Author: Easin' Along

Helen and I visited Key West for one day about four years ago when the weather in Marathon Key was too cold and windy for beach activities. The weather in Key West on that same day was only slightly better, but we were able to get enough of a feel for the city to know that a return visit was warranted. We made it back this year with an RV in tow and the intent to explore.

In last week’s post we gave you a taste of the town as well as the Conch Train Tour which helped us identify the spots we wanted to explore in-depth later. This week, we’ll take readers through a few of those spots. Ease Along with us as we determine whether Key West has more to offer than nightlife and rum bars.

One of the first things you notice in Key West is the architecture.  As a former home builder, I found the homes fascinating and very appealing.  Moreover, in a city with a history of serious hurricanes, I found it interesting that so many of the old homes had survived. I learned later that Key West has over 3,000 homes built from 1886 to 1912 and they are considered a national treasure. Distinct characteristics of the old homes are deep, covered porches, louvered window shutters, and pastel colors reflecting a Caribbean influence. In later years, ship captains and cigar makers built some of the large mansions and included unique details such as gingerbread accents. I wanted to go inside all of them.

We did tour one home on the island, the home of Ernest Hemingway, the famous author and sportsman, who lived on Key West from 1931 to 1939. “Papa” Hemingway completed seventy percent of his works while living in Key West including Farewell to Arms and For Whom the Bell Tolls.

The huge home is open every day for tours.  Our tour guide did an excellent job of sharing Hemingway’s life and lifestyle during his years in Key West including stories about his wives, lady friends, and drinking buddies. We visited his writing studio where the author wrote every morning from 6 am until noon, producing 500 to 700 words a day.  He would then walk to one of the nearby bars like Sloppy Joes, and carry on with some of his pals until late in the evening.

Of particular interest in the home was the fifty-three cats, most with six toes and descendants of Hemingway’s first cat, Snowball.  The cats had free reign over the house and property and are federally protected. Most of the cats seemed completely unafraid of people and loved the attention.  My favorite was the cat I found sleeping above the gutter on Hemingway’s studio. I once had a six-toed cat, Wilbur, who lived with us for seventeen years and was as laid-back as any of these.  I’m certain he has a spot on the family tree.

Helen and I also visited the Butterfly and Nature Conservancy near the southernmost point of the island. We obtained our discounted tickets from the Recreation office on the Key West NAS (Military Living.com readers take note). The exhibit consists of a large greenhouse filled with tropical plants, birds, and hundreds of colorful butterflies. Once inside, a patron became surrounded by butterflies as they flew from plant to plant and even from person to person. One large butterfly landed on Helen’s face and seemed quite content to remain.

The birds attracted a lot of attention due to their bright colors.  I got very close to a Yellow-Legged Honey Creeper and captured the image shown here as well as a plumed fellow that I cannot identify. Readers, please help me with this one. Two Flamingos named Scarlet and Rhett patrolled the small flowing stream inside the exhibit. Note: A reader identified the bird as an African Turaco. Thanks!

In addition to sight-seeing, Helen and our friend Sally, rented three-wheel bicycles for some exercise and a few errands. She loved the trike and we may have to invest in one for future RV trips. We also located a nice beach near the Key West Naval Station and Fort Zachary Taylor State Park. After our first trip to the area, we were a bit dismayed that there seemed to be no real beaches for sun or swim.  We learned differently on this trip and will include more beach time when we return.

By the time we packed up to leave Key West, I was not ready to go. We had enjoyed perfect weather and had discovered so many sites and attractions that appeal to Helen and me and can honestly say that, without question, Key West is more than nightlife and rum bars. I am eagerly looking forward to Easin’ Along back here at the first opportunity.

Thanks for stopping by.

Author’s note: Easin’ Along took a break last week to move my mother into a Senior Living Center. Moving her in was a breeze but, moving her stuff and cleaning out the house was a long, laborious process. So, a word to my friends who have put off downsizing…get it done. Now, let’s enjoy Key West, Florida.

The drive from West Palm Beach, Florida to Key West is a four hour trip under normal driving conditions, but towing a fifth-wheel trailer adds an hour and heavy traffic on a two-lane road can increase the travel time even more. Nevertheless, the scenery along the Overseas Highway (U. S. 1) is stunning and passing through each of the Keys increased the anticipation and excitement for our visit in the days ahead.

Helen and I visited the island about three years ago when we spent a week on Marathon Key.  I remember that we drove down for a one-day visit, but the weather did not cooperate fully.  The wind howled and the temperatures hovered in the low 50’s dropping the “feels-like” temperature into the 40’s. We began this trip with sunny skies and a forecast for temperatures above 70 degrees during our entire stay.

Our destination was the Naval Air Station on Trumbo Point. The original plan was to camp at the military campground at Sigsbee Navy Base, but that proved to be impossible. Reservations for winter camping in Florida can be a very tough ticket to come by and any accommodation in Key West during January is difficult to find and expensive as well. Fortunately, we secured a reservation for one of the townhomes on Trumbo when a cancellation made it available. We would be there for eight days. Military Living readers should note that the reservation policy for the campground has changed recently and campers should have a better opportunity for securing a campsite.

The townhome, while old, was very nice and, since we had an extra room, we invited Sally and Rod, our old Army friends from Kansas, to join us.  They have been coming to Key West every year for many years and keep a sailboat in a marina there. They usually reserve a condo in February, but accepted our invitation and came early to join us and hopefully take us sailing around the Keys.

During the day, Sally and Rod would go to the marina to work on the sailboat leaving Helen and me to explore the city. We decided to take a city tour and obtained discount tickets for the Conch Tour Train through the recreation office on the Navy Base. The tour was a great start to our visit.  Key West is approximately two miles wide by four miles long and filled with beautiful old homes and shops dating back to the earlier periods when merchant ships wrecked on the coral reefs off the island and pirates robbed ships of its treasure.

Duval Street runs through the heart of the city and it is where the fun takes place. Helen and I spent a lot of time walking the street and poking our heads into the shops and the galleries. We ate lunch at the famous Sloppy Joe’s, where Ernest Hemingway came to relax and drink after a long day of writing. A crowd filled the tavern to listen to the piano player belt out a few tunes while we ate a Sloppy Joe sandwich.   We learned on the Conch Tour that the original Sloppy Joe’s was a couple of blocks away and renamed Captain Tony’s.  On another day, we walked to Garbo’s Grill, a food truck we learned about while watching Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives.

Unfortunately, I can’t remember what we ate at the diner, but I do remember that we had fun feeding several of the chickens and roosters that are everywhere in the city.  We also had the birds living around our townhome that started crowing every morning around 5:30 to make sure we knew they were hungry. One huge rooster came to visit us every day, so I bought some scratch feed to throw out for his meals.  The other roosters would come over for food, but this bully would chase them away, and only let his girlfriends, the Rhode Island Reds, join him at the table.

Some friends told us before we left, to be sure and visit Alonzo’s, a bar and restaurant at one of the marinas for Happy Hour…good suggestion.  Appetizers are half-price and beverages discounted substantially. The four of us took advantage and made a big meal out of appetizers.  That might have been the night I got my tattoo, I really can’t remember.

 

I do remember that we visited Mallory Square that night to take in the sunset. The crowd arrived before we did, and forced us to muscle our way in to take pictures. The sunset was worth the effort. I enjoyed seeing the kayaks and water bikes in front of us as well as the beautiful boats in full sail. Stunning is the best way I know how to describe the scene.

We did discover that there is more in this place than nightlife, T-shirts, and rum bars, and certainly more than I can put into one blog post.  We also discovered a love for this place and are certain to return next year. Please come back next week and I’ll take you to the Hemingway Home, the Butterfly Conservatory, and some fun recreational opportunities.

Until then, we’ll leave you Easin’ Along, somewhere along Duval Street in Key West, where (paraphrasing Papa) the sun also sets…I just might buy a T-shirt.

Lake Kissimmee State Park is the next stop on our march to the Florida Keys. Helen and I booked a week’s stay in this delightful campground in the center of “Old Florida.” We made the reservation eleven months earlier after my sister let us know that she and her husband were successful in obtaining a campsite large enough for their motorhome. I hung up the phone and immediately and made reservations for the campsite next to them. In addition to being RVers, LeAnn and Marty are a lot of fun, and we looked forward to this trip since the day we booked it.

The drive from our previous campground, Camp Blanding National Guard Training Center, was without incident, and it offered scenery we don’t see often. Once we left the main highway, we passed miles and miles of orange groves and little else except for the occasional abandoned shack or general store. The roads narrowed to two lanes with many sandy, unpaved paths leading from the pavement into hundreds of acres of oranges. We resisted the urge to drive into them. The fruits were ripe and ready for picking. We arrived late in the afternoon, signed in, parked Lucy in a spacious campsite, and settled in for a week under Spanish Moss draped from very sizeable Live Oak trees.

Helen and I had not spent a lot of time prepping Lucy for this trip and used our first full day at Lake Kissimmee, getting organized and giving Lucy an excellent general cleaning. We had no cell phone service and no wi-fi in the campground, which enhanced our serene surroundings greatly, but it also meant that we had to scramble to find a means to watch our Tennessee Volunteers square off with Indiana in the Gator Bowl. I hung a Tennessee banner from Lucy’s awning then drove to the campground office to ask about the nearest wi-fi connection. Fortunately, wi-fi was available at the marina about two miles away. The four of us cheered the Volunteers on to a victory while streaming the game on our MacBook. Although Marty and LeAnn moved to the Florida coast many years ago, they remain avid Volunteer fans, and our cheers echoed across the Lake with every score for our side.

Lake Kissimmee State Park is home to large numbers of deer and other wildlife. We spotted Bald Eagles almost every day. On one of our hikes, we came upon a bare tree filled with huge turkey buzzards. I referred to the gathering as a “Memorial Service” because I was confident that these creatures were waiting on something to die in the fields below so they could enjoy a nice dinner.

Early one morning (for us), Marty knocked on the door of Lucy, and when Helen opened it, she was greeted by three enormous wild turkeys that followed Marty from their campsite. The turkeys were scratching the ground outside our trailer and seemed unconcerned about having humans among them. Feeding wildlife is against Park’s regulations, so we let them fend for themselves, but these boys seemed too comfortable, and I am sure they have had a meal or two from previous campers.

On one of the few times we left the campground, we drove about twenty miles to Lake Wales, Florida, to spend an afternoon in Bok Tower Gardens, a top-rated tourist destination…one that I never heard of. The creator and benefactor of the gardens, Mr. Edward Bok, an immigrant from the Netherlands, was the editor of Ladies Home Journal and later Curtis Publishing Company as well as a Pulitzer Prize-winning author. He purchased approximately 500 acres  of property in Lake Wales for a winter home and had Fredrick Law Olmstead  design a garden and bird sanctuary on the property. Mr. Olmstead originally did the design work for Central Park in New York City and later, Biltmore House in Asheville, NC, among other notable accomplishments. We joined a tour of the gardens and Mr. Bok’s home—still decorated for the Christmas season. The entire property was stunning. Bok Tower, the centerpiece of the gardens, was surrounded by beautiful ponds and pools of water as well as flowering shrubs that offered blooms at every turn along the paths. The Camellias were in full bloom.Sadly, Mr. Bok died eleven months after the completion of the gardens, but the family continues to keep it open. Thank you, Bok family.

We wrapped up a week at Lake Kissimmee with a hike through Cow Camp, a replica of a camp established to corral wild cattle left by early Florida settlers. A picture of the old Camp and cattle pen is shown here. The weather was perfect for the hike and for our entire stay at Lake Kissimmee as well and was a good test for my healing knee after joint replacement.

I’m closing now. This post was hastily written because we have been so busy on this trip that finding time for well-crafted blog posts was challenging. Please forgive me for that and do come back. We’re on our way to Key West to do some sailing with some old and dear friends, and I look forward to sharing that with you. But, for now, we’re just Easin’ Along.