January 10 - 12, 2014
The short 95 mile drive to Key West demonstrated just how many people are making the drive to Key West on a Friday. The last time we were in Key West we had flown our little airplane, avoiding all of the traffic. But today, on our asphalt pathway there were way too many cars on the road, giving us plenty of time to soak in the beautiful ride down the keys as we crawled our way to Key West.

We had decided to book into Boyd's Campground because it was 10 miles closer to Key West than the next closest campground. Pulling into the campground, the review we had received from a neighboring camper in Key Largo was confirmed. A large number of campsites were packed into a small space with some having great views of the water. If you were camping in a tent you had some fantastic sites. Our assigned site was more suitable for a tent without the view and was the smallest we had ever parked in. Still in basic hand signaling training the "directional positioning" challenge was well above Mary’s pay grade. A quick call to the office for a maintenance man to provide some experienced hand signals required for parking and a handy saw man to cut palm fronds from the trees overhanging our site and we were shoehorned into position. I would suggest Teflon siding for RVs going into Boyds. The close proximity to Key West was excellent, the campground staff was helpful and friendly but due to stingy spacing, this will not be on our list for future stays.

Fortunately we had great neighbors from Maine and New Hampshire. The campground was quiet and everyone was friendly and the proximity to Key West was great. Other than the small quarters it was a good place to stay

Key West is funky, historic and fun. History and a bit of conflict abounds starting with early Indians living the good life before being pushed out by progress, then “The Wreckers” as an upstanding group men that feasted on the wreckage of pirates and freighters, a little civil war activity with Fort Taylor being built and then in WWII with an air and naval base to keep the U Boats away. Then along came the little disagreement the US had with Fidel and the Russians taking up residence in Cuba, only ninety miles away. Finally Key West seemed to be an excellent place to drop ship marijuana coming into the country with the bales dropped into the water commonly known as “square groupers”. An occasional hurricane cleans up the island and modern times has made Key West a multi-cultured, diverse life style, big party town with Duval Street being the center of activity. To enjoy, you have to kick back, listen to a little Jimmy Buffett, go with the flow, explore the history, take in the sights and sounds and pick out the things you want to do.

For us, just walking the streets and seeing the many old homes in old Key West was a treat. Unfortunately the annual old home tour was going to be the week following our departure but we plan be there next year for the tour. The real estate is very very expensive. If I could move our house to a vacant lot in old town Key West, the proceeds would yield a great retirement. Oh well!!

Our last visit to Key West was to celebrate our 60^th birthdays. Several friends from Spruce Creek had flown in with us and we had seen many interesting sights and left knowing there was more to see. Mary and I took one of the tourist trolley tours around the city. It was very informative and gave us some good leads on what to see. We shopped Duval Street, visited the Audubon House and museum, wandered the backstreets, had a great breakfast at a French restaurant and a better lunch at a sidewalk mobile kitchen.

We took part of one day to explore the nearby Keys that we had crawled through on our way into Key West. We visited a couple of prospective RV campgrounds for next year and think we found next years RV site at Blue Water Key offering ocean frontage and a substantial hit to the pocketbook. Hopefully reservations can be secured. We also found a funky little fishing camp restaurant on Geiger Key that served an excellent lunch and will be on the return list.

Anyone going to Key West must experience the sunset. At the end of Duval Street is Mallory Square where street performers and lots of people gather each evening for the sunset. Having seen a few sunsets, I can rate these high, perhaps not tops but it is worth the experience. The street performers are entertaining and the festive atmosphere puts you in the right mood for a good dinner

Adding it all up, Key West is a nice place to visit and a nice place to leave. We did leave on Monday morning heading to Everglades City with the day full of sunshine and the drive being much faster without heavy traffic.