Sunrise at Long Key State Park
This morning we took our walk a little earlier, and actually caught part of the sunrise over the water. It was a beautiful morning. We walked down the length of the long campground, and discovered a picnic area, a nature trail and a boardwalk. The boardwalk seemed the most intriguing, and we could hear some kids’ voices coming from that direction, so we decided to investigate.
Boy Scouts tent camping on the boardwalk
The first piece of the puzzle came when part of the boardwalk went up onto a 2nd story platform. We climbed the stairs to the top and discovered sleeping bags. Someone had spent the night here! We continued on the boardwalk, through mangrove forests until we reached the end. We were very surprised to find small covered sleeping platforms, each with 2 or 3 tents. There was a boy scout troop camped out for the weekend. Now we knew the source of all those voices!
Judy on our morning walk
After we returned to our campsite, we had a leisurely breakfast outside, enjoying the view of the ocean one last time before heading north out of the keys.
The "Fish Story" cache and statue
We geocached our way north, finding several on the east side of the highway. The most interesting cache of the day was located just behind a library. It had a swimming hole, green lawn, outside shower, picnic table, and SHADE. If we had seen this on the way in we’d have spent more time there.
All fresh water comes to the Keys via this 30" pipe
But eventually we had to leave the keys entirely, and went back on the mainland. This felt like a big cultural shock. Suddenly, there was a city, with a zillion stores and more than a zillion cars and traffic. Florida drivers are just as crazy as California ones. No signals. Lots of speeding. Lots of near misses. Yikes.
The 1927 hurricane memorial
We headed toward Ft. Lauderdale, where we knew we could get a spot in a private RV park advertised in our camp club magazine. On the way, we stopped at a quilt shop…Once Upon a Quilt. Not worth the time spent getting there, so any quilters reading this can scratch this off the list. You never know until you actually go to a shop how good or bad it is!
The best library "back yard" we've ever seen
When we finally reached our park, we had a quick drink and then went to soak in the rather nice pool. There was some shade on part of the pool by this time, so our sunburns didn’t get any worse. Too bad we were so stupid as to get burned. We had thought about going out on a canoe or kayak or something, but just can’t be out in this sun for a few days at least. We had some roasted chicken and salad for dinner, and are enjoying our air conditioning!
In Florida even the highway barricades look pretty
Total miles driven today=130
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