Nearly two years before I hit the road, a friend of mine from graduate school that I hadn’t seen in twenty years called to say he was visiting San Diego. We got together for dinner, and, when I mentioned my RVing plans, he invited me to visit him in Marathon, Florida sometime, halfway along the Florida Keys. As the timing worked out, New Years for 2014/2015 was when I was in the area. I was thrilled when my friend said he’d be glad to have me visit then. ( In an ongoing effort to bring posts closer to real time, this entry consists primarily of photos with a few captions thrown in.)
On my way from Sarasota to the Keys, my first stop was Ft. Meyers. I was excited to see Sanibel Island again that I remembered visiting as a teenager with my parents. I remembered it as being very natural and undeveloped. Disappointment. It is now so developed there are few places you can see the water from the road. In my opinion, Sanibel and Captiva Islands are case studies of how not to manage naturally beautiful areas. I’m not for excluding development, but find a balance.
I did, however, enjoy visiting the J.N. “Ding” Darling Natural Wildlife Preserve, which is home to abundant bird life:
I also caught a photo of the sunset:
The next day I drove across the Everglades on Route 41 (avoiding the Interstate), which was like one enormous bird sanctuary. I stayed that night in Florida City, the most southern town in mainland Florida. The next morning I was off, bright and early, to the Keys. I had envisioned them as tiny islands linked by miles and miles of open bridges. In fact, just the opposite is true, you’re on land much more than you’re on a bridge. I did get stopped by a drawbridge at the south end of Plantation Key:
But thank goodness, that was the only significant traffic jam - and this was December 30th! I got Harlan’s house in Marathon at just about noon. His house is right on the water and he has his own boat and dock:
I think it’s not unfair to say that Harlan lives for fishing, and we immediately took out to sea with his son Eric and a friend of his from the hospital where he works.
Harlan got the first catch of the day:
I’ve never been much of a fisherman but, with Harlan’s patient instruction, I caught four tuna before we turned back in.
That evening, we cruised down to Key West in one of Harlan’s two Shelby convertibles:
This one has 550 horsepower. We hit several bars along Duval Street:
The next day, New Years Eve, Harlan had to work. He’s an anesthesiologist and has irregular hours. Harlan did undergrad and graduate school at Georgia Tech, and I did graduate work there, so we had to watch the Georgia Tech vs Mississippi State Orange Bowl game that evening. (Tech won 49-34). We had indefinite plans to go out after the game, but it didn’t end until 11:50pm, so we made a toast and went off to sleep. It didn’t matter, I was having a great time.
The next day, we were fishing again. This time I caught 8 mackerel:
I had planned to leave on January 2nd, but Harlan encouraged me to stay through the 4th, when his brother, Les, would be down for a visit. As they say, twist my arm. We all went out fishing again on the 4th, but it was very rough and I got sick, so they dropped me off at Harlan’s place while they ran to try another spot. I was glad for the down time; I used it to begin making plans for a Caribbean cruise I wanted to take.
When I left on the morning of the 5th, I stopped at two places on my way out of the Keys, on Harlan’s recomendation. One was a place where for $1 you can go out on a pier to see some enormous tarpon:
Plenty of pelicans around, too:
The other place I stopped is Theater of the Sea, a beautifully landscaped animal sanctuary:
The disks are repairs that have been made to his shell.
This little guy wasn't part of the exhibits, but he acted like he owned the place:
Maybe he felt protected by his big brother:
And there were birds:
And other flying animals:
That night, I stayed in Florida City again, and the next night at Lake Okeechobee:
I didn’t realize the lake is higher than the surrounding land. The water in the foreground is called “The Ditch”, and the levee beyond it contains the lake. It made for a nice sunset, anyway:
I was headed back to… Sarasota! Unexpectedly, the cruise I had booked departed from Tampa. That’s the subject of my next post.
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