Happy Holidays from The Florida Keys

Most of the boaters here at the marina decorated their boat for Christmas. Here are a few photos.

We did a Holiday trip to key West and found these baby bibs and T-shirt in a shop on Duval. Click to enlarge.

Mandy tried on some designer sun glasses.

 I found a T-shirt with my name on it. There are more pets named MAX than people. Go outside your home and yell "MAX" and ten dogs and a gerbil will come running. Here in KW ten gerbils and a dog will come running.

 Mandy meets an inflatable friend on the beach of Key West. Anything goes here
We stopped to visit the church where we were married; St Paul Episcopal Church on Duval Street. If you enlarge the photo, you might see some of the images in the stained glass.

 I met this angry fellow. Thirty years ago he would have been my Christmas dinner. "Roosters roasting on an open fire, your words here dripping from his beak." Nowadays they are protected

back on board

After leaving Dahlonega Georgia we continued south and rolled into Venice Florida where we stayed with our neighbors, Ed and Sally Hurley. We had a great visit telling stories over a huge pizza and an occasional cocktail. Ed gave us a tour of their house and we were privileged to visit his studio and see his latest art projects.

Ed cooked a delicious breakfast the next morning and we were off again, this time to visit our neighbors Jack and Beth Huffner who have a condo near Marco Island, Florida.

We arrived in time to join Jack and Beth in a hop along the local waterside watering spots. We very much enjoyed the excellent view from their third floor condo the next morning as Beth slaved over her new high-tech cooking system. They helped me celebrate my 39th birthday (for the 25th time).

We made it into the Keys on Sunday, December 5th but had to make our usual stops before continuing to marathon where our boat awaited our arrival. We always stop for a beer at mile marker 104 where The Caribbean Club, a dive bar overlooks Florida Bay. The bar was made famous when Boggie and Bacall shot a segment of the 1948 movie, Key Largo there.

We couldn't resist a stop at Lorelie, a waterside restaurant on the Bay side at mile marker 82. Nobody cares about addresses except the US Postal Service. We all use the mile markers that line the Keys from Key Largo at Mile Marker 110 to Key West at mile marker 0.

Lorelie was a great "old Florida" kind of place until hurricane Wilma destroyed it. When the owners rebuilt it they ran off all of the stray cats and drunks then used all shiny new materials to replace the shack and therefore ruined the atmosphere in the process.

One of our favorites is the Safari Lounge at the Caloosa Cove Marina on the ocean side at mile marker 74. Bikers, Bimbos, Boats and Booze is the order of the day at the Safari which is adorned with the heads of big game animals that the owner brought back from several African safaris.

I took two days preparing the boat for launch. But we got it done and on December 7th we motored the old girl out and under the seven mile bridge to her winter home at Banana Bay Marina.

Since then we have been doing repairs and installations. The depth sounder wasn't sounding, the new shower pump needed to be installed, the galley light was full of rain water, the batteries needed service, the sails needed to be installed, etc.

Last Thursday, our friends on Tides In hosted a chocolate party for The Banana Bay Ladies Club. Tides In is an enormous power yacht which probably has more living space than our condo back home. Mandy brought the champagne which everyone greatly appreciated.

We are having a pot luck on Christmas Day. All of the boaters here have some degree of homesickness and these gathering help those of us who miss our friends and families back home.

I hope to have some pictures and videos on my next entry.

Happy Holidays to all.

On the Road Again

We are in Ocala, Florida today, December 2nd, 2010. We will meet up with friends today and tomorrow then buzz down to the Keys to do work on the boat while it rests on jackstands in the boatyard. We hope to be floating again by Monday.

We spent a couple days in Dahloneda, Georgia hepling my daughter-in-law and grandkids with a few chores around the house. We also spent some time wandering the Christmas scene around the small town north of Atlanta at the foothills of the Georgia mountains.

Dahlonega is a native American word meaning gold. It was the site of the first gold rush before the 49er started running to California. A local Dahlonega official tried to stop the exodus proclaiming the famed words, "There's gold in them thar hills."

Gold still remains beneath the soil but too difficult to resume mining because large veins have been exhausted of their element. But when the city built a new baseball diamond, the upturned soil sparkled with gold dust.

Gold is in the walls of the old building too. Turn the lights out in the town hall and shine a flashlight on the bricks. They will glimmer with the gold that was residing in the materials they used to make the brick.

If you get near the area, be sure to visit.

Homeward Bound

 We started the drive home deciding to stay on the old highways. US 50, which runs to Cincinnati, seemed the logical choice since it passes right through Montrose Colorado where we were hanging out.

In eastern Colorado we discovered John Martin State Reservoir just as the sun was setting. We found over 300 camp sites empty so we set up camp in a site near the reservoir. We quickly got a campfire started so we could cook some sweet corn for dinner.

This area is mostly prairie and farms.

Our campsite with the reservoir in the background. The corn, which we bought at a Pow-Wow in Montrose, is on the grill. We spray it with cooking spray, sprinkle it with Frank's Hot sauce, and cook it until it's slightly blackened all around.

I have no photos of the night sky that formed overhead before the moon lifted above the eastern horizon brightening the sky and throwing light on the stars. In areas such as this, where almost no light pollution contaminates the view, one can see almost more stars than black sky. The light from the nearest star complex, Alpha Centauri, left those stars more than four years ago. The light from some of the stars we saw that night has been travelling for more than 2.5 million years to reach our eyes. That light left those stars before the ice age and long before humans rose to take over the earth.
We shared that view with just a small part of the population who live on our side of the earth. The passengers of ships at sea, the passengers of airplanes in the sky, nearby farmers who were awaiting the harvest moon to rise, and the passengers of a train that I heard passing nearby could also see the show.
Until the rattle of iron wheels pounding on rails disturbed the near quiet, all we could hear were the insects of the night buzzing over the grassland.
I stepped upon the picnic table to look for the train. It passed just about a mile to the west of us. I knew it was a passenger train since N&W doesn't provide lighting for the cattle to sip their aperitif while reading the New Yorker. It must have been the Southwest Chief, a train that I had once taken from LA to Chicago. I recall sitting up late in my cabin to observe the night sky just as we were that evening at the campground.
Finally, the moon rose big and bright and orange. It was just beyond its full phase. But a waning moon is still plenty bright enough for farmers to work their fields and for us to see almost as well as on a cloudy day.
The train rattled away as the moon turned white. We ate some of the corn and saved the rest for the following day. Time for sleep.

The Million Dollar Highway

After leaving Mesa Verde we drove US 160 toward Durango, Co. Along the way we discovered the Columbine Bar in the tiny town of Mancos. It has no relationship to the high school which is near Denver.

 Mandy talked to an WWII era lady named Lucille who told of bye-gone days at the Columbine Bar while I fell into a conversation with John Candy (look alike), a geologist who came to the area to study rocks but the only paying job has has ever found is manual labor. John repeatedly cast racist slur at Mike, the jovial bartender. "Don't burn my enchiladas you wet-back," John yelled. "I'm not Mexican, I'm an Injin," Mike yelled back with a smile. The banter went on the entire time we were there. Mike looked as if he might be a little of both.

 North of Durango, we found a campsite in a RV park. Our little bus was the smallest rig in the park.

 The next morning we started north on highway 550 which leads through Silverton and Ouray (pronounced you-ray) to Montrose.

 The highway is also called the million dollar highway, not because of the cost but because the original highway was built using gold mine tailings as a base. Locals say that a million dollars of gold lies under each mile.

 Most of the highway has no guard rail as it winds within inches of a fall of hundreds of feet to the valley below. We saw no large RVs driving this stretch. Later, in Montrose, we were told that cars and some trucks roll over the side each year.

At a bar in Silverton, we met John Wayne on the wall.

We also met a few characters on the mantle. Enlarge to note the Native American in the Jim Beam poster.

 Here is a view down the main drag of Silverton, Colorado.

 The following photos are of the unnerving drive from Silverton to Ouray.

 In Ouray, these mule deer casually crossed the street and sauntered into a yard.

Ouray, Coloradro

OSU versus Eastern Michigan provided the excitement of the day which we tuned in on Sirius radio. Mandy wore her favorite jersey for support.

Mandy made a sleepy friend.

More mountain roads.



Monument Valley and Mesa Verde

We headed south on US 191 into Blandling where, finally, a rainstorm hit. We had been waiting more than two weeks for a rainy day to do laundry but the weather remained perfect day after day. We spent two hours in the laundromat and when we left the sun was again shining.

Our next destination was Monument Valley on Route 160 on the Utah - Arizona border.

 Along the way we passed this formation called Mexican Hat. It's near the town of, what else, Mexican Hat, Utah.

 I still have fly poop on my lens. Sorry, I'll photo shop them later and repost.

 We bought jewelry from this lady who made most of it herself.

 These photos are my attempt at one of the most photographed scene in travel photography.

Not this one, though.

 The above rock is locally known as 'El Capitan'.

More shopping, then we're off to Mesa Verde in southwest Colorado, the ancient homes of the Anasazis (500 AD) and later the Cliff Dwellers.

To understand the scale of these buildings, look closely (or click to enlarge) and you will see visitors next to the dwellings.

Find the cliff dwellings in the center of the photo.

Above is an Anasazi dwelling which would have been covered with roofs over wooden poles bordering the dugout area. At the far end is the chimney vent which would allow air to enter the dwelling so that smoke could rise through opening in the roof. This type of dwelling, built on the flats above the cliffs, were precursors to the cliff dwellings.

A pair of beautiful feral (we presume) horses were grazing the cliff tops.