March 23-27, 2014 -- The Florida Keys

We left the Flamingo Campground on Sunday morning, headed to the Miami Airport where we have a car reserved.  Our camp at Fiesta Key is still 70 miles from Key West, and we would like to stay for Sunset at the Pier so that meant that we would need different transportation.  I don’t see well enough at night to ride 70 miles in the dark.  This would also let Linda stop and see a friend on her way to Fort Lauderdale to catch her flight back to Seattle.

This is the weirdest trim job on this tree, on Highway 1 near Miami

We grouped up again at the campground on Long Key. We figured we’d better do Key West the next day, as the weather was looking iffy for the day after that. So we got up early and drove the 70 miles.  We could not believe the cost of parking, $4 per hour.  It cost me $40 for the day.  But we had so much fun.

We started with a trolley tour of town.  It was one of those that you can hop on/hop off, which we did several times.

Our first stop was Ernest Hemingway’s home.  He lived here with wife #2 and raised 2 of his sons here

The house is across the way from the lighthouse.  Hemingway was known for saying that no matter how much he drank, he had the biggest nightlight to follow home.

A friend gave one of his sons a 6-toed cat, claiming it was good luck.

Hemmingway was pretty superstitious, so he soon began collecting 6-toed cats. There are now approximately 40-50 polydactyl (six-toed) cats out of close to 80 currently living on the property. Cats normally have five front toes and four back toes. About half of the cats at the museum have the physical polydactyl trait but they all carry the polydactyl gene in their DNA, which means that the ones that have 4 and 5 toes can still mother or father six-toed kittens. Most cats have extra toes on their front feet and sometimes on their back feet as well. Sometimes it looks as if they are wearing mittens because they appear to have a thumb on their paw.  There were cats under every bush in the garden.

Interesting looking palm trees

We got back on the trolley and continued on the route.  After 4 or 5 stops, we got off to go see the Southern Most Point in the Continental US.

 From there we walked through the neighborhood to Linda’s friend’s favorite Cuban Restaurant, El Siboney. The food was very good.

We walked back to a trolley stop, riding until we saw what claimed to be a brewery, but turned out to be a cigar and wine bar that sold craft beer.  Since Wayne was having a beer, Linda and I had to have Mimosas.  Twist my arm….

Rush hour in Key West

We hopped back on the trolley and finished our tour.  With a couple of hours to kill before sundown, we walked over to the wharf area. We found a place for Wayne to get another beer, this one called “The World of Beer”.  $3 dollars off during happy hour, and they put it in a to-go cup! Life is good.

Our next stop was Kermit’s for Chocolate Dipped Key Lime Pie, yum!

We found one of the ‘end of the world’ mileposts.  There are several on the island

Roosters run free in Key West.  The story is that the locals raised them for cock fights.  Once the law was changed to prohibit fighting, they were told to turn them loose.  So they did, literally.  They are everywhere, and they are protected so you can’t bother them.

Two retired postal workers.  We had to say thank you for letting us retire and do this kind of trip!

We had to stop at Mile Marker 0. This is the beginning of the highway that goes the entire length of the east coast.

This is a cool tree

It is huge

Really huge

And the roots are very cool

Sunset at the pier 

Tuesday’s weather was just what we thought it would be, wet and windy.  We hung out, did laundry and generally lazed around.  It was late afternoon before we felt like doing anything, so we went out for dinner and drinks at Sharky’s Dockside Bar, another suggestion from Linda’s friend.

Someone has to drink the tropical drinks!

Very cool logo!

On Wednesday we headed north to Key Largo to go to John Pennekamp State Park to wade in the water.  We wanted to find a place for Wayne to snorkel, but the weather was still too cold for that, so we went shopping instead. Sounds like something Linda and I would do.  Poor Wayne.

We ended our day at Smuggler’s Cove with a great dinner and good times.  It was our last night with Linda.  We had so much fun with her visiting, it was sad to see her go.  The whole time she was there we kept pointing out little RV’s that would work for her!  But she knows that she is always welcome to stay with us in our coach.  We hope she’ll come to Arizona with us next winter and there is always this fall in Idaho!!!