Houston, We Have Manatee!

 

On Sunday, two guys that Herb used to work with at Wisconsin Electric, and their wives, were traveling through from Key West and heading to the Ft. Lauderdale area.  We met them for lunch at the same Mexican restaurant we ate at on Saturday.  We had an additional guest, a snowy egret.  He sat right behind Herb, about 10 inches, and stayed there for 10 minutes.  I have a video but I tried 6 times and couldn't get it on the blog.

Didn't do a whole lot on Monday.  Walked to the grocery store and got stew meat for the Wednesday pot luck.  Little did we know that it was going to be canceled.  Oh well now I'll make it and freeze the extra.  That is if there is any.  We'll have to see what Herb does with it tonight!

On Tuesday we took a drive down the Keys checking for a campground for next year.  We decided it was probably worth the extra money to be assured of warm weather and I love being by the ocean.  Herb talked about going to Texas next year cause it was so-o-oooo much cheaper.  Then it snowed along the Gulf coast ;-)  We visited five campgrounds.  One way too small and they said good luck at getting in in February.  The whole campground was big gravel and wouldn't have been too pleasant  for walking.  One didn't have a pool.  Others no trees.  Of course it was the last one we stopped at that we both fell in love with.  It's on the Gulf side with lots of trees, a large pool, paved roads, a small bar and grill and even a motel.  So if you want to visit us in the Keys next year you'll have a place to stay!  Book early!  Plus the place was pretty big.  I think it has hundreds of sites.  The people there were very friendly.  We talked to a couple for over an hour.  Everywhere we walked people either waved at us or spoke to us.  Of course Max is a great conversation starter.
The name is Fiesta Key RV Resort and Campgrounds at http://www.fiestakeyrvresort.com/.

 

 

I've made our first reservation for next year!  We'll be staying at a Florida State campgrounds right on the Atlantic Ocean.  I mean RIGHT on the ocean.  The sites are up above the beach.  I really lucked out on this.  Most of the state parks here are next to impossible to get into this time of year.  It's the Gamble Rogers Memorial Park in Flagler Beach.  This picture is from their website.

 

You can only stay at the state campgrounds for 14 days so I have the last two weeks of January taking us thru the 31st.  I'm trying to book another one down here in the Keys.  It's the Bahai Honda State Park.  But you can't book until 11 months prior to your reservation.  So I will have to wait until Feb 28th at midnight and see what I can do.  This is the same type of camping, right on the ocean so it will be difficult at best to get a reservation.  But I'm gonna try!

 

Nuf of dat.  I told you I've been trying to get pictures or a video of the manatees.  I really didn't think this was going to happen.  Whenever they swim thru the channel here they don't come up long enough to get the shot.  That is until last night.  We went down to the end of the road to watch the sunset.  A manatee swam thru and there was a dolphin in the little bay but they were so fast I didn't have a prayer of getting them.  Watch the videos for the rest.

 

 

It's a bird, it's a plane, it's a dolphin?

We Have Manatee!!!!!!!

Well, only a few days left at this place.  Looking forward to getting to the new one at Ft. Meyers Beach.  Sure hope the pool is working there!  It will take a walk or a drive though to get to see the gulf but shopping will be better!

 

Oh yeah!  You guys may have to take up a collection so we can get home if the fuel prices keep rising!!

 

Hey, is anyone familar with this name? talleyllama  This was a follower of the blog that I blocked.  Herb and I both sent emails to this person asking who they were and there was no reply.

No Manatees For You!

Flowers by the office.

The weather has been so very perfect. When the last "cold" front came thru the humidity went with it. The temps have been in the mid to upper 70's going to 81 this weekend. We have to turn the air conditioner on when the sun shines on the front of the coach. It really heats up in here. But we are able to turn it off at night and sleep with the windows open. We were talking about our weather yesterday and how back at home during the summer, we don't have such a long stretch of perfect weather. It's really been so nice. More of the same for next week.

Herb and Max by the Moonlight.

I think we may have lucked out this weekend too! As of this morning our noisey neighbor behind us isn't here yet. He was arriving on Thursday nights. We are very lucky cause this is a 3 day holiday weekend down here. I was kinda hoping they would be here though. They smoked meat all last weekend which drove me nuts. It smelled like the State Fair! I wanted Herb to go over and talk to him about his smokers (he has 2 of them). I told Herb if he smokes meat this weekend I would be going to Amazon and have one shipped Next Day Air!  But it looks like this won't be necessary.

Moon over Campers.

On Monday, Valentines Day, some people planned an ice cream social. Again, you know we were in line for this one. We got to meet some of the people here. Had a very nice time. They invited us to their potluck dinner on Wednesday. Every Wednesday they get together with each couple bringing a dish to pass. We had just found a new favorite spaghetti sauce, Classico Spicy Basil, so we decided to take a pot of that. We also got some Italian sausages, removed the casings, cut into smaller pieces, fried it up and added it to the noodles and sauce. If I say so myself, and I will, it was delicious! We also brought a loaf of french bread. It's a good thing we brought this cause most people brought salad things or dessert. Ours was like the only main course item. Next Wednesday I think we'll bring some tips and noodles.

Another Beautiful Sunset.

So for the most part it's been pretty normal. Get up in the morning, have coffee and watch the Today Show. Eat a bowl of cereal. Then we go for a walk, maybe sit by the water and look for manatees, sit outside and read my Stephen King and fall asleep for a few minutes (sometimes I wake up with my mouth hanging open), eat dinner, go for a walk, watch TV and go to bed. Just enjoying life warm.

Next week on Tuesday or Wednesday we are planning on a little road trip.  We are going to head south and take a look at several campgrounds.  We are thinking that we would like to come down here again for February and then probably to to Ft Myers again in March.  January and February can be cold down here so the further south we go the better our chances for warm weather.

We went for fish again last night to D'Hookers. We had good luck again. It was delicious. I had a Mahi sandwich and It was huge. Herb got half of it. We've not had the same good luck with our pizza, however. So tonight we decided to go for Mexican at Senor Friholes. Very good choice. The restaurant was on the water and we were there to see the sunset.

Back to the manatees. I've been taking my camera along when we go for walks during the day. I'm hoping to get a photo or video of the manatees so that I can post it. No luck yet. We've seen about 4 of them but they never surface. I'll keep trying. Some people on kayaks said the manatees came right up to their boats and they were able to pet them.

And Yet Another!

Oh, and speaking of walking. We went for a walk last night after dark. The area we were walking in didn't have any street lights and the roads in here are filled with speed bumps. Well the night before we were walking and Herb kept tripping on them in the dark. So when we got to this area again I turned to him to remind him not to trip. Need I say more? I never got a word out of my mouth. Whoooof, down I went. Never even saw it. Dropped the dog leash and Max ran forward. He doesn't like it when I drop the leash. Scares him. Anyway, no scrapes or anything. All is well.

Tonight no walking. We rented Dispicable Me. Now there's an exciting Saturday night!

Hope you are all well.  Please post comments!

One Wet Dog!

One Wet Dog!

Max, Herb and I started out the day with a walk.  It wan't supposed to rain until later in the day but the weather person wasn't right.  It started to rain, slowly at first, but then it picked up.  Needless to say, we got wet.  But it felt good!  Poured a glass of wine and watched it rain.

It's really raining out!

The last couple of days have been warm again.  I think Miami even broke a record for highest temp yesterday.  With the rain it's cooled off and we can open the windows again.  Still humid though.  It's supposed to be cool all week.  Low 70's then warming to the upper 70's by Wednesday.

We went out for dinner tonite for fish (it's Friday ya know!).  I had the best fish sandwich ever.  It was mahi mahi and very delish.  Herb had a fish dinner, he think's it was the same fish, and his was just as good.  Will have to go back to Hobo's before we leave.

Another repair this week.  We tried using the washer/drier for the first time.  There was no problem with the washer part but when the machine switched to drying, water was leaking all over in the garage (the underneath storage area).  Herb did some searching on the internet and found the manual for the machine so then he could get it apart.  Found out that one of the hoses was loose.  Pushed it back on and ta da, fixed.  Let's hope we're coming to the end of this.

Broken but now fixed washer/drier.

This place is starting to grow on me.  I'm liking it a little better than when we got here.  After my last post my friend Karen said I should just enjoy the fact that we were here and enjoy the weather.  Then the next day I read the daily passage from The Book of Awakening.  It has a reading for every day.  The passage for that day was about greed, but not for money.  It talked about the greed of time.  About wanting to be in two places at once, not happy with where you are and what you are doing now.  It was like whoa!  What, a coincedence?  I think not.  So I've taken both of these to heart.  Thanks Karen.  You were right.  It has really made a difference.

Last night, cause there was nothing on TV so we went to the Red Box and rented "How to train your dragon".  If you get a chance rent it.  It was very cute.  Only $1 from a Red Box.

A coach pulled in the other day like ours.  The owners came over yesterday to talk to us.  They just bought it in December, like us.  Theirs is a 1995 an 30 feet long.  Ours is a 1997 and 40 feet long.  They bought it from the original owners and said they were meticulous.  We told them about the Safari chat group incase they have any problems.  They went to Key West today so I hope to talk more with them tomorrow.  They're right across the street from us.  Hoping they will help to talk Herb into going as he doesn't want to go.

February 7, 2011 The Day after the Best Football Game EVER!

There's not too much to report from here.  The weather continues to be warm (low 80's) and slightly humid.  A cold front is supposed to move thru tonight with temps the next few days in the low 70's.  The thing I don't like about the humidity is that we have to keep the air conditioner on.  Hopefully we'll be able to turn it off tomorrow.
Of course there's the Packers!  I'm sure everyone will have a story to tell about watching the game.  None can be better than my brother David though.  He and Teresa went to the game.  Can't wait to hear from them!  They were in row 11 on the 45 yard line Packer side of the field.  They probably can't wait to come home to warmer weather ;-)
We had debated on going to the party here at the park or going to a bar.  We had gone to this bar/restaurant on the recommendation of someone on the chat group Herb belongs to.  It's for the owners of our make of motorhome.  Well it was a great idea.  The place was on the water - literally.  Parts of the floor had glass panels and the water underneath was lit.  You could see the fish swimming around.  Anyway, this was one of our choices.  We did neither!  Herb helped out one of the guys here with his motorhome and they invited us to come over and watch the game with them and their friends.  They have a TV that pulls out on the side of their coach but it had a small screen.  We had a very nice time watching the game outside though.  It was an absolutely great but nerve racking game.  But you all know that.  Missed being at home to watch it.

Seeing as we are going to be here for a while I went on half.com and ordered a bunch of Stephen King books to read.  Love him!  I've got about five books on their way.  I've been sitting outside and reading.  I've also been scratcing the hell out of my ankles.  Scratching them to a bleed.  They are full of bites.  One of the guys at the football game has the same problem.  He sat there scratching for quite a while.  They don't bother his wife nor do they bother Herb.  I've got bites on my feet,ankles, legs, arms and even on my head.  So today we went to get some Off.  I had the same problem when we went to Jamaica.  My feet and ankles were full of very itchy bites that lasted for weeks.  I hope these don't last that long!
After the store we drove to the key called Islamorada.  We came here a few years ago for a wedding.  We looked for the resort and found it.  Todd and Becka, hope you get to see these.

Holiday Isle, Islamorada

Herb & Max at Holiday Isle

Here's a couple of pictures of the sunset tonite.  Very lovely.  People go down to the end of the road every night to watch it.  It's the best thing about this place.

 Not too happy that I booked it for a month.  It's not quite what I had hoped for.  The pool is being worked on and won't be up a running for a VERY long time.  This seems to be a place that people come to on the weekend like we would go up north on the weekends.  It also seems to be very cliquish(clannish, clubby, snobbish, snobby).  It's very quiet here during the week and not so quiet on the weekend.  Lots of kids on bikes and riding around on their golf carts, lots and lots of golf carts.  But it was still quiet after 11PM.


Here's a picure of my boys.  Not too often they are sitting together!

Well the front must be close.  It's getting very windy outside.  Herb is rolling up the awning. 
Ta ta for now.

Sailin Away to Key Largo

Well we made it!  We are in Key Largo but let me backtrack here first.
We left the campground at around noon on Sunday.  Stood around talking to a guy who stays and works at Frog Creek.  He said he works for them 2 days a week and in exchange gets to stay there rent free.  He said he was working while we were standing there talking to him!  So not to strenuous.
We went about an hour or so down the road and stopped for peanut butter sandwiches.  We were in no rush.  After about another hour or two we arrived at a Wal-mart in Clewiston.  Went inside, made a few purchases, then I came to find out that the commander had decided this was to be our campsite for the night.  At first I was not too pleased but came to agree with him.   Our site had a lovely view of a pond and a sugar cane field, as you can see in the photos.

There was even an occasional visit by some cranes and herons.  As the evening progressed we were joined by other campers and truck drivers.  So it's a good thing we arrived early because we had the prime campsite ;-).
The next day, as we are getting ready to leave, Herb called me to the window and said look at this!  Here was a couple who had just pulled in, hauled out their chairs and were camping away!  We had to laugh.

As we weren't due to arrive at our campsite in Key Largo until Tuesday we were discussing whether to find another Wal-Mart or go to a campground for the night.  We stopped at a Wal-Mart in Weston and they had a sign "No Camping".  Herb had the idea to call our reservation and find out what it would cost to arrive a day early.  They said it would be included in the monthly rate!  Oh Yea!  So we headed for Key Largo.
When we pulled the motorhome to our site the guy that was guiding us didn't think Herb would be able to back it in.  How silly is he!  It was backed in like butter.  The roads aren't very wide, but he did it.  When I first saw our site I wasn't too impressed.  But the more we are here the more I like it.  It looks like something that belongs in the Keys.

There is a path on one side of the site.  That's a golf cart going thru.

The sites here are individually owned and they are all different.  People can decorate them as they please.  And they sure are all different.  This one needs a little work, palm trees need trimming and a little raking.

 As you can see it has a cover for the car too.  If You turn your head just so you can see the channel behind us.

If you look really hard, you can see the water.  Can you see it?  Can ya?

 I bought a hanging plant at Wal-Mart for $7 to hang outside.  There are quite a few stites for sale too.  There is one on the Gulf for $350,000.  But some that aren't on the water are asking $60,000 and up. I was disappointed too because there isn't a beach here and the pool isn't working!  Yikes!  We got a 10% discount cause of the pool.  Also, because they are individually owned not everyone is here.  The site next to us is vacant.  Maybe they'll show up later.  Kinda nice and quiet but then you don't get to meet people either.

This was taken on the path looking back at the site.  Click on any photo to enlarge it.

It was very warm and a little humid today, about 76 degrees, but breezy.    Had to turn on the air conditioners.  I am very sorry to say that.  I really mean it.  Please everyone, stay safe these next couple of days.  It would be cool to be there to see the storm.  Herb and I love all kinds of storms.  But we aren't there, so again, please take care.