The Keys!

The Midway was a pretty nice park but I was happy to see it in our rear view mirror Saturday morning because the mosquitos were really awful.  They chewed me up in the few minutes it took us to walk the dogs Friday night so Dave had to watch the stars alone, until the mosquitos finally chased him inside too.

We made the long, straight, narrow drive down to the Florida Keys and I seriously had no idea how many islands there actually are, all connected by this one long highway.  Would it kill me to check an atlas now and then?  I knew we were getting close to the beach because all the business names are so beach centric:  The Square Grouper, The Mystical Mermaid, Angler and Ale and Twisted Shrimp.

Our home for the next few nights was Boyd’s Campground on Stock Island, about a 20 minute ride from downtown Key West.  I should have known that in a place as popular as the Keys, they’re going to cram a rig or a tent in every possible square inch.  And sure enough they did.  We had a pavilion on one side….

And our neighbors picnic table on the other

At first we were bummed about the pavilion but then we realized no one actually uses it so we had no noisy neighbors on that side.  Win!  Unfortunately, we had some other very, very noisy neighbors and you can’t even complain to the management about them.

There were chickens and roosters EVERYWHERE in this park.  Did they escape from someone’s coop?  Do they live here full time or just visit?  Are they pets?  Food?  So.  Many.  Chickens.

By the time we set everything up it was after 3pm, a tad late to get anything really going.  Instead we spent the afternoon doing laundry in their very nice laundromat and I swear, I’m thinking of buying three more washers for my house because when you do laundry four loads at a time, it goes pretty darn quickly.  Sheets, towels, dog blankets and clothes, all washed and dried and back in their rightful place in an hour and a half. This is me looking terribly smug after my laundry victory.

Now that we’re in Key West we want to start leaving the dogs for more than an hour so we can take advantage of what’s around us.  And I’ve been travelling with them long enough now that I’m okay with that.  If everyone is fed, watered, walked and in the AC, they’re fine.  No one is in a life threatening situation so just get over it, Shelley.

Dave and I walked over to the Hogfish Bar and Grill for fresh seafood and a night out.  We started with mojitos - key lime for me and watermelon for Dave.  Then we had fried grouper cheeks because I watch a lot of Top Chef and they use fish cheeks frequently and I want to know what the heck a fish cheek tastes like.  Turns out they taste like hunks of fish that are fried and served with key lime aioli.  We also had conch ceviche with homemade crispy tortilla chips and then we shared the entrée – grilled cobia (yeah, I don’t know what that is either but it was delicious) and shrimp with a lobster cream sauce.  We finished up with a piece of key lime pie (duh!  We’re in the Keys!) and let me tell you when we decide to go out to eat, we go out to EAT.  We were stuffed and happy.

While we were eating, a country song came on and I asked Dave to write me a country song right then.  Without even pausing he sang to me:

Once you feed Brodie

And put on the coffee

Come snuggle with me

He’s all romance, that one.  And for those who don’t know Dave, this is funny because he’s more often than not the one who feeds and walks the dogs, and he not only puts the coffee on but brings me a cup in bed so I don’t even have to get up.  That’s why his little ditty made me laugh.

On the way home we noticed all the coconuts on the trees and thus began Dave’s multi-day fret about the coconuts.  

What if a coconut falls on the RV and damages it?  What if a coconut falls on us?  When do coconuts fall?  They must fall eventually and don’t people get hit on the head with falling coconuts?  I told him I don’t recall reading a lot of articles about people being beaned with falling coconuts and the guy who gave us the orientation for the RV didn’t even bother to mention that risk so I’m going to assume we’re pretty safe.

Once we were home we let the dogs watch the parade of chickens and roosters going by the pen and Maiya was not interested at all.  Belle was!  But Maiya was ho hum about the roving poultry – she’s more of a squirrel kind of gal.

The next morning I was deep in a dream about a key lime pie baking contest when I was awaked by this:

For maximum effect, please play on the loudest volume and repeat about six times.

Remember in elementary school when they told you roosters crow when the sun comes up?  Well that’s a load of happy horse crap.  Roosters crow whenever they damn well please and that’s morning, afternoon or the middle of the night.

Then we got a visit from a local!

He was just hanging around, not bothered by people at all, climbing his tree and hopefully not jarring any coconuts so they don’t fall on us.

While we were having coffee outside, one particularly annoying rooster came by and we learned that the water bottle we use to squirt the dogs when they bark works on roosters too!  He got a blast to the tail feathers and scurried away to be with the hens across the road.  Bring it, buddy.

We took a pink cab from Boyd’s to Smather’s Beach so we could lounge in the sun and sand with exactly zero dogs with us, and that alone was worth the cab fare.

I confess the beach at Topsail (the one with the powdery white sand and clear blue water) was much, much prettier than this beach but let’s face it.  Any day at a beach is a good day.

We were gone for about two hours and I don’t think the dogs barked at all because Dave gave them each a threatening look and held up the squirt bottle to let them know they’d get a blast if they barked.  They don’t know we would be at the beach and out of squirting range.  Stupid dogs.

We spent the rest of the afternoon taking care of a few things around the RV, resting and grilling chicken for dinner.

We’ve spent a lot of days in the RV in the freezing cold and pouring rain so the warm sun and blue sky of Key West is perfect.