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!