Visiting Grandchildren

We spent two weeks off and on in the Houston, Texas area visiting our grandchildren.  Both girls lead quite active lives and keep their parents running. Besides attending the swim meets and musical performances, we helped Lina celebrate her 10th birthday.  During the week of Thanksgiving both were out of school, so we helped shuttle them to their activities and took them shopping for Christmas gifts.  Lina helped Grandma and Grandpa look at new Honda CRVs, an activity she seemed to enjoy.

During the two week stay in Houston, we flew back to Louisville to help our son and his wife when her father passed.  We spent two full days with their family trying to support in some small way.  The family hosted a "Celebration of Life" event with attendance at full capacity.

We made it back to Houston just before the big change in weather.  The big change was not what we wanted.  Jim likes to wear shorts and sandals, not winter parkas.  Within a couple of hours after we were safely back to the RV, the cold wind and the rains began in southeast Texas.  Unfortunately, this weather lasted for five days.  The nights were in the low 30s with the days only 10 degrees warmer.  Texas seemed to be the recipient of two fronts, one from the North and the other from the Pacific coast.  The day before Thanksgiving the weather finally changed for the better.  The sun broke out and the wind and rain finally stopped.

Following an exceptionally wonderful Thanksgiving dinner prepared by our daughter and granddaughter, we left the Houston area at about 3:45 pm bound for our Arizona winter home.  After being gone since late April, both of us are anxious to return.  Provided the weather cooperates, we hope to be back in 4-5 days and begin enjoying the snowbird life with our winter friends.

Which Way Do We Go?

We had thought we would continue on to Houston to our daughter's house today, but she has called to say she is home from work due to illness.  Our son in Kentucky has also called with more bad news about his father-in-law.  As we pulled out onto I-10 heading west, we decided to stop at the tourist information in Beaumont and make our decision as to which direction we should go.

We arrived in Livingston at our RV lot shortly after noon and enjoyed seeing people on our street and other SKP friends.  It was a beautiful day.  Our decision at this point was to wait to go to Houston until Saturday morning to watch the swim meet; however, later in the afternoon Lina called asking us to come in the evening to play with her.  Grandpa and Lina played Monopoly.  Grandpa won by luckily avoiding Park Place and Boardwalk. 

Saturday, we enjoyed seeing Lina swim and attending Minali's middle school regional orchestra concert.  Sunday was Lina's piano recital.  

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Alabama and a change in weather

Monday, we drove with little traffic as it was on Sunday.  We had forgotten it was Veterans Day!  Our goal for Monday was to try and stop at the beach in the Florida Panhandle, but it was too late in the afternoon for us to spend adequate time there.  Instead, we drove further on to Alabama and stopped at the Escapee park to see some Michigan friends.  We enjoyed a short trip to Fairhope

The forecast for the following afternoon was for the cold front to drop south with wind gusts of  20-30 mph.  By 5 pm, the temps had dropped from a pleasant 75 to low 60s; and at bedtime it was only 45 degrees with lots of wind.  For the first time this year, we ran our heat in the evening and the following morning.  The temperature in the morning was 35, and now at 10 pm in Louisiana it is only 39 degrees.  Luckily, the wind died down enough we were able to drive.  We enjoyed entertaining friends in our RV during the cold weather in the evening.  I made chilli to go with the cold weather.

Our granddaughters in Houston have a swim meet this weekend, one has a piano recital and the other has an orchestra concert.  We will definitely be busy with their activities while we visit.

We will be 'home' in Livingston next week and part of the following week while we visit our daughter's family.  It is always good to see our friends in Texas too.  However, I am starting to get homesick for Arizona too.  We have been gone since April and this is the latest it has been when we return.

Naples, Florida and North

Yesterday, we had a few hours of RV maintenance to do before we could leave today so Jim and I stayed at our upscale motor coach park for the morning.  It was cloudy and even rained for awhile so it made it hard to get going.  My cousin and his wife also enjoyed the 'down' morning. Since the day was generally cloudy, our 2 hours at the beach did not happen.  A change in plans, and we got together after lunch.  The 'boys' took an excursion to Best Buy to look at electronic toys, and the girls took a 1+ hour walk around their new housing development.  Afterward, we had a mid-day meal in downtown Naples at The Dock at Crayton Cove.  We had another wonderful seafood extravaganza followed by an evening sunset walk on the Naples pier to watch sunset with a large number of other people.

This morning, Jim and I awoke at 6:45 am and got things ready for the drive today.  Traffic was light at 8:30 am, and it wasn't until we were south of Tampa that traffic really picked up.  Since it is a holiday tomorrow, there were very few semi-trucks on the road making it less stressful.   We alternated driving 60-75 miles each and had a fairly easy travel day.  Our destination was a small town on US 27 southeast  of Tallahassee, Florida.  The RV park has only been open two seasons.  The people here are very nice and are doing a great job making people enjoy their time here on the Suwannee River.

We'll be setting out tomorrow with the hopes of stopping by the beach in the Destin area for a couple of hours and spending the night in that general area.  We think we can manage this and provided the weather also cooperates with our plans.

Escorted Tour of Naples, Florida

We set out this morning for Everglades City.  Our intent was to check out the boat tour of the Ten Thousand Islands of the Everglades National Park.  As we arrived at the national park office, we noticed that the water was fairly calm and people were loading for the first tour of the morning.  We rushed into the concessionaire, bought tickets and loaded onto the pontoon.  Our eco-tour included seeing many types of birds, dolphins, and several raccoons living on an island in the distance.  All of us had hoped to see more of the islands so we were a bit disappointed.  But the day was absolutely gorgeous and sunny so it was a great day for a boat ride.

After a small bite to eat at The Oyster House  we headed down to the old town of Naples and a relaxing walk onto the Old Pier to see the brown pelicans, terns, and cormorants fishing.  There were lots of people swimming in the Gulf here and many people also fishing from the pier.  Our guide took us for a drive down along the gulf to see the many million dollar homes.  Then, we headed to a county beach park that is inhabited by gopher tortoises and a cute little raccoon that knows how to get his food out of the waste cans.

Big Cypress Swamp National Preserve

We said good-bye to the Florida Keys on Wednesday, November 6 in rain showers and 20-30 mph winds.  Our last full day in the Keys was cloudy, windy and intermittent rain--so much so we couldn't spend our final day on Sombrero Beach.  So, we invited two couples to go to Keys Fisheries for dinner.  As is most common, the three RV couples enjoyed one another's company and the wonderful fresh seafood of the Keys!

Our drive northward from the Keys took us to the Everglades.  We had printed a Groupon, and we proceeded to the airboat tour for our introduction to the national park.  Both of us enjoyed the ride and decided to also make a stop at Shark Valley.  Here, we took the last tram ride of the day to see the wildlife as the sun was setting.  Back in the 1980s, we drove our car in this area; but now, you either pay to take the tram, bike, walk or run the 15 mile loop.  We left the National Park as it turned dark and drove an additional 13 miles to the Midway Campground which is located in the Big Cypress National Preserve.  We had done some research and saw that this park offered power and water.  And, the bonus was the clear, dark skies of the Everglades and Big Cypress area.

Thursday, we drove the car to the Oasis Visitor Center of the Big Cypress Preserve to see the movie, learn more about the preserve, and observe from the boardwalk the alligators, great white egrets, great blue herons, the tri-color herons, cormorants and anhingas.  This boardwalk viewpoint is a do not miss.  We enjoyed watching the herons and egrets catching fish and the alligators stalking the birds.

Afterwards, we made a stop at the Clyde Butcher Gallery to see the wonderful collection of black and white photographs on exhibit and for sale.  Clyde Butcher's pictures are similar to those we have seen by Ansel Adams.  He has done not only various national parks, but many scenes from Florida.  We returned to the RV, hitched up the car and continued along Tamiami Trail towards Naples.  Our final stop at the Kirby Storter boardwalk to see the cypress and epiphytes (air plants) growing in the swamps. 

After a quick lunch, we drove an additional 37 miles to the Naples Motorcoach RV Resort on the edge of Naples.  Linda's cousin and his wife live less than 5 miles from here in the winter.  The first couple of hours of our afternoon here, the four of us explored our new home for a couple of hours followed by a short drive to see their home.  After dine at Alice Sweetwaters Bar and Grill, Jim and I returned to the rv park to relax in the hot tub and meet some other people here in the park.  

Parking at Big Cypress National Preserve

Watching for wildlife along US 41 (Tamiami Trail)

Anhingas

Anhingas along Tamiami Road between Miami and Naples Florida

Alligators at Big Cypress National Preserve

Links for Slideshows: Looe Key Snorkel and Dry Tortugas National Park

Looe Key Snorkel Tour Bahia Honda State Park

Dry Tortugas National Park & Hemingway House in Key West

Enjoy

Goodbye to the Florida Keys

Wiring Project and Curry Hammock State Park

We are having fairly windy weather. The wind keeps boaters on shore and most of the tours and kayak rentals close down.

So, Jim is undertaking a somewhat complicated wiring project to make hitching and unhitching the tow car a little easier. It is a good thing Jim was half way through the project before our son called last night.

It has been our plan to transfer our 14 year old Camry to our son's family. He seeks cars with 100+K on the clock. Let other people absorb that depreciation (this time it was his parents who absorbed it). Our Camry just went over 100K and now he wants it.

Our son's idea is to fly one way to Lost Wages, Nevada for a western vacation tour, then drive the Camry back to their home.

This means Linda has to shop for a car she wants. It is definitely her turn to choose.

If I had realized the wiring project was such a brain teaser and the custody transfer of the Camry was so imminent, I would have continued with the old hitch up. Well, the engineer in me has to take something that works and see how it works.

"If it ain't broken, take it apart anyway to see how it works!"

The brake controller wire is being used to monitor the tow car braking system and the transmission lube pump is using the backup lights wire on one end of the cable and the Aux connection on the other end. It is all wired and ready to test. Whew!

Before testing, we decided to ride bicycles to Curry Hammock State Park. With the wind, it was easy to get here. Now, we have to go back against the wind.

Curry Hammock is known for a real sand beach. Indeed, it is a very nice white sugar sand. However, just a few feet into the water, the floor turns to weeds and muck.

Tomorrow is our last full day in the Keys. We've already decided to go to Sombrero Beach for the fourth time. It is still the best we have found in the Keys.

Photos

Zippy at The Turtle Hospital and Dolphin Research Center

Photos Bahia Honda beach

Bahia Honda Sunset

Bahia Honda State Park and Looe Key

Friday, November 01, 2013

This morning we awoke to the sound of rain on the RV.  After breakfast, I took the garbage out to the dumpster and discovered the humidity was quite high.  This is the first day in over a week that the wind has died down.  Since Jim was hoping to take the snorkel tour to Looe Key from Bahia Honda State Park, we were glad for the calmness of the ocean and Gulf.

We took our bikes with us to Bahia Honda State Park.  We arrived and checked in for the snorkel trip.  Weather was still calm.  We rode bikes around the State Park and walked up to the Henry Flagler Bridge.  Flagler was a big name in the Keys as he put in a railroad all the way to Key West years before there was a road to drive to Key West.  In the photos, you will notice a gap in the bridge.  The hurricane of 1935 shut down the railroad and it was never rebuilt.  The gap is not from the storm, it is a gap to allow taller ships to sail through. The uniqueness of this bridge is that there is a road for cars atop the railroad portion.

After our picnic lunch, it was time to board the snorkel trip.  The State Park has a very large pontoon boat which serves as the snorkel boat.  The boat goes about 18 to 20 mph and it takes about 35 minutes from the bridge to the reef at Looe Key  The captain says it is 8.35 miles. 

Read more about Looe Key at:  

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Looe_Key

Also, have a look at the under water webcams maintained by TEENS4Oceans at:

www.teens4oceans.org

If you look under webcams, you will find Bahia Honda State Park

We pulled up to the anchor buoy at the reef and almost everyone on board exclaimed how clear the water was and how you can see corals that are 40 feet deep.  I must say, this was the best snorkel I have done except for the snorkel days in the South Pacific.  There were thousands of tropical fish.  Schools and schools.  All sorts of corals.  The only disappointment would be the bleaching of the corals.  The State Park allows 1-1/2 hours in the water and I used every minute of it. I was the second one in the water and the last one out when the whistle was blown.  No one made fun of my shorty fins after the trip.  You see, most people use those huge scuba fins.  They get tired really quickly, and they are awkward.  If you’ve gone to scuba school, you learn to train in scuba fins to get good with them and scuba divers need big fins because they have all that gear.

You will have to wait for photos…  Or maybe I’ll get a few posted here and add some more later. 

Back at the dock at 4:30 pm….   Linda and I had snack, then rode our bikes to the other end of the park.  We really liked the campgrounds and beaches.  You have to book the campgrounds on the first available day which is exactly at 12:01 am 11 months before your reservation request.  All sites are booked within minutes after midnight.  The only other way to get a camping spot is to be lucky to get a cancellation or take on a volunteer position. 

Sunset at 6:41 pm.  We watched another sunset and took more sunset photos.  This time, we have the Flagler Bridge in the scene. 

At the RV Homebase, we fired up the Weber grill and cooked our salmon on a cedar plank.  It was delicious.  

These photos are from the Google camera. Just Google Images Looe Key.