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 .
