Day 14. Southern Exposure. Travel from Homestead, FL to Key West, Fl.

We made it to about as far south as one cares to drive. The trip was 136.3 miles and Shannon did all the driving. She usually always starts out driving because I'm outside the rig watching to make sure the wheels are going around and everything remains hooked up. After about 2 miles and I'm pretty exhausted, Shannon lets me back in the motor home. I will usually drive the second shift, but today we had no easy place to pull over and change drivers. So, Shannon drove the entire way. I was pretty exhausted from constantly applying the brakes and leaning toward Shannon to keep the motor home on the road. We arrived at about 1:15 and squeezed ourselves into the campground. It wasn't quite as tight as Ft. Meyers CG, but it is tight. However, the weather made all the inconveniences, challenges, and frustrations melt away. It was in the 80's and clear blue sky. Minnesotans, please continue to enjoy your slushy-rainy-highs-in-the-30's type weather. I'll take Key West.

Catching up since my last post found us on Day 11 traveling from Fort Myers to Homestead, FL for a total trip mileage of 142.0 miles. En route we stopped at a Miccosukee Indian Village where we learned how they lived in this area of FL which includes the Everglades and Big Cypress National Preserve. Part of the story and presentation at the Indian village included alligator "wrestling." We thought it should have been billed as alligator harassment. Early into the presentation we were rooting for the alligator and were shocked at the treatment of the alligators.

We also had an air boat ride across the swamp to a Miccosukee outpost. The air boats could seat about a dozen people, and everyone got thoroughly wet when the driver did fancy turns in the swamp. We were given ear plugs. I took my hearing aids out of my ears,put in the ear plugs, and still could not hear for the next two days due to the tremendous noise from the prop. I was excited about the ride, but when I actually experienced it, it was not much fun.

 On Day 12 in the Homestead area, we toured three attractions. The first was the Coral Castle. This was built in the 30's and 40's by a single individual using hand tools. He mined coral which underlies south FL, and then he shaped it into different structures. In the distance you can see objects resembling some of the planets and the moon.

The builder created all kinds of furniture out of coral. Here Shannon is lounging in one of the pieces. He was single and had no family and yet he built lots of furniture for a wife and kids. Most of it was pretty comfortable to sit in. The exception was the mother-in-law chair. He purposely built it to be very uncomfortable so that the mother-in-law would not stay very long. The view of mother-in-laws must be universal even for someone who never experienced the pleasure of having one.

We then visited an orchid farm. Every imaginable shape and color of orchid was there to behold. We were surprised at south FL. The area of Dade County where we were camped is dominated by agriculture. There are untold numbers of nurseries loaded with tropical plants, fields and fields of vegetable crops, and "tree farms" which were growing palms of one kind or another. Acres and acres of palm trees planted in perfect rows running in both directions. It is a very impressive area.

And finally we visited a bonsai farm. Acres and acres of bonsai. Most of the trees were tropical like this bougainvillea as you see in the picture. How to carry around a bonsai tree and a few orchids when full-time RVing was the question. In the end we resisted buying anything. It's a first.

Today, which is the next day since starting this blog post, we head for a narrated, trolley ride of Key West and then a sunset cruise and dinner this evening. This is reality. Right?