It Wasn’t Al, this Time

 

We didn’t leave for Key Largo as early as we intended, but we got the boat delivered for the new motor,and hopefully  it will be ready tomorrow.  We had a little problem on the way, with a low tire signal on the truck.  Luckily we found a service station with air.  We’re not sure what happened but all 4 tires were a little low.  We have a tire pressure monitoring system on both the motorhome and the truck, but I turned it off when we arrived at the campground, so it hadn’t alerted us to any low air issues.  The tires were all fine when we arrived.  Usually when you go from cooler to warmer climate, the air expands and you have more, rather than less air.  Luckily the truck tire monitoring system alerted us to the problem.

After dropping the boat off, we decided to visit John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park.   We hadn’t been there in years and couldn’t remember much about it.

The coral reef outside Pennekamp is all a marine sanctuary with all the inhabitants protected.  We dove there years ago, but all I remember was very bad visibility on that particular day.

It turns out the campground has been recently updated.

Nice paved wide streets.

All the sites had full hookups. Yes, even sewer.  

Many could hold a large rig, you just need to make sure there is enough overhead clearance.

 

Site 18 in the next picture was plenty big.

Site 16 was nice too

Site 8 was another nice one.

 

There were some trails, a marina with boats that offer trips you out to the reefs for diving,  or snorkeling trips.  I believe they still have a glass bottom boat.

They have a nice visitor center with big aquariums with a lot of the native species.

 

This is either a Blenny or a Goby.

This Florida spiney lobster was eating a shrimp.  Can you see the shrimp it is holding between his legs?

Beautiful anemone flowing in the “currents”   

 

Juvenile blue angel fish

a Shovel nose or slipper lobster.  See his little eyes?

spiney lobster

This  is a lion fish.  They are not native to these waters and although very beautiful, they are a threat to the reef ecosystems.   Stupid people released them from aquariums and are causing a lot of problems.  It’s encouraged you kill them if you see them.  There is even a cook book with recipes, and they say they are good to eat.

I do understand that they are not supposed to be in these waters, but they are such a magnificent looking fish, I could never kill one.

They are poisonous.  They won’t kill you but their sting can be painful.

I don’t know what you call all the spikes on them, but up close they look just like feathers.  I couldn’t quite capture it in the photos.

 

After we left Pennekamp, we headed south and our day went down hill from there.

We came across a accident in which a truck pulling a 5th wheel struck a pedestrian.

As we passed the trailer, we saw a man with a bleeding head injury, laying in the road.  There was no bicycle around, so we assumed he was a pedestrian .  The truck and trailer was in the right lane, so it appeared to us that the man had walked out in front of him.  People just don’t realize you cannot stop these big rigs as quickly as a car.

We pulled over to see if we were needed to help, but there were already a few people there.  It must have just happened because there were no cops or EMT’s  yet. 

We waited a few minutes and finally the ambulance came.  We didn’t see the man moving and were very concerned that this was a fatality.  We left when the ambulance arrived and started cutting every stitch of his clothing off.  I told Al if that ever happens to me, to hold up a sheet in front of me.

About a half hour later, we saw a trauma helicopter overhead.  We felt that was good news since they wouldn’t have transported a dead person.

This morning I read online that he was transported to a Miami trauma center where he is alert and talking.   Good news. 

 

We had planned on going for lunch, but after witnessing the accident, we lost our appetites.  We ended up walking through a dive shop, then to a new Rv park in Key Largo.  There were some nice waterfront sites and reasonable prices.  I’ll post some pictures tomorrow in case anyone is interested.  The blog post is getting a little too long.