Final Day with all the Guys

You can see from the sky that, even though it was still unseasonably cool and windy, the guys had a beautiful sunny day for their final day of their Florida adventure.

The first stop was the Treasure Museum. In 1715 there were 12 ships heading north along the coast of what is now Florida filled with treasures from the "New World" bound for Spain. A hurricane hit and the ships all sank. It is estimated that about 1000 sailors perished and the remaining survivors made it to shore at the spot marked by the sign. The survivors were marooned there until they were rescued - the spot eventually became part of the Sebastian Inlet State Park. The Treasure Museum tells the history of the fated treasure ships as well as contains many treasure artifacts that have been rescued over the years.

After the Treasure Museum, they went back to the beach where they had a chance to watch surfers (in full length wet suits) practice for the Surffest 2010 that starts tomorrow. It turns out that the beach at Sebastian Inlet is a surfing mecca of Florida.

Finally, it was back to the motor home for packing, dinner and the requisite cigar smoking - something these guys have done on every trip starting back after high school graduation. It's tradition!

It will be early to bed as Scott, Mark and Lars are getting up at 2:45 am in order to drive to West Palm Beach for their flight home. Greg has two more State Parks to visit on Saturday and Sunday nights, then he starts the long trip back to Minnesota. I think they all agreed the their adventure was a huge success!

Everyday Life in a Motor Home

This was Scott, Mark and Lars' first trip in a motor home. These pictures give you a little glimpse into living in the motor home. Our motor home has four bunks in the back (it was perfect for four boys!) The two snorers got assigned to the back, and the two others slept up front (one on the couch and one in the bed above the cab). Fine dining went on at almost every meal - from homemade pancakes, bacon and orange juice to dinners complete with red wine. I think they all agreed that motor home living is pretty good!

The Beach and a Rocket Launch

During the day, Greg, Scott, Mark and Lars explored the beautiful beaches at Sebastian Inlet State Park. The weather was a little warmer so the guys enjoyed sitting out in the sun. As Greg put it, if you "stayed low," the wind wasn't too bad.

Later in the day, they drove back to Cape
Canaveral to see a Delta IV Rocket launch. After the launch, they went out to dinner before driving back to the campsite.

Tomorrow will be the last day they all will be together, so part of their day will be packing up and getting ready to part ways.

A Day at the Kennedy Space Center

Today, Greg, Scott, Mark and Lars drove to the Kennedy Space Center that was a little more than an hour away from the campsite. They spent the whole day there going through the museum and exhibits . . . . including taking the opportunity to see what they would actually look like in space suits. Since the weather was gray, cool and windy, it was a good day do some inside things. 

Sebastian Inlet State Park

The next stop on the road trip is Sebastian Inlet State Park. Sebastian Inlet State Park, located in Melbourne Beach, is the premier saltwater fishing spot on Florida's east coast. Surfing is also a popular recreation and several major competitions are held here every year. Three miles of beautiful beaches provide opportunities for swimming, scuba diving, snorkeling, shelling, and sunbathing - Greg said the beach is beautiful. The Sebastian Fishing Museum tells the history of the area's fishing industry. Unfortunately, you can see from the pictures that the weather is cloudy and there was a 35-40 mile per hour wind! Greg had really hoped to try some windsurfing at this park, but he reported the water temperature is only 59 degrees - that temperature combined with the wind would lead to major hypothermia almost immediately! So they guys spent the afternoon settling in, checking out the Fishing Museum and catching up on sleep! 

Deep Sea Fishing Adventure

Mid morning, Greg, Scott, Mark and Lars left to go deep sea fishing near the State Park. They caught quite a few fish including Kingfish, Yellow Tail, Red Snapper and Trigger Fish. The fish in the picture is a Kingfish. The fishing outfit filleted all the fish except the Kingfish (too oily to eat) and that they took it to a nearby restaurant to cook for an early dinner.

Jonathan Dickinson State Park

The guys traveled to Jonathan Dickinson State Park on Sunday afternoon. The 11,500-acre park is named for Jonathan Dickinson, a Quaker merchant whose vessel shipwrecked nearby in 1696. During World War II the land the park now occupies was home to Camp Murphy, a top-secret radar training school with over 6,600 men. The land became a state park in 1950.

Part of the afternoon was spent sitting outside listening to the USA versus Canada hockey game. Even though the loss was disappointing, they celebrated by taking their first shower in about 3 days (the picture to the left was "pre-shower.")

Men of the Hammock

Before I went on this trip to Florida, I had never heard of the term "hammock" as a reference to a trees. It seemed like every where we went, we kept seeing the term hammock. Well today, Greg, Scott, Mark and Lars went to Curry Hammock State Park. This photo was taken on a nature trail.

Checking online, I learned that a tropical hardwood hammock is an ecosystem consisting of broad-leafed trees, shrubs, and vines, nearly all of which are native to the West Indies. Subject to thin soils and a tropical climate, hardwood hammocks form a dense canopy with a tangle of shrubs and vines at the ground level and its outer edges.

 Historically, tropical hammocks in Florida were found as far north as Cape Canaveral on the Atlantic coast and to the mouth of the Manatee River in Tampa Bay on the Gulf coast. Now, most of the hammocks have been lost to development, leaving small patches of hammock habitat in South Florida.

In addition to some hiking and biking today, the guys spent time relaxing and of course, eating! Here's Mark relaxing and eating.

Settling into the Grassy Key RV "Resort"

I talked to Greg this morning to get a report on what they've been up to since I left on Thursday. Thursday was spent settling into the Grassy Key RV Resort, buying groceries and learning how to adjust the sleeping positions of four men in a 27' motor home to account for each individual's sleeping habits, snoring, etc. Let's put it this way, even though it's called a "resort," the motor home at Grassy Key is not exactly a cruise ship!

On Friday, they had a good day relaxing in the pool, watching a beautiful sunset, and then playing cards (500) into the evening. Greg said the second night sleeping went better and they are looking forward to getting outside and enjoying the day before a predicted rain storm arrives later!

The Torch is Passed

Yesterday, as I was preparing to fly back home, our friends Scott, Dave, and Mark flew down to Florida to spend a week in the motor home with Greg "continuing the adventure." I had a chance to photograph them as literally I got on the same plane they arrived on from Minneapolis.

Scott, Dave (Lars) and Mark are old friends of Greg's from junior high and we all went to St. Olaf together. While the four of them have traveled to Lars' cabin together for years and took a road trip to Florida a couple of years ago, they have not all been on a motor home trip together. It will definitely be an adventure!

John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park

We woke up to drizzle again, but not a hard rain. At about 10:30, we walked down to the snorkeling shop and learned there would be a trip going out so we signed up for the 12:30 excursion. The boat traveled about 30 minutes out to Molasses Reef and then we had a chance snorkel for about an hour. The fish were beautiful and plentiful. There were 2-3’ swells, so it was a little different than some of our previous snorkeling experiences, but we both really enjoyed it. We were really glad to have taken our Dramamine before going out, though, as there were a couple of people on the boat that got very seasick. What a bummer to go on a snorkeling excursion and then just sit up on the boat being sick!

This will be our final post as Betsy is flying back to Minnesota tomorrow. We’re really had fun trying this blog out as a way to share some of the wonderful things we’ve been doing. Some of the things we’ve learned include:

·      We are very compatible travelers together (we already knew that!)

·      Overall, we like State Parks a lot better than private RV campgrounds.

·      If you don’t have big expectations about what the weather will be like, you won’t be disappointed.

·      Our motor home is really comfortable for us to travel in.

·      Our bikes have been the best piece of equipment we brought – we’ve used them everyday.

·      We’ve marveled at today’s technology – one morning we sat at a Florida campsite “talking” to our son Steve who is in France through Skype. Some campsites now have Wi-Fi and if not, there is always Starbucks!

·      We’ve been grateful for the chance to step back from our busy lives and live for awhile at a “slower pace.”

Bahia Honda State Park

After leaving the Jolly Roger Travel Park, we went further south down the keys, past the seven-mile bridge, to Bahia Honda State Park. We were hoping to do some snorkeling in the afternoon at the park. As we were waiting in the entrance line to go into the park, the car behind us rammed the back of our trailer. The driver said his car suddenly accelerated (he wasn’t driving a Toyota) – luckily, it appeared that he was uninjured and that our trailer and their vehicle were okay. We went ahead into the park and found one spot where we could back our trailer and motor home into. Greg is the master at backing the trailer into just about any reasonable spot, but for some reason, it just wasn’t working. Finally, after multiple tries, I suggested that we just take the trailer off, push it into the spot, and then back in the motor home. When we took the trailer off, we discovered that the force of the impact had severely bent our trailer hitch. We felt very fortunate to have discovered it, as it could have been a big disaster to have the trailer come off the motor home while we drove. We left the trailer in the park and then drove to Marathon to buy a new trailer hitch. After bringing it back and it took until about 2:30 pm to get it on the motor home and get the trailer back on. Well, we decided it was still a beautiful day for a bike ride, so we rode down to this beach in the park and enjoyed sitting out for a while. After a nice afternoon, we drove to the next campsite, set up camp and then went out for dinner and key lime pie!

A Beautiful Morning

We woke up to a beautiful new morning. This is the view close to where our motor home is parked. We think the weather is supposed to be nice today and then rain all day tomorrow again - so we are packing up and heading to our next state park in the Keys. We're hoping to be able to snorkle this afternoon - it will be the first time either of us will have put on a swim suit!

The Florida Keys

We finally arrived in the Florida Keys on Sunday afternoon. We had dinner just as it started to rain. It rained hard all through the night . . . . and rained very hard all day Monday. So we had an inside day reading, catching up on email, doing laundry, etc. It was very relaxing and we actually really enjoyed ourselves.

Biscayne National Park

The final National Park we stopped at today was Biscayne National Underwater Park that is south of Miami. We learned that Biscayne is held up as a triumph of the late '60's environmental movement. Big-money Miamians trying to build an oil refinery and shipping channel were fought off by a "rag-tag" group of activists including an African American fishing guide whose family owned some of the barrier islands that dot the park. The ranger said the park is a monument to what grass-roots environmentalism can achieve. It reminded us of the many people in Ken Burns' PBS Documentary on National Parks who worked so hard to make sure to preserve beautiful spots in our country for future generations. When I saw these beautiful parks today, I am so thankful for their passion.

Some of the wildlife we saw at Everglades National Park

My little Cannon "point & shoot" camera just doesn't do the wildlife justice. It appears the Everglades is a mecca for nature photographers. Along the first part of the trail, we saw all these people with huge lens, tripods, etc. alongside of lots of people with binoculars. We will definitely try to bring some binoculars next time! The photo of all the alligators was taken from the top of the observation tower that we biked to - you were able to see out about 18 miles.

A Day of National Parks

We left the campground at about 7:30 and headed east across Hwy 41. Hwy 41 goes right through Big Cypress National Preserve and borders Everglades National Park. At our stop at Big Cypress National Preserve, we had a chance to see quite a few alligators, but this stop just proved a warm-up for our experience at Everglades National Park. We had just planned to stop briefly to get our National Parks "passport stamped," but once we got to the visitors station, we learned there was a 15 mile bike loop that went out to an observation tower that overlooked the Everglades. Since it was such a beautiful day, we grabbed our bikes and started out on the loop. The picture shows exactly how it was for 90% of our 15 mile ride - just Greg and I. It was very beautiful and we saw lots of alligators as well as many species of birds. I had bought a "Birds of South Florida" guide and had fun trying to identify the different ones we saw. (See next post). We just couldn't believe that we could feel so alone in this beautiful park!

Collier-Seminole State Park & Marco Island

After we left Lovers Key, we drove south to our next campground at Collier-Seminole State Park that was located a little south of Naples. We didn't stop at all at Naples, but decided to drive over to Marco Island in the early evening to see it and try to catch a sunset. As we had been told, it is absolutely beautiful - certainly looks like the playground of the "rich and famous." Here's Greg fantasizing about some of the beautiful boats we saw. We stayed into the early evening at Marco Island and then drove back to the campground and got to bed.

Lovers Key State Park

We stopped at Lovers Key State Park after leaving Fort Meyers Beach. We learned it was named Lovers Key because before there was a bridge built out to this barrier island, only lovers risked going there in boats. It was a beautiful white sand beach with a much more undeveloped feel than the Fort Meyers Beach. We made a picnic lunch and had fun eating it while watching a group of pelicans diving for fish. After lunch, we went biking on the 8 miles of trails that covered the 4 barrier islands that make up this state park. For much of the time we biked, we didn't see a soul - we really enjoyed this park. The weather has turned - I finally put some sunscreen on today and we enjoyed the warmth and beauty of the sun.

Fort Meyers Dinner with Robin and Fred

We enjoyed walking around Fort Meyers - there is already lots of activity even though the college students haven't descended yet. There is a beautiful harbor and wonderful white sand beaches. The weather is starting to warm up, too. We had a chance to meet Betsy's cousin, Robin, and her husband Fred for dinner. We had a great time catching up and hearing about their annual trek to Florida for 3 months. We even got to see two beach weddings right outside the restaurant where we were eating.