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2009
To see our complete Photo Album at our
Webshots Site.
To see a summary map of our route,
click here.
November
30
We got our fishing equipment
out and ready. Since we got to Lazy Lakes, we haven’t been fishing. We checked
out the tide report and found that low tide was at 5pm. So we headed out about
230pm to fish off the bridge at
Kemps channel. The best fishing we heard is the
few hours before either high or low tide. Actually if the tide is at 5pm, at
around 4pm to 6pm fishing is really bad. Nothing bites. We did catch 14 fish.
Mostly yellowtail snapper and one Pompano. We cleaned them up and had them for
dinner.
29
Sunday, Football day. But
now Sunday is also
Lazy Lakes Party Day. We will watch the games in the
clubhouse while we enjoy the party. Today there is a band and as always, free
beer and food. We played some horseshoes and enjoyed the music.
28
This morning is cool and sunny. We took a walk around our
lake and stopped at the rec center and visited with some other campers. Then we
hung around the cow. We headed over to
Boondocks at 5pm with Linda. Linda is
the manager at our campground.
Howard Livingston and MM24 are there tonight at
7pm. It’s only 7 miles up the road, but Linda said we need to get there early.
She was right. We got a front table. We met a lot more people and some we
already know. We had a great time. Of course, Howard got out the Johnson motor
to make margaritas.
27
Today we took a nice walk past the KOA and
back about 3 miles. We saw some
Ibis
birds.
26
Happy
Thanksgiving! It’s been storming the last few days and is still overcast
but warm today. We took a walk around our lake and it was as calm as looking
into a mirror. We took some photos showing the reflections in the water. We
are having Thanksgiving potluck at the campground. We decided to bring our
pistachio fruit salad and rolls. We could only find the rolls you had to bake.
Since we’ve had our cow in 2002, we have never used the oven. But no big deal
to heat rolls, right? Yea Right! So we got it started. We’ll we have no
cookware, so we lined the rack with foil, no problem. We also don’t have a hot
plate or mitts. So we used our dish cloths. We’ll one problem, they have a
plastic scrubber on one end. That melted. The cutting board we used as a place
to set the hot rack is also plastic, that started to melt. Some rolls fell off
the rack and started smoking in the oven.
About 1/3
got burned. So anyway, it all worked out. However, I don’t think we’ll be
ever using the oven again. We had a nice Thanksgiving and of course ate too
much. Afterward, we stayed around the rec center with a few people and had some
wine. Nice Day!
25
Overnight we have had lots of
thunder, lightning and rain. This morning our buddy Chip was knocking on our
door at 645am to go for a walk. We said it’s too early and to go away. Then we
got up and had our coffee and Chip was back with his small, small rowboat with a
small outboard motor. He wanted John to go out fishing with him. Once again we
said no thanks. Half the time he takes his boat out, he has to get towed back
in. Today it’s still raining and we have some more big storms expected. So no
way. We hope he makes it back. We are going to take a drive and check out some
fishing spots.
24
We had coffee on our
verandah and then John and Chip headed out for a long walk. They are walking to
the burned out bridge which is 6 miles round trip. Well about 30 minutes later
I saw Chip and asked where John was. Chip only made it 1 mile then got a ride
back on a golf cart. John went the whole 6 miles. When he got back we helped
Traci move her plants and then went to the pool. John and Chip played some
horseshoes. There are quite a few characters here and we need to keep our
distance.
23
This morning is laundry then we headed over to the pool.
We had an early dinner then took a walk to Mangrove Mama’s for happy hour. We
met George and Darlene there. Their son, Dustin is the bartender.
22
John is washing Red today. He is also repotting the
plant. I am working on some TCI stuff and then we have football.
21
I’m starting to feel better, still not 100% but better.
This morning we headed to Key West. We stopped at Denny’s for breakfast. I got
a haircut and we did some grocery shopping. When we got back we headed over to
the pool. Our buddy Chip joined us. We took a walk over to the KOA for happy
hour. It’s about 1 mile each way.
20
I’m feeling much better. We took a short walk around
campground. Then went to the pool to soak up some much needed rays. We turned
on some music and had sundowners at the cow, our buddies Chip and Mark stopped
by. Chip showed us some great card tricks. After a while Mark left then we
grounded ourselves. If we didn’t, Chip would stay all night.
19
I’m still not
feeling good. I have a terrible cough, so I went to a doctor. Hopefully the
medicine she gave me will help. John putted around the campsite and I took it
easy.
16 - 18
I'm doing better but still not great so I'm just taking it easy.
I am ready to start feeling better. The question is when is that going to
happen. We did go to the pool to soak up some rays and maybe that will
help my cold.
15
I'm starting to feel a little better but not 100% yet. We hung around the
cow until 1pm when we went over to the clubhouse. Today the park is having it's
weekly Sunday
Afternoon Party. DJ Dwayne, sloppy joes and a keg. Everyone just
brings a dish. John played horseshoes and I met lots of our new neighbors. We
had a good time and headed back to the cow around 6pm. I’m still not feeling
well, so I had a couch evening.
12-14
I came down with a bad cold. John did stuff
around the cow and I did napped on the couch.
11
This morning is warm, but overcast with drizzle. I am troubleshooting our
internet connection. We took a drive around our new area and then came back and
John did some reading and I worked on photos and our website.
10
Today is a domestic day at our campground. I did some laundry, bills and worked
on pictures. John organized and set everything up outside and in our storage
area.
9
This morning Jim and Diane are heading home and we are “On the Road Again”. We
are moving 15 miles up the road to our winter campground. We are hunkering down
in Sugarloaf Key for the winter. Mark is heading back to Ft. Myers on the 6pm
ferry boat, so he helped us to make our move. We got all set up and took a walk
and met a few of the other campers. Then we headed back to Key West and had
dinner at the Half Shell Restaurant at the wharf. Mark caught his boat, we
stopped for groceries and now we are done. We went back to the cow and relaxed.
8
We all went to Camilla’s for breakfast. Then we came back to our campground for
a while to exchange photos. We went to pick up Jim and Diane’s car and then
parked at the BW and started walking to the
Blue
Heaven for the songwriters showcase.
Howard
Livingston, Sunny Jim, Jerry Diaz, Jim Hoen and more were there. About 6pm we
headed over to the
Green
Parrott to see Bill Wharton the Sauce Boss. He is just great. We stayed
for the whole show and even got a few bowls of his gumbo. It was windy and a
little rain. We were on the outskirts of Hurricane Ida. We walked back to the
BW and we were done.
7
Mark, John and I stopped at Denny’s for breakfast. Today is
Beach
day at the Casa. We set up our chairs on the beach and listened to The
Sunny
Jim Band and
Jim
Morris and the Big Bamboo Band.
We took a walk down
to Margaritaville and had drinks and appetizers. We met Sherry and Rick and
others from the MAPA at
Willy
T’s. We went to
Captain
Tonys for a cocktail and then headed back to the Casa to see
Little
Feat. It was a great concert. We headed back and we were done.
6
After a late night we got going a little later. We headed over to Jim and
Diane’s and walked down Duval and stopped at an Irish Pub for a beer. Then we
continued on to Duval and Fleming outside of Margaritaville where the
Street
party is playing.
Jerry
Diaz and Hanna’s Reef were playing when we got there, Then
Howard
Livingston and MM24. Jim and Diane headed back to the hotel for a while and
Mark, John and I stayed at the street party.
We headed to the
Bottle
cap lounge and met Jim and Diane there. We saw
Tall
Paul and Crawdaddy. Then on to
Green
Parrot to see Bill Wharton the Sauce Boss.
We stayed for the first set and then stopped for hot dogs. We got home around
1am.
5
Today is the start of MOTM – Meetings of the Minds. This is the biggest
Parrothead Party in the country. The main events are held at the
Casa
Marina Resort. We hung out on beach enjoying the music. We set up our
chairs on the
beach
by the main stage. We could here the music from the other stage, but we got to
watch and hear the sound checks for tonight’s big show on the main stage.
We had
Nadirah
Shakoor walk by. She is with the Coral Reefer Band. She stopped to say Hi
to Jim. Jim did security at a special function at Alpine Valley this summer and
escorted her and other Coral Reefers to the function. She autographed his shirt
and had to head on. We also saw Robert Greenidge, Michael Utley and others.
We headed out
around 3pm and took the shuttle to Westin Docks to catch the
Fury
Sunset Cruise for the Great Lakes Region Parrotheads. We met a lot of
people from MAPA, Milwaukee Area Parrothead Association. Matt Wahl played
guitar and harmonica. Afterward we stopped at Sloppy Joes for a cocktail and
then took the shuttle back to Casa for
The Boat
Drunks and
Club
Trini Bands. Club Trini is made up of mostly Coral Reefers.
4
Since we had bait, John and Mark did some morning
fishing
and I explored the campground. I met some other parrotheads. Jim and Diane
were driving down from Miami and we met them at the Key West airport so they
could drop off their car.
We drove to
there hotel, the Best Western Hibiscus on Simonton. It’s a nice hotel, free
parking (so that’s where we parked Big Red), a nice pool and big rooms.
We walked
over to the
Casa
Marina Resort. Today there are a few bands and we want to check them out.
Then we took a shuttle to the
Conch
Republic Seafood Company. They had a band playing, parrothead drink
specials and a parrothead welcome party. When we left there, we took a long
walk down Duval. We stopped at
Ricks
for a few drinks. Jim and Diane decided to head back to the hotel. Mark, John
and I continued on Duval. We stopped at
801
Bourbon. John and I have been here a few times. They have good drink
specials, and it’s a great people watching gay bar. Tonight they have a Drag
Queen Show and they offered us free tickets, so we headed up. It was fun and we
had a good time. Mark really enjoyed it. We ended up getting back to the
campground around 2am.
3
We headed out early this morning to Ramrod Key and
Looe Key
Diving and Tiki Bar. We were heading out on their Looe Key Reef Trip. John
and I went snorkeling and Mark was teamed up with Jody and went Scuba Diving.
We could not dive since we haven’t in the last 2 years. We had a great day.
The water was as clear and calm as glass and the sun was out so the visibility
was great. We had 3 different stops on the reef with about an hour water time
at each stop. The last stop was at Shark Alley. Mark and John both saw
sharks. I did see one on the way in.
When we got
back we headed over to the
Tiki Bar
for a couple cocktails and taco’s. We headed back to the campground and stopped
for bait. We all went out fishing for a while. After a bit, I headed back and
John and Mark was still fishing. They caught a few, but no keepers.
2
On the road again – we don’t have far to travel today. We were out of Breezy
Pines at mile marker 30 by 8am. We were setup and on our site by 10am at mile
marker 5, Boyd’s Campground.
We left
to go pick up our friend Mark. He is taking the ferry from Ft. Myers to
Key West. We
met Kat and DJ Jeff at the pier and dropped them at their condo. Then we headed
to the wharf area and walked around. We saw some huge Tarpon right at the
docks. Then we stopped in at
Schooner Wharf
to listen to Michael McCloud. We
went down to Duval to just see what we could find. I have been wanting a tattoo
but decided against it. I did get a palm tree henna tattoo. Hennas last about
2 weeks.
We
stopped at Cowboy Bills for a while and then decided to try to make it to
Mallory Square for sunset. We went to Sunset Pier and made it just as the sun
was disappearing below the horizon. They had a small band and the full moon was
rising. We headed back to Boyd's and took a walk over to Hogfish Bar and Grill
for dinner. After dinner we sat outside for a while.
1
Today is our day before
departure and football. So we are packing everything up, then enjoying
football.
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