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.