The Florida Keys
Thursday, May 3, 2018
Clear & Breezy, 82°
“Every one of a hundred thousand cities around the world had its own special sunset and it was worth going there, just once, if only to see the sun go down.” – Ryu Murakami
Key Largo, Florida is the first of the fabulous Florida Keys and the Dive Capital of the World. It is the first key in Paradise where you can kick off your shoes and leave your cares behind. Over the years, I have visited this wonderful place for diving, snorkeling, camping and just hanging out. Key Largo is home to the world's second largest artificial reef, the John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park, and the famous Christ of the Abyss underwater statue. My best high school friend, Johnny and I took one of the best trips diving at the statue many years ago. The Everglades National Park is just a short trip away by boat or car.
The colorful reefs and mind-numbing profusion of fish in John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park is reason enough to pack up and head south, Johnny and I did this on numerous occasions. But if you are looking for some really big wrecks, the 510-foot Spiegel Grove at the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary may be the main attraction. Toothy fish like barracuda and oceanic jacks have made these sites their home base. You can see why this is known by many as the best scuba diving in Florida.
On this trip, I saw that the usual non-hurried pace had been replaced with construction and rebuilding all over the islands. The damage and destruction from last year’s hurricane Irma, a Category 4 hurricane, cut its swath across the middle keys damaging areas to either side of its path. I’m not sure if it was still from the hurricane but the Key Largo McDonald’s flag was at half-mast. The visual damage is evident all around with trees and debris piles sitting on both sides of the road waiting to be removed. There are stretches where most of the homes were destroyed or heavily damaged with no rebuilding or clean up taking place. They look like they were abandoned by the owners. It is sad for those who lost what may have been a beautiful home in the Florida Keys; they may have owned it for years but couldn’t afford to rebuild or repair it. Life goes on for those rebuilding and cleaning up the debris from the islands.
Islamorada Key looked to be going strong with most of the tourist places open for business but repair work evident all over the island. We stopped for lunch at one of my favorite places Robbie’s Marina, where the Hungry Tarpon restaurant is located. I’ve stopped there many times in an automobile but this was a first with the RV. I was not sure if I could find a large enough parking spot among the many palmetto and palm trees scattered among the parking spots. I drove down one lane hoping I could either turn around or cut through back to the road but, as I maneuvered my way around the parked vehicles I found a nice shaded spot between two trees to park. Getting out of the rig and walking toward the dockside tables there are many small vendor kiosks scattered around the property with local artists showing their specialties whether it was photography, painting, or craft type items. It’s always a fun place to stop, eat, browse, or feed the fish. Many signs were posted to not feed the birds (pelicans, seagulls, & egrets) but several people ignored them and fed them anyway. I felt like slapping several when they said after feeding them, “It’s just a few fish what does it matter?” Stupid people really bother me so you will not see any interesting person stories from that category. I may make a brief observational comment now and then unless I am surrounded by a herd of stupid people which warrants its own blog post.
The eye of hurricane Irma crossed close to Bahia Honda State Park, located just beyond the Seven Mile Bridge. It looked like a small part of the campground had reopened this week. It had been closed when we tried to make reservations for Key West. There were still many trees down and debris all over with fences blown over or gone completely all along US1. Luckily the Naval Air Station Key West’s campground was open and that was booked instead.
Arriving in Key West, we turned the RV into the main entrance to Naval Air Station Key West (NASKW) and were met by the sentry who informed us there was no camping on that part of the base and gave directions to two other possible locations. Getting back on US1 and heading closer to town was not a bad thing. It was not far until the sign for Sigsbee Road was located. Just down from the intersection, we met another sentry who welcomed us and gave directions to the Recreation facility office to check into the campground. We arrived after the office had closed so the camp host put us on a remote site for the night. It was pretty with shade under several pine trees and backed up to the water of The Gulf of Mexico just a few feet from the RV.
It did not take long to settle in and before long the sun was setting over the water for a beautiful sunset. There were only a few other campers in this area by the water. Across the road from our site were handicap accessible and active military sites. There were several photos of the sunset which turned out nicely and a spaghetti dinner was eaten before settling in for the night. We had to check in with the Recreation office the next morning at 0900 hrs to check in formally and find out if we were going to relocate the RV to a permanent spot.
*I’ll post more photos on the Facebook page: Traveling Life’s Highways