Saturday January 20, 2024 - Today we rode our bikes in search of T-shirts and stickers.
the mermaid and the pirate
don't eat me!
Sunday January 21, 2024 - First the first time since we got to John Pennekamp SP (11 days ago) we drove the RV. It's been great to be able to ride our bikes everywhere, but we're wanting to do a few things on Islamorada, which is about 20 miles south of here. Since we were driving by the Community Center where we play pickleball, we decided to stop and play a few games. Next we drove down the Overseas Highway to Windley Key State Park, which was an old limestone quarry. There were multiple interpretive trails in the SP, and we enjoyed reading from the guide they let us borrow at the ranger station. I had heard about a local farmers' market that we hit next and then the Florida Keys Brewing Co, which had a great beer garden and live music!
You can see the walls of the limestone quarry behind us. The limestone was used by Henry Flagler in the early 1900s to build the overseas railroad connecting mainland Florida with Key West. The keys are made up of limestone from ancient coral reefs, so there was plenty of limestone for the project
fossilized coral
remnants of the railroad
Kevin was feeling hot, so hugged a gumbo limbo tree to cool off
pretty saw palmettos along the trail
We parked in front of these cool painted fish at the Farmers Market, it's another breezy day, as you can see from the flag.
Kevin found a tomato, at the farmers market, for our burgers tomorrow
Florida Keys Brewing. Each of the tap handles is a mermaid.
Beer in the beer garden. There weren't any open tables, so we sat with a couple who had just moved to Islamorada from Phoenix in the last year. It was interesting to chat with them about what it's like to live in the Keys
Tiny in front of the Brew Pub
Monday January 22, 2024 -
Our usual morning walk, 1.5 miles around the state park
we think it's a frigate flying overhead
It's a yellow flag day, 20 mph winds all day
burgers and hot dogs on the grill
Tuesday January 23, 2024 - Today's our last day at John Pennekamp, so we wanted to get a final day of pickleball in. We don't know when we'll find such a great place to play. We did laundry, shopping and made one last trip to the Caribbean Club for happy hour and a sunset
It was a busy day at pickleball, you can see Mary in the orange shirt got out her megaphone, to call out names for open courts. We're going to miss Key Largo pickleball!
Wednesday January 24, 2024 - One last morning at John Pennekamp. Our next campground is in the Everglades National Park. We have 3 nights booked at Long Pine Key Campground (which we've stayed at 2 other times when we're in the area). We stopped at Walmart in Homestead to stock up on groceries and then we stopped at "Robert is Here", the huge fruit stand a few minutes from the entrance to the Everglades. It's known for its milkshakes, and the last time we were here, the line was too long, so this time, we got to try out the shakes.
Our last morning walk past Far Beach
At lunch we completed our 800th NYT crossword puzzle!
Kevin loves bananas
Chocolate milkshake for me and Key lime milkshake for Kev
Kevin rigged up this holder for the cute butterfly we bought at the farmers market. It's a bookshelf bracket that he added a couple of our heavy duty magnets to. The tail on the butterfly twirls in the wind, which seems to be always present in Florida.
look at the face on that butterfly
an evening walk through the campground
the moon over our campsite
Thursday January 25, 2024 - After lunch today, we rode our bikes to the Royal Palms Visitor Center. The main road through the Everglades doesn't have any shoulder to ride our bikes on and is quite busy, so we wanted to go for a ride, but didn't want to be out there in traffic. We noticed on the hiking map that there was a trail that went out the back of the campground and met up with a dead-end road that leads to the visitor center. There are two loop hikes at Royal Palms which we wanted to hike, so we decided to ride our bikes for some extra exercise. It was a 9 mile round trip ride, and Research Rd ended up being a great road to ride on, with very few cars.
The .5 mile trail out the back of the campground
Anhinga Trail
A cormorant
Our first alligator in the Everglades
The old Ingraham Highway that was the first road built between Homestead and Flamingo. It took from 1915-1922 to build the road and even then it was unpaved. The original reason for building the road (and canal that ran alongside the road), was to drain and develop the land. Naturalists (and visitors) also used the road to explore the area.
Gumbo Limbo trees, on the Gumbo Limbo Trail
One of the many Royal Palms that the Royal Palm Visitor Center was named for
The ride back to the campground
Back on the trail to the campground
front row seat for the sunset
