Sunny Day Ride and Sunset at Mallory Square

 

Today was another enjoyable bicycle ride into Key West where we ate lunch at Louie’s Back Porch, a very attractive restaurant overlooking the Atlantic. We sat on the porch and enjoyed both our lunches and the views. We rated Louie’s our best restaurant in Key West so  far.  After lunch we continued our bike ride along Higg’s Beach to the cruise ship dock and stopped for ice cream, of course!  Another Holland America ship, the Ryndam, was in port today. 

We had a real scare on the way back to our RV park when a car almost ran a red light and had to veer off the road with the tires squealing to keep from hitting Hope and Jim. They were crossing on the Walk signal, and the light had been red long enough for George and Irene to cross when the car approached the intersection.

We celebrated the sunset (and our friends’ survival) at the Mallory Square Sunset Festival where we watched performers until it was

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close to time for sunset.  Then we squeezed thru crowds to get a good view of the sunset and take photographs.  We enjoyed a one-man reggae band and also saw the Ryndam sail off into the sunset.

Enjoying Seafood in the Florida Keys

 

Sunshine and warm weather have returned to Key West, and we’ve explored the area almost daily on our  bicycles.  On the first warmer sunny day, we headed to Hogfish Bar and Grill for lunch on the dock.

The highlight of last week was the Florida Keys  Seafood   Festival on Saturday  featuring LOTS of seafood, music, and vendors.  The festival features fish, steamed shrimp, Florida lobster, conch chowder, and conch fritters.  The seafood plates come with black beans and rice and cole slaw.  We all ordered the Florida lobster plate which was delicious.  In addition to  food,  the festival is full of sights – people and pets of all descriptions,

We’ve seen some more movies; Hope and Jim saw Avatar and George and Irene saw It’s Complicated.  George and Irene also visited the Key West Art and History Museum which portrayed early Key West – once the richest city in Florida.  There is also a Hemingway room with displays about one of Key West’s most famous writers.  Many large sculptures are on the grounds of the museum and get lots of attention from visitors.

 

Key West – As Far South as We Can Go!

 

Thursday, Jan. 7, we drove the short distance from Marathon to Key West and checked into Boyd’s RV Park on Stock Istand before lunch.  Jim and Hope took their Yorkie Mac to the vet in Marathon before leaving so arrived a little later.  (Mac is doing much better now).  We all got settled in and went to dinner that evening – at an indoor restaurant because it was too chilly to eat outside. 

Friday was a good day to bicycle and by mid-morning George and Jim were on their way into Key West.  George picked up a loaf of fresh bread from the bakery.  We all went to lunch  -  outside this time – and then bicycled into Key West, taking a break on the dock near the Westin Hotel.  By the time we returned to the RV Park, George had ridden 24 miles – maybe overkill because his calf muscle has been painful since then.

The weekend was cold and very windy – about 25 mph winds – and Sat. was rainy as well.  Driving into Key West along the bay the row of palm trees looked like umbrellas that had been turned inside out.  We saw a couple of movies – Up in the Air and Did You Hear about the Morgans? and picked up a few things at Publix.   Several years ago we were told that people in the Keys cook a lot when it’s cold since many don’t have heat because it’s needed so rarely.  I can’t say if that is accurate, but I can tell you that Publix on Sat. afternoon looked like Kroger in Rome on Wednesday before Thanksgiving.

While the weather here is mild  compared to most of the country, record lows (in the 40’s) have been set twice since we’ve been in Key West.  A 131 year old record was broken Thurs., 1/7, when the low was 47 degrees.  Much of the Florida citrus crop and produce have been damaged by the freezing temperatures throughout the state.  Today was warmer and sunnier here, and hopefully we’ll all have more seasonable weather soon.

Heading South . . . but is it warm?

 

We left Rome on Monday morning, Dec. 28, the last week of 2009.  Our first stop was Fayetteville to visit Mary Jessica and her family and her brother T. Harley who stopped by to see us on his way home to Virginia.  It was great to see all of them, and we are really enjoying the delicious goodies they gave us.  Richard makes mighty fine peanut brittle.

Then we headed to Jekyll Island to the 34th Annual New Year’s Bluegrass Festival.  We arrived early enough to park looking out at the Atlantic a short way from the Convention Center.   Jim and Hope arrived later in the day and parked opposite us.  George and Irene had time for a bike ride down to the campground and back through the marsh and then along the beach.  We all went out to eat at Crab Daddy’s on St. Simons Island that evening and enjoyed both the food and pleasant service.

Thursday, Friday, and Saturday  were mainly spent attending the Bluegrass Festival.  There were 18 groups performing over the 3 days, 6 each day.  Among our favorites were The Little Roy and Lizzy Show, excellent banjo and violin players respectively, and the Tennessee Gentlemen whose singing was outstanding with their lead singer able to hold high notes a  l-o-n-g  time.

Jekyll was well decorated with Christmas lights and a full moon – a blue moon.  Unfortunately the cold weather brought an end to bicycling Jekyll’s great bike trails which cover the island except that George and Jim braved the cool temps to take a bike ride to the south end of the island.  We can wish for warmer weather for the 2011 festival! 

On Sunday we drove to Ft. Pierce, FL, where on Monday we toured Natalie’s Orchid Island Juice Company, home of Natalie’s fresh squeezed juice.  It was a very interesting tour.  The only drawback is that we had to be there at 7:00 a.m. in order to see the bottling process.  George loves his fresh squeezed orange juice and was instrumental in getting the Rome Kroger to carry   Natalie’s juice which is bottled under Kroger’s Private Selection label.  Our tour guide, David Cortez, director of logistics and customer service, very generously sent us away with bottles of orange and grapefruit juice. 

Arriving in the Keys

 

Wednesday (1/5/10) we arrived in Marathon in the Florida Keys and FINALLY had sunshine and low-60’s weather.  While not exactly typical Keys weather, it’s much warmer than Rome’s weather on Monday which our neighbor David reported was 25 degrees, and 12 degrees is forecast for Sat. – not exactly typical for Rome, either.

Our RV park is at Curry Hammock State Park and has large sites on the water with attractive native plants surrounding the site. Set well back from U.S. 1 the park is very tranquil and is across the highway from the paved bicycle trail  which currently runs intermittently thru the Keys and will eventually be complete the full length of the Keys.  We enjoyed biking on it this afternoon.

This morning we took a stroll around Curry Hammock State Park and along the beach.  Along with Jim and Hope, we went to lunch in Colony Key and bicycled through the residential area afterwards and enjoyed seeing the upscale homes and very attractive landscaping.  The wind was chilly despite the sunny day.

10/22-26 Seeking Warmer Weather in Florida!

Rome has had unseasonably cool rainy weather for mid-October, and we’ve headed south to Florida to find sunshine and warm weather.  Just kidding – not about our weather, but the reason for heading south.  We’re in Kissimmee, FL, at the 20th Anniversary Rally of the Overland Trailblazers.  Our previous motor home was an Overland, and we’ve maintained our membership with this group. 
We arrived at Tropical Palms Resort and Campground on Thursday afternoon and have been enjoying seeing the Trailblazers and all the rally events.   In addition to “just visiting,” the rally has had a catered dinner at Tropical Palms and dinner at Capone’s dinner theater Friday evening.  Today included an afternoon gathering and seeing the car show at Old Town on your own. 
In addition to rally events, we bicycled on the West Orange Trail which runs through  Winter Garden where we also ate lunch and visited the railroad museum.  Irene is enjoying riding her new bicycle which has excellent brakes, wonderful suspension, and 21 gears – though it took a lot of encouragement from George for her to “retire” her 22 or 23 year old Schwinn cruiser. 











































Saturday we bicycled from Tropical Palms to Celebration and rode around that community, returning there for dinner at the Columbia Spanish restaurant.  En route back to Tropical Palms on our bikes, we heard a crackling sound and at first thought something was wrong with George’s bicycle but soon saw the real source – an electrical fire and arcing above a transformer on a power pole.  A fire truck soon arrived and blocked off the immediate area around the pole.  Eventually, the power company apparently turned off the power and ended the “fireworks.” 

Days 50 - 53: Southeast Country Coachers Rally

 

Our last stop on this summer’s trip is the Southeast Country Coachers rally at Holiday Trav-L Park in Chattanooga.  The highlight of the rally was the dinner cruise on the Tennessee River aboard the Southern Bell.  We had great views of the city and its bridges including the marvelous Walnut Street Bridge which we had biked on the day before. The food was great too, and we were lucky that the heavy rain had stopped.   Earlier in the day, the women toured the Hunter Museum and ate lunch nearby at Tony’s.  The men’s outing was to the International Towing and Recovery Hall of Fame Museum.  The rally also included happy hours, pizza, info from Lee-Smith coach repair facility, and a talk on “how to save yourself from disaster” if your coach has to be towed given by SECC member John Hawkins, owner of Miller Industries, the world’s largest tow truck manufacturer.  John had a huge tow truck on site and demonstrated to the group how a Country Coach should be towed. In addition there was free time to enjoy some of the many attractions Chattanooga has to offer, and we bicycled on the river walk.

Sunday morning, we headed home to Rome on the 53rd day of our trip, having covered a little over 3,000 miles . The happy bus is in the barn, and it has been a great trip. It’s good to be home, but thankfully it is only for three weeks before we head out to Orlando for an Overland Trailblazers rally.