Last day and ride home

Well up early again but no big hike this morning.  

Nothing like outdoor coffee and cooking pancakes and bacon at the beach!   Lazy start to the day.

After brekkie, Lucy did not wait an hour and promptly got out on the water for a paddle.

No wind at all, she was out there for a good while.

We did go over to the other beach for a swim and then sunset the third and final evening.

After 2 days up on the bridge we went low for this one.

Always have  a smile on my face in the keys!

The next morning we were up and out before checkout at 11 as we wanted to beat traffic through Dade and Broward and Lucy had to go to work by 4.   We managed a couple short stops on the way up the keys and were home by 2, so plenty of time to unload and clean up stuff before she went off to work.

Until the next trip!

Chill day in the Lower Keys

 I woke up just before sunrise and decided to explore a part of the park I had never visited before.   I left our site on foot and headed east along the beach.

Nice clear sunrise, the wind was still light onshore but dying down. I walked around the point that is just under the sun to the left.

After I rounded the point you could see the next key.   I had walked about a mile and half so I had to do that to get back and the temps were creeping up and the sun getting more brutal by the minute.

This heron was right next to shore and easily getting his breakfast.   He was fun to watch.

View of the Sandspur beach from the east looking west.

Walking up to the coach.  You can see the mass of seaweed.  This beach had a bacteria advisory from all the dying biomass.  The birds were LOVING it.

Lucy got up and brought a little buddy in to visit with me.  

A nice omelet for breakfast with a great view!

 

My morning wall was productive on finding flotsam that had washed in.   Whomever had the green and yellow lost a bunch as we found 3 or 4 of those.

Lucy went for a swim while the boys kept an eye out for sharks.

Late breakfast, skipped lunch, so early dinner!   Tasty stean and taters of the grill.

I did say every sunset was different and sure enough, there was less dust today and the sun was brighter.

More clouds, no wind and bugs had us retire indoors for the evening.

Overseas Cruise

 The nice part of being in Tavernier was the short drive on Sunday.   After Saturday's shenanigans we slept in for a bit and had a late breakfast.    We bid our friends a fair adieu and pointed the nose of the ship south on US1.   I really enjoyed the drive as it being mid day on a Sunday, there was little traffic heading our direction.   We rolled into Marathon about an hour later and stopped by the grocery for some last minute items as I didn't get to the store before we left.

We arrived at Bahia Honda without much fuss and got onto our site.   This area was wiped out in 2017 by hurricane Irma.   There are some pics of the damage from our 2019 visit here

The new spots are limited to 24 foot or under so that works for us just fine!

Not a lick of shade anywhere on the site!  It ws HOT!!!!!!

About an hour after we arrived, I noticed this rusty puddle.   Uh oh!   I was freaked for a second but as soon as I crawled under I relaxed.  The hose clamp rusted off!!   Thank goodness it didn't let go on the highway or in the middle of the 7 mile bridge!!    I had two smaller clamps and put them together and we were all fixed for the ride home!

For us the highlight of the day is heading up to the bridge for sunset.   Amazingly I have never seen the same sunset.  Always different.

This time there was a ton of Sahara dust in the air so it was a bit muted, but still nice.

We headed back to the site and cooked up dinner and sat out looking at the stars as there was a sea breeze and that kept the bugs down.  We each saw a few meteors and a bunch of satellites.   A very chill and laid back Sunday.

Sojourn to the South Seas

 Wow, hard to believe it has been 5 months since the Space Pineapple has been out and about.     As you recall from our last installment, I had to get a new tire.   I did and then promptly did NOT put it on the coach until two weeks ago as a site freed up in Bahia Honda and I jumped on it.   So I pulled out the coach and put on the tire and went for a test drive.   It did not go well.   They new tire had a terrible vibration starting at 45 mph and it was consistent up to 70 where I shut it down and I don't need to go that fast.   Took it back to Tire Kingdom and they took care of it and rebalanced and live was good.

This trip was interesting as I scored us a Sunday, Monday, Tuesday stay at Bahia Honda.  So that was a perfect excuse for us to visit our friends Mike and Monica in Tavernier.  I had carved this moai last year, although didn't finish it for several months as I had made a few mistakes along the way.  I was lamenting my mistakes and Mike said he thought it was a kick ass piece anyway, so who better to gift it to?     Fast forward another few months, and here we go and I can deliver it to him.    We arrived Sat early eve, and got situated.  They had another couple over for dinner and we had a very nice evening.   After the other couple left, is when the shenanigans.   I mentioned to Mike that we should have an installment ceremony for Frank the tiki.

Mike was totally on board and started taking all sorts of stuff out to decorate the bar.   Above is a pic shortly after showing Frank in his forever home. He is the second tiki I ever finished.  After that we retired into the AC and watched From Hell it Came, an awesome tiki type movie from the 50s.

We stayed up way too late and the rum flowed freely.....So Sunday we got off to a late start.   Hearty breakfast, hung out for a bit, and then off we went heading SW to our camp site.

Houston we have a problem

 Sunday AM we got up and made eggs and bacon from breakfast, then started breaking camp as I had a car down at home to address.    We pulled out of the campsite at 10AM.    

The heavy Friday night rain really flattened out the washboard so the trip out of the part was a bit smoother.  I got onto the road and started feeling the coach out as the vibration was still there.

My buddy Mike lives nearby in Okeechobee and he has my twinsie yellow GMC.  He was home and available so I headed his way and told him I would see him in 20 min or so.    As I pulled in, he pointed to my passenger front wheel.   I got out, he got in and backed it up and forward and you could see it.

One of the belts slipped or separated.   So out  comes his floor jack and I pull off the bikes to get to the spare.  I had bought a new spare wheel with an in date tire not long ago.

As we put it on, he noticed two things.  One, it uses flat lug nuts (mine are conical) and two the size of the hole in the wheel was too big to allow it to center on the hub.

I had 3 flat nuts that held the spare on.    Mike went off to find more and they worked.   We used 3 conical ones to center the wheel then torqued the others to spec.    I made the 85 miles home no problem.

However, I think another tire's ply went part way home as a vibration came back.  I stopped 3x to check the lug nuts and they were good.

I will probably go by two tires and then take it for a spin and see if there is another.   All of the tires are 6 years old so it is time to start thinking about them....

On the upside, the Jeeps battery was bad.  Swapped it out and we were done with that for the day.....

Turkey Trot!

 I swear this weekend, I saw more turkeys than I did on the last couple of trips combined.   They seemed to be everywhere.

With the rain I slept very well and it was around 8:30 when I rolled down to the shower.  When I got back Ian was up and we proceeded to have coffee and pastries for breakfast.   We sat in the coach as the chairs were wet from the rain and watched turkeys and small children run around.

After breakfast we pedaled over to the ranger station and officially checked in.   We then did the hammock loop trail behind the ranger station.  Ian was using my extra bike and we did the trail and then the family camp loop and headed back to camp as it was already lunch time.

After some delish Sammies in the AC of the coach (low 80s and kinda steamy after the rain), we hopped in in his truck and rolled up to the gator hole.    We could hear bellowing before we could see.   Apparently mating season is starting and there was one big boy declaring his wonton lust for the ladies.   He was prob around 11-12 foot and about 60 yards off in front of us   

That said, there were about half a dozed MUCH closer ones including a 9-10 footer who seemed to be paying us close mind.   As it had recently been cold and drought stricken, the wildlife was concentrated in this area that always has water.

The winds were SW and looking that way I saw a curtain approaching and we had about 150 yards back to the truck so we cut short our gator visitation and hoofed it back the truck.   That one kinda slid by and we plunked down in our semi wet chairs.   Then the rain came and we jumped into Ian's tent that I think is larger than the inside of my RV.

You can see his portable suburban home to the left of the coach lol.   Anyway we chilled out in there until the rain let up and I realized our T-Bone was still in the freezer as well as all the cold drinks so we moved over to the coach and started the defrost cycle.

Shortly after that I headed over to the restroom and Ian bailed for a nap.   I figured that was a good idea and napped as well as more rain rolled through.

Rain finally moved off and the sun poked out for a bit.

I took a short stroll around looking for Cara Caras.   This is the second trip in a row I did NOT see one in the park.   Ian said he saw one in Lorida on the way home.

Did I mention the turkeys?    It seemed a rafter of turkeys were rolling through every 15 minutes.  This guy was only about 4-5  feet away.   In the past I have had them attack their reflection in my wheels.

With the burn ban, we used hardwood charcoal and roasted mini taters (wrapped in foil) and grilled the T-bone and cast iron panned a pound of shrimp in butter and garlic.    Super delish.

More drinks were had the low and behold about 20% of the sky opened up for about 15 minutes so Ian got a taste of what is on tap our there in the darkness.

Unfortunately, the moon was near full (4 days before) and even more unfortunately, Ian had the misfortune of parking his flip flopped foot on top of a fire ant hill. They lit him up pretty good and we retreated to the campsite.

Lucy was supposed to join us, but car issues prevented it.   We called the eve a little earlier than the night before as I wanted to be out by 10AM to get back and address the car issue

Birthday Shenanigans

 This year my birthday was on a Thursday but I was able to snag Fri/Sat night at the prairie .   As you know it's one of my top three parks in FL as it is a chance to really disconnect from that hectic grind.

This trip made it a little difficult as my real world issues dogged me all weekend, but more on that as we go.

I started my birthday week last Saturday by smoking a brisket.    It was delish and I followed on the next day by smoking a bunch of sausage.    My daughter and her boyfriend came over on Tuesday and we had meat fest.   It was nice.....   Thursday (my BD) I spent prepping the coach, test drive, and packing so I could bolt quickly on Friday.

I knew FL was under drought conditions and a quick call to the park confirmed the obvious.   NO CAMPFIRES..   But they said we could use charcoal or propane to cook.   So we opted for Hardwood Charcoal, which worked out pretty well.

I rolled !4K on the way out.   Not sure if it is 114Kor 214K as I am the 6th owner of the coach.    I ended up getting to work a little later than I wanted, so I decided to burn 2 hrs of vacation time to get out early.    All good plans......   Left work at 1:15 and hoped to leave by 2.    Ended up rolling out at 3PM.   Used a half hour going to the auto parts store for more power steering fluid....

Friday afternoon leaving the metroplex at 3 is usually the last minute you can avoid the madness.  Not today, 2 accidents with lane closures made it a crawl to West Palm.   Construction at the Beeline and Blue Heron added another 10-15 min  ugh.   Stopped at Sirum's GMC on the way our to say hi to my buddy Mike.    Typical, he asked the question, 'How is she running?'   Purring like a kitten, best running vehicle in my fleet!    15 min later leaving town I have an unwelcome vibration.    It goes away mostly at certain speeds, so I keep on as I'm 30 min from the park entrance.   Above is a pic of the backside of rain as the storm pulled out of the park.

But wait, I mentioned drought!  Yep, first rain in almost 2 months or more.   Didn't last long, but all the critters were HAPPY.   Tons of birds and deer feasting on the puddles as I drove in.  Road was wash boarded so it was idle speed to the campground.    I made it, got set up and called my buddy Ian who was on the way down from Winter Haven to meet me.   To my delight he was already in the park and was there about 6 min later.

I helped him put up his tent and we got going with cocktails and shortly thereafter lit the coals and cooked a wonderful shrimp dinner.   For dessert we had cigars and Cafecito Rum.  Excellent pairing.    We went off to bed shortly before midnight.   I was in bed less than 5 minutes and it POURED rain.   How long, I do not know as it was the perfect lullaby.