Mar 24, 25

Hi to all in the snowy north. The only reminder we have of home is the wind. Steve and Denyse were commenting that the wind blew a gale last night and there were noises everywhere. I guess  they don't live in an old house in the Maritimes. Bernie and I never heard a thing. 

We had a slow start to the day on Tuesday, coffee, walk, news on the internet, etc but finally on the road by 11 in time to drive 30 miles towards Key West and stop at Big Pine Key. Don and Joanne Giberson (who used to live in Amherst and owned the Canadian Tire)  wanted us to stop and have lunch with them. They put on a huge feed and we had a great visit. We drove another 10 miles down the road to Key West and pulled into the KOA Sugarloaf camp ground. Anybody see a pattern ? The driving is getting less and less. Saves on diesel. We are really amazed how populated the Keys are, knew the driving would be slow, at the State Parks you have to reserve 11 months in advance, and the temp is moderate - no huge highs and lows. Barbecued with our "new barbecue thong" (my younger brother, again, commented he had never barbecued in a thong before. My spelling - should have been tong. Brings back memories of Dad circling my spelling mistakes and mailing a letter back to me. Just a younger version doing it to me now ), a quiet night listening to the water and trying another game of Mexican Train. The local entertainment was watching a couple iquanas waddle around - one was 4' and the other 2'.

Wednesday we rented a car as we are 20 miles north of Key West and we had been told by several people - Don't drive the motor home in Key West. Off to the city we go with all our gear - cameras, swim gear, tourist info, hats, water - you know the stuff to make us look like tourists. The first thing we had to do was have lunch and a wet one at the Hog's Breath Pub. By the name you can get a picture of what it looked like. Their motto is "A Hog's Breath is Better Than No Breath At All". Bernie and I did the Trolley Car 1 1/2 hr tour which was well worth the dollars. There is so much history here and so many historic homes - around 4000 homes on the Historic Homes List. Lots of people, very few chickens, saw the Little White House, watched the Buskers on the water front, walked and people watched, met up with the Giberson's by chance, had to eat again, at Fogarty's this time, listened to some bands in different bars (memories of Nashville music in bars) and back to the motor home by 9pm. It was really windy so all boat activities were not on our list for the day. The girls whipped the boys at bridge !!!