Friday, March 14, 2008

Key West

I drove the 141 miles down so Bob could enjoy his first impression of the Keys. We stopped for fuel at $4.09 and, of course, it was cheaper by 10 cents further down the road. YES, We found an inexpensive place to stay near Key West. We are at the American Legion and around a mile from the bridge that takes us onto Key West. We are paying $70 for 4 nights but most RV parks are $90-100+ per day so do the math. After setting up it was time to fill Bob's belly. Off we went into the Historic District of Key West. Finding a parking place wasn't easy. That is where the expense is. 25 cents for 10 minutes on the street meters and $15-20 for off street parking for the day. We finally found one on the street, got change and filled the meter. We then found a nice restaurant Two Friends Patio Restaurant with a earlybird special that had sidewalk seating, we love to people watch. We each ordered Seafood fettucine and have plenty of leftovers. We then strolled around, found Mallory Square. There are plenty of bars and they were catering to tons of college kids on spring break. A cruise ship was also in port and to say it was crowded is an understatement. We headed back to the rig for some much needed R&R after all that plus the drive. We played a new dice game called Farkle, watched tv and then Bob tried to get the internet up and running. Finally, after 11pm he got it.
Sometimes I have to use two computors to do our blog.

Friday, Bob worked more on the internet hookup and then we drove along the south side of Key West along the beaches.
Watched the guys Kite surfing.
Took a walk out on a long pier.
Walked around Hemingway's house
Heard he had lots of cats but mostly we saw roosters.
and the lighthouse nearby.
With it's huge Banyon Tree.
Tried to get near enough to Truman's Little White House to take a picture but failed .
Saw the most southern point in USA.
Lots of these siteseeing trams.
The traffic etc isn't for us so we took a drive back up the Keys for about 30 miles or so. Went down a side road hoping to see water but failed. I did see an iguana near a garbage can so got my wildlife sighting in for the day. Back at the mh we went into the post for dinner. Delicious steak or fried grouper. Invited another couple to sit at our table and had a nice visit.

I think we are in HELL as in hotter than. It was so hot we opted to do nothing. Cranked up the generator (like the neighbor) and ran the air conditioner. Dug out a jigsaw puzzle and worked on that in between phone calls to our kids and friends. Around 6 pm we decided to head to Mallory Square for the sunset. We thought it was crowded the other day. We were wrong. In addition to all the college kids now the bikers from Daytona's bike week have arrived. There was NOWHERE to park and hating crowds we headed back out of town. Stopped at TG Fridays for an appetizer to share then back to the post. We went in for a drink and karaoke but didn't stay long.

Another day in HOT HELL so we repeated yesterday until about 4:30 then we headed to town. Had to go buy T-shirts at Marguaritaville gift store. Then down to Mallory Square area. Stopped at Hogs Breath Saloon for a brew and appetizer. Bob discovered the Hogs Breath beer was brewed in Pittsburg. Probably just Iron City beer with another label. We then went to Mallory Square and watched the entertainers.
A Magician and Sword Swallower. There was a high wire act and others too numerous to mention. Of course, the highlite was the sunset. We picked a good night to go as there was less crowds in downtown and there were just enough clouds to make the sunset pretty. Only at Key West does a sunset end with the crowd applauding. Back home we kicked on the generator and AC then went to the post for a drink while it cooled down.

Monday again and it's moving time. Back up the Keys to Everglade's Long Pine Key where we were before we went to Key West.

1 comment:

Barbara and Ron said...

Sounds like your timing was unlucky with the crowds. And it's strange that it was so hot in March. Of course we're freezing here in Arizona, so go figure. Terrific sunset picture, complete with bird!