Florida Friends...Moving Through the State

Florida Friends…Moving through the State!

From where I left off on the previous blog... Leaving Big CypressNational Preserve in early morning, we were close to Fort Meyers Beach just after lunch. We just had to stop and say hello to Jeanette and Henry Turgeon. Henry was Helen’s first boss. She was only sixteen working at the “City Diner” back in Berlin, NH. Jeanette is recovering from health issues and is doing just fine. She always amazes me with her digital know how. I guess being a former Librarian must have something to do with it. Henry is also a gentleman and gifted musician. He is keen on remembering people from our home town.

From Fort Meyers Beach, we headed towards MacDill Air Force Base for an overnighter, at the Famcamp. We stopped there to look around for any possible “good deals” on a used 5th wheel camper. Yes, we are looking for a 5th wheel camper to stay a longer period in Key West.

Mind you, we still really enjoy the truck camper, but for an extended stay in one spot, we simply need more square footage. There is no way that we could have explored all of the places we’ve been to on the North American continent without a truck camper. We didn’t find anything that met our needs.

The sunset at Mac Dill is comparable to Key West, but instead of sunseting into the Gulf of Mexico, the sun sets with St. Petersburg skyline as a backdrop. We attended mass at the base chapel that evening and finished the evening reading in the TC (truck camper). Sunday morning our checklist was to drive to Lazydays Super RV Store. It’s only a short distance to Lazydays, nearly at the intersection of I-4 and I-75. Wow! Lazydays is massive! They have every make, model and what not in the RV world. We did find a couple of used 5th wheels, but I wasn’t ready to commit. I just don’t impulse buy and I wasn’t ready to trade-in our trusty truck camper. It was still a good experience to see 1,400 RVs for sale. They are so large that they have their own Flying J truckstop and a Cracker Barrel restaurant on their property.

After lunch at Bob Evans, just across the street from Lazydays, we decided to head a little further north to Zephyrhills and visit Bob and Cathy Lettre.

They recently made the commitment and bought a winter home in the sunshine state. The visit was short, but Helen got to chat with her high school classmate and I had a good time talking to Bob about his new home. It was time to move on again and visit with a former Berlin neighbor, Henry and his new bride Marge. Henry & Marge are always fun to visit. We overnighted in their driveway before leaving in the morning.

The next stop was also just a short ride up the road to Inverness to visit still another former

NH neighbor. Father Sergious Gerken of the St. Raphael Orthodox Church. Fr. Sergious was having a meeting when we called him ahead of time, but he insisted that we come right over. He was meeting with a couple who were in the process of joining his congregation. Well wouldn’t you know that we were all in deep conversations with the three of them. Christy and Charles were native Southern people and they were sort of surprised that us Northern people are very similar to them including hunting and fishing.

This chance encounter was a blessing for us! Christy and Charles told us of this secret Florida jem that is overlooked by

99% of tourist that come into Florida. They were talking about “The Stephen Foster State Folk Culture Center” Ok, most of you, including me probably would have said, "Who in the heck is Stephen Foster”? If I would have asked, “Did you ever here of the following song”?

• Beautiful Dreamer
• My Old Kentucky Home
• Jeanie With the Light Brown Hair
• Oh, Susanna

Stephen Foster wrote hundreds and hundreds of songs. Four of Stephen Foster’s songs may be found in the movie “Gone With the Wind”…"Beautiful Dreamer” can be found in the first of the latest release of the “Batman” movie.

Stephen Foster's death was in 1864, which tells us how celebrated this song composer was and still is. And now for the “Jem" in a little place called White Springs, Florida.
Located just north of I-10 and off I-75 is the Stephen Foster Folk & Culture Center State Park. Beautiful grounds, an old southern mansion coverted into a museum, a very tall Carrillon tower, campgrounds, forests, flowers and best of all the Suwannee River. I could write several chapters on all that we experienced in this charming southern plantation setting.
We spent a day exploring this area before leaving on our journey

to the West, that is before heading North on the westerly side of Georgia.

The day was coming to a close and Tallahassee was our turning point to start heading up route 27 into Georgia. We stopped at a Walmart in Bainbridge, GA for the night. From this point North, we would be in a more rural environment. I had no real clue as what to expect to see or do from here. The only reason for exploring this part of the state of Georgia was a stop, on our way down to Florida,

at the Georgia Visitor Center. Here I had seen a spectacular picture of Providence Canyon. It reminded me so much of Bryce Canyon in Utah.

That is what we saw and did!

On The Slow Crawl North

Slow Crawl North…by Choice!!

On March 19th 2015 we pulled out of Trumbo Point RV campground. This was just a few minutes after 7 am. The last thing I did there was to pull the start cord on my neighbor, Gene's generator. I’ve been doing this for a week or so because I’m an early riser and when Gene and Carol get up the coffee is ready in their 5th wheel camper. One last stop in Key West was to attend mass, which we had been doing daily during lent.

Route US 1 heads Northeast and by 8:15 am,the sun had already moved a little more East and we had no problem with the sun in our eyes. Leaving town is always a little sad. We met a lot of friendly good folks and some were already heading north, but some were staying until the end of April. By May 1st, this campground is shut down until October 1st. The reason being that it gets too darn hot and humid. There are no full hookup sites at Trumbo Point, hence when it gets too hot,the military will not allow the generators to run all night for the A/C units on the RV’s. This is not as drastic as it seems because three miles down the road, the Navy has another RV campground called “Sigsbee” they have full hookups and in the summer there is always plenty of sites.

The ride back to Homestead, Florida always seems to go faster than going to Key West. As we moved closer to the mainland, familiar places peaked our interests. McDonalds coffee break in Marathon was the first stop for both coffee and restroom needs. After that, we were in Homestead at the first Wal-Mart from Key West for less expensive resupply of food stuff. So far this doesn’t sound to much like an adventure story, does it?

The adventure really started at the Miccosukee Resort and Gaming. Back in the Keys, we had been told to stop overnight at the Casino. You just had to get an overnight permit. The Casino gives each person a $30 ticket (for the slots) and bargains on food for first timers. We did the above exactly, with the only requirement that we had to play the thirty bucks voucher on one machine. We followed directions and played the slots. I jumped up to $64 dollars and Helen jumped to $62 dollars. "Quit while your ahead", that’s what we did and walked out with $126.00! It was early afternoon and we had no intentions on really staying overnight. Our game plan was to headout on US41 and than take US 94 (the loop road) and find a campground. Mitchell Landing was our destination. We headed down this dirt road for a short distance and found this motorhome with a camp host sign in front. “Yes”, the camp host said, “$12.00 with a

senior pass", which I had. There was only one other camper in the campground and he was in a tent. After backing in and getting set- up we took a walk to visit these endangered snails that are only found in this site. The camp host had given Helen direction and just a few yards away I was taking pictures of these very unusual snail shells. Moving along to the boat landing, a sign said boat landing closed due to low water levels. Ok, I didn’t have a boat, but I settled for pictures of vultures and other birds hanging around the marsh. It was now time for a bite to eat. Helen is always good at coming up with something scrumptious. Later, we walked up to the camp host and they invited us to sit and chat. It was interesting to learn all about volunteering in the NP system. They were leaving to take up their summer volunteer jobs up at the “Great Smokey Mountains National Park"

In about an hour or so, the bugs started to come out. Another camper showed up and we started walking back to our campsite. The camp host was just returning in his golf cart and stopped just about fifty feet past us. He said, “Did you see that snake”? “No" I said. We turn around and walked toward him. There was the snake! A “Cotton Mouth” also called a “Water Moccasin” right on the trail. We must have walked right over him! He grabbed his four foot snake grabber and went towards to the snake. It jumped, for sure, two feet in the air! He moved it along to the edge and it took off into the vegetation. Our luck held out on this night. He figured that the evening was getting cool and the snake was very passive. The camp host had just finished showing us his 410 revolver a little earlier. It fires 410 shotgun shells or 45 cal. slugs. This is some firepower and I guest after this snake encounter, not a bad defensive weapon. We crawled into bed after dark and my plans for doing some star gazing and photography in the middle of the night were a thing of the past with the snake incident.

Next morning, we were on the road fairly early. The camp host had told us of this watering hole next to the dirt road, where we might catch a glimpse of this 12 foot alligator . I knew that the cold morning temperature was a deterrent against seeing any warm blooded creatures moving around, but we gave it a chance. The sun wasn’t even risen and light patches of fog covered the swamp here and there. The birds were still roosting, but they were coming to life. No alligators were visible, but I could see an occasional bubble indicating they were there and staying close to the bottom in the warmer water. No sightings, but all was not lost!

Big Cypress National Preserve Sunrise

The gravel road was extremely straight, visible for miles in either direction. I looked up and immediately spotted a photographic opportunity. The sun was just starting to rise miles away in the middle of this gravel road. Everything surrounding was still dark and with the sun now beaming, my shutter was going at full speed. My mind was thinking…This would make another contest picture for the 2016 Truck Camper Magazine Calendar Contest. The Truck Camper was in the frame with its lights on, the sun was beaming through a slight haze fog. We'll see how I do this year in the contest!

That is what we saw and did!

Technology is Great...When its Working

Written March 14, 2015

The Death of a Laptop!!

My trusty HP laptop is not so trusty these days. You know when it takes nearly a half hour to boot up. The top of the screen has a 1-1/4 inch black strip across the entire screen making it very difficult to X out of programs. I’m switching over to Apple…Mac Air Laptop. Yup, I’ve had it with the PC World! I nearly bought a Mac Air 13.3” (2014 model) at the Base Exchange here in Key West, but after doing research, I’m going to wait till April and get the updated (2015 Mac Air 13.3). More bells and whistles! It’s not even available yet. All of these technical problems have slowed my creative writing skills and I haven’t been blogging as much as I wanted to. I’ve been cheating and using my Facebook page as my outlet for “What We Did and Saw” blogging desires.

Let me refresh you on what we’ve been up to this month.

First, I must say, one should never try to duplicate a past years’ adventure. This as it turned out was very true of this years’ journeys. Nothing is or was like last year. It was different and actually better in many ways. The many, many friends that we have made here at Trumbo Point will bond us to, not only this place, but to all of their home loca

Key West, Florida..Population 34,000 locals...
4 million visitors to the Keys!

tions across the entire country. As we plan to expand our travels overseas by using Space A travel, we will meet more fellow travelers and share travel stories and adventures! Even the weather was completely different this season. We did have a couple of cooler temperature weeks, when it dropped to 59 degrees at night. Don’t laugh you northern friends who were below zero for a month and a half! The weather was most different in the wind department. A continuous 15 to 20 knot wind kept us cool on hot humid days. This was noticeable on or around the Island bike rides. We made the best of this by circling into the wind as we left Trumbo Point with a full body of energy. By the time we rounded the Northern end of the Island, we had the wind to our backs for a fast ride back to the campground. The wind is still moderate, but I’m told that it will soon die down and the humidity will be more noticeable along with bugs that are now none existent.

We are leaving Key West at the end of next week (March 19th). We will meander slowly northward toward New Hampshire by early April. We had planned to stay here in Key West until May 1st, but because of unforeseen problems up north we will be moving north about a month early. Remember, I always say the Truck Camper has a mind of its own. It is like a canoe going down a river without a paddle. Lets see where it takes us! Be flexible is the name of the game…and so the adventure continues.

The volunteering

Helen preparing for a giant salad!

Ready for the crowd!

This season was rewarding for us in our volunteer work at St. Mary, Star of the Sea, Soup Kitchen. We really enjoyed preparing, cooking and even serving the one daily four o’clock meal. to young and old. Both male and female, some with drug and alcohol problems. Some just ran out of money. They all were very grateful and said so has they picked up their four o’clock meal.

Some people are out of luck. It wasn’t what I was expecting. We only volunteered for Sunday because that is when they were short on personnel. We served an average of one hundred meals a day both

Next Year

Georgia Peach or Peanuts?

Georgia Peach or Peanuts?
In the last blog, we were entering the Southeast State of Georgia. With little knowledge of what to visit or see other than looking online and carefully looking at our trusty Walmart atlas we really had no clue what to expect. I had highlighted several possibilities on or close to our route of travel up US27. The one exception was the Little Grand Canyon which I had seen a picture of at the Visitor Center, on the way down to Florida. I actually got this wrong as far as locations goes.

Georgia "Little Grand Canyon"

I wrongly assumed that this was located at Kolomoki Mounds State Historic Park. It would be one of the first stops just north of Blakely. Driving into this State Park, about five miles to the west of US27, I smelled smoke and the atmosphere was hazy, the forest were mainly of tall pines with little underbrush. It was overcast and cool. We now could see where the smoke was coming from. The foresters were doing a “control burn” to eliminate the underbrush and give the tall pines command of the forest. This is what the road signs, at least indicated. Soon we were driving along large fields with historic fencing on both sides of the road. There, to our right, was this very tall mound with very gentle rolling hills all around. These mounds are man made by ancient Indian tribes and used as burial grounds.

From Wikipedia
Kolomoki Mounds State Historic Park is an important archaeological site as well as a scenic recreational area. Kolomoki, covering some three hundred acres, is one of the larger preserved mound sites in the USA.
In the early millennium of the Common Era, Kolomoki, with its surrounding villages, burial mounds, and ceremonial plaza, was a center of population and activity in North America. The eight visible mounds of earth in the park were built between 250-950 CE by peoples of the Swift Creek and Weeden Island cultures. These mounds include Georgia's oldest great temple mound, two burial mounds and four smaller ceremonial mounds.
The park's museum was built to incorporate part of an excavated mound; it provides an authentic setting for viewing artifacts. The museum features a film about how the mound was built and excavated.
As with other mound complexes, the people built and sited the earthworks according to a complex cosmology. Researchers have noted that several mounds are aligned according to astronomical events. For example, mounds A, D, and E, which form the central axis of the site, align with the sun at the spring equinox. Mounds F and D form an alignment with the sun at the summer solstice.
Soils at the Park are mostly dark red sandy loams or loamy sands of the Americus, Greenville, and Red Bay series. Some pale brown sands of the Troup series occur on the western shores of Kolomoki Lake, and at the northern end of the lake is brown or dark gray alluvial loam of the Herod-Muckalee soil association.
A view of the temple mound at Kolomoki Mounds State Park.

The Temple Mound is 56 feet high and measures 325 by 200 feet at the base. Research indicates that it would have taken over two million basket loads carried by individual workers, each holding one cubic foot of earth, to build this mound. The southern half of the mound is three feet higher and was probably the temple platform. From the top of the steps, most of the Kolomoki Archaeological Area can be viewed. Approximately 1,500 - 2,000 residents lived in a village of thatched houses arched around the plaza.

Back to rolling down on the highway

First stop was at the Park Visitors Center. The attendant mentioned that the park would be booked solid for the weekend. We weren’t planning on staying here anyway. We just wanted to visit the “Little Grand Canyon” anyhow. Surprise, surprise! The canyon is not located here! She gave us directions to Providence Canyon State Park about an hour north on US27. We could have stayed here and explored the archaeological site, but not on this day. We wanted a “Little Grand Canyon”!

The highway soon turned from pine forest to large plantation fields. Peanuts! Yes, I even had Jimmy Cater’s "Plains, Georgia" on the possible list of sights to visit. Plains is fairly close to Americus, GA… about the same distance from Kolomoki Mounds to Providence State Park, but in a different direction. North was our destination and so President Carter wasn’t going to welcome us to his home town. Providence Canyon was soon on the horizon and our lunch stop was there, at the Park. This is a self-registration State Park and the honor system is the rule. You fill-in the envelope, put your five dollar check, seal the envelope, put the envelope stub on your mirror and you are good to go. After lunch, we walked over to the overlook some twenty feet away and were blown away by the spectacular view and the one hundred fifty foot drop off at our feet. Amazingly, it reminded me, of not the Grand Canyon in Arizona, but of Bryce Canyon in Utah. This State Park is over a thousand acres in land mass. The access road has many overlooks to stop and admire the scenery. It’s not only the land erosion that makes this place special, but the flora makes everything jump out into the cameras view finder. At the end of the road was the Visitor Center which was not open. "Off Season” I guess. In the back of the Visitor Center was a trail guide which indicated different trails to the valley floor. We weren’t sure what equipment we would need and elected to pass on this hike to the bottom. There were plenty of places to explore along the ridge of the canyon.

Its Five O'clock Somewhere!

There is a tradition here at Trumbo Point that around five o'clock, especially on Fridays, but not limited to Fridays, to gather at someone's RV and have a party, dinner, or social get together. Last night was such an event. Ron,

Chef Tommy

who recently got engaged to Lygandia had a homecoming party for her arrival here in Key West. Lygandia, who goes by the nickname of Lala. She said her name was derived from two American Indian tribes. I didn't get the exact full story, but for now she is Lala and maybe "O La La!". A bunch of guys were in charge of the BBQ which explains why the quantities

Lala on the right

of food were on the abundant side. They barbequed 20 lbs. of chicken, 10 lbs. of hamburg. The ladies brought everything else. Tommy, retired "Coasty" did an outstanding job behind the grill. We all ate more than we should have and with Key Lime Pie and Chocolate Mouse for desserts, we were happy and full.
It is truly amazing how the camaraderie is everywhere in this 99% military retired community. The only other place that I have found this type of friendship was in a National

Welcome Committee Girls

Guard Unit back in New Hampshire. I presume that is because Guard members are together as a unit for years and friendships develop over time. Regular Army units are rotated every few years and the bonds aren't made as easily. Here at Trumbo Point, the military service is all behind us, but that is what bonds us. All the branches are here and no arguments on who's the best.

Disney Cruise Ship in background

Two nights ago, we were out again doing some night photography. It was unusual to see one of the cruise ships stay in port after sundown. They leave before sunset in order to eliminate an extra dock fee. Now we talking about $25,000 to $30,000 a day docking fee. I was told that is about $11 per passenger. I'm getting off subject. I got some good photos of the "Disney Magic" cruise ship. They did a "Disney" super job of colorful lighting on this Disney production.

Giant Disney Cruise Ship

We continued our nights' walk and took more night photos down on Duval and Caroline streets.
Yesterday, we met this couple who have traveled the world on "Space A" (space available travel with the US military.) Of course, the best part of this is that's free. This is not a given that you sign up for a flight and get accepted, but with a little patience you get to go to places that are neat to visit. The tips that Mike and Alice have given us are invaluable and will, I'm sure help us on our quest to visit Europe

That is what Helen does while I'm
doing night photography!

in the coming year. I just can't wait! We walked down to the Two Friends Bar and Restaurant and had dinner with them. Naturally, the topic of discussion was Space A, lodging, places to visit, how to pack and keep the weight down to 30 lbs. and still bring everything you need for a minimum of about a month stay. They explained how to get flights in Europe to out of the way places with high

(World Space A Travelers) Mike, Alice,
 Helen, Lucien

ranking officers, how to check into the terminal daily to see what, where, and flights coming and going. Story after story were incredible!
Sunday, with our busy schedule, we still found the time to volunteer at St Mary's Soup Kitchen on Flagler Ave. I cooked 20 lbs. of hamburg and two 5 gal pots of noodles. Of course, Mike the lead team leader oversaw my amateur cooking abilities. This operation took place mid morning until noon. We left and later returned at 3:30 for the 4pm dinner serving.  
It is now Thursday, Feb. 26, 2015 and we are at Bill and Mary's annual "Hot Dog Party" Bill joined the military on this date in 1948. Bill has been doing this event for a very long time. His time in service has been a rewarding career. He honors all veterans by having this annual "Hot Dog Party"

Mary and Bill

There was 68 who attended and one very special guest who is called "Colonel Bill". He is a former Marine World War II fighter pilot, fought in Korea and Vietnam. He is 94 years old and still rides his bike. It was an honor to meet him. We had tons of food that the ladies brought to party. The hot dogs were the giant size type. Sauerkraut with steam dogs or grilled were available. Deserts from homemade rum cake, blueberry cake, cream puffs and countless more. I'm having to really concentrate on riding the bike more aggressively to keep the weight from going on instead going off.

Bill and Colonel Bill...Two great soldiers!!

A few days ago I noticed an RV coming into Trumbo Point with a NH license plate. He stopped and I asked him where in NH he was from. Bow, NH was his answer. He asked me where I was from and I said "Berlin". To make a long story shorter...I have breakfast every Friday with his brother when I'm home. It was Mark Vaillancourt's brother Clem!

Me, Helen, Sandy and Clem

It is truly a small world!

That's is what we did and saw!

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

 

From Northern Hardwood Forest to Mangroves in KW

In our homeland forest in Northern New Hampshire, I would be talking about Maple, Oak, Beech, Ash and Birch as some of the most popular and abundant of hardwoods. In Florida, I would be talking about, blank, blank, blank! I have no clue on their names, but I do know that I have seen some mighty awesome looking trees here in the Keys. I’ve got to educate myself and hopefully pass some of what I have discovered, here on my blog. What I know now is… Take pictures of some of these magnificent trees. A couple of them have plaques with descriptions. I will get back to this subject further down on this blog and possibly in future blogs.
Yesterday afternoon, we were at the soup kitchen for our second volunteer serving on the food line. It is amazing how they/we feed 100 people in twenty minutes or so. It reminds me a lot of my old Army days! At the end of the serving line, a 37 year old said he needed to go to the hospital. He said he had a hard time breathing, has high blood pressure and hadn’t taken his BP medication for a month. He said he was sorry and started to cry. There was some discussion about bringing him to the hospital. I had my pickup truck there, but I was very hesitant about bringing someone to the hospital. I kept thinking, what if he’s on drugs, what if he has a seizure, and a lot more what if’s. The correct answer was to call 911. Soon the ambulance and a police officer were on the scene. We stuck around to watch what would happen to the patient. They checked him out, did all of their on site evaluations and than allowed him to board into the ambulance. I guess we did the proper thing in calling 911. Many of the homeless people have a multitude of problems. They are all in need of assistance in one form or another and most are very grateful for what they get from the Soup Kitchen. Another unexpected outcome from volunteering at the Soup Kitchen was the age of the needy. I surely expected middle age men, down and out, but to see young men with haircut short enough to meet military standards, some wearing camouflage bush hats and backpacks. I wonder if they have a military history, PTSD or whatever. The one thing I do know is that they are in need of help! Men are not the only gender in the line. Women, young and old, some look like they could be our retired neighbors at the campground in Trumbo Point.
Sunday night it rained just enough to screw up the Bocce courts for our Monday morning round of Bocce down on White Street. It wasn’t cool this morning, but the clouds were occasionally very dark. Should we bike or not? The forecast, 20% chance of a shower… After a couple of false starts, a little drizzle, we stayed put and read our books close to home. Monday evening the skies cleared and I grabbed onto my Nikon. We took a three mile walk around the water front. I did get a couple of good night shots.
The weather up north is terrible, I’m told. The weather isn’t as nice as it was this time last year, but we’re thankful that we are here.

One Tree...One Person

The last couple of days we have been riding the bikes, crisscrossing the main arteries of KW and getting into more side and back streets. I’m amazed at the number of City of KW workers that are out and about beautifying the city. Most residents also pitch in and keep the maintenance on their properties updated. Every now and then, I stop and click a landscape front entry to someone’s home. Also on our quest are those amazing trees that I mentioned at the beginning of this blog. This Saturday, there is an open house at the Botanical Gardens, they, I’m told, have a couple of National Champion trees.
Sunday, Feb 15, 2015

Air Force checking in for the night at
our campground!

The Key West Tropical Forest and Gardens had an open house this past weekend. Many artist and vendors were present to sell their crafts and goods. The main reason for our interest was the fact that the Tropical Forest  has five National Champion trees and Challengers (runner ups). You would think they would have had a plaque or marker to help easily identify them from the many others clustered together. No dice! I just have the names, but no pictures. Cinnamon Bark, Milkbark, Wild Dilly, Locustberry, Pigeon Plum and finally Saffron Plum. I did get pictures of the Nation Champions down on Truman Ave by the Basilica. Key West definitely has some remarkable massive trees. The summer hurricane season does reduce their numbers, but they are still surviving here in the tropics.

Nearly looks hand painted!

Amazing flowers in the Tropics!

One of the most interesting vendors at the Gardens was the KW Botanical Garden Society Tours to of all places “Cuba”! I often talk about visiting Cuba and we both brought our Passports just in case. There are several different tours on different dates. The next one is called the Western Loop scheduled for March 17 to 24th, 2015. The Vinales is a red-earth pasture area known for Tobacco growing. The breathtaking National Park, “Vinales” is also a highlight I’m told. May 14-18, 2015 will be Havana Only tour. That’s the one I would be interested in. The May schedule is past our must leave KW campsite, so most likely that won’t happen either.

Night, Night until morning!

That is what we saw and did!

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

 

Our First Month…Snow to Sun!!

Yes, this week will mark our one month departure from zero degree weather to more favorable temperature down in the Keys of Florida. I can’t believe how fast the month has flown by! Our schedule seems to be busier than ever. That’s a good thing. I’m trying to get back on my routine of biking around the ten mile perimeter of Key West every other day.

Sunset on our evening bike ride

This morning, we did our ten miles and tonight we went to town on the bikes again, this time to buy batteries for my bike’s head and tail lights. It is incredibly wonderful to bike in the evening. We find many new little streets to explore. We are doing this relatively early evening, just after sun down. The breeze is light and the temperature is near perfect for the ride. Key West is a unique town with many small blocks of residential housing. Many of the streets are nearly passable by only one car at a time. This is where we enjoy riding and seeing what the different residences have for landscaping. All have trees of different species, that I would never be able to identify.

Another stop for an evening photo

The real-estate is tight, as there isn’t enough for all of the people on the island. This naturally brings the cost up to unbelievable amounts. This exploration is what we enjoy immensely in riding our bikes on the byways of Key West. 
Another thing we enjoy is finding nighttime locations to photograph. Key West is well lit and many of the mansions have landscape lighting that accentuates the mansions and especially the landscaping. I experiment with different camera settings to try and get the image I'm looking for. My Nikon D-7000 is capable of taking photos in nearly total darkness. I can make

Many of the street are perfect for an evening stroll

a totally dark scene turnout just about into broad daylight. So the trick is to try and reproduce the scene as my eye sees it, dark, with evening lighting accenting the mansions and landscape.
Now, a recent comment on Facebook about the lack of trees here at the Coast Guard RV campground has me thinking of all of the majestic trees we’ve seen here in Key West. I’m going to have a new tree photo each week on Facebook. Some of these trees are Nationally recognized. We’ve seen giant red wood trees that are 15 feet across at the base, but there are trees here that are 30 feet across. The difference is that the trees in California are hundred or so high, where here they are maybe seventy-five high.

Truman Annex next to the Truman White House

The first week of February was marked by steady wind and a few rain showers. This interfered with our Bocce schedule. You can’t play Bocce if the sand is damp. The sand sticks to the balls and it just doesn’t work! That meant that we tried something different. We volunteered at St Mary Star of the Sea soup kitchen. Yup, my first job was to make peanut butter/jelly sandwiches. I used 12 sandwich breads and one large bowl of peanut butter and plenty of jelly. The sandwiches are not part of the one four o’clock meal they serve. The sandwiches are for the next day’s breakfast. We actually worked from 11am to 12:30pm.

Our neighbors Jerry & Maxine are leaving
Key West for their home in Georgia

We left and did some shopping for our selves after that. We volunteered to come back at 3:30pm to help serve the four o’clock meal. I sort of had a pre-conceived notion that they were all homeless, drunks or on drugs, but this was not the case. A lot of people just run out of money each month. Nearly all were so thankful for the meal. We are going back later this afternoon to help serve another 4pm meal. Ninety three meals were served to these people in need.

And finally a photo of the full moon taken a few nights ago from our campsite at Trumbo point

I am ending this blog for today Sunday Feb. 8, 2015

That is what we did and saw!

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