Been there.........

We finally got to the Keys. It had been about 20 years since I'd been here and the old memory fades a little. I had forgotten how incredible clear and blue, or turquoise, the water is. How far you can see and ......the traffic. Mo was amazed at thr water color too, she thought it was only in the Carribbean that water could be that clear and that color.

This taken out the MH window and really, you just can't do justice with a snapshot.

We had reservations at an RV campground, 'Jolly Rogers", on Marathon Key which is about 1/2 way to Key West. We pulled in about 2pm and got set up. We were on the gulf side and the campground was right on the water, not our site, but we were close. If you looked out the bedroom window you could see the water between 2 other rigs. O well it was only about 75' away.

Here's Mo after we got set up. you can't see our rig but we were to the left of the tiki hut.  That's my beer on the table!

This guy just came in from fishing and the pelicans were waiting patiently for scraps. The lady would talk to them and they would act like they actually listened and understood.  ???

Our site was very close to rigs on both sides but we didn't really care since we weren't planning on being there much. So we jumped in the Jeep and checked out the area a bit, there was a State Park just down the road and a multi-million dollar neighborhood just up the road. The homes there were stunning?, breath-taking?, gorgeous?, whatever, it was cool to see. Each had it's own dock on a canal behind the house and most had yachts either moored or raised up on winches.

We headed back and watched the sunset from the same picnic table where we were earlier. It was a bit hazy but still beautiful.

The next day we headed to Key West. (Friday) We wanted to celebrate Mo's B-day on Key West but Saturday, which was her b-day, was supposed to be bad weather wise. We took the bikes and parked at Smathers Beach. We biked down Key West towards town where we locked up the bikes at the end of Duval St and started walking. We hadn't walked more then 50' when we noticed this establishment.A house of 'ill repute'! I had to get Mo's picture on the porch, the lady said sinxe it was Mo's B-day we could have a two for one !!

We walked on down the street and since it was just a little after noon we took a few side streets too. this market area was really nice, You can't see it but this guy is trying to get a BIG white parrot to get on the stick so he can get back to his cage/perch. The dumb bird got up yhe tree and couln't get back down!

Here's a picture of the other parrot, he was very colorful.

There was a huge sailing regatta going on that week and all the bars and retaurants were competing for the business. This was in "Sloppy Joes" where we ate lunch.

We walked in and out of shops of every kind imaginable. From big name brand to grubby, cheap t-shirt shops. We checked them all out! When it got close to sunset we high tailed it back to get the bikes and rode them back down to the area known as 'Mallory Sq'. That's where the street performers are and everybody watches the sunset and claps when it finally drops below the horizon.

Here was a huge bronze sculpture named 'The Ship Wreckers'. History tells that the first commerce on the island was salvaging anything of value off of the ships that wrecked on the coral off the coast. It was sold and also insurance companies paid to have the salvage to offset costs.

This is one of the street perfomers at the square.He;s on an 8' high unicycle juggleing a knife, a hatchet and a fire wand. As if thats not enough, about 2' behind him is the sea wall!

There were other performers too, a crazy black guy that did a whole gymnastic routine a banjo player that had a dog that collected money fromthe crowd, fortune tellers, bands and artists and craftsmen of all sorts.

Finally the sun set..................

We had some friends, Ed and Lyn, who met us down there. They also were staying at Jolly Roger, we had met them at a rally last Sept and had kept in touch. We all went and had coffe and Key Lime pie after sunset. Then we rode our bikes back to Smathers Beach and started the long, 50 mile, trip back to the MH.