Trumbo Point ~ Friends

Wednesday, Oct 19, 2016

In the last blog, we were waiting for Trumbo Point campground to open. We were the second campers to checkin. Our preferred site was waiting for us along with the 102 other sites. As I said, at 9am, only two of us were here, but by the end of the day 46 other retired military campers invaded the giant field. A couple of these campers are active military.
When you arrive, it seems that there is a million of chores to tackle for the setup. By late morning, I was well established on my site. I volunteered to help a few of the other guys. I gave Willy a ride back to Sigbee to pickup is car. He has a motor home and he was having a very difficult time of coming over here with three flat tires! Yes, I said (three) flat tires! Another guy needed a ride, but I had a conference call (Water Works Board meeting at 12pm). I did the meeting despite all of the commotion. The afternoon was spent helping and talking to old friends as they rolled in from all over the country. Helen and I actually talked to a gal from Australia. She is married to an American Navy guy. It is truly amazing to meet and chat with people from all over.

Horrifying 

Last night, I would put our GoWiFi internet to the test. I streamed the Presidential Debate live on my computer. From the computer I cabled the debate over a HDMI cable to our digital TV, for a larger screen view. I ran the sound to my Pioneer car stereo in the camper for a surround sound experience. Hillary and Donald came through loud and clear! I would say, that my site, literally next to the WiFi repeater, is going to work for me just fine. I even streamed a movie from Amazon Prime with no problem in buffering. I’m a happy camper so far.

October 20, 2016

This morning, it was time to wash the camper windows and remove the road grime that followed us down that long road from New England. I have a squeegee that makes this a quick job of doing all the windows including the pickup truck. It seemed that the rest of the day just flew by.

October 23, 2016

The weather changed last night. The wind is out of the North and the humidity is gone. Temperature is in the mid 70’s…reminds me of New England weather in the fall.
This afternoon, I moved another 5th wheel from the storage area over on Fleming Key to here at Trumbo Point, a total of about 1,300 feet. This is the third 5th wheel that sat on my hitch. They all seem to pull alike. Paul, the owner, has a Ford 250 with a truck camper on it. With me moving his 5th wheel, he didn’t have to download the truck camper, just park it in his storage area.

Very Festive

This is the beginning of Fantasy Fest week in Key West! It is a crazy week with a lot of activity. Tonight it was the bike Zombie Parade with thousands of Zombies riding all kinds of bikes and wearing bloody costumes! We were there taking pictures for about an hour until it really was getting crowded.
Back at the campground, we were surprised with the arrival of two couples pulling in with their 5th wheel and motor home. John and Cheryl, who stopped in for a visit back in New Hampshire and Paula and Charles who have two Shar Pei show dogs. Shar Pei never has an “S” even in plural form. Paula explained that very clearly to me last year.

Monday Oct 24, 2016

You Name it...And They Came!

The weather is still perfect. Low humidity, mid seventies, slight breeze still blowing from a northerly direction. A good day to play Bocce. We play Monday and Friday over at the end of White Street. They have outstanding courts which are City owned. It is our chance to meet and play with locals. Most of the locals belong to a league who play four nights a week. It is a lot more serious on those leagues than our 10 to noon play for fun.

A Pretty Bloody Mess

We spent the afternoon doing groceries, checking our Post Office Box for mail and then relaxing around the camper. I did manage to lube both bicycle chains and adjust and tighten odds and ends to keep both bikes in good shape. Tonight, was a good time to bike over to Truman Annex (the Navy Side) of the Island. To our surprise, the usual gate was shut down because of major construction, just outside the gate area. The City of Key West is building a large amphi theater and other improvements to the State Park entrance. Well with the gate closed (for a long time), we were directed to use the United St gate. We biked through the Bohemian village to get to the other gate. Now this could be a little scary, especially in early evening with a lot of people sitting on the sidewalk drinking. We’ve been there before and had no problems and we didn’t either on this occasion. The United Street gate is normally never open, so we got to ride into an area that we never had access to on the base. It brought us to “Southern Joint Force Command Headquarters” a highly restricted area. By now, it was already past sunset as we arrived at the Truman Annex beach. There was only one other couple sitting at one of the picnic tables. Even though the sun had set the blue/orange of the sky was mesmerizing. I had my backpack with my trusty D-7000 Nikon to grab a few memorable shots.

An Estimated 8,000 in the Parade

Wednesday, Oct 25, 2016

Started the day, detailing my truck. It is such a joy for me to relax and tend to such activities. It took most of the day! Well, it works like this; someone walks by and a conversation starts up. A little later a neighbor needs help with his awning, and so goes the day. Life in Key West…the way it should be!

That is what we saw and did!

A Long Ride to "Mile 0"

We made Key West, Florida this morning at 9:30am. Wow, I was tired and still winding down from four and a half days of driving. I averaged over 500 miles everyday! My total for the trip was 2,153.7 miles. Last year it was 2,003 miles from Berlin, NH. The reason that it was 150 miles longer was the recent hurricane that havoc North Carolina. On the radio today, I heard that North Carolina still has 620 roads closed due to flooding. We stayed in the Appalachians Mountains on I-81 to skirt around the flood area. I-81 is a good road, but it is hilly and is also a heavy truck route. My F-250 Super Duty had no problem going up the mountain passes, but some Diesel trucks pulling larger 5th wheel up and over the passes left me chugging along at 38 miles an hour on some of the extreme mountain ascents!

Sunset at Sigbee's Naval Air Station Key West, Florida

I did have a few close calls with people drifting into my lane. I honked on the horn a couple of times and they moved over. Another time, I had to really stomp on the brakes to avoid a tractor trailer that just pulled out from a construction area. I smoked the trailer tires! No damage done. Other than that, the weather was good, the Cracker Barrel Restaurants that we selected were excellent! Quiet is the main requirement. We only rejected a couple that were located in large cities with no easy access for our RV parking. It is sometimes very stressful to be trying to maneuver a 53 foot truck and camper in city traffic, trying to turn into small parking lots with vehicles and curbs all over the place. In any event, we are here safe, sound and happy.

It Doesn't Get Any Better !

Our arrival at Sigbees RV campground was another first experience for us. One of the whole ideas of coming early to the Keys was the chance to get a prime RV site at Trumbo Point campground. Some campers prefer different sites for different reasons. Some like to be next to water, some like being close to the restrooms. My favorite site was to be closer to the WiFi repeater to get good internet reception.

Double Rainbow at Our Destination in Key West

Here is how the process goes. You arrive and sign-up on a (non official) sign sheet and put your name and site number. The catch is that you have to stay at the signup station until they call your name on Monday at 9 am. Yes, that means sleeping at the office outside! That’s the price you pay for first come first served! So, sixteen of us spent the night sleeping in lounging chairs, trucks or what ever was comfortable. Helen was in the 5th wheel and I stayed and slept in the cab of the truck. It wasn’t that bad, I had a sleeping bag (not needed for being cold, more for added padding) I actually slept most of the night, only waking up when I rolled over. I sort of enjoyed looking straight up threw the windshield and watching the stars above. On Monday morning, at 9am, my name was called and we got our preferred site number 522. We can’t move over there until Wednesday when the campground opens, but I did manage to go checkout the site and mow the grass at our site.
Our next to do, on our checklist was a few groceries. A stop at the Sigbees’ Exchange was to see if we could get a PO Box. The last box was sold just before we got there, but we are first on the standby list. The clerk said that if a guy didn’t call in by the end of the day, we would be next. Time will tell.

Thats what we saw and did!

"On The Road Again" The Journey!

October 12th and 13th

Two days of 500 miles a day has put us on the Virginia~Tennessee border. This may sound like a long day behind the wheel, but in reality its just like a normal 6am to 5pm work day. It is about 8pm, sitting here in the camper at another Cracker Barrel restaurant, writing the first blog of the snowbird season. I can honestly say that last night’s stay was ultra quiet. I only mention this, because five minutes ago, a truck pulled up next to us here in the parking lot. A couple of guys went into the restaurant. I couldn’t imagine what kind of noise I was hearing from what I thought was a camper. Our shades were drawn and it was dark outside. Finally curiosity the best of me and I took a peak. It was an aluminum trailer filled with cattle! They weren’t mooing, but were walking around on the aluminum enclosed trailer deck. Thankfully, the cowboys had just gone in for a meal and weren’t staying the night. In the meantime, I turned the radio on, tuned in to a country western station and listened to cattle footsteps and country music! This is a sure sign of an adventuresome, upcoming season.
This trip south is a little different from in years past. Hurricane Matthew has flooded parts of Interstate I-95 near Lumberton, NC. This made us stay north and west of the coastal areas, at least until we were safe from detours and closed highways. Tomorrow, we will take a left and head into North Carolina and catch I-85 towards Atlanta, GA. We won’t enter the heavy traffic in Atlanta, but take the beltway and catch I-75 into northern Florida.
Our plans are evolving as we move south. We are fortunate that we have friends (Lou and Sue) that are already Key West and are keeping us abreast of campground openings and other pertinent information. We also got a phone call from Fr Serious Gerkin (a former neighborhood neighbor) He lives in Inverness, Florida. We might stop in and say hello. He would only be 20 minutes out of our way. Maybe, if the arrival time there is late in the day, we might stay the night in the church parking lot.
We really don’t have an exact date on the opening of Trumbo Point campground. The fire department has to do a pressure test on all of the hydrants around the park. This has to be scheduled sometime next week. It isn’t like we would be out in the cold…that’s not right…it doesn’t get cold in Key West, FL. Well, what I meant was that we’d have to temporarily set up at Sigbee’s campground with full hookups!
Thats what we saw and did!