Key’s Disease

January 2nd-15th
The new year started with me flying my first jet and Shadow recovering from his tire blowout on the interstate.  He continued to make his way South from Gainesville, FL.  Our decision to head down to Florida for our first destination in the new home was to beat the cold weather.  That and Shadow loves to scuba dive.  We knew living on the beach would be an expensive place to live so we agreed to suck it up for 3 weeks.  It was foolish of us to think that we could actually find a place to park.  Most of the RV spots had been booked since last Fall.  It’s hard to reserve a location from the internet.  You never know what you will get judging from a website.  Shadow was fortunate to find a place in Key Largo Kampground for a week and a half, although he had to move a couple times within the park.  His first priority was to look for a car.  A bicycle was only his only mode of transportation.  After a few days of haggling, we added a new member to our family.  A 2009 Red Honda Fit.  The next stop was the local scuba diving shop.  While surfacing from his first dive his ears wouldn’t equalize which causes a lot of pain. The instructor told him to take a few days off to recover before coming back.  Four days later both ears were still clogged.  A doctor’s visit reviled two infected eustachian tubes.  Needless to say our new and exciting adventure came to a screeching halt.  It’s like being sick while on vacation.  

I arrived into Miami a few days later.  The RV park Shadow had found was awesome.  Large mature trees covered most of the lots.  A heated swimming pool, beach access, cable tv, WIFI at the club house, doughnuts and coffee on Wednesday mornings, pot-luck on Fridays, and walking distance to a Publix grocery.  What more could a couple like us ask for?  The term Key’s Disease is used in South Florida to describe the relaxed, easy-going lifestyle down here and I think it’s a great motto for the beginning of our new life.

Shadow’s scuba dive instructor called to check on him and invited us out on his sail boat where he lives full-time.  We arrived at the dock to find him filling water jugs and loading them into his dingy for fresh water to drink.  We jump in with one of his friends and headed out into the bay.  Neither of us realized that you could park a sailboat for free.  All you have to do is make a concrete pillar to attach your boat.  The bay was full of other full-timers including one guy that has lived in his sailboat for 23 years!  After breaking into the 6-pack we out to the open water.  7 miles to the continental shelf and water had turn 10 different shades of blue.  No aquatic life sightings, but it was a great way to get Shadow out of the RV and welcome me to the Florida Keys.  

Beulah and the Red Toad.

Learning to sail.