Thursday is Ribs Night

Beachy Day No. 1

Some people are out doing attractions....
Some people are working...

But, we are having a Very Beachy Day.

Iguana You Too

71 miles today. We had an uneventful journey from Homestead to Grassy Key. Highway 1 is not a high speed superhighway, but it flows along well without many delays.

We stopped in Key Largo for fuel and groceries. We then headed for a park to eat lunch. What park? Normally you just look at the gps or the smartphone and you can find a park. Well, not so at Key Largo. It looks like every square inch is privately owned. We had to move on toward Marathon.

We continued on and found a shady spot. It worked well for lunch and there was a geocache.

We got to Pelican Carefree RV and got set up. We relaxed for a few minutes, checked the internet, bought a couple of things from Amazon, and headed for the pool. The water temperature was PERFECT!

At the pool we got tips on places to eat and swim with dolphins (that's on Jim's list if the exploitation aspect is palatable).

We took a walk to the mini-beach and found Mr. Ig right on our path. By the time I could reach for the camera, he had moved away. They avoid humans. Here is our photo...

On the Move Through Florida

Today was a personal RV record for us. Today's mileage was 380 miles! We have never done that.

We are at a PA park in Homestead Florida. It is an OK park, but we missed out by not staying at Midway in the Everglades NP. Oh well, we will stay there on the way back.

We are poised well for our final 71 miles to Pelican RV in Marathon. We will stop in Key Largo at Winn-Dixie or Publix for some groceries.

We have our beach umbrella and cooler ready to go.

Here is a typical Florida rest stop. You would think they like to keep things nice for tourists or something.

First Day in Florida

Florida.  This is Florida!  Let the vacation begin.  Actually, we are not really to our destination.  We are aiming for Marathon Florida on Grassy Key (40 miles from Key West). 

Tonight, we are north of Orlando just off of I-75 in a nice RV Park with lots of Spanish Moss decorating the trees (and some of the RV's).  The swimming pool was disappointingly cool (way too cool).  We were informed that they turn the heater on starting in December when the 6 month residents begin to show up.  Because we lingered on the pool deck, we ran a little late on meal preparation and having spotted Jim's Barbeque less than one mile away, we opted for the easy meal and enjoyed it indeed.  We were the last customers to be served having got there just before 7:00 pm.  Jim's BBQ closes early!

Back to the RV....   Jim has been promising to get the travel blog going again.  At the Good Sam Rally at the Atlanta Motor Speedway, Jim attended a few of  Chris' and Jim's Geeks on Tour seminars.  This really helped Jim understand the differences between Blogger, BlogSpot, Google+, Facebook, Picassa Photo Album, Picasa, etc.  So, here is a fresh start.

We will be back dating some of summer adventures and when we've done it, we will mention it in our daily blogs.  Now, we understand that we can have a travel blog, a bicycle blog, a hiking blog, and Jim's new Mobileye Blog.  You can have as many blogs as you want.  That way, Google knows more and more about you. 

Arrived Raccoon Valley

We had a very pleasant overnight at Berea, Kentucky.  Overnight lows were in the 40's which makes dry camping a very pleasant experience.  We both slept well. 

Our journey from Berea, Kentucky to Heiskell, Tennessee was 104 miles, a perfect distance for the two of us.  At Racoon Valley, Jim went to work on washing windows inside and out.  Linda got busy doing the laundry. 

Oh, by the way....  It is time to announce that our Splendide washing machine is working again. This is a mystery.  Back in August, it decided to not work.  Jim read the manual, the Splendide website and RV forums.  Jim tried all the remedies short of replacing the machine.  Linda went to the Laundromat.  We had clean clothes, but it seemed like we were carrying around a boat anchor.  Well, a thousand miles later, Jim tried it again and "Magic", it worked.  It took about 15 minutes to put all the parts back together.  Linda started doing laundry and it has worked ever since.  We've been afraid to make this announcement, fearing that the machine will take the opportunity to quit.

Jim went to social hour and it was lightly attended, but...  another "Work" was at social hour and we started into genealogy.  We've made an appointment to follow up. 

Fun in Chicago