As noted earlier we came down into the Florida Keys on Monday, November 18th. Staying the night before in Homestead, Florida at a Casino parking lot with a few other RVers we got up and had breakfast in the casino before heading south.
I'm not sure I should post this but I will take the risk and hope that I do not offend anyone.
It doesn't happen often but it has happened a few times and it happened again today. This time it was a lot different. I needed to gas up the motor home so after finding a place with both a decent price for fuel ($3.19 a gallon) and a lot big enough to drive our rig into, we stopped for same.
Once I started fueling it happened. I was approached by a lady.
She was wearing a small school sized back-pack, wearing sunglasses, a T shirt, jeans and a Dew Rag (a cloth tied at the back & over her head).
She started off with "Hey Sir when are you heading home did you enjoy the races?" To which I replied no we missed the races yesterday and just arrived in town, heading south.
She continued... and then dropped the bomb!
She started to cry (this always gets to me when a woman cries) and said she was the Mother of two. She said "I'm a good person you can ask inside they know me, I have cancer and I just need ten dollars."
Having gone through this before I was preparing myself while listening. Times in the past I have given them money figuring that if it was a scam that God would deal with it and I shouldn't care. This time was a bit different than all the rest!
She continued on and I had a hard time understanding her southern African American accent at times. Before I knew what was happening I heard her say something about "I'm not trying to be gross" and she pulled down the collar of her T shirt to show me what I thought was going to be a boob!
(Sorry for saying this but when faced with this happening so quickly what else would you expect?).
As it turned out she was showing me the scars of a mastectomy!
Now, I don't know about what others would think but this made me take a step back!
I had never dreamed this would happen, nor was I prepared for it. As much as I felt sorry for her I recalled in our conversation that she mentioned something about trying to find a church.
I will leave the rest to your imagination (maybe I shouldn't) but let me say this. I eventually told her that rather than give her money that I would do something much more valuable and powerful.... that I would pray for her.
She started to cry again and said I wish you would sir and wandered off.
I felt so mixed up. My emotions were back and forth. Should I have given her some money? Did I do the right thing? Was this real or another scam (gas stations are popular spots to get hit up for scams). I felt bad.
A few minutes later Barb came outside where I was at the gas pumps and I told her what had happened. She said lets pray for her and we did. I know personally from past experience that is worth more than all the money in the world and I will leave this story at that point.
After fueling the rig we headed down south on the highway. Passing by everglades and acres of wet farm land and pastures. As we continued we came across areas with cattle grazing and plenty of birds standing by for the left-overs.
We came into one area where it reminded me of BC with fruit stands and flowers and all sorts of things for sale beside the roads. The difference was that these were fruits and smoothie-drinks being advertised with names I did not know.
Before we knew it we crossed into the Keys and into Key Largo. The sites from the road were very exotic. We have seen lots of palm trees and exotic tropical plants before this but having them growing wild and large beside marina's with the emerald waters is just something else to see!
Continuing on south along Route #1 the usual T Shirt shops abound but add marina's, resorts, motels, and boats for sale everywhere. It was a feeling much different than anywhere else and sort of reminded me of previous trips into the Caribbean with an American flavor added.
The white sand is everywhere and the water colors range from emerald green and blue to some deeper darker colors for contrast. I love seeing this kind of water!
We reached our destination for the next five nights and I will start with a warning for any of you that plan to come down here. Make sure you have reservations months in advance!
This is a very popular area and the camping had people from all over America here. We have seen people from New York, Colorado, eastern Canada and all over.
We were lucky to get in and our stay here will likely be short lived as we are trying to book by the day via other's cancellations. So far we have 9 nights in 3 different camp sites at two different State Parks. We were lucky to get these!
As we pulled into the Registration area we could hardly contain our excitement. Without even getting to the camp area yet from what we had seen so far we knew we had hit the jackpot for a location!
After registration we drive down the paved road surrounded by 20 foot trees and bam there it was!
 |
Exotic plants, Palm Trees, Hot weather and beautiful seas!
This is our front yard! |
This is one of those few places where nosing the motor home into the stall instead of backing it in is the way to camp! Looking out the front window we have one of the best views in North America! The warm Atlantic Ocean, white beaches, exotic plant life and the odd fish jumping for joy!
 |
| Our Tropical Home by the Sea! |
 |
| Having an Awning to block the hot sun is a must! |
Our camp stall is perfect!
We look out front or from our patio to the sandy beach and waterfront straight south towards Havana, Cuba! We aren't that far away from Cuba or from the Bahamas which are slightly north of us.
 |
| Now this is the life! |
Quickly setting up, we leveled the rig (we have hydraulic levelers for this) got the awning out over the patio (a requirement to block the hot sun down here!), hooked up the electricity (for the two air conditioners in the motor home, another requirement down here) and then the water line.
We had a few visitors on our arrival, they are called ants!
They were living in our patio area. One that I saw had front feet like a Lobster with little chompers. I'm not sure if we were his planned dinner or not? Barb got the cure out and sprinkled Comet around the edges of our patio mat and that seems to have taken care of that!
Other friends have been coming by for a visit as well and this included the Geckos. These are little salamander types of friends and I call them friends because they eat bugs. If you don't know what a salamander is watch the Geicko Insurance commercials and change his color to brown.
These little Geckos remind me of a trip I took to Malaysia one time a few years ago. I was warned to not sleep with my mouth open. The reason was that the Geckos came into the house and scurried all around up the walls and across the ceilings in my bedroom.
As one can imagine Geckos eat things, and what goes in eventually has to come out. If you sleep on your back and your mouth is open, I think that they have a sense of humour similar to that of the North American seagull. They aim and fire and guess where yesterdays lunch lands!
Thankfully they do not get into the motor home (at least, not yet) so we don't have to worry about that!
We spent the afternoon and evening sitting on the patio and wandering up and down our beach in front of the rig. A few Jelly Fish had washed up on the shore and if you are familiar with them at all you will know that this is not always a good thing.
 |
| Looking east |
 |
| Looking west |
One neighbor told Barb that he saw a "Portuguese Man of War." They may not be the only piousness species and it will keep you alert if you wander out into the water.
Sitting here has reminded Barb that she wants to buy a Kayak.
Now if you know me at all I am fine with that as long as it comes with a 400 horsepower motor that makes lots of noise and goes very very fast. Anything short of that and I get bored easily. However watching people going back and forth in these things does have an attraction and I am sure they see a lot more sea life than we do here on shore.
I might go and purchase some snorkeling gear?
Having been a certified scuba diver in years past all my old gear rotted away in the basement with time and I am feeling the urge to get out there again. I have had problems with my ears so Scuba is out of the question. Add to that the waters here are quite shallow it seems, so snorkeling would be the way to go at least in this area.
 |
| We just cannot say enough about the view! |
AIR CONDITIONING & HEAT.
The temperatures here do not change much from day to night.
In fact a quick check of the forecast shows at most a 4 or 5 degree difference between day and night with some days much the same all through a 24 hour period.
If the sun is blazing down on you it seems to hot for us Canadians but the shade helps a lot. Having the awning on the motor home helps and I wouldn't even think of coming down here without air conditioning. In fact sometimes we sit on the patio and after 20 or 30 minutes we come inside to cool off. The humidity is high. Reminds me of the time we flew into the Cayman Islands.
The A/C will be on all night long here!
Sitting out side tonight we watched the sun go down with a beautiful glow and the moon rise over the water. The water has been very calm here so it is peaceful and quite quiet.
As I sat in my lawn chair on the sand in the dark enjoying our new location something scared the you know what out of me!
Was it because I was nervous or wondering what all was out there for bugs, snakes and alligators (they have crocodiles in southern Florida too), No. That hasn't worried me at all. But what was to occur next, raised my radar a little to say the least!
Some days you wonder (at least at my age) how people can move their legs and stretch them to some extremes. I found a way and it didn't even hurt! I was sitting in my lawn chair and felt something firmly rub against the calf of my right leg. Without any thought or warning whatsoever my leg flung into the air to heights I have never imagined before! I know something came out of my mouth but I don't think it was discern-able?
You have to understand it was very dark with only the moonlight dancing off the waters when this happened. I don't know what it was but it wasn't a fly or a bug, it was much larger.
As soon as this happened we heard a duck begin to quack and fly off in front of us. Was it a duck blinded in the dark and walked right into my leg? I highly doubt it, however as I will never know what it actually was, I like that idea and will stick with it! A blind duck brushed the calf of my leg scaring me as bad as it scared him?
After having spent so many hours outside we finally retired into what we call the house. The air conditioner humming at near full capacity and the cool air feeling so refreshing. We had forgotten to eat dinner but it didn't seem to matter as we were fully replenished with all that this location had to offer us.
The TV doesn't seem to work here (we have not subscribed to satellite TV) so we decided it was time to watch our favorite TV show on the lap top. It comes on TV on Sunday nights but we missed it so we sometimes catch it on the laptop via the Internet. That show is called The Good Wife.
Don't ask me why I like this show, however I can say the more you watch of it the more addicting it gets. So we settled down with an hour of tubular entertainment before bedtime in the coolness of our air-conditioned home. After it was over I went back outside. It was as warm out as when we arrived in the afternoon. I love it!
So we went to bed retiring for the evening with smiles upon our faces ones that were still there when we awoke the next morning. Ahhhh!
