Saying goodbye to Florida for now

Once again, I have discovered that I’m very allergic to noseeums — the infamous Florida sand fly. Imagine your whole body covered with itching red welts, and you’ll get the idea of what I look like. That fact, plus some others, made us decide to cut our Florida adventure short and start driving back to Minnesota. We had known when we left Minneapolis this year, that we needed to remain fluid and flexible in our plans, so we were mentally prepared for making this change.

That said, it is still sad to leave . . . .  The coveted Florida Keys state park campsites are so hard to get — that’s why we were very happy to be able to transfer our 2-week upcoming reservation at Curry Hammockj State Park to another nice couple we met from Colorado. They were thrilled, and we will take pleasure from imagining them enjoying that beautiful park.

After packing up everything and saying goodbye to our camping neighbors, we headed out. We don’t know when we’ll be back to the Florida Keys, but we feel so fortunate to have had such an amazing month of motorhome adventures!

You meet the nicest people camping!

One of the best parts of camping at the state parks is the opportunity to meet wonderful people! Our site at Long Key State Park was relatively narrow, so it was easy to converse with people on both sides of our motorhome. On our left, we met Tom and Arlene who have been coming to Long Key State Park for 33 years (obviously, long before they retired). They are avid kayakers, and have been all over the country with their motorhome.

On our right, we met another delightful family — Steve; Debbie; their adult daughter, Hollie; and her boyfriend, Ryan. Steve and Debbie have traveled all over the country in their motorhome in addition to traveling to Europe and China. Their foreign travels have been in part to see Hollie’s broadway performances — she left home after college and went straight to New York City to perform on Broadway. She now owns her own company, The Broadway Dolls.

Their family’s zest, warmth, and hospitality drew us right in, and we had fun getting to know them at the campsite. Last night, they invited us to go out to dinner with them (to help celebrate Ryan’s birthday) at Sunset Grille, a restaurant at the eastern end of the famous 7-mile bridge in the Keys.

The fun company and delicious food made for a wonderful evening. After our dinner, we took a walk out on the pier, and then went to the  Sunset Shrimp Shack  to listen to a little jazz. When Ryan heard that we had never tasted stone crabs, he ordered some so we could try this Florida Keys specialty.

Later in the evening, I discovered I had inadvertently left my wallet at the Sunset Shrimp Shack, so I spent an hour putting holds on my credit cards. This morning, however, we drove back there, and found that my wallet was safely in the office with everything intact. It’s moments like this that I’m reminded how many good people there are in the world!

Life at Long Key State Park

We've settled into our daily rhythm at Long Key State Park. We've had a chance to meet "our neighbors" on both sides, and have had fun getting to know them and hearing their traveling stories. Both couples have traveled to Alaska in their campers and shared their adventures.

One of the best parts of Long Key is the great windsurfing — Greg can keep the windsurfer right outside our motorhome and easily get out on his board when the tide is high.

When the tide is out, we have walked out in the water and can see shells and various interesting plants.

Once again, even with my care in not being out before dawn or after dusk, and avoiding laying on the sand, I am covered with noseeum bites! Because I am very sensitive to them, my arms, legs, back, stomach, and neck are red with itchy bites. The only difference this year is that I'm trying very hard to follow something that I learned in the Mindfulness class I took this last fall — "Just because you feel an itch doesn't mean you have to scratch it!"

Today, we decided to bike into Marathon and back (about 32 miles round trip) to search for some ingredients for a nontoxic noseeum repellent — Witch hazel, Listerine mouthwash, and tree tea oil. 

I found all three ingredients and have mixed them up in a spray bottle. My new tactic is to try spraying myself with this concoction whenever I go outside the motorhome.

Since we put in a good exercise effort to reach Marathon, we decided to stop and have a late lunch at the Island Fish Company.

We knew that we were going to be heading back into what I'm calling a "Key Lime Pie wind" (A stiff head wind that uses up a lot of calories!), so we split a piece of piece of pie before the two-hour bike trip back to the campsite.

When we finally got back, I mixed up some of my new spray, and then ventured out to get a few more photos as the sun was setting. As you can see, the views are fantastic!

The last few nights, we've been enjoying a full moon over the water that we can see while we are in our motorhome.

Arrival in the Florida Keys

We've had the dream of getting back to the Florida Keys for the last two years! There were many obstacles along the way. First, getting a campsite in the Keys through Reserve America is next to impossible (last year we were not successful!). Secondly, there was the issue of whether or not, our old motorhome could actually make another long trek down to Florida and back — this concern was evidenced by the breakdown of the fuel pump in Naples.

So when we pulled into Long Key State Park, Greg said "it's a dream come true!" This park is so different from many of the other parks we've stayed at — the campsites are literally on the beach and the conditions are ideal for windsurfing. So, Greg is very happy to have made it here. You can see us surveying our campsite here before pulling in our motorhome and working to get our site all set up.

After dinner, we were able to see a full moon right outside our window shining down on the water and we watched the sun rise as a new day dawned.

Our first sunset in Florida

On Tuesday, we enjoyed a beautiful Florida day — the weather has finally warmed up! The down jacket has been put away.

We headed out to the state park near the Galiks home and had a chance to see our first sunset since arriving in Florida. Up to this point, we've had mostly cloudy skies each evening.

While enjoyed the beautiful beach and a nice dinner back at their home. We are looking forward to seeing them again in June in Minnesota!

The adventure continues . . . and the Galiks were our Guardian Angels

We had breakfast on Sunday morning with Kevin and Kris and talked about the wonderful time we had this past week! They took off in their rental car and we finished packing up and left Oscar Scherer State Park at about 11 am. We were headed south to Naples to visit with our friends, the Galiks, for a few days.

About 45 minutes into our departure, Greg could tell the motorhome was losing power. He successfully got off the highway onto the exit ramp. Before we knew it, we had a long line of traffic behind us. Within 15 minutes, a Road Ranger stopped and put up cones to route traffic around us while Greg was on the phone with AAA. Unfortunately, he had an idea that it was another failed fuel pump — exactly the same problem he had in 2011 when he stopped at Galiks and spent a couple days installing a new fuel pump.

With the help of a police car escort, we eventually got the motorhome to nearby RV sales and service center (of course, it was closed on Sunday). We left the RV there and Karl Galik came down to pick us up.

The next day, after determining the RV place wouldn't be able to do the repair, Greg got a new fuel pump and spent the day replacing it where the motorhome was parked. I know this might not seem like a huge deal, but it is, because in order to replace it, he had to lower the fuel tank (which was half full of gas). He did all of this while working in challenging conditions. St. Eligius (the Patron Saint of Mechanical Engineering) was working his magical powers again!

Meanwhile, I had been struck out of the blue with a violent stomach virus which ultimately led to me going to Urgent Care at 5 pm to get an IV to rehydrate and get drugs for a blinding headache and upset stomach.

The Galiks were our guardian angels — they picked us up when we were stranded, lent us their car, took me to urgent care and provided moral support. We are so grateful for their hospitality and friendship!

At the end of the day, I was feeling more human and Greg had the motorhome fixed. We are so grateful that we are starting our next leg with an operational fuel pump!

Our last day in the Sarasota area

On our last full day in the Sarasota area, the prediction was rain — so we decided to go to the Ringling Estate which includes the Ringling mansion (named Cà d’Zan), a circus museum, and an art museum.

John Ringling was the youngest of the 5 Ringling brothers who founded the Ringling Circus. The 5 Ringling brothers performed skits and juggling routines in town halls before they began their first circus in 1884 in Baraboo, Wisconsin. By the late 1880s the circus had established itself as one of the largest and best-run circuses in the country.

In 1907 the brothers purchased the Barnum & Bailey Circus and ran the two circuses separately until they merged them into one unit in 1919

 The circus museum was wonderful — we took a tour with a docent who described how the traveling circus was an amazing logistical operation. For example, before the circus performers, animals, etc. arrived in a town, the advance team would travel, set up, and be prepared to feed the 1500 people (performers and support staff) when they arrived later in the morning. The arrival of the circus included a parade, the erection of a "city" of tents and an infusion into the local economy.

In 1927 John Ringling made Sarasota the Winter Quarters of the Ringling Bros and Barnum & Bailey® Circus, many of the performers moved to the immediate area, so Sarasota has a rich history of the circus.
















John Ringling and his wife, Mable,  traveled throughout Europe for nearly 25 years, acquiring circus acts and art. They both greatly admired the architectural style of Venice’s Ducal Palace, Ca’ d’Oro and the Grunwald Hotel which they took as their inspiration when they decided to build a home in Sarasota, Florida.

One of America’s wealthiest couples, the Ringlings started building Cà d’Zan in 1924 and completed in 1926 at the then sum of $1.5 million. Cà d’Zan is Venetian for “House of John.”

The 36,000 square-foot house sits on a waterfront site and is five stories tall. Constructed from terra cotta blocks, concrete and brick, it is covered with stucco and terra cotta and embellished with glazed tile.

Sadly, only three years after its completion, Mable died from Addison’s disease and the complications of diabetes. When John Ringling died in December of 1936, he bequeathed his estate to the people of Florida, but legal wrangling with his creditors went on for a decade. During this time Cà d’Zan remained closed. Finally, in 1946 it was reopened to the public.

While we were there, workers were setting up for an evening wedding — we looked it up online to see how much it would cost to have a wedding at Cà d’Zan — it is a lot! :-)

Speaking of weddings, after our time at the Ringling Estate, we headed back to Siesta Key beach to see if we could catch a sunset. While we didn't see a sunset, we caught 3 more weddings taking place. It was a cold windy night for the bridal parties!

We really enjoyed our day!