Plan B

 

Florida Keys  (high 83, low 74)  windy

 

I think I’ve had too many blog posts with this same title, but it seems there is always a plan B in our lives!

We were supposed to have moved down to Venture Out yesterday, but we didn’t quite make it.

Nothing bad happened, we just putzed around too much and ran out of day/energy.

We got up and started getting ready first thing yesterday morning.  Al worked on getting the boat ready and I worked inside. 

Then, we decided to take a drive “up town” to the Home Depot in Marathon. It’s closer to go from Sunshine Key than it will be when we move, so we figured it was a good idea to go.

We wanted a few things from the garden center.   We picked up a bird bath, a big clay pot that was on sale for $20, and a few cheap flowering plants.  I wanted some color on our new site and I figured if I could buy a few plants and if they only lived until we left, that’s okay.

The main purpose of our trip was to get a “ho-er.”  We had one when we lived in Georgia and happily sold it at a garage sale, thinking we would never need to do any weeding again!     It was the best tool ever and we loved it.  We jokingly called it the ho-er (whore)   The new site is topped with small gravel, but a few weeds have started showing through.  We think it’s best to get rid of them now until waiting for them to grow and multiply all summer during rainy season.

If any of you still have property, we can highly recommend this thing.   Welcome back to the Lueck family  Mr. Ho-er.

 

Several of the comments yesterday mentioned putting some potted plants on the lot.  We’ve also thought of that, but I doubt many plants could take 7-8 months of neglect when we are not here.  Next year we’ll get some more pots and plant a few things. One thing down here is you can don’t have to worry about plants that freeze, since it never gets down to freezing.  I’ve always had to consider the cold tolerance of plants, even in Tampa.

After we came back from Home Depot, we decided to take the boat down to VO.  It has to live in an overflow lot because boats or trailers are not allowed on any of the lots.  Most of the sites there are waterfront so the boats are kept out back.  Lucky them.

We dropped some things off at the site, including our new purchases from Home Depot.  It is already starting to look better, with just  a few touches of color.

While we were there, we talked to our neighbor Ron who is in the house right behind us.

You can’t tell from the picture, but it’s a piece of paradise when you see if from the back “yard.”   It turns out we are on the wrong side of the tracks.    Ron invited us over to his “back yard” and to meet another neighbor on the canal who doesn’t have a boat.   You see where this is going, don’t you?   Ron is trying to help us find us a spot to keep our boat on the water. 

When we walked over to Ron’s house, we walked in the narrow walkway between his and the house next door.  It’s  shaded and lined with beautiful tropical plants.  The walkway is just beautiful.  There was a wonderful ocean breeze blowing through, and it was so much nicer than at our hot campsite.   When we got to the back of his house, man, what a different world it was.  Who knew?  So, close, and yet so far!   It was so different than our lot, but just feet from our lot.   He had a huge boat parked in the water on the canal.  The water was a beautiful turquoise green and if you turned your head just a little bit, you looked out onto the Atlantic Ocean.  He has a magnificent view.  The back patios are all pretty much connected by concrete in this area  and he walked us down through a few back yards to meet someone who has no boat and lives in the lot her mother owns.  Darned if I can remember her name!

One of the houses was up on stilts, and is high enough so that you can park your car underneath the house. They use this part not only for car parking, but as a beautiful covered patio. I never appreciated this style of house until I was there.  They must have a wonderful view from upstairs, but the ground level was gorgeous, with the covered and shaded patio over looking the canal and ocean.  The breeze blowing through was wonderful and they had it decorated beautifully.   I would have loved to have been able to take some pictures for you to see, but I thought it might be kind of rude.  Ya think?

Anyway, it sure made our little “dry lot” seem pitiful.  We’re not complaining, really, we’re not, but now that we saw how the other half lives, we’re lusting after one of those sites. 

Don’t they always say you should live in the cheapest house in the neighborhood?  

We went back over to our site and Ron introduced us to some other neighbors and every body seems very nice. 

By the time we finished gabbing with the neighbors, neither of us were in the mood to move the motor home down, so we came home, showered, and went down to Springers Bar for happy hour!

Will today be the day?   I hope so, but Mr. Al is still sleeping.  Imagine that, its nearly 6am.

Moving to Cudjoe Key Today

 

Our tenants on our new lot at Venture Out finally got on the road yesterday.  Yay!   They were anxious to get back home to help out with an ill relative and we were anxious to get a chance to really look at our new lot.

Our lot is small.   Real estate here in the Florida Keys is not cheap and bigger is definitely more expensive.

Our lot is not on the water.  Waterfront real estate is really expensive.

But, it’s ours and it’s in the Florida Keys!   We can actually see the Atlantic ocean from out site from through a stilt house.  I’ll have to get a picture of that.

 

Here are some shots of our lot without a motor home on it.

The white box is what they call a “deck box.”  It’s a small storage shed.  You are limited to how large they can be.  This one is almost as big as what is allowed.

The following pictures shows the site from the front. The front of the motor home will be facing the 611 numbers on the street.

The site is mostly rock.  We have some asphalt where we will park the truck, and a concrete patio but the rest of it is gravel.  No grass is allowed here. I think for this harsh environment, gravel is easier to maintain, especially since very few people stay through the summer months.

The houses you see behind the lot are on a canal.  The Atlantic is to the left.

The palms you see on the right belong to the neighbors lot.

 

 

This next picture is the as if you are pulling straight in.  We like that it’s a pull through site.  

The houses you see here are also on a canal.  The Atlantic is to the right, and not very far at all.

The white picnic table and umbrella is ours.  Our lot doesn’t extend much beyond the table.  The lot next door is set up so the rv is parked perpendicular to ours.  We understand the owner of that lot has several other lots in the park and sometimes uses this for his guests, but mostly it’s vacant.  It gives us the illusion of having a larger lot.

We don’t have many plants on the lot, but we intend to change that as soon as we can.  It’s difficult to decide what to plant because the lot is so small.  Al was a little concerned about digging holes because some of this ground here is like concrete.  

We met one of our neighbors on the canal behind us.  His name is Ron (I’m writing it down so I remember).   He works part time as a boat captain for Looe Key Reef Resort Dive Shop.  They take divers and snorkelers out to Looe Key Reef, which is a marine sanctuary and just a few miles offshore.   He said he could direct us to some good spots!   Score!

 

We piddled around on the site for awhile.  We finally got inside the deck box and discovered it was full of stuff.  There were some decent chairs, some tiki torches and a few other good things.  There were also a few things we’ll be trashing.

After we left the site, we walked around the park and checked out some landscaping for ideas.

One we enjoy doing is watching people load their boats.  We used to do that in Tarpon Springs and it was always good for a laugh.   God is going to get us, I know!

We were sitting under the shade of the palm trees at a picnic table in an area they use for get-togethers. It’s the perfect spot to watch boats being loaded.

Notice the beautiful pink blooms on the Frangipani tree?   Close up pics to follow.

We saw two boats that were tied together coming into the marina.  One boat wasn’t running.   There was a waiting truck with a boat trailer backed down into the water.

We thought he was going to bring the disabled boat up to the dock and tie it off.  We were wrong.

There was no one in the boat on the left and only the driver on the other boat.  He had no assistants.

He drove the two boats into the marina, headed right towards the trailer, and perfectly guided the disabled boat right onto the trailer.  He couldn’t have driven that boat onto that trailer any better if it had a working engine. 

Unfortunately, I didn’t get any  other pictures because as much as I wanted to photograph this amazing feat (which I thought was going to be a disaster at the time), my common decency overrode my desire to get a good photo. :)

We went over to the dock to see if we could offer any assistance.   As it turned out, we did absolutely nothing to help other than offer some cheers when he made it on the first attempt!    If I had known he didn’t need help, I could have gotten some good pictures!   It was amazing!  On top the fact that one boat wasn’t running, it was also pretty windy.  He did great! 

The last time we sat there and watched boats being loaded, we got a lot of enjoyment watching 4 adults trying to load one boat.  It took them well over an hour. It was quite entertaining!   You never know what you will see at a boat marina.

 

After all the excitement, we walked around and enjoyed the day.  You can see the wind was blowing those palm trees.

Here are some closer shots of the Frangipani tree in the earlier photo.   It’s also known as a plumeria.  These are the flowers they use for leis. 

They smell wonderful.

 

We have decided to move from Sunshine Key today, even though we’re paid up for a few more days. We will take the boat first and drop it off then come back for the motor home.   I guess I could pull the boat trailer behind the truck, but I’d rather let Al handle that.  (He probably would too).

He did the second wheel bearing replacement last night, and I guess I must have shamed him  sufficiently, because this time, he put something under the boat to support it in case of jack failure!

We are anxious to move to Venture Out, but not so anxious to pack up and move.  Even though our trip will be less than 20 miles, we still have to do all the usual preparations.   Guess, I had better get busy.