Our Day Trip To Key West Florida......

We headed South early, since it was about 150 miles, from where we were staying, to Key West.  It was a perfect weather day, not to hot or muggy, and just a light breeze.  Key West was busy, as we expected, since it was spring break for the local schools, and there were still some remaining college students partying.  We spotted the smallest bar in town, so we decided to grab a cool one and walk around.

Just down the street we found The Original Jimmy Buffett's Margaritaville.  Since we already had a drink in hand, we only managed to purchase about 3 T-shirts and a tank top.

 

 

Funny thing about Key West, the Chickens/Roosters, and the Deer, are treated as locals, and you must stop if either are crossing the road, and it doesn't matter if they are not in a crosswalk.  There is a $500 fine if you hit either of them, so you need to be alert at all time.  The chickens are quick, and almost impossible to see.



Duval Street is affectionately called the longest street in the World, since it goes from coast to coast - from the Atlantic Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico.  It is really only a little over a mile in length, and the Gulf Coast end (West End) is mostly shops, restaurants and bars. 

 

Near the Gulf Coast end of the Duval Street is Mallory Square.  All roads in Key West lead to Historic Mallory Square, and is the center of Key West’s waterfront. The City of Key West and Duval Street share their beginning along this deep harbor waterfront.

 

The Atlantic Ocean end (East End) is a mix of early Key West Victorian mansions and bungalows’ dotting the neighborhood.  Art galleries, boutiques, inns and Bodega’s line the wide sidewalks. Although this end of Duval is more residential and less filled with tourists, the sidewalks are still busy with activity.

 

Near the Atlantic End of Duval Street is the buoy marker for the southern most point in the United States.  Here is an Amazing Fact:  This point is closer to Cuba, only 90 miles, than any WalMart.

 

And since we managed to find the Southern Most Point of the Continental United States, there we also found Mile Post "0".

So as the sunsets over the Gulf of Mexico, we pointed the old truck North, back to Pompano Beach.  We all had a wonderful day in Key West, and Roberta and I might have to make another visit one day soon.

Until next time, thanks for looking at us,

Roberta and Steve

Fun In The Florida Sun With Our Friends

The past few days have been a BLAST with Roberta's sister and brother-in-law, Margie and Tom.  Our first adventure, after hanging out at the beaches for the weekend, was to seek out Alligators.  Off we went, down highway 41, also known as Alligator Alley.  We weren't sure if we were going to see any alligators, since the weather has been a little cooler than the usual down here, and we hear that gators like warm weather.  We were pleasantly surprised.



The girls spotted a few gators, laying alongside the river bank while we were driving, so we pulled over at the first available wide spot in the road.  One of these gators decided to jump off the bank into the water toward Roberta, which made Roberta jump back over the guardrail for safety.  We all got a good laugh.

After a few hours of Gator excitement, we headed down the highway to Everglades City for an Airboat Adventure.  We arrived a bit early, so since it was 5 o'clock somewhere, we decide to quench our thirsts with a nice cold beer, or two.  Who's counting............

 Margie and Tom

 





Since we didn't have to drive the Airboat, we were ready for some more excitement.  Our tour guide was Captain Gary, with Everglades City Airboat Tours.  This was the only tour company that had headsets, where you could communicate with the boat captain. Captain Gary was awesome and had lots of experience on the Everglade Canals.  If you ever get down this way, we would suggest taking a tour with them.

 

 Don't go to Captain Doug's, go to the Yellow sign in the background.

Do you see the Pelican on the top of the airboat...???

 

 

 

Captain Gary managed to find us one last Alligator, and a hungry Pelican

 

On our way out of the canals we spotted a thirsty Raccoon, so Captain Gary shared his bottle of water, so we could get up close for a few pictures.

 

Our trip down Alligator Alley was Amazing, but all Great things must end, so we pointed the truck back to Pompano Beach, for a good nights sleep.  Tomorrow we plan to head way down South to Key West.  Check back in a few days for an update.

 

Thanks Again for looking at us,

 

Roberta and Steve

Margie and Tom Have Arrived.......

Here we are, still in Florida.  Margie and Tom, Roberta's sister and brother-in-law, arrived early Friday evening, for a week of fun in the sun with us.  Today we took a drive down to Deerfield Beach, just a few miles North of Pompano Beach.  Friday afternoon Roberta and I were at this same beach, but it was a cloudy day.

 

Friday Afternoon, Just a few people

Saturday Afternoon

 Pretty much a totally different place when the sun comes out.

The drive along the coast highway is littered with beautiful homes, right on the beach.  Across the street is a canal, with even more amazing homes, and almost everyone of them has a small boat to enjoy the water.

Not much else has happened since our last post, but we just wanted to keep you up the date.  More to come in a few days.

Thanks for looking in on us.

Roberta and Steve



Enjoying The Sun In Florida

So, here we are, still in Florida, just laying back and enjoying the SUN.  Early last week we were looking for someplace to use the Internet, so we had Garmin look for a Starbucks.  There was one only about 5 miles from where we are staying, so off we went.  While driving there, we traveled through what appeared to be a new housing development being built, but it looked like it was just getting started.  Turned out to be just an expansion of what we found next.  About 2 minutes later, we turned a corner and stumbled across what appeared to be the "Secret Society of Golf Carts".

Everywhere you looked, there were Golf Carts, being driven by a whole community of gray hairs.  What we found was an active 55+ retirement community.  It is called "The Villages", and is over 30 square miles in size.  Currently there are about 92,000 people that call this area home, and they are selling about 150 homes a month.  There are 21 golf courses, and if you live here, you can play all of them for free.







There are over 60 swimming pools, numerous recreation centers and over 1900 activity clubs like a Classic Car Club, Knitting Club, Line Dancing, etc, etc, etc.  There are 2 different Softball Arena's, similar to Delta Park, where they have numerous leagues.  They also hold senior games here yearly for all sports.  It is like a Geriatrics Club on Steroids.  You name it,  it is probably here.  There are separate roads in most of The Villages for the Golf Carts, and tunnels that go under the main streets, so the carts don't slow down traffic.  Where there aren't separate cart ways, they have slow moving cart lanes, that share the road with autos.



 

There are 3 town square areas, where there is shopping, restaurants, movies theaters, banks, health clubs, bowling alley, doctors, etc.  Every evening, from 5-9, there is live entertainment at all 3 town squares.  We have been to these events almost every evening, and let us tell you, they are hopping.  Lots of people dancing, visiting and enjoying a cold beer, a mixed drink or a glass of wine.



A few evenings ago there was a Golf Cart Rally, in one of the Squares, and you would be amazed at how much money some of these people have put into their Golf Carts.

 

 

 

 

Pretty COOL for Golf Carts

 

The homes here seem to be reasonably priced, and every housing area is gated, and most of them have a guard house.  We took a few days to look at some of the homes for sale, and we found that you can buy something from $80,000 up to a million.  We found a few homes that we really liked in the $150k range.  No, we are not moving here, at least for now, but this place has really got our attention.  It might be a place where we end up wintering, and spend our summers back home.  Only time will tell.

 

We will be hitting the road on Sunday, working our way to Fort Lauderdale.  Roberta's sister and husband are flying in for a week of Fun & Sun with us.  Should be a CRAZY week, since it is Spring Break and the college students should be out in full force.  We'll let you know just how crazy it gets.

 

So, until our next post.......

Thanks for looking in on us,

 

Steve and Roberta

Kennedy Space Canter In Orlando

Here we are in the Orlando area.  We are staying at an RV Park about 30 miles West of Orlando, but only 14 miles from Universal Studios.  Yesterday we ventured out to the Kennedy Space Center, which is probably the furthest attraction away from us, about 90 miles.  We have found that almost all the freeways in, and around, the Orlando area have a toll.  We jumped on the freeway, paid our $1.50 toll, and were on our way.  3 minutes later, PRESTO, another toll both wanting another $1.25.  Another 10 minutes later, another $1.00 toll.  In total, our 90 mile drive to the Kennedy Space Center, had 6 toll booth's, totaling $6.75.

For just a mere $106 admission price, and an additional $10 for parking, we were able to enter the Kennedy Space Center.  A small bucket of popcorn, and a small bottle of water was about the same price as going to a movie.  We took a tour out to the launch area where there was a lot of preparation for the SpaceX launch the next day (Today-Friday).  SpaceX is a private company, using some of NASA's facilities to send material to the Space Station.  The Space Center was interesting, but we feel that it is a bit over priced.  Oh Well, enough complaining.

 

The Space Center closed at 5:00 PM, and after they kicked us out about 5:45, we decided to make our way down to Cocoa Beach.  Lots of Hotels along the beach, and beautiful beaches, but we didn't see much to do.  We are guessing that this is not a big Spring Break destination, but a very nice place if you want to just relax on the beach.  We took a couple of Sunset pictures, looking over the Atlantic, for you to enjoy........  ;-)

 

 

So after checking out the beach, we decided to take a different way back, and avoid the toll booth's.  The one hour trip down, only took two and a half hours to get back.  So we guess the toll on the freeways are the best way to go.  Maybe the locals know how to avoid the tolls, but we didn't have much luck with that.

 

A cold front has moved down this way, just for the weekend, so we have postponed our trip to Universal Studio until next week, after the weather warms up.  Yea, we can see you all laughing about "Poor Us and the Cold Weather."

 

Not much else going on at this time, so check back next week.  Thanks Again for looking at us.

 

Until Next Time,

 

Steve and Roberta