honda Key State Park to take a look around since we were unsuccessful in getting a reservation there.  Met another park ranger with an attitude.  Must be something in the water down here.  We were welcome to drive through the park....just pay the daily admission fee, which was about $8!  He is a great Florida State employee making sure Florida sucks all the money it can get from the tourists.  Needless to say, we didn't get to visit the park.  We turned off of U.S. 1 and went over to No Name Key.  Along the way we stumbled onto one of the area's Key Deer.  Looks like a nice buck, but probably doesn't weigh more than 40 pounds!

We had to make a stop for refreshments at the No Name Pub, which is correctly described as "a great place, if you can find it."  But we succeeded and settled into for a nice cool cocktail.  The entire inside is covered with $1 bills which the waitress estimated to be about 150,000 of them!  

That's what the ceiling looked like!  Gonna be a hell of a fire someday.  Back at camp, we threw some Oscar's pork chops on the grill and enjoyed a peaceful evening.  Wonder what we'll do tomorrow?

Visiting Key West

     Sunday morning arrived and we sat around our waterfront tiki hut trying to decide if we should just sit tight and enjoy site 81, or travel south 14 miles and see what Key West has to offer.  After my 3rd cup of coffee, a decision was made to make the move down to MM 0.  Checking "the Google" as "W" liked to say, we found a Catholic Church in Key West with several morning masses.  Problem was, we waited so long, that the next mass we could make was going to be the Spanish Mass.  I thought that was going to be pretty interesting, so we got ready and headed for KW.  Parking seems to be a real problem as you get closer to downtown KW, but fortunately we located a spot on one of the side streets. We found the Basilica of St Mary's Star of the Sea, and since we were a tad early, we had the opportunity to wander around the gardens nearby.  It is believed that the first mass was celebrated in 1847 although numerous attempts were made earlier in the formation of a Catholic Church in Key West.  The convent next door which was opened by a group of nuns from Canada,  was converted into a hospital in 1898 during the Spanish American War.  It was a very nice Mass and Debbie seemed to enjoy it even though she didn't understand anything except "Amen."
 
     After Mass, we went for a walk heading toward Duval Street which is where Key West comes alive.  The streets are small and packed with shops, bars, and restaurants.

     There are numerous open air bars where you can grab a cold beer and just do a little people watching.  

It was only noon, but live music was already pounding from several establishments.  If you look closely, you can see $1 bills tacked to the ceiling and post all around this bar.  Just prior to leaving, we received 2 plastic cups from Betsy H. memorializing her recent visit to the Hog's Breath Saloon.  Debbie and I headed down Duval St to see what it was all about.  It wasn't long before we found signs pointing down a small alley, and at the end we found the infamous bar.  

      I wasn't sure about Debbie, but I had worked up quite a thirst searching for this establishment, and it wasn't long before we were settled down and ordering a nice cold beer.  There were stickers from all over the world pasted everywhere around the bar, and we even found an "ADK" sticker on one of the beams.  Made us feel right at home!

     We continued working our way toward Mallory Square on the waterfront where we found a cruise ship docked and numerous power/sailboats anchored off in the distance.  We slowly worked our way up the side streets, trying to stay in the shade since it was in the low 80's and our blood is still quite thick from being up north.  I think it will take a few days for us to adjust to the heat and humidity.  Quite a problem isn't it???  We arrived back at the jeep and made a loop around the city enjoying all the views, and noting places we would visit the next time we came to town. We made our way over to U.S. 1 and located MM 0, but the long line of tourists waiting to get their picture next to it convinced us to try again another day.    

     We headed back to Site 81, and enjoyed a nice dinner and peaceful sunset.  What to do tomorrow???

Blue Water Key RV Resort / Key West, Fl

     On Friday morning we south from Jonathan Dickens SP enroute to Miami Everglades RV Resort.  This RV resort is a nice little stop before making the push down into the Keys.  Since we couldn't check in at Blue Water Key until Saturday morning, this spot would give us the opportunity to stock up on fresh vegetables, refresh the beer cooler, and get some laundry done.  The park was extremely well run and the reception area was very helpful.  After a quick registration, we were escorted to our lot.  Although it was a little tight, there was a cement pad for our table and plenty of room for the awning and slideout.  We read some blogs previously which were a little condescending of Miami Everglades RV Resort, but we really had no issues.  Everyone in the park was warm and inviting, and we easily made friends with several others in the park.  All were interested in where we were from and where we were going, and offered recommendations on places they had visited.
     Saturday morning, the park had a pancake breakfast which was well attended.  Debbie even brought her own maple syrup which made it more palatable.  Can't seem to stomach Aunt Jemima syrup anymore.  As we hooked up Ike to the back of Weezy, we noticed lots of other campers lining up toward the exit.  I know a few were heading for Key West also.  The route south on Hwy 1 from Homestead and Florida City was well marked and soon were were south of the mainland and into the Florida Keys.  The water soon turned to a beautiful aqua color which seemed to make the journey quite peaceful.  Traffic speeds are strictly enforced, and for the most part, everyone traveled along at at leisurely 45 mph.

 As we worked our way south we could feel the sunshine pouring through the front windshield, and we knew the temperature was climbing outside.  Finally some nice blue sky and warm weather, after several days of rain.  We both knew this was going to be a good time.

 We stopped along the roadway for a leisurely lunch and took a stroll out onto one of the the many walkways that parallels the bridges.  There seemed to be people along all the walkways enjoying the sunshine or casting a line in the water for one of these guys.  Debbie spotted him coming out of the shadow of the bridge.  I'm thinking it might be a barracuda.  You just have to remember, down here all fish have teeth!

After about a 3 hour drive, we arrived at Blue Water Key RV Resort, and were escorted to our site by Rita.  We had fist spoken to Rita back in January 2013 about visiting her resort, and it was finally nice to meet her.  Within a few minutes I had everything hooked up with Weezy as Debbie started soaking up the Florida sunshine.

 If you look closely at her left hand, I think you'll see her holding a nice cool lemonade.  It wasn't long before the first Rondacker made an appearance at Key West!

Site 81 at Blue Water Key!  We're located at mile-marker 7 on US 1.  Tomorrow we'll see if we can't find mile-marker 0!  Key West, here we come!

St Augustine down to Key West

     It looks like I've been a little slacker when it comes to keeping up with my ramblings.  But the fact of the matter is we've been extremely busy getting here.  It may seem strange, but even planning a 4-5 hour travel day actually ends up being an 8 hour day.  Breaking camp and getting ready to move takes time.  And then setting up at the other end causes delays.  By the time we're done, there just isn't time for this.  But we've slowed the pace considerably, so I'm gonna see if I can catch up a bit.

     On Tuesday, 1/28/2014, we headed south into Florida for St Augustine.  The Princess, being the smart-ass that she is, send a photo to her mother of a "Welcome to Florida" sign covered in snow.  There's a pretty good chance that it was taken from over near Pensacola but I'm not sure.  I saw some photos from Pensacola showing an inch or so of snow on the ground.  That must have been exciting.  Looking forward to getting together with my cousin Annette over that way later on in the month and see just how terrible it must have been.

     We arrived in St Augustine a little later than we wanted, but settled into a nice Florida State Campground called Anastasia State Park.  We met some nice folks from Minnesota traveling with a 1 year old yellow lab in a 22' travel trailer.  Looked a little cozy to me but they were having a ball and that's what it's all about.  They gave us a few ideas as to where to visit as we continue west into New Mexico and Arizona, but strangely, we haven't found anyone that had many recommendations about visiting Texas.  San Antonio always comes up, but after that, not much more.  I guess you have to be from Texas???

     The weather in St Augustine was a little cool for the locals, but Debbie and I fared quite well.  We had a few hours to chill before our dinner date with Cheryl and Mike, Debbie's friends from SUNY Plattsburgh.  So we walked around the old section of St Augustine, watching the sun go down and white Christmas lights come on all over the downtown area.

     There was a beautiful bridge separating downtown from the island with several pirate ships anchored in the harbor.  St Augustine was quite the pirate hangout in the days.  Castillo de San Marcos, now a U.S. Park Service National Monument looked like a 'must see' but we just didn't have time on this visit.  We've put St Augustine on the list for a return visit and plan to spend at least a week there when we come back.  We did get the opportunity to visit the The Cathedral Basilica of St. Augustine, America's First Parish,

founded September, 8 1565.  Information and additional photos are available at www.thefirstparish.org.

Seems like the Irish are everywhere.  Inside we found an Altar of St Patrick adorned with beautiful green mosaic tiles.

     We continued on the Irish theme, meeting Mark and Cheryl later on for dinner at Meehan's Pub overlooking the harbor.  The food, drink, and company were excellent and Debbie and I had a great time catching up.  I tried to slip in a few questions about their Plattsburgh exploits but they did a great job dodging the questions. The 70's were a great time!

After a wonderful evening, we said our goodbye's but promised to return to St Augustine again.

     On Wednesday we continued our journey south searching for warm weather and sunshine.  We've been in rain for 3 days and it seems to be getting old.  Although not having to shovel rain is a great thing!  We traveled just a few hours down to a Florida State Park just north of Jupiter, Fl on Rt. 1.  We checked into Jonathan Dickens State Park after experiencing a ranger with an attitude at the check-in.  I guess she just wasn't having a good day, and made sure that Debbie understood all the rules about changing sites the following day.  We had to be off our site by 1 PM and we would not be allowed onto our new site until 3 PM!!!  I hope she doesn't find out that the next morning we found a nice ranger, and we moved to our new site at 11AM.  We felt like rebels!  On Thursday we drove up to visit my Cousin Tim up in Port St Lucie.  He and his wife Norma have an incredible house!  Absolutely gorgeous!  He's now my favorite cousin, and Debbie and I hope to move in with him when we're old and fragile.  We missed Norma this trip, but hope that all her family is doing well.  Molly and Tim were great hosts and we had a great visit.

  If you get the opportunity to visit Timmy and Norma, remind him that there's a locked gate out front that keep us common folk out.  Perhaps he'll share the gate code with you and you won't have to sneak through behind an unsuspecting resident.

     Well, next stop is Key West!  The weather promises to be in the high 70's/low 80's with plenty of sunshine.  Can't wait to get there!

Charleston, S.C. 1/26/2014

     Sunday morning we headed out of Apex, N.C. but not until we treated ourselves to breakfast at IHOP.  Debbie was able to work her magic with the RV's Garmin and located several nearby restaurants.  We traveled the backroads of N.C down into S.C .  The interstates have nothing to offer except tractor trailers and fast moving traffic.  We seem to like the easy pace of a county highway since we have no particular place to go and no particular time to get there.  Ben called this morning and he and Debbie had a nice visit as I took over the navigation and driving responsibilities.
    We arrived at the Hardeeville RV Park later in the afternoon after phoning ahead for a reservation.  There was a note on the door saying just go ahead and pick a spot, and leave your money in the envelope.  Most importantly, this was our first opportunity to clean out the anti freeze from the waterlines and get some water on board.  Like a bunch of rookies, we hooked up the water hose and turned the faucet on.  I just forgot that when you winterize the waterlines, you leave the faucets open.  Wasn't long before Debbie was hollaring for help inside Weezy as water was coming out of everything.  We got the shower and faucets turned off and thought we had everything under control, when suddenly water started running out from under the refrigerator!  At that moment I remembered the ice maker.  I had never used the ice maker and had completely forgotten about it.  I quickly found the shut off to the waterline feeding the ice maker, and found that a plastic valve had evidently frozen and cracked over the winter.  We cleaned up the mess, and will order a new valve in the next day or so.  Doesn't look like a hard replacement.  Next fall I just have to remember to make sure the anti-freeze makes it into the ice maker.
    Monday morning we headed over to Charleston for a tour of Ft. Sumter in Charleston harbor.  It was a picture perfect day.  High 60's with little wind on the waterfront.

   Debbie enjoyed the opportunity to get some of the cold out of her bones.  We missed the morning boat ride out to the Fort, so we toured the display and the waterfront, and then moved over to Patriot's Point where the USS Yorktown, CV 10, is anchored.  They have a tour available, but we didn't have time to take advantage of it.  I had spent a few days on the aircraft carrier USS Forrestal, CVA-59 during my youth, so we stayed focused on visiting Ft Sumter.

     We enjoyed a boat ride out to the fort, located approximately 4 miles out in the harbor.  We discovered that there are actually 4 forts located strategically around the harbor.  That was necessary due to the limited range of the cannons back during the Civil War era.  The range at that time was only 1-1.5 miles, and to adequately protect the harbor, it was necessary to build several forts.  The original cannon volleys fired at Ft Sumter which started the Civil War, actually came from one of the forts, and not from the city of Charlotte which many people assume.  Since the tour group was pretty small, the Ranger walked the group around the Fort and provided us with several unusual tidbits relating to the Fort.  

One of the most interesting facts he was able to point out to us was the Confederate Battle Flag which is proudly flown over the Fort.  

The Confederate Army changed from this one which kinda looks like a surrender flag, to the full size Stars and Bars, but neglected to have it officially sanctioned by any government agency.  I guess nothing is ever complete till the paperwork gets signed.  The Fort is an important part of history, and although it was "updated" during WW1 and WW2 and used as a coastal fortification against German U-boats, you should spend the time for a visit if you're in the area. 

There's a small museum inside which displays the Union Flag flown over the Fort during the 34 hours of bombardment.  Quite tattered and torn as you can see.  

There's a nasty ice/sleet/snow storm coming from the west tomorrow afternoon, so we'll be heading south into Florida to stay ahead of it.  We're looking forward to visiting our friends Mark and Cheryl in St Augustine, Fl on Tuesday.  

We're on the Road!

Hello everyone from sunny Hardeeville, S.C.!   We've been on the road for 4 days now working the kinks out of Weezy and she seems to be tolerating the cold extremely well.  The weather is perking up now, although this area is expecting an ice storm tomorrow night.  We'll be out of here long before it hits.  Only 1 mishap so far, and I'll get to that a little later in the story.  The day before we departed, the world paused and joined MaryAnne in celebrating her 25th birthday.  At least that's the way it seemed.  No-one likes to celebrate birthdays more than the Princess and usually it includes a 3-month / 6 month / & 9 month celebration also.  But this year it seemed like the other celebrations were missed.  Fear not, this glorious day was celebrated ALL DAY LONG!  The day started with MAE getting a handmade quilt which was her mother's first venture into the quilting world.  For years Debbie had hoarded all of MAE's tee shirts from all her numerous life events occurring the previous 24 years.  At last she had a reason to get them out of storage and produce something which MAE will always cherish.  It was definitely stitched with lots of memories!

We departed Mooers on Thursday.  The weather was a balmy -13, which was a warm-up from the previous day of -16!!!  Debbie did a wonderful job packing which was no easy task because of the extreme cold.  We had most of our summer clothes packed a week or so earlier but the food and assorted supporting requisitions had to wait till the last day.  We burned a little propane those last few days but so far we haven't discovered anything that we left behind that would be crucial to the success of this journey.  The plan when this journey was being conceived was to travel south the first day into Pennsylvania, and then fill our water tanks before continuing south.  Weather in Pa, I've been told by my daughter-in-law's family, is always quite mild.  The weather is so nice, they even golf year round, so I've been told.  Not to beat a dead horse, but the weather stayed below freezing until day 4 of our journey.  Thursday night we camped in a small RV park near Carlisle, PA.  The water had been shut off.  The temps were well below zero.  So we hunkered down, had a great dinner, turned up the heat, and settled into our first night on the road.

As you can see, both vehicles were covered with a good coating of road salt.  But everything was working fine and in the morning we pushed on in search of warmer weather.

Greensboro, N.C.

 Our goal was to travel down to North Carolina and spend a day with our friends Eddie and Carol in Apex, NC.  A little braking problem arose as we approached the NC border from Virginia, which caused a little delay in our journey.  As we approached the bottom of a 7 mile hill, I noticed that the air pressure wasn't recovering like it should.  Soon low pressure alarms were alerting me, which certainly grabbed Debbie's attention.  But Irish luck always seems to travel with me, and 200 yards up the road I spotted the North Carolina Welcome Center/rest area.  We coasted in with pressure to spare!!!  A mechanic was soon dispatched to render assistance by Good Sam, and we made preparations to have our first visitor.  He soon arrived, looked the situation over, and ended up showing me how not to check air pressure lines.  He removed one of the lines going into the dryer(?) but there was no pressure.  He tapped the line on the ground and behold, a small piece of ice fell out the end of the hose.  Looked like it was going to be my fault for not draining the tanks more frequently in the cold weather at home.  Suddenly...POW!!!  I jumped about a foot.  The neighboring MH owner opened his curtain believing someone had been shot.  I looked down at the mechanic as he slowly rubbed his leg.  Evidently, there was a 2nd piece of ice in that line, and it came out like a shot, catching him mid-thigh.  Next came lots of compressed air!  The brakes were fixed!  The mechanic put everything back together, and soon we were headed down the road.  We made an unscheduled stop at a Good Sam RV Park in Greensboro, but still no water.  Maybe tomorrow.

Apex, N.C.

Saturday morning we woke to another crisp morning.  We though we'd get an early jump, and get down to Apex and spend the day with Eddie and Carol.  But first we needed some coffee, diesel, propane, and a bath for these vehicles.  A few miles out of Greensboro, we stumbled onto a Flying J Travel Plaza that had everything we needed.  We've never been to a truck wash before,  but it worked out extremely well.  Looked like there were a bunch of Santa's elves waiting for us as they opened up these massive doors designed to let semi-tractor trailer rigs enter. Each worker had a washing implement in his hand, and they were busy removing 3 days of road salt before I got the vehicles stopped.  In no time flat, we were on the road with both vehicles looking nice and shiny.  You'd never know they had just come south from the frozen tundra of Mooers!

By 1 PM we were settled into a camping spot at Jordan Lake State Park just outside Apex, N.C.  Jordan Lake is a good size lake.  About the size of the Sacandaga Reservoir in upstate NY.  It has several hundred sites around the lake, but only 1 visitor this day.  But we discovered there a unique law in N.C. when it comes to the operation of their state parks.  They close after dark.  That's right...the Rangers lock the front gate at 6 PM.  They then come back at 8 AM and open it back up.  Carol and Eddie came to our rescue though.  They came over to take us out to dinner and we left the jeep near the front gate.  When we returned later in the evening, we jumped the fence, walked 100 yards to the jeep, and had a lovely night on Jordan Lake.  Eddie and Carol treated us to a lovely dinner in downtown Apex at the Peak City Grill, and we thank them for that. They had a great selection of draft beer which we enjoyed a couple of times! Unfortunately I neglected to bring my camera and didn't get any pictures.  I've got to work on that. Can't wait to meet up with them later in our journey when our paths will cross in Tennessee.  But that will be another story.

Toad ready to go

     The days are getting closer to our planned date of departure, and finally the work has been completed getting the toad ready.  We are going to be towing our 2007 Jeep Wrangler Unlimited behind the MH, and there was a little more work involved than I thought.  I'm going to discuss each of the items I ended up using because by reading other people's blogs, I was able to read about all the pros and cons of all these systems. If someone happens to read this blog and picks up an idea or 2, then I've been successful in pushing the favor forward.  Another great source for everything about RV's has been iRV2.

     I was able to locate a used Blue Ox baseplate from a gentleman in Texas.  I saw his post on iRV2 and after a few phone calls to Texas, we reached an agreeable figure, and he shipped it up to me in NY.  Everything arrived in perfect shape, but being summertime, I procrastinated a little, and didn't make arrangements to have it installed until the fall.  How hard could it be??  It only had a couple of bolts holding it on, and just a little modification to the Jeep and I'd be ready to go.  I failed to realize that getting the front bumper off of a 6 year old Jeep that had seen several winters and road salt, would be a major challenge. My buddy Tom down the road had all the necessary tools and a heated garage, and after a  few hours work, we managed to get everything attached.  But it wasn't really much easier getting the bumper back on!  For you Jeep owners out there, now comes the sticker shock.  We had to take off the plastic cowling under the Jeep, and they are held on by either 6 or 8 PLASTIC screws.  Getting them off chewed them up  a bit, so a few days later I swung by the local Jeep dealership to pick up some new ones.  They only had 2 in stock, but they'd have some more in the next day.  No problem as I was working right down the street from the dealer.  The next day I stopped by, and the salesman tossed me a bag full of brand new PLASTIC screws.  Perfect I thought....till the bill was tallied up. Just short of $50.00.....for 8 PLASTIC screws!!!!  I though the guy was kidding.  He wasn't.  Needless to say, I exited the dealer without those plastic screws.  I'm not sure I need that plastic cowling now anyway.

     After checking out the various taillight configurations in multiple discussion groups on iRV2, I decided on the wiring harness offered by Cool Tech LLC for my 2007 Jeep Wrangler.  Order it online, and the harness arrived a few days later.  Followed the accompanying instructions, and in about 2 hours or so, the Jeep was ready to plug into the Tiffin Allegro Breeze for a light check.  The harness plugged into the left rear taillight on my Jeep, and then came the option of running the harness through the frame to the front, or alongside the frame.  The enclosed plug matched my Blue Ox baseplate, and everything checked out perfectly the first time.

     The final issue was the braking system for the toad.  There are dozens of options available to the consumer, and you can spend as much as you would like.  I went with the Ready Brake Supplemental System which I ordered through Adventure RV.

 

It utilizes a hydraulic system on the slide receiver attached to the tow bar, and uses a cable to pull on the arm of the Jeep's brake pedal.  Fairly simple install for anyone who is a little handy around a vehicle.  The only problem I had was getting the cable through the front bumper of the Jeep.  The plastic piece they provided to guide the cable through the front bumper was not long enough the reach through the cover on the Jeep's front bumper, but using a little ingenuity we were successful in making it work.  

     We survived the Polar Vortex which covered most of the U.S. today.  Those weather people sure like to hype thins up!  Little by little we're moving things out to Weezy as we get ready for our Trip to See America.