Time marches on!

February 25 2016

Life goes on here in South Florida, nothing really exciting to write about. The most interesting events being our visit to HM-69, a Nike missile site and going to the theater to see West Side Story.

One day last week Millie and I drove over to the west side of Florida City to find a produce stand we had been told about. Called “Robert is here” the market's name originated in the 1950's when 6 year old Robert was left on the corner to sell produce from his families farm. Probably no less than one half dozen government agencies would be all over you if that happened today.

Anyhow it has morphed into a roadside attraction with a small zoo, kids water splash park, and exotic flavored milk shakes. I was most impressed by the signage in the produce section that describes the flavor and texture of the exotic fruits and vegetables that most of us have never seen or heard of.

One old goat feeding another

After our produce stand visit we continued west to the Everglades National park. Driving through the Everglades it looks like expansive fields broken by hammocks of trees. Closer examination reveals the pastures are covered with water. That said, most of the recreation in this park is boat oriented. Kayaking is probably the biggest participation sport.

The Everglades

There are a few hiking trails on the high ground, that would be one to four feet above sea level. There are an untold number of residents in the park that want to eat you. Visitors are warned to wear protective clothing and use of repellents. That's for insects, you're on your own with the crocodiles, alligators, rattle snakes, panthers and Burmese pythons.

 

Yes, that is a live crocodile! 

 

Cold war era nuclear missle site in the Everglades

While in the park we detoured on a side road to a deactivated missile site, arriving just in time to join the guided tour. This relic of the cold war housed Nike Hercules missiles armed with nuclear warheads. The plan was a 40 kiloton air burst from the Nike would take out the entire fleet of Russian bombers coming from Cuba.

Nike missile

If the idea of bombs three times the size of Hiroshima's going off somewhere overhead wasn't scary enough; the base commanders, mostly young army captains had authorization to launch the nukes if the enemy was seen approaching our coast. The reasoning was we are so close to Cuba there wouldn't be time to get permission to launch from the chain of command.

Our tour group at the Missile site

Seriously now, the air defenders of south Florida regularly saw Soviet and Cuban piloted MIGs on their radar screens and it is only through their skill and restraint there was never a knee jerk launch of nuclear nightmare. Our Cold War veterans deserve a lot of credit and our thanks for protecting us during that time.

We recommend touring the Nike base if you ever get to south Florida. You have to go during the colder seasons, Everglades National Park is closed in the summer, too many blood sucking insects. Now that's scary!

On Sunday we went to Coral Gables to the Actors Playhouse theater. It is in the downtown area known as the Miracle Mile and features high end shopping and fine dining. Don't ask me how, because I don't have a clue, but I was able to purchase two front row tickets for the final performance of the musical classic, West Side Story. 

The setting is on the west side of New York City in the last days of summer, 1957. The musical explores the rivalry between the Jets and the Sharks, two teenage street gangs of different ethnic backgrounds. The Sharks are the new kids on the block and are from Puerta Rico. The Jets are a white gang who are not happy about the newcomers to the neighborhood.

West Side Story

Of course there has to be a love interest to complicate things and that is provided when Tony, a former member of the Jets and best friend of the gang leader, Riff, falls in love with Maria, the sister of Bernardo, the leader of the Sharks. The dark themed story of cultural clash and forbidden love does not have a happy ending, other than the presumption of an end to the rivalry between the gangs.

Riff and Maria

West side story has been around for a long time and has been presented from the Broadway stage to a Hollywood movie and just about everywhere in between. In our humble opinions, The Actors theater production was about as good as can be, we enjoyed it.

Millie and our tour guide at the Miami-Homestead NASCAR track

Around town; we've gone shopping in a Hispanic grocery store called Sedona's, eaten out a couple times (Sonny's BBQ and Cracker Barrel), Washed and waxed the motorhome, taken the Jeep to the dealer for service, took a tour of the Homestead-Miami Speedway, went exploring to the parks on the coast east of Homestead. Mostly we read, ride our bikes and enjoy life in the tropics.

Ordinary Living

February 12 2016

Its hard to believe but we're almost half way through our month here in Southern Florida. It's not that we've been busy, to the contrary, life has been rather ordinary. Millie and I haven't done anything exciting or adventurous, just normal everyday activities. That makes writing a blog worth reading a challenge and probably the reason I've been procrastinating.

Our February home

Our campground in Florida City is about as far south as you can go and keep your feet dry. The causeway to the Keys starts about a half mile from here. Billed as an “RV Resort” our February home is really just your basic RV park. Its not fancy but not shabby either, All the RV's are parked in rows like a trailer park but there is a decent amount of room between the campers. Our fellow snowbirds are a mix of Americans and both English and French Canadians, we're all very happy to be here. Millie and I like it well enough that we've made reservations for next winter.

The town of Florida City and the adjacent city of Homestead are fairly........nondescript. They're not tourist towns, have some shabby areas, nicer communities near the Air Base but none I would call affluent, the businesses seem to be doing OK. I imagine the economy of the area has seasonal ebbs and flows with snowbirds in winter and during race weeks at the Homestead-Miami Speedway.

The other big wave maker to the local economy is the Air Force Base, which has been part of the community since WW2. Busy during times of strife, slow during peace. the base also has the dubious distinction of being destroyed twice by hurricanes, once in 1945 and again in 1992. It is currently the home of the 482^nd Fighter Wing, assigned to the Air Force Reserve Command's Tenth Air Force. My brother Dave was stationed here in the 70's after a tour of duty in Thailand.

We discovered something interesting about the Keys that I'd bet most visitors don't know, and its not that the southern most point marker is not actually at the southern most point of the keys. Did you know there are two bridges from the mainland to the island chain? Everybody knows about Highway One, the only thru road in the keys that goes all the way to mile marker Zero in Key west. Just before Hwy One leaves the mainland there is another road to the Keys. Card Sound Road angles off to the left and runs as straight as an arrow to the eastern end of Key Largo. It is desolate most of the way, the only thing on its 20 mile length is a toll bridge and a bar called Alabama Jacks.

We traveled this alternate route and had hoped to explore the development on the end of the island. That didn't happen, my good looks and charming personality weren't enough to get us past the guarded entrance to the Ocean Reef Club. An internet search later revealed the homes in the gated community range in cost up to about 10 million. Their loss, we would have been great neighbors!

There is a open air market just up Highway one from the campground that is about the best Cuban cultural experience you can get without actually going to Cuba. The vendors and patrons are almost all Hispanic, mostly Cuban. All of the food vendors serve cuisine from somewhere south of the USA. You can't buy a hot dog or french fries here. Spanish is the language of choice but most of the people we spoke with know some English. We've been twice and both times I don't think we saw more than a dozen people of some other ethnicity and that includes both blacks and whites.

We had lunch today at a local BBQ joint called Shiver's, it's been in business since 1950. You are seated family style at long picnic tables, the food was very good. Afterwards we drove by the entrance to Homestead Air Force Base, Security is very heavy, I didn't even try to talk my way in. Years ago I drove up to the gate at Hunter AAF, said I used to be stationed here and just wanted to look around. No problem, they let me and I drove all over the base. Those days are gone forever. Next week we are going to go to the Homestead Speedway and take a tour of the racetrack. We walk, ride bikes, sit in the sun, Maggie plays in her pool, that's about all I can think of, just ordinary living.

Sometimes things just don't go as planned

Monday February 1 2016

We had packed most everything and prepared for departure as much as we could on Sunday afternoon, so leaving was pretty quick on Monday morning. We only had about 300 miles to run and most of that was on the interstate but there were two stops scheduled.

Heading south

Stop one was Flying J for fuel, convenient to our route on the interstate it only took a few minutes. Stop two was to visit my brother John and his wife Sandy at their new home in Jensen Beach. They both celebrated birthdays the previous week so we took a birthday cake and enjoyed visiting with them and seeing their new winter home.

John and Sandy's Florida house

On the road again we continued south on I-95. In hindsight we should have shifted over to the Florida turnpike because as the afternoon progressed the traffic got pretty heavy. I-95 ends in Miami and then it is city driving on Hwy One. It was never to the point of gridlock but it did extend the time of the trip.

Elks Lodge in the Keys

We arrived at the Elks Lodge on Tavernier just in time to join the other RV'ers at the beach to watch the sun set over Florida Bay. Afterwards we parked the bus and hooked up just the electric so we could run the air conditioner. We planned on settling in the next morning and had made arrangements to meet the camp host to pay for the site.

Our site in the driveway

There is something adventurous about staying in the Keys and we had been looking forward to it for months. Unfortunately, the Elks Lodge RV park wasn't living up the the dream. Living in the keys is a laid back affair but our parking arrangement was beyond anything we would call laid back. Our motorhome was parked in the entrance drive of the campground. Our bedroom was about 150 feet from Hwy one and traffic never really stops on the only road thru the Keys. Delivery trucks start making their runs down the island chain in the wee hours of the morning. By morning we had decided we couldn't stay here for a month. Besides the precarious parking and the traffic noise, there was no walking or biking path in the area and several other issues.

Tuesday Feb 2 2016.

I met with the camp host and told her we couldn't stay, we rolled up the power cord and away we went. Knowing we would be hard pressed to find accommodations in the keys without reservations we headed back to the main land.

Back to the mainland

Back in Homestead we accessed the list of area campgrounds in our GPS and started driving to each of them. The first couple either didn't look appealing or they had no vacancy. Southern Comfort RV park looked OK and they had room for us so we signed on for a week.

As we drove to our assigned sight I started noticing that sites that had been vacated that morning had deep tire tracks. Under the grass the parking sites are soft black soil, probably great for growing tomatoes, it was not the ideal ground for parking motorhomes.

I almost made it. About four feet shy of centering the motorhome on the site the rear tires started spinning. I had experienced the almost exact same condition many years ago and knew to just stop as it would dig a hole real quick if I pressed forward. Using the leveling jacks I lifted the rear tires, shoveled out in front of them and inserted some plywood from my lumber collection. (My friend Stanley Crisco will be proud, he carries tools and materials for any contingency)

Our stay did not start out so well

I had to repeat the jacking, digging and shimming process three times before I got the RV onto the site. We're parked, utilities hooked up, and all is right with our world. We set up Maggie's wading pool and let her play, going round and round biting bubbles. Shes already attracted the attention of passersby, she's a great conversation starter!

Maggie in her swimming pool

PS: Hopefully the rains will subside and the ground will dry up before our departure!

Wednesday Feb 3 2016

This morning as we started wandering around the campground I noticed several sites that were a lot nicer than the muddy one I was assigned yesterday. When I checked in was under the assumption that the site given was the only one available. I think what happened was the clerk assumed I needed a 50 amp service and she gave me the last one. Our motorhome only has a 30 amp service so I asked and received permission to move up the street to a drier site. It is also on the perimeter with no one behind us.

Our new site at Southern Comfort RV Resort

Wrapping up the month in Titusville

January 31 2016. 

Our first month in Florida has come to an end. Millie loved the rustic Manatee Hammock campground. She prefers natural wooded environments over resort style RV Parks. I like both campground styles but our stay at Manatee Hammock was less than perfect for me. It wasn't the campground I didn't like, January was mostly overcast, cool, sometimes rainy and the campground is heavily shaded, I would have liked more sunshine. 

Our visit to the Manatee winter quarters was one of our “list” items completed, two others will have to wait for another time. We had planned on taking a ride on an air boat, and an open cockpit biplane, but the weather never cooperated. We did get together a second time with our friends Tyler and Nancy; we met for breakfast at Mitchell's Family restaurant and if we had talked any longer we would have had to stay for lunch. 

During the last deluge of rain we discovered two leaks in the motorhome. One was thru the drivers side window, I think I have fixed that one. The second required a trip to camping world to purchase materials to reseal the bathroom shower skylight. I will remove and reset the skylight as soon as we have a weather window with no rain.

At the Titusville Playhouse

On the last Friday in town we went to the Titusville Playhouse to see a production of the musical “Hairspray”. What a hoot it was, we really enjoyed the coming of age story of Tracy Tumbald in 1962 Baltimore.