On Things Along the Way 9

For Photos:  http://willemcoetzee.blogspot.com/2014/01/fotos-13.html

Our next stop was at Sunshine Key, hardly 2 miles east of Bahia Honda. It would seem that we couldn’t get the latter out of our system but we got into Sunshine because of great doubt initially that we would get into Bahia whatsoever. Willem at least wanted to see the place -- even if we were completely unsuccessful with the Florida State Reservation System later on. That was in September 2012, when he spotted a booth at the Hershey RV Show in Pennsylvania, where a substantial discount on a campsite at Sunshine was offered if reserved and paid for right then. Even at the reduced rate, uncertainties about this relatively large unfamiliar venture suggested one should perhaps not get into a spending pattern like such for 5 weeks in the Keys, with so much more travel expenses to cover down the long road ahead. Nevertheless, securing only a week some 5 months before the State System would open for reservations, seemed reasonable. And once those later on, in January/February 2013, began to fall in place around the Sunshine date, we decided to keep the private Encore Resort spot. And there we were on January 12: http://www.rvonthego.com/Sunshine-Key-RV-Resort.html  24.673168, -81.246711 . 

Commercial RV Resorts usually offer substantially more than non-privately owned campgrounds; Topeekeegee in Hollywood, Florida, being an exception, in our experience. Our needs are generally much less than such offerings; after all we view a camp site as a base from where to pursue interests remote from camp and have little use for water slides, swimming pools, tennis or volley ball courts, etc. However, we never complain about a boat launch and a pretty view –often included in State Park features. Not so at Sunshine, where the camp sites are spacious but tightly packed and there are additional charges for boat launching, docking and WiFi, although the latter only took effect on January 1, 2014. It would seem that many more changes followed with the new owners.

There are plenty of repeat, if not continuous business at Sunshine and selling long term leases are much encouraged. We have befriended some of the old timers who spoke of considerable discontent – pointing to an example of one couple that simply walked away from a lease and basically just parted with their onsite property and equipment. Similar responses are not altogether unknown in the corporate world and often accompany ownership or management changes and reorganizations. But to see those played out on the level of the peace-of-mind-retiree crowd was not a thing of beauty. We had even sensed a bit of remaining tension in the air upon registering and dealing with the front office, as if urgency with the business mission of the outfit tended to poke through cracks in the customer-is-always-right façade, that exists with most business enterprises.  However, two points in mitigation are in order. First, the grounds personnel in general were very helpful and seemed to have a fraternal relationship with campers and especially with the more permanent residents.  And amongst the latter there exists an almost contagious spirit of belonging together -- even to the extent of gathering in large numbers on camping chairs spreading into the streets.  They are one large family indeed! Second, our interaction with an Encore campground in San Francisco was extremely accommodating in the course of making a reservation. The e-mail confirmation disclosed information that was not so clear on the online reservation system, so Willem followed up with a phone call. The fellow at the other end acknowledged the problem and offered to upgrade the reservation to meet our needs at the lower rate. It would seem that these guys were not experiencing turbulence, so this customer could enjoy respectable business conduct. 

Nevertheless, although different from most campgrounds we’ve visited, Sunshine Key is a great place! Following a couple of cool days toward the end of our Bahia stay, we kicked off in good weather, which inspired the girls to comply with the in-thing at Sunshine, cycling. Everybody seems to have a bicycle, which is use 50% of the time. The other half of the time they use their golf carts. Lacking the latter, we resorted to walking a lot of the time.  

Upon our arrival and setting up camp, Fickie and Willem wandered out on the old bridge that served as a fishing pier and were impressed with the results that a number of anglers had in their coolers. We couldn’t join them the next day but the following day neither us, nor anyone else had something to show for efforts. And then the weather deteriorated for a couple of days and we had to secure a June reservation at Yosemite in California, which meant we needed a reliable internet connection. For this we drove to Marathon, where we succeeded with that mission but not with getting photos placed on the blog. Hence, a note to this effect was placed on the blog, which was removed when we succeeded the next week with Hans’ help. Our friend, Bob Divany from Pleasant Gap, Pennsylvania, sent us helpful suggestions and thereby revealing himself as a resource for the future.  Watch out Bob!

As has happened before, a fellow camper and expert fisherman exhibited compassion by letting us share in his success with a gift of enough snapper for two meals! Fickie and Stella had met Jerry and his wife, Susan, at church the previous Sunday and found their campsite at Sunshine after we got there. They are from Michigan and spend 5 months per year at Sunshine, where Jerry does a great deal of fishing with his friends from their boats. They have refined the techniques, which includes priming with chum http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chumming at selected spots. It would be an unusual day if they don’t catch their limit. This is much different from our approach but showed what could be done if one knew an area and tailor techniques to specific fish.  Our ladies reciprocated with a ‘melktert’, which they enjoyed so much that Susan asked for the recipe.

It was surprising how quickly the week had passed and we were on our way to John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park: http://www.floridastateparks.org/pennekamp/default.cfm  In more than one way this was a dream come true for Fickie. Being a scuba diver with experience at venues and coral reefs in various countries, it has been an ideal of his to dive at Pennekamp, http://www.pennekamppark.com   A first attempt was made in July 1978, when he was attending a convention in Miami and headed to Pennekamp in a rental car. However, a fender bender resulted in a great deal of time spent in resolving the matter and not reaching Key Largo at all. The entrance to the Park is impressively welcoming with the road passing through lush vegetation to facilities that include a gated RV campground with 47 sites, a marina, Visitor Center, launching areas for scuba tours, snorkel tours, a glass-bottomed boat, canoes and kayaks, a playground, a couple of attractive hiking trails and biking opportunities; all of these surrounded by various bays and beaches and extensive parking areas:   http://www.floridastateparks.org/lib/img/park/parkmap/jpc-map.jpg  The park receives a million visitors per year and with only 45 reservable camp sites, the bulk of visitors comprise of day time only patrons, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Pennekamp_Coral_Reef_State_Park

The weather forecast was for two warm days, then sharply colder for a couple and gradually increasing toward the end of our week. It was evident that Fickie had to get his diving done on Tuesday, while he encouraged the rest of us to take the glass-bottom boat excursion to a coral reef. Susan could not be convinced, so Willem and Stella enjoyed the equivalent of a snorkeling outing without setting a foot in the water. It was a first for either of us and we thought it very rewarding. One can understand why divers get so excited about their passion; seeing the underwater world in a much broader perspective than that offered by an aquarium is really unique. We were treated on an enormous variety of fish, vegetation and corral and elucidated by the commentary of a very knowlegeable presenter, we learned a great deal in a hurry. We were back on shore after three hours and had to wait another hour or so for Fickie to return. For Willem this was also kind of a dream come true, after having encouraged Fickie while still in South Africa, to bring his diving gear along; it would be mission accomplished this time, I suggested, which it was indeed!

Willem was up early on Wednesday and got some shopping done before breakfast, which included barbeque meat. We’ve come into the habit of grilling meat on a large scale when we had a good fireplace. Such is not always the case, for instance at Sunshine Key no open fire was permitted. At Pennekamp, though, the fire place was terrific and in mid afternoon we were going strong on sausage, chicken, beef and lamb. The latter for that day’s dinner was especially for Susan, who grew up with much of it; her father had been a wool producer, with lamb as a collateral product.  Our little freezer was well stuffed with the grilled variety that could see us through for a couple of weeks, by which time we will most likely be headed up the Gulf Coast. But before then, we had Flamingo on our menu, a National Park Service camp in the Florida Everglades.

By Friday the weather had improved and we were back in empathizing mode with Hans and his family in Malvern, Pennsylvania, where they were digging themselves out of a foot of snow the day before. This has been a rough winter so far in the North-East and it is only January still! All of this reinforced our intention to resettle in a more moderate climate. But outside of Florida, it seemed as yet that virtually no place in the continental US was safe this winter. Unfortunate that Florida is a different story in summer; moderation not then being a climatic attribute. Stella had pointed out that there was still room in the freezer and that our cooked meatball supply was virtually depleted – hints that Willem wasn’t quite off duty yet. The matter was corrected on Friday with a touch of curry this time.

One feature of campgrounds not highlighted before is the availability of exchangeable reading matter. It is mostly seen around laundry facilities, where one can leave literature, such as magazines and books that became too bulky to keep on board, for the benefit and taking of others. But occasionally we’ve seen a basket full of books with an attached note at a campsite: ‘Take one, Leave one’. Out in Marathon, the concept was adopted by the local library, where Susan picked up half a dozen of classics, including Anna Karenina, without charge; conducive to rekindling acquaintanceships from the past.

Our last day at Pennekamp kicked off real slow with the ladies final of the 2014 Australian Open Tennis. Yet, the slight chill of the morning air quickly gave way to a beautiful, rather warm day.  Not having deployed our boat because it seemed unsuitable for negotiating the canoe/kayak channels between the mangroves and too underpowered to head into the open waters of the Atlantic, we drove to neighboring Tavernier, downloaded photographs and this text for the blog at the WiFi spot of the office, got laundry done and prepared for a relatively early start the next morning. We were a little apprehensive about venturing into the reportedly mosquito and no-see-um paradise of Flamingo Campground in the Everglades:  25.142216, -80.925343 .