Cudjoe Key, FL - Feb. 1 - 28, 2010
After a wet and windy drive down the Overseas Highway, we arrived at Venture Out Resort on Cudjoe Key in the midst of a tropical storm. It was raining so hard we had a difficult time finding our way into the resort and finding our site. Since Susan misdirected Bill while parking, she was totally soaked by the time we got properly situated and attached to electricity. Once the rain abated we discovered we had a spacious site with a clear view to the Atlantic. We were very pleased.
Venture Out is a deeded-lot community, meaning the sites are individually owned and rented out either by the owners or a property management company. Like all properties in the Keys, the sites are quite pricey, but the Venture Out sites appear to be larger than most other RV parks we saw. Had the weather been good during our stay it would have been totally worth it, but the 2009/10 winter in Florida was the coldest on record. The cold and the wind kept us from kayaking and limited our snorkeling and biking. Although our Keys experience did not reflect the ambiance portrayed in a Jimmy Buffett song, we still had a good time.
Although we were in a tropical paradise we still had tasks to accomplish - specifically completing the purchase of our new home in Arizona, starting utility services and getting homeowner's insurance. We continued to be amazed at how technology has eased these long-distance tasks. With these duties done - it was time for fun.
We spent a couple of days exploring Key West on foot and by bike, and celebrated Bill's birthday with a brunch at Sarabeth's and a trek to the Southernmost Point in the US. Key West is an entertaining town to explore and we really enjoyed the gracious splendor of the Truman Annex where President Truman's southern White House is located.
Closer to home, we discovered the Boondocks Grille and Drafthouse on Ramrod Key where we spent several happy hours visiting with fellow seasonal residents and listening to live music. The Square Grouper restaurant on Cudjoe Key was within walking distance of our February home and definitely worth the stroll. It has great food and very friendly staff - lunch is very reasonable, but dinner is rather 'spendy'. Another recommendation for great food, friendly staff and funky environment is Sparky's Landing at the Marina in Key Colony, Marathon Key. Key Colony also offers a very pleasant seaside park with a white sand beach - a rare find in the Keys.
On February 13th we attended a Habitat for Humanity charity event and concert at Lazy Lakes RV Resort on Sugarloaf Keys. Unfortunately, it was an extremely cold day. The event was held outdoors on a peninsula that juts out into a bay. The wind coming off the water felt absolutely arctic. We met a generous couple that lives on Marathon Key and they kindly loaned Susan a marine coat. By mid-afternoon it was clear the woman was quite cold so we returned the coat and left just before Jerry Jeff Walker, the guy who wrote the lyrics for Mr. Bojangles, performed.
Out biggest Keys excursion was our trip to Dry Tortugas National Park located 70 miles west of Key West. We sailed two hours from Key West to the Dry Tortugas on the Yankee Freedom, which included breakfast and lunch in the ticket price. Once again it was a rather chilly day for jumping into the sea, but we donned our snorkel gear and gamely entered the water. Fortunately, we had brought our lightweight wet suits so, unlike those in just their swimsuits, we were mostly protected from the cold (65 degree) water.
The Dry Tortugas are noted for its coral reef, which lies just offshore, and its tropical fish. Although the colors were muted by the gray skies, the coral structure was well worth our chilly visit. We snorkeled along the walls of Fort Jefferson to observe the bright tropical fish, then flipped over to the Coal Docks where there were numerous large fish including barracuda and grouper, and a cloud of smaller, silvery fish so dense one couldn't see water between them.
After snorkeling we dried off and explored Fort Jefferson, a massive six-sided fort begun in 1846. Although construction of the fort continued for 30 years it was never completed largely due to changes in weapon technology, which rendered it obsolete by 1862. After the Civil War, the fort was used as a federal prison. Among the prisoners kept there were several of the "Lincoln Conspirators." One of these was Dr. Samuel A. Mudd, the physician who set the broken leg of President Abraham Lincoln's assassin, John Wilkes Booth. In 1867, during an outbreak of Yellow Fever, Dr. Mudd helped prison doctors fight the epidemic. Two years later the physician's sentence was commuted and he was released. The Army abandoned Fort Jefferson in 1874. It was established as Fort Jefferson National Monument in 1935, it was rededicated and renamed Dry Tortugas National Park on October 26, 1992. It is a beautiful fort to explore and imagine how it looked when nearly 2,000 people lived there in the late 19th Century.
Although we were disappointed with the weather, we enjoyed our stay in the Keys. We were scheduled to leave on March 1, but after checking the dismal weather forecast on February 26th we decided to pull in the slides, raise the jacks and get out. So with great anticipation, the next day we started our 2,500-mile trek to check out our new home in Florence, Arizona.
