Ship Wrecked in Key West!!

 

Feb 9 and 10, 2014

Most of my blogs are upbeat and so is this one, in a humorous way. Everything can’t go perfectly all the time and so I tell my tail of a breakdown in paradise. Last week, I off loaded the camper for the duration of our stay here at Trumbo Point. All was well, until I had the truck parked in the sun for a day or so, in extreme heat. When I got in it, I noticed that my air pressure gauge, on one side, read zero. Normally, each rear air bag should read 20 to 40 lbs. Hence, I started to look for an air leak. The soapy water bottle and my trusty high powered LED flashlight were my tools of choice. Most of the fittings are under the dash with only one at the rear of the truck, at each air bag. This dilemma lasted a couple of days. I was thinking of different solutions to fix the problem. Several trial and errors later…after several trips to Advance Auto Parts, Napa Auto Parts, Home Depot and Ace Hardware store, I finally isolated the problem, but unable to find the exact leaking point. I now figured a solution on a temporary fix. You can’t run the truck without at least five pounds of air, or damage to the airbag would result. The solution was to isolate the damaged section and add a manual air fill near the rear tire. I have a bicycle air pump and was able to pump air up to 25 psi (pounds per square inch). This is more than enough, when I load the camper. This 25 psi will double to 50 psi. So, this problem has been put to bed. Other problems we encountered were: a windshield wiper blade that separated, the camper battery was not charging properly (I had it checked and everything was ok). I think it was a lose connection in the power cable into the camper. All is well now. The solar panel keeps the battery up very well. I use the generator sparingly to recharge all of electrical battery devices.

While we are on maintenance issues, I must say how wonderful it is to wakeup in the morning and just go outside and chammy (chamois) down the morning dew off the truck. The dew makes the truck shine after a good wipe down. This, by itself, is enough satisfaction for being here!

Now, let me talk about exercise. One of our goals for being here this winter was to live a better life style, both in diet and exercise. My high end pedometer says that we are walking in the neighborhood of five miles a day. (10,000 plus steps). We’ve been using our bikes as primary means of transportation. Yesterday, we rode around the Island and put 16 miles on the bike odometer. Helen’s been preparing healthy food and I’ve been cutting down on in between snacks. In the long run, it has to pay off. We also have been biking over to the Navy side of Key West at Truman Annex. Here, we often visit the recreation center. The remarkable thing there is the availability to select hundreds of movies to watch on a large screen. The seats are large stuffed, leather recliners, much like in your home. So far, we saw “Last Vegas” and “Captain Phillips” …The Somali pirate story of a container ship being held hostage. The Last Vegas movie was very funny. It starred: Michael Douglas, Robert DeNiro, Morgan Freeman and Kevin Kline. We don’t go to the movies very much back home, so it is sort of a treat and a change of pace to do so here. Oh, this activity, on base, is totally free. Going through the movie selection book, we noticed that some movies are so new that they can’t be shown until the release date, just like previews of coming attractions.

Other features, of the Navy side, are a well equipped gym, covered picnic areas and a quarter mile of beach also with covered picnic tables. We often spend  time here reading books, stopping often to watch sailboats and jet skis going by in the glistening water. Sunglasses are a must even with overhead cover.

Of course, one has to remember that all of these amenities are not here only for our enjoyment, but for the men and woman who are stationed here. Key West definitely has a big military presence! Many agencies are here from Customs, Border Patrol, Drug Enforcement and Home Land Security. Everyone knows that we are only 90 miles from Cuba, but also, all of Central America is not that many sailing days away. Many illegal operations are ongoing, just offshore, and these organizations keep them at bay.  

That is what we saw and did! 

Key West and Alaska…Same Friends…Small World

 

The other day we were up to registration office to inquire about bringing non military campers on base. The quick answer is yes, but not now, because of the massive influx of snowbirds here in the southern end of the road. Well back to my story…We were leaving the office and driving away when we spotted a white one ton truck with New Hampshire tags. We stopped and said hello and drove off. Then it struck me! I know those people. I turned around and went into the office and said to them, “you have a truck camper and you carry a distinctive yellow diesel can on your roof”. He said, “I sure do”. We both recognized each other. We had crossed paths in Tok Junction in Alaska. A little while later, we made plans to have lunch the following day. More on this a little later in this blog.

We had heard rumors that five campers would be moving to a permanent site today. We checked in with Marsha, the camp host, and sure enough we were on the list. Our new site has a tree which is good, but also made the site harder to access. Being a clever guy, I decided it would be better to come in from the fire lane side. This worked out perfectly. I down loaded the camper in a few minutes and we were figuring where to put the ten by twelve outdoor mat. Next came the awning… this year I was determined not to have the shelter blow over in five minutes. I had made some 15 inch HD stakes. The ground here in KW isn’t too stable and one needs long stakes. It did the trick. Soon the day was behind us and we were exhausted from all of the moving around. The temperature didn’t help as it was close to ninety. All in all, it was a good day. We were located between Mike, his wife Terry and Steve and significant other Cheryl. Mike is the campground maintenance guy. (A good resource guy to know). Mike also has a wide outdoor screen, which on Thursday nights shows movies. Great spot to be in.

The next day Sam and Joan Christman picked us up and we went for lunch at Caroline’s Café. Sam and Joan were our friends from Alaska, or I should say they are now our friends from our chance meeting both in Alaska and Key West. They were down here visiting their daughter who works on a sailing ship “The Sebago” and at the “Conch House,” an Inn down on Truman Ave. I must give a thumbs up to the restaurant. The fish I had was excellent. We had a long talk about many things, but what interested me the most was on their many “Space A” travels around the world. That is something Helen and I have to do. We are thinking of Europe, maybe in the fall. Sam and Joan gave us plenty of info when to go and when not to go. They also explained how to get on the rotator flights from McGuire, Dover and BMI over to Germany and Italy. Maybe we will actually go on a “Space A” with them, if things fall into place. Sam needs a knee operation before he travels abroad again. If he heals well, he said he might be ready for a fall trip.

After lunch, it was time for a walk around KW. They took us to a nice shady park with a bubbling fountain. We sat there awhile and watched those wild rosters roaming in and out of the bushes. Next we headed up to their daughters place of work at the Conch House. Carol welcomed us and we sat on the veranda by the pool and cooled down. It was in the mid eighties now and a little humid, but the shade and a breeze did the trick.

Back at the campground, we had been invited to combination birthday party and anniversary. Dan and Jan were given a surprise party. Our two neighbors had invited us to come earlier in the day. Dan had been over several times asking me questions about the truck camper. He had purchased one before leaving Arizona, but hadn’t actually used it yet and had worries about how to load it onto the truck. They were planning to go down into Mexico (the Baja area). Apparently, they have spent considerable time there and felt completely at ease and safe. Here again, is a couple who lived several years on a small boat. They had been down in Mexico into several small ports and camped on the beach with no problems. As Dan said to me, “people who live on a boat do five things. One…live on a boat, two live in a home, three live in a motor home, four live in a nursing home and five live in a funeral home”.

That is what we did and saw!

Key West…A perfect place to blog!




A couple of passing tall ships

The perfect way to travel in Key West!

What does one blog about when you are in a perfect environment for a winter  getaway. I guess I would recount what our days’ consist of. For only being here a couple of full days this is what we did. Saturday morning our neighbors Merle and Fran told us of a tall ship parade over by Fort Zachary Taylor and down in front of Mallory Square. The camper is in a temporary area due to the large amount of snow birds down here. That left us with the bikes as our primary means of transportation. That is just fine with both us. We intended to bike as much as possible. Our first jaunt to town…it was amazing how fast we could travel to Mallory Square. Once there we walked our bikes to the perfect view spot. Only a handful of people were lined up on the dock. The sailing ships slowly left their moorings under motorized power and once out into the channel raised their sails. The parade started further down towards the Fort. We could hear cannon fire coming from the Fort. Soon the tall ships came around the point. The view of them passing on parade was a good start of the day. They all came very close to the dock and they also fired small cannons to add to the excitement. 

We were surprised a few minutes later as a Disney Cruise ship was headed for the dock exactly at our location. It was sort of neat to watch this giant ship docking. The crew lowered these massive lines maybe two to three inches in diameter down into the water. A small motor boat picked up the smaller lead line and brought them over to the mooring crew. It probably isn’t a big deal to a lot of people, but if you’ve never seen this happening, it was interesting to us. We headed back to the campground for lunch.


Now that's a tall ship!

I should point out that I had purchased this cool pedometer. It measure steps, miles, calories and a half dozens other things. The ideal exercise day involves 10,000 steps. On this first day we were at 5,000 steps. I’m sort of anxious to see if I can maintain a 10k step program.
That afternoon we went for another bike ride a couple of miles away to the church to get the mass schedule. The church was having a large wedding and we didn’t bother going in, but walked the grounds only to find out that they were having a fun raiser for the church. Several pigs were being prepared for a pull pork dinner. Five live bands were scheduled to play. Well this sounds like a good place to eat, and normally we would have joined in the fun, but Helen and I are trying to watch our waist line. Two miles back to the campground.
Later in the evening we headed for church and went to the 6pm mass. I did forget that it would be dark after church. The bikes do have blinking tail lights, but no headlights. That wasn’t really a problem because of the many street lights and the many other bikes on the streets at that hour. My problem was that I had brought my street map of KW. The streets here stop short of other main though fares and also are sometime one ways. We weren’t really lost just wondering a few streets pass our intended turn.
That is what we did and saw!

Miami Connection and Home Run to Key West

January 31, 2014
The last of our many visits to friends and family was on this day. I had programed our GPS to limit interstates highways on this visit to our friends in the Miami suburbs. I wanted to see some of the Miami neighborhoods. I was pleasantly surprised that many of them are in well maintained areas with trees shading streets and avenues. Thank God for the GPS because Miami is very big…like 50 miles of city navigation!


JoBeth, Lucien, Helen and Cliff

We arrived at Cliff and JoBeth’s house mid afternoon with no problems. Cliff met us at the entrance to their development and we followed him around a few corners to their home. JoBeth was outside with a warm greeting. We spent the rest of the afternoon talking about our and their adventure trips both here and abroad. JoBeth prepared a dinner meal that was very much to our liking.
After dinner, we had more conversation about their truck camper. They have a brand new Eagle Cap along with a new 2013 one ton pickup truck. They are considering selling both and possibly moving to a Mercedes Benz type of camper. Whoever buys this outfit will get a super deal, as far as getting everything being set up for the truck and camper. I have attached a link to the craigslist site for the camper. http://tampa.craigslist.org/hil/rvs/4259595624.html 
We hooked up the electric in the camper to their house and soon we were counting sheep.
The next morning was still cloudy in Miami and I was anxious to head south to our final winter destination…Key West…and yes here the sun was, is and will shine! The temperature here is 86 degrees!
That is what we did and saw!

Stuart, Florida…Trucker Camper Buddies

January 29, 2014
Foggy start to the travel day. Temperature was around 67 degrees, but did go down to 61 degrees later in the day. Forecast was for showers off and on all day. We were headed across the state to the Atlantic side to meet up with friends that we sort of helped decide to buy a truck camper back in New Hampshire.
The ride over through the rural part of Florida at first was uneventful (mostly due to the fog). Later, around ten am, it lifted and vast farm fields were in view. The produce was sugar cane. We saw large machines harvesting, loading and moving the cane to the factories for processing. Lake Okeechobee was to our left, but you would never know it because of a huge earthen dike some 25 feet high. This berm was the length of the southern portion of the lake. I am estimating it is about thirty miles long. It is always neat to see “America’s Heartland”.
Helen called Cathy and Bob Fournier in Stuart. They were home and soon we were reunited at their winter get-away. Cathy just happened to be cooking a turkey and invited us. We said that we would eat before going to their house, but she insisted we join them and we gave in. Her mother and aunt were there visiting from the north, which made for a group of six. Bob and Cathy are planning to go to Alaska next summer in their truck camper. We gave them a few tips that we learned from our trip. Soon it was time to hit the road again on our southern destination. We have one more visit tomorrow before bee lining it to the Keys. Cliff and JoBeth Carr live  in Miami. We met them last fall at the Gettysburg Truck Camping Jamboree. They were in New Hampshire a couple of weeks later and stopped in Berlin to see us. We took them up to the auto road to the summit of Mt Washington. We just called them tonight and will meet them tomorrow after they bring their son and daughter-in-law to the airport. They were scheduled to leave today, but everybody knows how bad the weather has been north of Florida. Here, in West Palm Beach ,tonight it is 65 degrees and raining steady. Tomorrow 75’ and sunny.
Tonight, we are again at another Cracker Barrel Campground Restaurant at Exit 74 on I-95. It is now 7 pm and since 4:45 pm, I’ve been watching the stopped traffic on the interstate. When we pulled into the parking lot, the fire trucks and rescue equipment responded to an accident just south of us on I-95. We were planning on staying here anyway for the night.

That is what we did and saw

Venice…Or is it Berlin, NH of the South?

January 27, 2014


Norma, Fred ~Pam, Rod ~ Helen, Lucien

We called Jeanette a little after 8:30 am and drove over to her park in no time. I had done a drive-by last night just to make sure I knew how to get there. We talked all morning long about all of the people that were living here in this park from Berlin. It was in the neighborhood of eight couples, not mention a few more couples down the road. I knew they were all down in this area, but didn’t realize that most were in this very park! We took Jen out to lunch and said our goodbyes.  (A note at this point. Helen has misplaced her camera and that's why Jeanette's picture is not in this blog episode) Rod and Pam Legendre were thirteen miles to the south near North Port. Rod and Pam have had a new house built in a new housing development that, I believe will have six thousand new homes. The development is first class! Every detail has been planned out both inside the new homes and outside streets, ponds landscaping. I was especially impressed with construction details. (Being a general contractor, I know the quality). Rod and Pam have done a remarkable job of furnishing and decorating their new home in such a short time.
Rod and Pam took us on a walk around some of the property. The club house is also top notch with everything from the large weight room to the pool and all of the different courts to play tennis and other ball sports.
After we arrived, another couple from Berlin dropped by to say hello. Fred and Norma Fournier. Fred and I had gone to grammar school together. It brought back many memories of our very early youth. In the early eighties, I had taught school with Norma’s dad.
Later in the afternoon, Pam hosted us to crackers and cheese. A toast was given to “Berlin, NH in the South”. Now, I know that everybody back home is saying it is going to snow in northern Florida. Well, I can attest that at the time of this toast it was eighty degrees and as I write this blog twenty-four hours later it is still 68 degrees at 8:30 at night.
January 28, 2014
Another night at our favorite “Cracker Barrel Campground Restaurant. It was very quiet again last night. This morning a decision was made to go a little further south than we had to. Jeanette and Henry Turgeon live in Fort Meyers Beach. It is always a pleasure to visit with them. Jeanette is a very savvy lady when it comes to computers and such. Henry, a very talented musician didn’t play the piano for us this time, but did show us a very fine violin that he had restored back in Berlin by Norbert Lessard.
Henry also gave us a tour of the house we could have rented a couple of doors down. It also was a thumbs up! Another Berlin couple will be renting it for a couple of months. (Wally Anctil) Boy it’s getting to be a small world!
We left Henry and Jeanette around five this evening. We are staying at another Cracker Barrel tonight. This even has a live jamb session on the front porch with all those rocking chairs.

That is what we did and saw!

 

Apollo Beach… More Visits

January 26, 2014


Busy morning at MacDill AFB starting with breakfast, shower, shave, packing the camper, signing out, filling up with fresh water and emptying the holding tanks. A trip across the base for church, followed by a trip to the commissary for food. One final trip to the class six for a case of beer and off base we went by 12 pm. Destination was Apollo Beach to visit Helen’s classmate Betty and her husband Bob Russell. Last year we had visited the Manatees at the power plant that is just two miles from their house. I had no problems finding their home. We had a good visit with them. They live in a nice community. Bob and Betty are both retired school teachers from the North Conway area of New Hampshire. Bob is a great sports guy with many stories to recount. He is a tall fellow and naturally coached basketball for many years. Betty, I think was a math teacher. In any case, it is always a pleasure to sit and talk to the both of them.



Betty, Bob and Helen

Next on the list of visits was Jeanette Lozier who lives a short distance down in Venice. We called and Jeanette had plans, but we will contact her tomorrow morning and meet.

The weather today was cloudy, but considerably warmer, even now at 8:30 pm it is still 64 degrees. Every inch that we move south improves the temperature by a few degrees. Whoopee!

I called Rod Legendre tonight and we will be seeing him and Pam tomorrow afternoon. He also lives here on the outskirts Venice bordering North Port. We are looking forward to tomorrow’s visits

That is what we did and saw!