Our Road Trips: April 2016

4/16/2016 4/8-15/2016

On April 8, we met with our son Mark & the 3 of us drove to Port Canaveral. We got a table at Grills with another couple (they have tables for 8 and you are encouraged to share with others) and learned they have a home in North Bay, Ontario and spend their winters in Central Florida. So it was an interesting afternoon. At 430, the ships started their weekend cruises and as the Disney Dream was going past, a SpaceX rocket with supplies for the International Space Station blasted off from the Air Force Station across the port...we learned later that the main rocket made a perfect landing on a barge in the Atlantic. There was a LOT of excitement about it all. So, our afternoon was full of fun.

The next morning, we finished packing the motor home, made the last minute adjustments to the house and hit the road about 1030 am. We drove as far as Stuart and stopped at an Army Corp park on the Okeechobee Waterway, a man made channel that connects Lake Okeechobee with the Indian River, one of three channels used to control the lake level to control flooding. These channels, along with a dike all the way around the lake, were built after a devastating hurricane in 1928 that killed like 1800 people when the hurricane blew all the water out of Lake Okeechobee. It has worked pretty well. The ACE park is adjacent to the St Lucie Lock & Dam and is a beautiful spot. The river level changes 14' at the lock and is pretty busy, as we saw a lot of boats going both ways.

The next day, we got in the car and after a stop at the Visitor's Center, we made our way thru Stuart and via A1A drove north as far a Sebastian Inlet, stopping along the way for visits to several beaches & State Parks. The drive is beautiful, along the coast most of the way. We are on Hutchinson Island most of the time which is separated as North & South by Ft Pierce Inlet. On the north side of Ft Pierce Inlet is Fort Pierce Inlet State Park, a new spot we had never been. While there we purchased an annual pass so we can enter all of the State Parks until April 30, 2017. We just sat on the shore of the inlet and absorbed the beautiful day and the gorgeous view. Florida sure has some beautiful locations. Then we retraced our route to SR 510, crossed the Indian River and turned north on US 1 to the town of Sebastian, stopping at Capt Hirams for a few chilly ones and an hour or so of people watching & enjoying the day. Then we headed back to Stuart via US 1...one stop light after another, It took far longer to drive south on a 4 lane highway than it took to go north on a two lane road. The retail businesses are non stop for over 40 miles...incredible. We arrived at Stuart and went looking for a place to grab some dinner. First place acted as if we were not welcome, so we left. Then as we drove west on SR 76, the restaurants sort of disappeared. We did find one local joint, only to find out it was Karaoke night. After finding a quiet area, we had a nice meal and went back to the camper.

Next morning, we loaded up and started our trek to Layton & Long Key State Park in the Florida Keys. After 6 hours of passing through Palm Beach, Ft Lauderdale and the rest of the Miami metropolitan area, we arrived at our destination. We have decided the trip home will likely exclude I-95 from Ft Lauderdale to Jupiter...we nearly got in 3 wrecks, none of which would have been our fault, on the way south. We will make every possible effort to not have that happen again....after all of the miles we have driven the last few years through some of America's largest cities, including New York City, Chicago, Atlanta, Boston, Denver, Seattle and others, that was the worst we have seen.

We got set up in Site 30 and spent the rest of the day relaxing, enjoying our location and the gorgeous weather. We are less than 20' from the edge of the water at high tide and our view of the Caribbean is amazing. We are here for 14 nights, enough to get our batteries fully charged. We spent the next day relaxing too, did some reading and even took a short nap in the shade with a nice breeze blowing off the water,,,so nice, it is hard to describe. We went across the street and took some pictures or a very gorgeous sunset, came back & BBQ'd a steak on the grill...wow. It has been a wonderful day and 1/2.

Wed (4/13) we drove north in the car on US 1 to Key Largo making a few stops along the way. At Key Largo we continued NE on SR 905 to Card Sound Rd., turning NW towards Homestead. I had read a list of 14 things to eat in Florida, so just north of the tool booth is Alabama Jack's, a funky place that epitomizes the Keys...license plates from all over, stuffed fish & nets hanging all over, dumpy bathrooms, and a table open to the air next to the water & fish everywhere. I ordered the Conch fritters and got a pile too big to finish...they were delicious. Barb had a fish sandwich. We headed back south, stopping at Lorelei's in Islamorada for the sunset celebration. Live music, specials. a gorgeous sunset & a magic man was our entertainment for the next few hours. Fun time.

Thursday, we took another day of rest. We have decided to 'tour' every other day. and rest the day between. Seems like a good plan. We made a couple of stops checking on prices to rent a boat...vast differences and then drove into Marathon in the afternoon, stopped at Home Depot for a few things, Publix for a couple items and some ice. We got back before dark (it was cloudy) so I started grilling a rack of ribs on the grill, nice relaxing day topped off with a great meal and a couple glasses of wine.

Friday morning, we picked up our rented boat at 9 am a couple miles from our camper and spent the next 8 hours buzzing around Florida Bay and visiting the 2 Florida State Parks accessible only by boat, this was my post on Facebook: There are two Florida State Parks in the Keys that are accessible only by water. After doing quite a bit of research, we decided that renting a boat for an 8 hour day was the best solution. So we took off at 9 am this morning in a rented boat and drove the 15 or so miles north, first stop was Lignumvitae Key Botanical State Park. A nice young man gave us a 2+ hour guided tour of the island and the 1919 caretaker's home built on the island. It was a VERY interesting tour...there are native plants & trees on the island that are found in very few places there days. And the State protecting them is very cool...I won't get into the proposals made by our idiot Governor here. Then we loaded up in the boat and made a 5 mile trek to the south side of US 1 to Indian Key. The two islands are visible to each other but on opposite sides of the Overseas Highway. This led us to some choppy water and a rough job getting tied up to the dock, but we managed OK. We spent the next hour of so walking around the 10 acre island viewing what is left of what was once the County Seat of Dade County(Miami). It was basically abandoned in 1840 after an attack by the native Indians which made everyone leave the island. There is just some ruins there, but it is still an interesting place to visit. I love touring places like this, seeing how our pioneers tried to make a life with no Google or smart phones. We spent the rest of the afternoon having a picnic lunch on our little boat floating in Florida Bay near an un-named Key north of US 1 and then cruising around checking out Florida bay between Islamorada & Long Key bridge...we even took a picture of the spot we took the sunset pictures from Tuesday night...fun day. One thing I forgot...Lignumvitae is a tree. It grows native on the Key given that name. The wood is so hard it can be milled like steel. One of its coolest uses? Bearings for the propeller shafts of submarines...the shaft will turn so silently that the enemy could not detect the prop turning...and the wood lubricates itself with a natural oil in the wood. It amazes me to hear stories like this. It was a wonderful day, hadn't driven a boat in a long while, so I enjoyed that. We have been here 5 days and it has been wonderful. Tomorrow is Sunday & my B-day...bet we have a nice time. We think this may be our 20th time down here and it never gets old....more fun next week, stay tuned.

Steve & Barb Larson