The 25th Parallel.......

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I woke up today, Friday, in a place I never dreamed I would be visiting in my prior sticks and bricks life, but here I am half way between Key Largo and Key West, just below the 25th Parallel, and almost to the southern most point in the United States.  The words Key Largo hold a special mystique for me and many in my generation.  The movie "Key Largo", starring Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall, was released in 1948, one year before my birth, but I have watched it dozens of times over the years......BUT I get ahead of myself.....as usual.

We woke up Thursday to still high humidity and a promise of temperatures in the mid 80's.  I looked at the weather for Cedar Key and they had a high of 57.....that's almost 30 degrees lower than where we were.  Of course, along with that temperature came very stormy weather.

By the time we had rolled the T-Bird back into the trailer, secured the awnings, and put away 60 feet of electrical umbilical cord I was wringing wet, so I turned on the generator, and the front AC and then took a cold shower to try and cool down, and stop the perspiration....good luck with that Clarke.......:D  We went inside to say our "until next times" to Phil and Patty, our wonderful, attentive hosts for the past two days.  While we did drive around Wednesday seeing some sites, their home feels more like a destination resort than a courtesy parking opportunity.  We are both so grateful they invited us to stay on their street, and very appreciative their neighbor Michael allowed us to park partially inside his property line for two days.

Patty caught this shot of us as we passed their property line Thursday

We only had 89 miles to travel Thursday.....another long, grueling day, huh?  This is all new territory to TLE and I....in the 18 years she lived in Miami she never once visited the Keys.....kind of like me living in California since 1949 and never visiting Yosemite until 2007.....BUT, at least I did visit Yosemite.  We left Phil and Patty's just before 11 am, and arrived on Marathon Key just before 1 pm at the Jolly Roger Travel Park.  This is the only Passport America park in southern coastal Florida that allows the 50% discount 365 days a year....they do limit you to 5 days, but that saves you $175.....enough to pay my Passport America membership dues for 4 years!  All the other parks exclude Passport America January, February and March, which is understandable as this is their high season.  I heard about this park from Nick Russel (Nick's Blog) whose blog I have been following for at least 5 years, or more.  The reality of this cool little park exceeded even Nick's positive review.

This park is an older park, and the interior roads are narrow.  What they do to accommodate large rigs like ours with big trailers is they have you drop the trailer (we removed the 'Bird first) and then guide you to your spot.  Once you are in your site they use a tractor to pull the trailer over and put it in your spot for you!  Dave, who took care of everything for us, is a great manager and we appreciate his his efforts to make our say memorable.

 

Here we are all tucked in to our spot.  By the way, the section we are staying in is new within the past few months, and has grass, is very wide, and has new utilities with cable TV!

After we got settled in we walked down to the waterfront to sit and dangle our feet in the warm Carribbean waters.  If TLE has her feet in the water, you know it's warm.

We walked around the park, checked out the new swimming pool, which also is very, very warm, and then headed back to our coach.....I needed another shower after getting everything setup.  While I was in the shower one of our NuRVer friends, Maria (Roaming Pint) who has been "stealth camping" with Brian in their Class C+ motorhome the past few days out here in the Keys, sent me a text inviting us to join she and Brian at Keys Fisheries Market and Restaurant for dinner.

You can eat inside, or outside the main restaurant, or go upstairs to their open air wet bar, which gives you a better view of the sunset, when there is one to view.......Thursday night there was a heavy bank of clouds that totally obscured the sunset.

But here is what you can get if the weather cooperates.....

We had a lovely time with Brian and Maria, and are so happy Maria texted us at just the right time.  For the first time in my life I had 2 Stone Crab claws, and some Tuna Sashimi, which, of course, is raw......very good.  For the main course TLE, Brian and I had their world famous Lobster Rueben sandwich.....yummy!  Naturally, there were a few Coronas consumed. We headed home just before 9 pm, and closing time for the restaurant, and just barely ahead of the onrushing monsoonal rains.  The rain got so loud at one point we could hardly hear the sound on the TV as we were watching a previously recorded "Castle".

So, our first day in the Keys is in the books.....if the weather cooperates we may head down to Key West Friday....it is just under 60 miles from or current location.  We'll drive the T-Bird, of course.......with the top down.....of course.  If not Friday, then Saturday.

Thanks for stopping by!