College roommate, Rob, and fellow Europe
traveler, Kim, joined me for an RV trip to Key West. All three of us are Delta Tau Delta fraternity brothers, Rob with me at
Wabash, Kim from Washington University, St. Louis, MO. Rob and I spent four years together in college while Kim and I spent two weeks travelling
Europe via Eurail Pass in 1980. Kim and I also caught the 2017
Solar Eclipse in southern Illinois.
Rob had a two-day conference to attend in Orlando which quickly morphed into a weeklong Florida trip to include our great friend from Evansville, Kim.
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| Our campsite in Magnolia Park, Apopka, FL |
We camped near Rob's conference hotel for the weekend, then drove towards Key West, spending our first night outside of Miami to break the long drive from Orlando into two easy, short runs.
As we closed the distance between us and Key West, the call of the beach overcame us requiring a stop in Marathon, FL.
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| Kim and Murph, by Rob |
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| Sombrero Beach, Marathon, FL |
We lunched in a small eatery on US 1 called the
Barracuda Grill then completed our drive to
Boyd's Key West Campground on Stock Island, across the water from the Naval Air Station on the adjacent key, Boca Chica. It was thrilling (and loud) watching the jets as they thundered on and off the island across the sea and around the islands.
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| Navy Jet headed to Boca Chica Key |
Navy Jets roar over the anchorage
Our campsite, though tiny, was right on the water overlooking the anchorage just south of US 1 and northwest of Stock Island. Since there was no room for the larger tent and cot, I pitched my backpacking tent and slept on the ground.
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| Campsite at Boyd's Key West Campground |
Tuesday we found ourselves on public transportation enjoying the senior discount ride into downtown Key West, only 5 miles west of our campsite, to see the "Southernmost Point on the continental US."
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| Kim, Rob at the "Southernmost Point" |
From there is it was a a brief walk to South Beach and the pub where we enjoyed an early afternoon cocktail and the southern sun warming the sun worshippers on the beach.
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| Rob, Kim on South Beach |
As we ambled north on Duval Street a Rum Bar caught our eye and we ducked in to satisfy a newly discovered curiosity about rum. Rob consumed a classic Margarita, Kim made some sort of Crush disappear and I confirmed that they know how to make superb Dark and Stormies in Key West.
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Kim, Murph in Rum Bar,
photobombed by nice couple. Pic by Rob |
Later that afternoon we made the obligatory, and fun, visit to the original Jimmy Buffet's Margaritaville Restaurant, also on Duval Street, for a late lunch.
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| Photo by Rob |
We grilled burgers back at the campsite and relaxed in the cool evening breeze wafting across the water into our dining fly while we read our books and played games on our smartphones.
Sunrise the next morning was glorious! I walked to the east side of the peninsula and got a shot of the sun bursting above the water highlighting a spreading palm tree.
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| Sunrise over Boca Chica Channel |
Kim spent the morning working his eBay business while Rob and I made a permanent installation of my inverter to increase the available wattage 400W from the previously limited 100W. As is typical (at least with me and my boats/RV) what first appeared as a one hour job took three hours. After the initial installation, we had to redo all four wire terminations before getting everything to work properly, then completing the installation a second time.
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| 400W Inverter Installation |
Another bus ride into Key West town and we were once again enjoying the sights and sounds, especially the numerous pubs with live music, mostly lone guitar players/singers.
Our evening focus was to enjoy the sunset and street performers in Mallory Square, which we did, including befriending and older gent playing his saw. Yep, an old country boy from Tennessee with some recorded background music while he played the melody on his vibrating saw using a violin bow. OK, maybe it was a fiddle bow, given his home state.
The sunset was cool and breezy, but all sunsets are beautiful in their own way. We walked away from Mallory Square in search of a better view and took our photos looking across the empty cruise ship pier.
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| Sunset looking across a cruise ship pier |
The next day we did a little RV maintenance, dumping the black and gray water tanks, refilling the fresh water tank and parking the RV back in our tight little campsite. All without running over any people or tents!
We returned to Key West on the bus only to find our saw-playing friend on the bus, sitting next to us! I had an enjoyable conversation with him, finding he has made a tradition of bringing his RV south for a week or so every winter, playing most evenings at Mallory Square. We were again focused on collecting more sunset photos and enjoyed another round of street performers. This evening we stayed in Mallory Square for our required photographs.
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| Mallory Square sunset (photo enhanced) |
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| Unenhanced version |
After sunset we enjoyed the music at the Hog's Breath Saloon where we also poked fun at each other, as college kids do! The one joke Rob caught on film is after we kept kidding Kim about how he's always smiling, Except with taking his picture. Rob and I made certain we caught his photo while Kim was smiling!
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| Rob caught Kim Smiling! photo by Rob |
We wrapped up our Key West adventure with a bus ride back to Stock Island and the Hogfish Restaurant for a nice meal, then walked to the campsite for a short rest before driving north. Our wake up was at 1:15am as we had to drop Rob at the Orlando airport by 10am for his flight back to sunny LAX. It was a long drive but early enough that we missed the Miami traffic and got Rob to his flight on time. Kim and I had a relaxing dinner in Titusville with Karen and Kim took off in his car the next morning for his long trek back to snowy Evansville, IN.
