Tuesday November 3rd 2020

It was a mostly cloudy day with just a little bit less wind than Monday. The temperature peaked around eighty and the humidity was down. If I’m reading the forecast correctly, each day this week gets a little bit nastier.

I took an unplanned trip to Key West today. After filling up the gas tank in Marathon turning across traffic wasn’t in the cards, so I found my self heading to the west and south. My intent was to reverse direction, but a good opportunity didn’t present until I was across the Seven Mile Bridge. At that point, I decided to continue to the end of the road. About fifty miles and an hour later, I arrived at the end of US Route 1, mile marker zero.

The drive down was interesting, but a little tense with the wind. There are many more bridges and the road is closer to the water in the lower keys. It took two hands on the steering wheel and extra attention on the road to safely drive along. I found the area more touristy, but closer to a laid back island lifestyle than the upper and middle keys.

The unplanned nature of the trip came into play once I reached Key West. I hadn’t researched parking places or pandemic safe things to see. Once I reached the end of route 1, I started looking for a place to park. The first place I found was small and full. The second place I found was a private lot that looked a little sketchy and wanted $20 to park. My cheap streak came into play. I wasn’t about to spend that much for a couple of hours.

I spent my time in Key West driving around looking at the architecture while dodging bicycles, scooters and tourist trolleys. Most, but not all, of the people on the trolleys and trams appeared to be wearing masks. Previrus I’d consider using the tour to get a quick overview of the city. For now, I’ll settle for driving around. Armed with a little more research, I may return to Key West on Thursday or Friday.

The trip back to my RV home in the middle Keys was even more challenging that the trip out. The wind was hitting head on and traffic was heavier. Some drivers were crossing the causeways and bridges at close to the posted minimum speed. It took closer to an hour and a half for the return trip. While there was some sun in the sky in the Key West area, it was still overcast and slightly gloomy at Curry Hammock State Park.

Monday November 2nd 2020

The operative word for the day was WIND. The National Weather Service issued a high wind warning that called for sustained winds in excess of 30mph with gusts at 40mph and above. I think they got it right. The wind was blowing strong when I got up this morning and has only increased since. My RV home has been shacking, rattling and rocking all day. On a positive note, the wind helped keep the temperature and humidity under control.

I spent most of the day at the campground. The weekday attendance at the day use area next to the campground is more manageable. It is easy to find a picnic table under cover or in the shade to sit at and watch the activity in the area. Today it was fun watching all of the birds use the wind to help their travels. I’m sure they are using more energy, but they are also flying faster. No one was brave enough to try Kite Boarding today. Not only was the wind very strong, but it was blowing out to sea. Last week when there was a lot of kite board activity the wind was mostly parallel to the shore.

Sunday November 1st 2020

It’s hard to believe that November has arrived. Growing up in the northeast, I’m conditioned to associate cooler temperatures and foliage with fall. For all of October I’ve been moving south in Florida. The daily high temperature has never been below eighty. Most days have been very humid and the nights usually required AC to sleep. The closest I’ve come to fall was during September in northern Florida. It was often in the seventies during the day and sixties at night.

If the calendar didn’t remind me it was the middle of fall, the return to standard time sure did. Knowing which clock to believe this morning was a real challenge. Some “smart” clocks jump back an hour and others don’t. Getting the clocks to agree with reality was a continuous activity today. I think the timer for the lamp on table is the only hold out. Finding the right combination of magic buttons to push on the timers digital interface is long trial and error process.

The only real disruption in my routine the time change presented was getting into position to take a picture of today’s sunset. It has been after supper for a long time. Tonight it was during supper. I missed the good color by a few minutes. Tomorrow I’ll try to re-calibrate my day.

Last year at this time I had been settled into my winter stay in Las Vegas for over a week. There were still warm desert days, but the nights were in the sixties and lower. During my trip south from Oregon to Las Vegas, I experienced several below freezing nights. The forests in the mountains even provided some degree of foliage even if it was mostly yellow.

This year I don’t plan to stay in one place for a long period. I’ll be moving around Florida every week or two staying mostly at state parks and other public campgrounds. It is a higher risk approach in this era of the pandemic, but many of the reservations were made before the pandemic arrived. If the surging virus infections drive the government to another stay at home order, I’ll have to adjust and find a long term campground.

Saturday October 31st 2020

It was another bright sunny day with a light wind out of the east. The humidity wasn’t offset by the light breeze, but it was still comfortable out of the direct sunlight or open to the full force of the breeze.

The waterfront was very active on the weekend day. In addition to the campground residents, the day use area was at capacity which is half of normal capacity. They’ve blocked off every other parking space with cones. A couple of kite boarders were back today, but kayaking, fishing and hanging out in the water were the primary activities.

I dug out my water shoes and took and extended walk around part of the island in the water. The bushes make it impossible to explore beyond a small distance on land. In the water, particularly at low tide it is possible to cover a lot more area. The ocean bottom is a combination of sand, gravel and sea grass. You really need something on your feet. I saw lots of crabs and a few little fish. A few additional feet offshore there were signs of bigger fish hanging out. Things that I never caught sight of broke the surface occasionally.

Tomorrow’s weather forecast calls for similar conditions, but as the week progresses the forecast isn’t as positive. It will still be a lot nicer than areas to the north.

Friday October 30th 2020

I spent most of the day at the campground. My one venture out found the Overseas Highway packed with cars. Turning left across the nearest lane to enter the highway was next to impossible. It will probably be worse tomorrow. There is really only one road that goes anywhere in the keys.

The campground has been full every night I’ve been here, but it has transitioned from tourists to weekenders. A lot of folks from the Miami area make the trip south and west on US 1 to the keys for the weekend. When you make reservations at many of the Florida state parks you can see the weekends get booked faster. To get a two week stay you need to book exactly on the eleven month threshold, but you can often get four or five mid week nights closer to your arrival date.

Thursday October 29th 2020

It was another great weather day. The high humidity and high eighties temperature is kept in check by the comforting sea breeze. During the afternoon a stray dark cloud passes to dump a couple of teaspoons of rain on things.

I was surprised to find the sky empty of Kite Boarders this morning. Apparently the last few days have been a club event or meet of some kind. Each of the days I’ve been here more than a dozen kites were out on the water or staging on the ground in the day use area. Today there weren’t any kite boarder just a few kayaks. I’m going to miss the entertainment.

After a trip into Marathon in search of interesting outdoor activities, I settled for a hike back at the state park on the Curry Hammock Nature Trail. The trail is actually located a mile away from the campground on the opposite side of the Overseas highway. It is on the bay side.

While I enjoyed the hike, I found the trail more challenging than interesting. It is a narrow trail with very uneven walking surfaces. There are a few flooded and muddy areas, but most of the trail is on exposed ancient seabed and tree roots. My eyes had to be down watching the ground most of the way along the trail. That presents two problems. You need to be aware of low hanging branches and I never saw any of the birds I scared out of the trees along the trail. I did manage to see a snake and a lizard. A few louder creatures moving in the brush were completely hidden from view.

The spur trail to the bay side overlook was very wet. The last twenty or so feet it was necessary to hop from rock to rock. At the end the view was expansive, but unexciting. It was a view of lots of blue water, an island and a boat. Looking down into the water there were a couple of colorful little fish. They were much more entertaining than anything else on the trail.

The entire mile and a half loop with fish watching time took a little over an hour. I was dripping in sweat when I got back to the car. Other than a couple of people fishing near the beginning of the trail, I didn’t see anyone on the trail.

Wednesday October 28th 2020

Today was the closest thing to a beach day that I’ve experienced in many years. I took a chair over to the little beach along the Atlantic Ocean and sat under a tree for almost two hours. It isn’t a swimming kind of beach, but I even got my feet wet in the warm water. Watching the Kite Boarders helped pass the time. A disruption in the beautiful weather sent me back to my RV home, but the passing cloud that dropped a little rain had moved on before I even made the few hundred feet walk home.

Tuesday October 27th 2020

Today was an almost perfect weather day for a change. It was mostly sunny all day. The temperature peaked in the high eighties with lots of humidity. Wind out of the east at 10mph or more kept feeling the humidity in check.

I spent some time today getting familiar with the middle keys. I drove up and down the overseas highway stopping here and there. My first observation is that the area is still recovering from hurricane Irma that hit the area hard in September of 2017. This state park has had major repairs since the hurricane as I understand the other two Long Key State Park and Bahia Honda have as well. The campground at Long Key state park is still closed for reconstruction. Outside the park in the Marathon area some buildings appear to be abandon since receiving major damage. Most of the roadside turnouts near the bridges that I wanted to stop at are closed or in disrepair.

I’m glad my campground is where it is. I only had to drive the motorhome over one fairly short causeway and bridge. Sitting high above the cement sidewalls along the road deck in the motorhome is not a comfortable feeling even if it does give you a good view. Throwing in a little cross wind and it would turn into a real white knuckle experience. Crossing the Seven Mile bridge outbound from Marathon would have been an even more challenging experience on my nerves. Today in my Honda it was interesting enough.

Some of things I was scouting for are parks or nature areas along the water. Usually, I can find directional signs for such places from the main road, but not today. The few brown park direction signs I saw were small and confusing. It wasn’t clear where I was supposed to turn or what I might see once I found the place. I did manage to turn around in one rather narrow private driveway in my wandering today. It’s time to do a little more research with Google Maps.

I also identified a few museums and attractions that might be interesting. The problem is I’m not sure how comfortable I am with visiting such places in these pandemic times. I need to figure out if they are open and what kind or restrictions they may have in place. I would prefer outdoor to indoor activities if I decide to visit. The other question is how busy the places might be. So far, I don’t think there are a high number of tourists in the area. Only a handful of RVs in this campground are from out of state.

Monday October 26th 2020

Overall today’s weather was OK. The daylight hours started and ended partly cloudy. During the middle of the day the clouds filled in, the wind came up and a couple of fast moving heavy downpours passed through the area. It wasn’t too hot, but it was very humid.

I spent time today exploring the area around the Curry Hammock State Park campground. The campground is located on an island called Little Crawl Key. Most of the island is partially flooded and filled with mangroves. The beach along the Atlantic Ocean is narrow with a lot of grass growing out of the sand. It isn’t really a beach for swimming or sitting either. What it is good for is launching water sports. At one point today there were seven kite boarders racing along at high speed and launching into the air for a stunt or two.

The day use area beside the campground usually rents kayaks to paddle around the island, but the concession is closed to support social distancing. Like at my last stop, it would have been nice to rent a Kayak on a calm day. A few people had brought their own, but the wind was better for the kite boarders than paddling today. This park is apparently “the spot” for kite boarding in the central keys.

Another storm was approaching the area as night closed in. It prevented the sun from providing a nice colorful departure for the day. I’d like to get a few nice sunset pictures while I’m here. Taking pictures may be one of my only diversions while I’m here. I don’t get any local over the air television channels and my internet access is limited. If it wasn’t for my satellite TV, I’d be doing a lot of reading when I’m not out touring.

Sunday October 25th 2020

Today was a travel day. It was also a rainy day which is not the best combination. It started to rain around 9:30 just as I planned to begin the outside packing tasks. I delayed a little, but eventually had to get wet. My biggest challenge was finding a place to hook up the car. Blocking a road for fifteen minutes or so with everyone trying to leave wasn’t didn’t make sense. I drove the car over to the kayak launch then brought the motorhome over to make the connection after I’d finished with the line for the dumping station. Of course, I got wet walking back from the kayak launch parking lot.

It was still raining when I got on the road around 11:30, but I drove out of the rain in about forty miles as I traveled east toward Miami. The day never became sunny. It looked like it could rain at any minute, but so far it hasn’t started to rain again.

Once I reached the eastern side of the Everglades in the Miami suburbs traffic became heavy. The roads I traveled today had many traffic lights and turning traffic. I try to keep extra separation from the cars in front to compensate for my longer stopping distance. In heavy traffic I always seem to get other cars that want to jump into the space between me and the car in front. It takes extra concentration to deal with that kind of traffic. Once I was on route US 1 known as the overseas highway as it crosses the keys, traffic was bumper to bumper heading back toward Miami. In my direction it was only a little bit better. Two weeks from know, I may be in similar traffic.

I arrived at the Curry Hammock State Park in Marathon shortly about 3:30PM. The campground has about thirty sites along the Atlantic side om Little Crawl Key. My site is not directly along the ocean. It’s on the other side of the loop, but only about 200 feet from the water. I’m looking forward to exploring the park tomorrow.

Between writing the 2nd paragraph above and this closing sentence, it has started to rain.