May 8, 2013 - WORLD RECORD!!!

Jim's hogfish is a Spearfishing World Record! After 7 days since Jim shot his hogfish with his pole spear, he has been officially weighed in at the World Wide Sports. 22 lb 3 oz beats the previous record of 21 lb 5 oz set in 2005. Unofficially, it also beats the 2011 Line and Hook record of 21 lb 15 oz. We are on our way to celebrate. We are stopping for a Dairy Queen banana-split blizzard!

Feb 17, 2013 - Turtles, Dolphins & No-Name Key

This was a full day. First we visited Curry Hammock State Park. Always on the lookout for a great place to stay, this state park is one of my favorite beach parks in the Florida Keys. It is smaller and a real gem. Nice beach, a place to launch our kayak, great sites with full hookup. The trick is trying to hit the computer button for getting a reservation. Not an easy feat. Hope to be able to stay here one day. Next was the Turtle Hospital. A wonderful place dedicated to the short and long term care of injured and sick turtles. Most...

Jan 21, 2013 - Jonathan Pennekamp State Park

We had a wonderful Christmas with Carolyn and John in High Springs. Then on to Peace River where we met up with friends from Virginia, Pat & Carol. Now for the rest of the winter in the Florida Keys. We are at John Pennekamp State Park up in Key Largo for 2 weeks. The weather has been beautiful especially when you hear that out west it is below zero a lot of the time. Judy bought a new bike and is still learning to ride it. Thankfully she has strong bones because she is falling off a lot, very painful and embarrassing. I think that it was...

Jan 8, 2013 - Arrival in the FL Keys

One key purpose for this trip was to visit the FL keys once again; Gary and I had made the trip (from Atlanta back then and without an RV) over 20 years ago and we wanted to see how it might have changed and spend some time in the sea air. On our first night - January 6th - we camped at the Travernier, FL, Elks Club RV park (on the south end of Key Largo (mp 92). We were very surprised with how nice the place was. Though small compared to parks we had visited crossing the country, this was such a beautiful location. Grassy parking spots...

Dec 25, 2012 - Merry Christmas - Christmas spent with friends!

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!! Mon 12/24 Today we moved 117 miles from the “Big O” down to Key Largo – our home for the next week. It was sunny and 80 degrees. We are at Calusa Campground. It was a little tight getting in but we made it fine. The Campground seems nice. It is on the Bay side with some sites right on the water and some along the canal. Many of the folks here have boats – some are quite large. Shortly after our arrival our friends Denny and Lone stopped by for a visit. They are from Ontario and winter here. We met them at a...

Nov 20, 2012 - Day 128 - Key Largo, Florida

Well the weather people down here are just as bad as everywhere else. Four different weather forecast sources, all say sunny all day. None of them looked outside. It is completely overcast, windy and cool and no sign of it changing. It was a good day for staying inside and getting the journal updated. For the first time both journal and photos are up to date. Enjoy!

Nov 19, 2012 - Day 127 - Key Largo, Florida

We started out this morning finding the Post Office to put Rose's birthday present in the mail, it will be late. Garry found a Diver's Direct store and bought himself a floating "Diver Below" safety buoy for when he is snorkeling. We then headed to John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park to spend the day sunning and snorkeling. We set our chairs up on the beach, me with my book, and Garry headed for the water. There is a large buoyed off area for swimming and snorkeling here. You can also get snorkeling tours out to the reef, glass bottomed...

Nov 18, 2012 - Day 126 - South to The Keys

We headed out today with the plan to get around Miami Beach and Miami with as little traffic as possible. We have found in other places that travelling on Sunday doesn't always guarantee less traffic, but today went very smoothly. We got past the majority of the city and stopped in Homestead to top up our fuel as we expect the prices to be higher on the Keys. We came over the first of many long bridges to Key Largo and found Riptide RV Park. This is a small park, our unit was a challenge to get backed into the space they had for us, but...

Nov 2, 2012 - Key Largo, FL

Today marks the 2 week anniversary of our leaving Vermont. We travel to the John Pennecamp Coral Reef State Park in Key Largo, which is supposed to be a really nice park because offshore of it is the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary, with, of course, a coral reef. Everything here is crushed coral, including the beach, which is hard on the feet. As with Lake Chaplain's shale beaches, beach shoes are a handy item. We left the sand beaches behind on the Mainland. Everyone in Florida has a big boat, and this is a big boating state park...

Oct 27, 2012 - Adams' Family

October 23-26, 2012 There’s nothing nicer than seeing your friends after an extended absence! We drove to the Key Largo home of Leslie and Carlie Adams and in a feat bordering on the superhuman, Bob was able to wedge Pottsluck between the Adams’ house and a hedge on the side yard. The nice part about the parking job was that the coach was protected from Tropical Storm Sandy (not a hurricane at that time). The Adams home is lovely with its main living area consisting of three bedrooms and two baths, a kitchen and living room on the second...

Apr 19, 2012 - Swimmin' with da fishes

We were able to stay another night at the fabulous John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park here in Key Largo. The funny thing is our site is directly across the campground street from last night. Another great day weather and activity wise. The main event was a snorkel trip to one of the coral reefs. Man o' man it was like swimming in an aquarium. We saw fish of all sizes and colors and saw the beauty of the living reef in all it's splendor. The water we snorkeled in was between 3 and 7 feet so we were right on the reef. You are not allowed to...

Apr 18, 2012 - Penny for your thoughts

We drove a whole 35 miles north to Key Largo and without reservations stopped into John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park. I was third in line and we got in! The reservation system said they were full but I overheard the rangers saying they keep a few spots open daily on a first come first served basis. We had planned to snorkel the reef but it has been very windy and both snorkel and scuba were called off for the second day in a row. The weather was still beautiful and we made the most of it. We biked a few miles and walked all three trails...