Florida in the Winter

For those of you who read my blog, you know that I usually write something every couple of days while we are on the road.  This trip is a little different in that I have been busy working remotely while we are gone.  Welcome to the 21st Century!  I have remote access to my desktop at work which allows me work just as if I am sitting at my desk.  I can read and answer emails, retrieve my voice mail and answer calls, send documents to the printer and do just about anything could do if I was sitting at my desk.  The only thing I can't do is have a "face to face" with a member.  I have been working a bit more than I thought I would, but it's a small price to pay.

We left home on Thanksgiving and had a fuel problem.  We had only gotten about 25 miles so we limped back home and had a friend come over Friday morning to help Doug change the fuel filter.  That got us fixed up, we hit the road around 11:00 and arrived in Indy around 4:30.  We had a short visit with Mom and Bud and headed to my sister's house where we enjoyed the Thanksgiving leftovers that we would have had the day before.  It tasted great!  We visited with her, her husband, my other sister and her significant other.

Saturday morning, November 29, we hit the road and got to just north of Nashville, TN.  We stayed at a nice KOA with the usual cable and free WI-FI.  Sunday morning we hit the road again and joined the mega amounts of traffic.  All the people who had driven somewhere for Thanksgiving seemed to be on the road all at once to make their way back home.  We had planned to stay just south of Montgomery, AL at an RV park called Montgomery South.  When we got there, he didn't have a site available.  At first, I thought he was kidding, but no, he was serious.  It seems that he has quite a few road workers staying there and it's a small park to begin with.  He sent us to another RV park about 25 miles further south.

The park he sent us to is called Sherling Lake Park in Greenville, AL.  I called ahead to be sure they had a site and sure enough, they did.  This park is owned and operated by the City of Greenville.  No cable, but it's a very nice park.  If you're headed south on I-65, I highly recommend it.  Pet friendly and easy in, easy out.  Check them out. Sherling Lake Park

Monday morning we headed out and got to St. Rosa Sound RV Resort in Navarre, FL by 1:00.  We've been here ever since and will be here until January 2.  We have stayed here twice before but both times it was during September.  We're water front again and loving it.

The park has had organized potluck suppers, social hours, bingo and poker and we've enjoyed participating in them.  

Irene with her lucky Bingo dauber

The very first night we were here, I met Becki Oldhippichic Brooks.  We became fast friends and I'm so glad I got to know her.  Becki and I have been to two different farmers' markets, one in Sandestin and one in Milton.  We had an all day adventure to Alabama and back where I bought a Christmas wreath and fresh cut holly.  We also hit the Barnes and Noble in Pensacola that day where I learned that vinyl records are making a come back (I really need to get out more often!).  We've been to the mall in Mary Esther where we were "just going to buy candles" and ended up in several stores.  They had the best Santa at that mall but we didn't get a photo of him.  We've had lunch at the Shrimp Basket where we had some great fish tacos.  We've been to Target and have enjoyed many sunsets together.  I've also gotten to be friends with her little dog Frodo.  Thanks for being my friend, Becki! Here's a photo of us at the "Ugly Christmas Sweater" party.

Because it's December, it's not exactly beach weather but Doug and I have made it out to the beach a few times.  We found this Sandman out there one day.

I've watched every sunrise and every sunset and there have been some great ones.

It's been wonderful so far, we have two more weeks here and we're not missing the snow one bit.  I can't imagine what adventures await us.  

No Regrets

I recently read an article that posed the question "20 years from now, what would you wish you would have done?"  The gist of the article, of course, is to live a life with no regrets.  But after reading it, I realized that for some of us that time frame is much, much smaller.

Most of us work hard all of our lives so that we can enjoy our retirement.  My mom's husband is 11 years older than her.  She was only 54 when my  step-dad retired.  When they first retired, they  gave up their home and became full-time RV-er's.  At first, they went to Florida every winter with their travel trailer.  The second winter in Florida, they met some people who were there for just a couple of weeks before they headed to Phoenix where they stayed for winter.  The next winter, Mom and Bud decided to take a long winter trip and head to Phoenix to visit their new friends before heading to Florida.  After visiting their friends, they decided that Phoenix was more their style and it was their new winter home.

For a few years, they would stay 6 months in Arizona and then 6 months in Indy.  They ultimately decided to give up their travel trailer, bought a park model and started living full-time in Arizona.  We moved them back to Indy in 2012 when they both started having some health issues so that they could be closer to our family for the help they needed.  They had nearly 25 years of good health in retirement and did all the things they enjoyed.

Doug and I always thought that we would spend winters in a warm, sunny climate.  Then in 2008, he had to retire because of his neck and back.  In 2009, he was diagnosed with Stage IIIA lung cancer.  At that time, we didn't know how long he would make it.  We decided that because we didn't know if we would be able to have the retirement that we had always planned, we would travel now.  There are many reasons for taking a vacation but the main reason I take vacation is to spend more time with my husband.  None of us really know how much time we have on this planet.  Anything can happen at any time, but for us it seemed urgent.  We have seen many beautiful National Parks, out of the way places and spent many hours at the beach.   He responded well to treatment and sometimes it's hard to believe that it's been 5 years since his diagnosis.

We are grateful for the time we have been given but we continue to take our trips to see this beautiful country and to enjoy our time together.  Live your life, in whatever way that means to you.  Don't have regrets.

The Natural Florida Keys

Friday morning, Karen, Gloria and I set out for Crane Point Nature Center.  It's a 63 acre property with a tropical forest containing many rare species of plants, a bird rescue center and two homes.  The original settlers of the property, George and Olivia Adderley, came here from the Bahamas and they lived there from 1902-1949.

Adderley House

In 1949, Francis and Mary Crane bought this property.  At the time, only about 600 people lived in the Middle Keys.  Can you imagine?  They loved nature and worked hard to preserve and improve the property.  They built their home out near the point.

Crane House

They owned the property until the late 1970's.  In 1989, the Florida Land and Sea Trust purchased the property to save it from a scheduled development of homes and a mall.  They preserved a beautiful, natural area of the Keys that is hard to find these days.

Door to Museum

At the point

Active Osprey nest.  There were 2 babies.

Along Palm Trail

One of many spiders we encountered.

We were really surprised that we didn't see more birds.  Other than the osprey nest and the the birds in the rescue area, we didn't see any others.  You would think that this tropical forest would be full of birds.  We were there mid-morning when you would think the birds would be active.

We headed back to the RV park for some lunch and to see if we could get Doug to come with us for the next part of our adventure, but he wanted to nap and hang out with the dogs.  So off we went to Big Pine Key to find the National Key Deer Refuge.

The Refuge was established in 1957 to protect the Key deer, provide a migratory area for birds and to conserve endangered and threatened fish, wildlife and plants.  The Refuge is about 63,000 acres.  The Key deer look like miniature versions of white tailed deer and most of the population of this kind of deer are only found in this area.

Gloria was my navigator to find the refuge.  She put the location in a Google map and it tells us to turn right at this road, bear left on this road, right on this road and then left on this road, which took us to a "no outlet" sign.  "Dang it", says Gloria, "this took us right into a neighborhood bordered by wild land but no sign of the National Refuge."  "No problem", I say, "just let me turn around and we'll put it in the map again and we'll find it."

We turn around and look what we found.

Right in front of some homes!  I have been through Big Pine Key many times but have never, ever seen one of these deer.  I honestly thought we would end up at a visitor's center and maybe see some being rehabilitated in a cage or something, but there they were.  Google map had not taken us to the Refuge Center but instead had taken us right to the Key deer!  We saw two in front of one home and another one a few houses down.  Everyone seems to have chain link fences around their back yards and I'm guessing it's to keep these deer out.  It was an amazing experience.

Next we headed to Bahia Honda State Park.  Their beaches were voted America's best two times.  They also have a section of the old Overseas Train bridge.  The beaches have shallow, sandy areas where you can walk for a long while in ankle-knee deep water.

Overseas Train Bridge at Bahia Honda

Florida Horse Conch that Gloria found in the shallows.  We only held it long enough for a quick photo and then set it back down.

It was a great afternoon at a beautiful beach.  

We had pizza and salad at the RV park with Doug and then went down to the docks for the last sunset of Karen and Gloria's trip.  We had a little contest as to who shot the best the photo and Karen's was the winner.

Karen's winning photo with 27 likes.

Gloria's photo.

My photo.

It was a great visit with my sisters and we are so glad they came.  Many of the photos in this blog were taken by them and I appreciate them sharing their great photos with me.  

They left early yesterday morning and at about 11:00 a.m. when Doug asked me if I wanted just to hang out here and sit in the sun on the patio, I said YES.  My legs are aching from all the walking I've done the last few days and I jumped at that.

It's now Sunday morning and the weather forecast is sunny with a high of 84 degrees.  I feel a beach day coming on.  For now, I'm going to refill my coffee cup and read a bit.

The Days Have Been Busy

On Sunday and Monday, Doug and I hit the beach for a couple of hours each day.  I also caught up on some reading and finally got my playlist on my Walkman to finish and started again fresh.

Late Sunday afternoon we met up with some IBEW Local 252 friends for happy hour.  The retirees of Local 252 always have a winter reunion in Florida in March, but they have it up north of Orlando.  We decided that we were having the Local 252 retirees reunion Keys Style.

Gary and Patty Smith, Doug and me and Ira and Darlene Shubel

Oysters on the half shell, wings and shrimp

We were at the Lazy Days Bar.  Nice place with outdoor seating and food was really good.

When my sisters arrived from Indy on Tuesday, we headed to the docks at the RV park for sunset.  Karen got this great shot of some people blowing the conchs at sunset.

Wednesday morning, Gloria, Karen and I headed to the beach before we went fishing.  The seaweed beds that Doug and I had encountered the day before were not near as bad.  We did see quite a few jelly fish that were washed up near the shore.

We left the beach and went back to the RV park to eat some lunch before heading out to go fishing.  We had a visitor at lunch time.

The first time we stayed at Jolly Roger one of these iguanas fell out of tree and landed right beside Doug giving him quite the start.  

Doug and I always fish when we come to Florida, but usually it's up at Jupiter with our friend, Erol, or in the Everglades with Erol's brother-in-law, Larry.  We have been to the Keys quite a few times but we had only fished here once about 10 years ago out of Key West.  This trip we decided to fish on the Marathon Lady.  Nice, large boat with a friendly, professional staff.  You will catch fish and have a great time.  We highly recommend the Marathon Lady

Here are a few pics from the fishing trip.

The catch from everyone on the boat

Our catch.  21 fish!

The pelicans waiting for their treats

The mates cleaned the fish for us and we took them to The Island Fish Company.  The cook prepared them for us and served the fish with salad, rice, broccoli and cauliflower.  The fish were great!  It doesn't get any fresher than that!

Thursday we went to Pigeon Key. It's located off of the old Seven Mile bridge and the only way to get there is to bike or ride a 2 1/2 mile span of the old bridge or take the ferry.  In the early 1900's the island housed 400 workers who helped build the overseas railroad.  The project took about 12 years and was built by Henry Flagler who spent about $50 million of his own money to build the railroad to bring tourism to the Keys.  On Labor Day in 1935 a hurricane destroyed about 40 miles of the railroad in the middle keys.  Flagler's railroad went bankrupt and Florida bought it for a song.  They laid concrete over the train tracks and turned it into a road.

Some of us got wet getting out there

New7 Mile Bridge on the left, old one on the right.

Gloria, Doug and Karen on top of Old 7 Mile Bridge

We took the first ferry over at 10:00 a.m. and it's a good thing we did because it ended up being the only ferry trip out there all day.  The winds were blowing steady at around 20-25 mph and the captain cancelled all the other trips.  Fortunately, he did come back out there to pick us up.

After the Pigeon Key trip, we visited the prayer gardens at San Pablo Catholic Church.  The gardens there are beautiful, there are many places to stop for contemplation and prayer and the Stations of the Cross are also in the gardens.

Blessed Virgin Mary

Cross in memory of children who have died

We've been very busy these last few days and I have no idea what adventures await us today.  For now, I have just enough time for one more cup of coffee before my sisters get here and we set out for today's escapades.