Fire in the Cuban Sky

Saddle Bunch Keys, Florida

Another beautiful day in the Florida Keys.  I cannot imagine anything more boring than being a weather forecaster in this part of the country.  If you pull up the Accuweather Forecast for the Florida Lower Keys, it's the same every day.  With a rare exception of course; as in Tropical Storm Isaac a few weeks ago.

We pretty much hung out at Bluewater Key  all day swimming and kayaking around Lower Sugarloaf Sound.

Tonight again there were storm clouds building many many miles out over the Atlantic south of the Keys.  Last night the same thing happened.  The clouds are so far away that you can see the lightning but never hear any thunder.  So far away that you can see several complete thunderstorms.  The lightning inside and around the huge clouds puts on quite a show.  Monday night, I commented to Pam that they are so far away that they are probably over Cuba.  And when I pulled up the weather radar online, sure enough, they were over the north coast of Cuba.
 
Tonight we saw some of the same type of storms.  Again so far away over the Atlantic that no thunder could be heard.  I decided to try to get a few pictures.  They are a bit grainy, but the best I can offer under the circumstances.

The first few are shots toward the East.

 

This one is more toward the South East:

  

 

This shot is due South:

For anyone that is interested, the first 3 shots were taken at f2.8, ASA1600, with a shutter speed of 15 seconds.  The last two were f2.8, ASA800, shutter speed of 15 seconds.

Quick Trip to Big Pine and Marathon

Saddle Bunch Keys, Florida

We were awakened at about 4:00 AM with a loud clap of thunder followed by a torrential downpour.  But by 8:00 AM when we actually got up, the sun was out.  But there were big rain clouds around and it was a bit windy.

So mid morning we decided to ride up to Marathon.


As we approached Big Pine Key we could see a big blue cloud ahead, and as we passed Bahia Honda up to Seven Mile Bridge the bottom fell out.  Its a strange feeling being on such a long bridge and only able to see a few feet around you due to the rain.

Once in Marathon we went out to Sombrero Beach.  This is a nice little city park, but on a rainy Monday during school season, the place was deserted except for a couple of guys fishing on the nearby pier.

Sombrero Beach, Marathon, Florida

Time for lunch!  (Srini if you read this, please keep in mind that one of the key things I learned from you is that you cannot plan for lunch too early!)  There is a very cool place on the bay side of Marathon called Keys Fisheries.  It is a retail seafood market with a kitchen and a bunch of picnic tables around the dock area.  The grouper sandwich was good!

Pam at Keys Fisheries

Sunday in the lower Keys

Saddle Bunch Keys, Florida

After a very early morning rain, we awoke to a beautiful day in the Keys.  The southerly breeze keeps the bugs away and it was beautiful all day.  A passing thunderstorm or two interrupted the otherwise peaceful day. 

We stopped yesterday at the local Publix in Marathon to get some fresh Florida fruit.  That was very good with coffee for breakfast under the Tiki Hut overlooking Lower Sugarloaf Sound.

I discovered I had a blown bicycle tire.  The tube and tire need to be replaced.  This is a must as part of our daily routine here includes an evening bike ride over to the next Key and around the neighborhood there.  So, a trip to the Key West K-Mart is in the cards for today.

After seeing thousands of motorcycles headed north this morning, we thought there would be not too many more, but they just kept coming out of Key West headed back home.  We got to the K-Mart and got the tire and were ready to head back to the RV.  Thats when we realized that the road construction project on the main road along the waterfront in Key West caused them to make it one way.

After driving through some of the back streets in Old Town we finally found our way back north.  Its always interesting to see the houses, and characters of  Key West.  Sorry I dont have any pictures, I was too busy trying to navigate through the tiny narrow streets.

Bike tire fixed, dinner eaten, then our ride through the neighborhood watching the sun go down.

And as I mentioned earlier, the cats enjoy the view too!

Welcome to Paradise!

Saddle Bunch Keys, Florida

There is really nothing quite like the Keys!  Particularly when you stay at a waterfront site in Bluewater Key RV Resort. 

We left the Miami/Homestead area at about 10:00 this morning.  However, I am never surprised at what we find on the trip down US-1 to Key West.

Traffic is always bad, particularly on the weekends.  The first part of the route takes you from the end of the Florida's Turnpike down to Key Largo over the new high rise bridge.  The road is still mostly 2 lanes wide with a couple of spots for passing where it widens with an additional passing lane.  It has a concrete barrier wall in the middle.   There is always some fool that thinks that by getting by another car or two and selfishly putting others at jeopardy, he can get there a few seconds quicker.  I just dont understand that mentality at all.

As soon as you cross the bridge over to Largo you begin to see that turquoise aquamarine water color.  You know then you are really in the Keys.

This time the drive wasn't really so bad.  There was a motorcycle rally poker run happening.  There must have been 10,000 motorcycles headed to Key West, the last stop for their run.  But all in all we made pretty good time.


The farther south you go, the slower the pace seems to be, and the more laid back the attitude.  Changes in latitudes, changes in attitudes?  Through Islamorada and on to Marathon.  Then you cross the Seven Mile Bridge and you feel like you have arrived.

Seven Mile Bridge southbound.

  There is no place like the Lower Keys.  Bahia Honda, Big Pine, the Torches, Sugarloaf, Cudjoe (home to Fat Albert), and the others, too many to name.

Watching the mile markers count down, mm 24 passes the Sugarloaf KOA, the Sugarloaf Lodge and the interesting Perky Bat Tower, mm 20: Mangrove Mama's Cafe,  and finally mm 15 and Bluewater Key RV Resort.

At Bluewater Key there are waterfront sites, each with their own Tiki Hut and boat dock.  The resort is actually on Lower Sugarloaf Sound on a series of Keys called the Saddle Bunch Keys.  Here is the view right out the front window of our RV.

 

Bluewater Key RV Resort

The weather is supposed to be isolated showers and a thunderstorm or two, but it seems like it rains hard for a few minutes, then the sun is back out.   The cats enjoy the view too!

Redlands Florida

Homestead Florida.

We left the Crystal Lake Campground around 9:30 this morning.  I-95 south again brought us through on and off showers.  Light showers for the most part, then bright sunshine.

Most of you know that I like to stop at Flying J when they are available to gas up.  The Flying J at Fort Pierce is my usual stop before getting on the Florida's Turnpike.  The Ft. Pierce Flying J is not as good as most but it is the last J headed south.  Its problem is that it doesn't have a good RV parking area like most of the others.  These stores have dedicated RV lanes for fuel, a 2 cent per gallon discount for using their loyalty card, and (normally) a parking area for RVs.  We typically fuel up, pull over to the RV area and have lunch or a break.  But this one has no place for RVs to park; and it was very busy.  We had to get our fuel, then go 20 miles south to the next rest area for lunch.   Next time I will stop at the one at St. Augustine instead.

By the way, there is a brand new Flying J in St. George SC on I-95 and it has no RV parking either.  But at least they do direct RVs around to the very large truck parking area.  You do have to share with the commercial truckers, but the parking area is so big that it doesn't seem to be an issue.

By 3:00 PM we were in the Redlands agricultural area just north of Homestead Florida.  We dropped by Miami Everglades RV Resort.  This is the RV park where we spent a couple of weeks last February. Wow, what a difference between then (peak of peak season,) and now (very off season.)  In February this place was packed choc-a-block with all types of RVs and campers.  Now it is almost empty.


This place is in the middle of a huge agricultural area where I think you can find almost any type of plant being grown on very large farms. Flowers, palms, vegetables, fruit;  its all there.  Here is a picture of a large field of ferns in those plastic pots just like you buy them at Walmart or Lowe's.

There is an excellent produce stand that we were looking forward to stopping.  "Robert is Here" is the name of the place but to our disappointment, it was closed September and October. 

We pulled onto our site in the Miami Everglades RV Resort and settled in for the night, feeling like we were parked in the middle of a large farm.  Nice and quiet.  Quite different from the little stop last night on the side of I-95.

Here we are settled on our site at Miami Everglades RV Resort.