It’s a Small World

 

Wesley Chapel, Fl

Our recent short trip to the Keys was to pick up our boat and also to reconnect with my long lost cousin Anne.

We accomplished both of those tasks and I posted some pictures of Anne and Jan on my last blog post.  If you missed it, you can click Here

One of the comments I got on the last post was from Gin and Syl,  long time fulltimers and regular bloggers in the past.  Many of you will remember them.  It turned out that Syl saw the picture of Anne and Jan and recognized them from their past lives in North Carolina.    Small world, isn’t it?   Gin and Syl wanted to reconnect with Anne and Jan, so I passed along their email address.  I’m sure by now, they have reconnected as well. It always amazes me how small of a world it is sometimes. 

We are happy to have our boat here, and safe and snug in its new home in the marina.  We kept our boats in the high and dry marina years ago, so we knew the drill, but had forgotten how very nice it is to have someone else do all the work for you. I think we are getting spoiled.

Once you arrive, the forklift driver is notified and in minutes your boat is in the water waiting for you. The deck hand secures the boat, assists you getting in, and must wait until you leave before he can resume his duties.  When you get back, he is there waiting at the dock to catch the boat, assist you in getting out and then guides it onto the forklift.  How nice!  They put the boat on the outside rack so that you can unload your stuff, rinse the motor and wash the boat.  Once you are done the boat is then put back in the storage building.  We had forgotten how nice that was!

We’ve been out a few times now but haven’t ventured too far. 

We’ve seen two sunken sailboats.

We assume they were moored offshore and for whatever reason filled with water and turned over.

 

There are plenty of osprey nests this time of year and you can hear the babies screaming for food.

 

Yesterday we parked  away from all the other boats, just offshore near the Anclote Key lighthouse.

We were all by ourselves until some idiot decided we needed neighbors.  He made all kinds of waves, anchored right next to us with his loud music, and then proceeded to smoke their stinky cigarettes.  We finished our lunch and moved.  Grrrr…a big ocean and he had to park right by us.

We found a nicer spot right along the sandbar at Anclote Key.  Boy has that island changed in the 15 years since we’ve been there.  It was not recognizable and we had spend many hours there relaxing after morning scuba diving or spending the entire day there if it was too windy to go offshore to dive. 

In the past, we would usually be the only ones on the island during the weekdays.  It’s certainly not that way anymore.  This was a Tuesday.  I would hate to see a Saturday.

 

They even have big charter boats from Tarpon Springs loaded with people to spend time on “our island.” 

 

 

We anchored just offshore, read our books, napped and watched dolphin hunting for food.

 

We have had other issues that have been keeping us landlocked.  Sometimes when it rains, it pours.  More next time.

Changes in Latitude

 

Like the old Jimmy Buffet song, changes in Latitude, changes in attitude, and we certainly noticed our attitude improve while in the Keys.

 

We dropped the cats off at our friend Heidi’s animal hospital on Monday morning.  We were a little concerned about leaving them, but Heidi assured us they would be fine and she would supervise their care.  The poor things had terrified looks on their faces when we left, and that was the picture I carried with me to the Keys. Since we left the motorhome and stayed in a hotel, we couldn’t bring them.

it’s a lot easier trip going to the Keys if you don't’ have a big old motorhome and we made great time.

Once we got to Key Largo, I got out the camera.  This Bougainville has been in the same spot since at least the early 1990’s.   It’s always beautiful with its many different colors.

 

We had reservations at Looe Key  Reef Resort and got a discount since their dive boat captain is our neighbor from Venture Out (where we have our RV lot)  We reserved the cheapest room they had which was still expensive, even in the off season.

We checked in, got our room key and walked to what could only be described as a “dudgeon.”   We’re not that picky about hotel rooms since we spend so little time in them, but this one was just not going to work.  We went back to the office prepared to pay just about any amount of money to get something better.  When the guy at the desk realized we knew Captain Ron, he upgraded us from the dudgeon to the penthouse, and at no extra charge. Yay!

Here was our view.

 

 

We hit our favorite local happy hour for dinner and drinks then came home and crashed. It had been a long day.

On Tuesday, we picked up the boat and brought it to Venture Out so we could prepare it for travel back to Tampa. 

Our two main objectives in our trip to the Keys was to get the boat and meet up with my long lost cousin.

Coming from an Air Force family, I have not been able to spend much time with my extended family and hardly know most of them.  Neither has Al for the same reason. Growing up, we lived in Japan for 3 years and Guam for 2, so our visits to North Carolina to visit family were limited.  I have cousins I would not recognize if I saw them on the street.  My cousin Anne had recently retired and moved to Key West.   The last time I remember seeing her, I was 16 and she was maybe 9 or 10. We reconnected and made plans to meet in Key West for happy hour. I was so anxious to see her again.

Anne and her wife/partner Jan were a lot of fun and we had a great time.  So great in fact, that we decided to do it again the next night.  We were so busy talking and laughing, I neglected to get any pictures the first night.

We met the next night at Geiger Key Fish Camp. They allow dogs, so they were able to bring their new puppy Mulligan so that we could meet her.    

Anne (left) is the daughter of my Dad’s only brother.  Jan is on the right and of course Mulligan in the middle. 

 

 

 

It’s amazing how easy it is to reconnect with long lost family.  We had such fun with them and we will be getting together often the next time we are there.  They  sure enjoy island life.

 

The southernmost point in the US is in Key West and there is a famous buoy marker at that point.  Everyone who goes to Key West gets their picture taken in front of the marker….everyone but us that is.  When ever we went by, there were so many people waiting in a line to get their pictures taken  in front of it that we always said “next time.”

This time we decided to try sunrise and finally got the job done.  It was no problem getting up because I was so excited to be back in the Keys that I couldn’t sleep.  Al had no problem and didn’t complain when I woke him up before zero dark thirty.

 

 

It was nice walking around the beautiful city of Key West in the early morning hours.  No traffic and few people. The weather was cooler than usual for mid April and it was perfect.  It’s a lovely city with beautiful old homes, gardens and beautiful flowering shrubs and trees.

 

Key West has it’s own special vibe.

The early morning sea grass removal was taking place.

 

 

I am not sure of the name of this very interesting plant.

 

 

 

No stroll around Key West is complete without roosters and bitties.

 

Anne and I talked about the Key West chickens and our Grandpa Meredith who always raised chickens.  He always kept plenty of “bitties” for his grand children.  Anne and her brother Randy were lucky to live in the same town and got to spend a lot of time with Grandma and Grandpa Meredith.

 

We never got any sunset pictures this trip but for those of you who don’t know what the sun rise looks like, here it is. 

It’s pretty much like sunset, only earlier. 

 

 

 

 

We decided to leave on Friday early so that we could pick up the cats before they closed and we had to pay another night boarding fees.

The trip home towing the boat wasn’t as bad as I thought.  It towed well and we made decent time getting back.  The kitties were happy to see us and settled right back into the motorhome.

We left the boat and trailer here at the Rv park for a few days but on Monday brought it over to it’s new home at Port Tarpon Marina. It sure is nice having someone take the boat in and out of the water for you.

This is our boats new home.  It lives in the building on the left.

 

It makes being in Tampa a little bit easier.

Things may be changing a little for us.  Stay tuned.