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.