Key West…Blog Writing

Last year, it seemed that I had more time to blog about my travel adventures than this year. Some of this lag is due to a couple of reasons. The first is my new IPhone 6 picture uploads to the laptop. Data usage is one issue. I’ve been doing “Drop Box”, but that involves going online and to the cloud. The next inconvenience is that my laptop, I think, is on the way out. The top of the screen has a 1” black strip across the entire top. That makes it difficult to “X out” or minimize an application. I also have a more busy schedule this year. Bocce, Yoga and some Pickle Ball have taken up a good part of the week’s schedule. Meeting with friends for lunch or dinner also has cut into my blog time. All of the above are fun activities to do and so is blogging about our daily routine in the lower Keys.

Our private security Coast Guard Cutters in the background

Thursday, Jan 22nd                                                                                                                                                                                                  
Started late morning and biked over to have lunch at Martins on the corner block of Duval and Truman Ave. Martins’ is one of many restaurants that do half price appetizers if you mention that you are local. Now, the appetizers are large and getting a couple will more than satisfy

Paulette buying cigars for her son!

both of our combined lunch appetites. From the restaurant, we biked over to Truman Annex NAS (Naval Air Station) checked out what was playing for a movie, nothing we wanted to see and we peddled back over to Trumbo Point and visited with my classmate, Paulette Lowry and her sister Jeanette Morneau. Late in the afternoon, the four of us walked over to Mallory Square.

Sunset amusement at
Mallory Square 

The sunset didn’t materialize and actually we had a good shower. To escape the rain shower, we ran into “2 Friends Patio Restaurant” for Lobster Bisque. The rain soon ended and we walked back to our campsite at Trumbo Point.
Friday, Jan 23rd
This morning our bikes were on the road to the Bocce courts on the Atlantic end of White St. Some of the teams were milling around when we got there. George, in his 80’s, the guru of the Bocce here in Key West, said that the courts were too damp from last night’s rain showers. They postponed the game until Sunday night. Paul mentioned that we should visit the West Martello Tower Gardens. This is an old Fort that had been abandoned and had nearly been totally looted by locals for bricks. The site was taken over and converted to a partial museum and gardens. Admission is by donation. We strolled among the Fort’s many arched rooms and admired plants of every descriptions.

Rain Shower hideaway at
Two Friends Restaurant

My favorites were the Orchids growing high on the tree limbs. This garden has little nooks that some families were having a lunch picnic. The views from there are of the gardens and the ocean.This is in perfect harmony with the natural surroundings.
It was now a little past lunch and my tummy was calling. I wanted to checkout a bike shop downtown and hence would have lunch at “Five Guys”. The  “Little Burger with the works” is my favorite! It seems that I write a lot about eating in this blog, but we may eat, but we walk and bike off the pounds. So far, I’m five pounds lighter than I was before leaving the North Country.

No I'm not going to jail! Just a famous photo
opportunity!

My odometer has registered forty miles of bike riding and I haven’t really devoted any time to my power bike around the Island of Key West.
Saturday, Jan 24th 
This was a predicted day of sporadic rain. We spent most of the day reading in the camper. I’ve been reading Bill O’Reilly’s “Killing Patton” a very interesting view of World War II behind the scenes. Later in the afternoon, I got a text message from Paulette who invited us to dinner in her luxurious motor home. We accepted!

Jeanette, Paulette, Helen and I walking
down on Truman Annex...Truman
White House

It was an enjoyable evening and dinner was first class. Paulette was in the army when she met her husband Richard. Richard made a career in the army and they both retired from postal service. He passed away and Paulette has carried on touring with her motor home when not home in New Hampshire.
Sunday, Jan 25th
This morning, I shuttled Helen, Paulette and her sister Jeanette over to church. St Mary Star of the Sea is a beautiful Basilica, as I have mentioned before in previous blogs. After mass, we took advantage of the coffee and donuts at the church Community Center. The next on the schedule was to drop Paulette and Jeanette  off at the corner of Eaton and Whitehead Streets for their walk

One never knows what you'll
see driving in KW

around the Arts and Craft Fair event. We would check this street event later this afternoon. We wanted to Skype the kids from the “Fly Navy” hotel. Lunch in the camper today and off on our bikes for the Arts and Craft Show. I’m always impressed with the quality of the Artisans crafts. The Artisans come from all over the country to this event. They have to be good to compete with others to sell their crafts. I took a few pictures to remember some of the items I’d like to try and duplicate when I get back home. Actually, who am I kidding! I usually get home and never think of doing those neat crafts.
Monday, Jan 26th

Bocce is the name of the game this morning. The camper is off the truck

The Meteor from George Town, S. Africa
is for sail $258 million asking price!
Any takers out there?

and we had to do grocery shopping and errands so the truck was our transportation to the Bocce courts on the other side of the Island. We each won a game and lost a game on different teams. Maybe, we will be good enough to eventually ask some local village Bocce players in Italy for a round or two (ha, ha!). After the game, we headed over to the Fly Navy Gateway Inn to upload, download photos into Dropbox  and publish a couple of blogs I had in the draft mode in “Live Writer”. I’m glad to report that I’m slowly improving in that department.

Tuesday, Jan 27th
The Yoga class this morning was skipped because our friends from Congress, AZ were here at the Fly Navy Gateway Inn.

My favorite biking partner!

Rex and Jodi, our neighbors picked up Dan & Jan Yochum and we followed them to Big Pines Key for lunch. This is about 30 miles north of KW. In Big Pines, they took a left and we followed them to “No Name Key” which is the location of the “No Name Bar”! Confusing isn’t it? This bar has good food and even on a Tuesday noon was packed! The walls, ceiling and just about everything else has dollar bills stapled to them. It is a neat place and we had a good time conversing for a good part of the afternoon. Two

Hockey in KW

Harley bikers from Trumbo joined us. It wasn’t too long before Ron told the waitress that his buddy John wanted to marry her. We all had a good laugh on that one. The party broke up mid afternoon and Rex told us to go across the bridge and checkout the deer on the other end of No Name Key. The deer are a species that only are found on this Key. The deer are small and as we approached their habitat, many signs said “Absolutely no feeding the deer”. Several deer were on and next to the deserted highway. We stopped and to our surprise they didn’t scatter. Helen held out her hand and the deer was soon were

Yes, It's on inline roller skates, Dede

licking her hand. I guess people don’t follow the regulations and must hand feed them.
Returning to Key West, I got a call from Paulette and Jeanette who were at the “Margaretville Bar” wanted us to join them at Mallory Square for the 6:08pm sunset. We left Trumbo Point and walked to the square just in time to catch the sunset. I got a few good photos.

That is what we did and saw!

Technorati Tags: Blog Writing,BabyBoomers,Retired Military,Travel Adventure,Truck Camping

 

Jan 18th to Jan 21st …Key West Life Style

On Sunday, the 18th, we headed over to the Navy Club House to watch one of many football games. Biking across town, we noticed that the street lights were off and Key West had lost power. When we reached the club house over at Truman Annex, the power returned, but all of the satellite feeds needed to be rebooted. This didn’t happen and many football fans were not happy. It’s sort of fun to watch all of the people pick teams. Remember, they are from all over the country and support many teams. The staff put on a movie, but the sport fans were loud and streaming football games on their cell phones. As it turned out, we couldn’t listen to the movie, which looked interesting. We called it a day and headed back to Trumbo and did some reading.
Jan 19th, Monday
Today we would be active as we both played Boccie for the first time! Leaving the campground at Trumbo Point, we biked about a mile to the Boccie courts.

Before the Boccie Start 

We were well greeted and introduced to the game. You pick a card and suit which puts you on a different team for every game. They do the score keeping and the rest is a very easy game. It turned out that we both did very well for the first time playing this sport.
Later in the afternoon, we toured our neighbors, Jim and Betty’s, fifth wheel trailer. Pretty roomy compared to the truck camper! This maybe putting a bug in our ear about upgrading. Still thinking about our travels abroad next fall.

Helen's first Boccie pitch!

Maybe, staying in Europe for a extended stay…who knows what the future adventures will bring to this energetic couple.
Jan 20th, Tuesday
Another first for me. Yup!  Yoga Class! So we walk-in and there are maybe ten guys and thirty women sitting on mats. I want to be in the rear so I can watch and copy the different moves. The instructor, a young girl, perfectly shaped body, wearing these tights with colored designs that make her look like she was tattooed. She got my attention when she started the class. I discovered that it is hard to follow just by listening to her. I had to watch the girl next to me to get the moves somewhat correct. After getting into the relaxed frame of mind, I started to stretch muscles that hadn’t been stretch for thirty years. After an hour of the Yoga class, my body actually felt in better shape. This may help my five bulging disk to get back into position.   

Peaceful Boccie Night in Key West!

Jan 21st, Wednesday
On this day, I conference called one of my last four Berlin Water Works Board Meetings. My term ends in April and I will not seek another term. It’s time to retire! It was sort of neat to have me in Key West, FL, Roland, the newly retired Superintendent in Homosassa, FL and the rest of the board back in Berlin, NH all conducting business so many miles apart.
On this day, Paulette Lowry, a former 1963 classmate contacted us. She was getting ready to check-in here at the military campground in Key West. I conveyed as much information to her and her sister as how to access the base and such. Later in the afternoon, we met up with them up at Sigsbee Naval Air Station. Let me say this about RV’s here in Key West. Because of cold weather across the entire US and the fact that gas prices have lowered this place is packed! They never refuse anybody, but they’ve temporarily been parking RV’s on the street for no charge.
We took Paulette and Jeanette on a walking tour of Key West, down by Mallory Square for the evening. We had dinner at the Commodore Dock Side Restaurant. The neat thing about a lot of restaurants is the half price appetizers between 4 and 7pm. It was an enjoyable evening for all of us. We walked back to Trumbo Point and I gave the girls a ride back to their luxurious motor home. 

That is what we saw and did!

Technorati Tags: Truck Camping,Baby Boomers,Retired Military,Travel Adventure

  

First Four Days in Key West

Monday, January 12, 2015
It has been a trying week to say the least. The trip down here was a constant battle to beat the weather. To top that off, Helen’s mom wound up in the hospital on Wednesday, the 7th, and is now at the nursing home. That in itself was nerve racking for Helen. She seriously considered or still is considering flying back up to Berlin. On the bright side, her mom, so far has adjusted to the nursing home. Helen’s sister, Doris, has taken over the helm and taken care of all the paper work.
Now, for Key West! The campground at Trumbo Point is nearly full to capacity. We are setup in the 600 block area, not the same location as our site last year, but our lot size is nearly double in size. Our neighbors are friendly and Gene has offered to fill our fresh water tank. He has a 45 gal bladder tank with an electric pump which makes short order of refilling. We have met many of our last years friends and tomorrow, Friday the 16th, is the gathering for coffee and donuts at the swimming pool area.
Our site is shaping up every day. I setup the shelter, installed some bamboo screening for afternoon shading. The outdoor rug keeps the debris from being tracked into the camper. The gas grill is unpacked from the roof storage area and already in use. Truck has been power washed and every day I do a little more detailing. There is an unwritten competition here between Laurent, Tommy and myself to see who has the cleanest pickup truck. So far, Laurent and Tommy have me beat by far.
Friday, January 16, 2015
Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday just seemed to fly by with no special activities. Our friend, Paul Foster, gave me a heads up for Friday. Another camper named John has a son in-law that is a F-16 fighter pilot.

Fighter Pilot Show and Tell

His Toledo, Ohio Squadron is down here on training. Another Squadron of F-15 from Louisiana is also here, along with the Navy “Conch” Air Force. (Special F-105 fighters painted in foreign adversarial colors.) To shortened the story, John arranged for a bunch of Trumbo Point campers to have a special tour on the flight line and watch the jet fighters take off. I’ve been to air shows before, but never been able to get up close and personal with some of this country’s best and finest aircraft.
First order of business was to meet the aircraft handlers. These are the guys that make them fly and load all of those smart bombs and missiles. Walking into the massive hanger, we saw many aircraft parts. One of the main concerns for security was, you guessed it “No Pictures” I certainly can understand that concern. The Major, John’s son-in-law, did allow us to take a few pictures of the pressure suits the pilots wear to keep blood into the upper part of their bodies while turning the aircraft at extreme “G” forces. We then walked to the flight-line and checked out the aircraft. The F-15’s were starting their engines. We had been given ear plugs and were told that we would know when to put them in. He was right! The F-15s’ with twin engines revving at 37,000 RPM produced a howl that was loud and the sound of power. He said they can fly for about 2-1/2 hours without refueling…that’s 1,400gals of jet fuel…$$$$$
We watched all three squadrons take off. The Major explained how computers fly the fighters and make all adjustments in flight. It was certainly an interesting morning. The F-15’s, 16’s and F-105’s aren't  our latest fighters (The F-22 “Raptors are”), but still a world class fighter that has proven itself in combat many times.
In talking to John, I discovered that he also was a Huey pilot. I worked on Hueys in Vietnam. He said he was a “Dust Off” pilot which indicates he flew medical evacuation missions. There are so many retired veterans from all branches of the Armed Forces here. They all have stories to recount and we are all so called “Band of Brothers”
Saturday, January 17, 2015

This is the first day of the 10th annual Seafood Festival in Key West. It is an impressive event with not only seafood, but local arts and craft vendors and live bands

Crafty Arts!

playing music all day. We had clams for lunch and spent several hours talking to the artist. Some are very cleaver make things from drift wood, coconut shells and even rocks! We sat and listened to a couple of bands. Some people were dancing and I must say, some looked like they were ready for “Dancing with the Stars”. The second band was “Rock and Roll”. They were good, but a little to loud for my taste and we walked back to the campground about a mile away. Yes, that’s what we are here for… exercising and enjoying the great outdoors!
That is what we did and saw!

Technorati Tags: Baby Boomers,Retired Military,Travel Adventure,Truck Camping

   

Dodge Ball with a Snow and Ice!

Today, Saturday, January 3, 2015

Here, sitting in my sunroom, with the outside temperature at 9.1 degrees (F) or 12.72 (C), I am facing a decision on our departure time for our extended stay in Key West, Florida. A plow-able snow and ice storm is looming just hours away. Yesterday, on I-93, a major traffic accident involving dozens of cars. It closed the Interstate for a good part of the day. Snow is forecasted for this evening into Sunday morning. This followed by ice and then freezing rain.

Break in time….

It is now Jan. 4th Sunday 2pm

Looks like we will have a small  window of opportunity to get our adventure started before a frigid “Polar Vortex” comes racing down with fierce winds and a predicted ice storm.

Break in time….

It is now Jan. 5th Monday 3am

Time to roll out of bed! We were on the road by 4am with a quick stop at Dunkin Donuts for that caffeine wakeup. Not especially windy or extremely cold. It wasn’t until we were about a hundred miles away from home that we started to notice tree limbs scattered along the highway. If only we could beat the predicted freezing rain. We drove further south and soon the northern mountains were mostly behind us. I drove exactly 550 miles on this first day. We also had preplanned not to stay in the camper that first night. Comfort Suite hotel in Grantville, PA was just what we were looking for. The temperature that day didn’t warm up at all, as a matter of fact it dropped to 18 degrees -7.77(C) I must also back up my story a little and explain that Sunday night, I started coughing and came down with a bad cold. In any event, the Comfort Suite held up to its name. The hot shower and bed was appreciated. The next morning, 5:30am I was up as usual. We would get another early start and try to beat the weather. I looked out the window and it was snowing! Breakfast was there in the Hotel and soon after we were on the road. I knew that I-81 paralleled the Appalachian Mountains and the trace of snow would be with us for awhile. It was! I drove the next 500 miles with snow covering the Interstate. The traffic was going about 45 mph and we saw a total of six slide offs’. The second night would also be in a hotel. A quick note here about the camper. It does have a wonderful furnace that can keep you warm, but the problem here is with the type of coil spring thermostat that must be used in a vehicle that doesn’t have a  perfectly level platform to use a more sophisticated thermostat. The coil spring must expand to shut the furnace down and contract to start the furnace. This expansion and contraction takes time. Consequently…too hot or too cold!

Our second night, January 7th, in a town called Johnson City, TN would find us tired and staying at a Red Roof Inn. The weather here was still cold with possibility of snow coming to the tops of the Appalachian Mountains. We were on the Western side and tomorrow would be climbing over to the Eastern side and finally to lower warmer elevations.

3rd night January 8th

We met with our sister-in-law Peggy in the afternoon, after she got out of work.  Her mom chatted with us from late morning until she arrived. The weather in Hendersonville was sunny, but very cold. It was time to move on to Colombia, SC for our next visit and a little warmer climate. We arrived at Chris, Sandy and aunt Simone’s home around 7pm. They cordially invited us to sleep inside, but now the temperature had moderated and we had a good night sleep in the camper. Our visit with the Marcotte family is always a warm family get together. They had lost their family dog “Higgins” to sickness and amazingly, they found a replacement that not only resembles Higgins, but also has the character and temperament. They named her “Harmony”, a well suited name.

4th night January 9th

Our next night stay was in “Navy Station Mayport” in Jacksonville, FL. Pelican Roost campground was full, but Jim the camp host found us an emergency full hookup site. We now filled our water tank, fully recharged everything including us with hot showers. This was just a quick overnighter, but it was a welcomed stay after the rush to get out of the winter storms.

From Jacksonville, we stopped for a short visit with cousin Larry who was originally from Burlington, VT and now lives in Winter Springs, FL. Larry is one of the few relatives on my side of the family. He is doing very well considering he is getting up in age.

Next stop in Leesburg was to Helen’s cousin Georgette and significant other, Bob. We had dinner with them. Bob did the cooking and hasn’t lost his touch! We parked down next to the clubhouse for the night. We are now out of the cold! Again we experienced a good night sleep in the camper.

Saturday, January 10th

This morning I am catching up on the blog at McDonalds and actually waiting a few minutes before we visit our friends Sam & Joan, who we might travel with to Italy on a military “Space A” flight next fall.

We had a wonderful day with Sam & Joan. They took us for a ride up at the “Villages” (our first time to really visit that area). Later that afternoon, we had a long chat about the “Space A” flight and viewed slides from their previous trip to Italy. It looks very promising for an upcoming overseas adventure. We spent the night at their Methodist Retreat RV Campground complex. I must say it is a very large tract of land with many function buildings on Lake Griffin shoreline.

Sunday January 11th

A quick early departure was in order to catch a 7am mass on our way out of town. We made the decision not to linger around the middle of the state any longer. Next stop was Stuart, FL for one final visit with fellow truck camper friends, who had just been up to Alaska this past year. Bob & Cathy had plenty to talk about their exciting trip way up north and we were anxious to hear about their adventures. We stayed parked in their driveway for the night and again headed south for Key West in early morning. It was a long haul especially going through Miami traffic. We landed in Key West in late afternoon. We logged 2,350 miles since leaving Berlin, NH

Sorry for not having any pictures, but I should get off my butt and be clicking away soon!

That is what we did and saw!

 

Technorati Tags: Truck Camping,Retired Military,Baby Boomers,Adventure Travel