Long Key State Park Florida

Friday March 5, 2010

The day started with another pleasant slow morning - coffee, cereal and juice and checking email looking out over the incoming tide and clear blue skies. The water is lapping about 10 feet from my chair and while the wind is cooling it down this morning from the 72 showing on the thermometer; the tent provides a wind break and I am most comfortable. Yesterday I did get about 45 minutes of sun – hope to do that again today. I have finished 2 books and have begun a spy thriller by former defense secretary William Cohen. So far it is good – Dragon Fire. I also enjoyed True Blue by David Balacchi.(I never can spell his name)

I spent about an hour learning to take timed photos and panorama photos. Since I wanted the ocean and the light was wrong they did not turn out well but I learned what to do and not do and will take some better ones in the afternoon. After lunch we took off to find the internet so I could send a couple messages I had written for a committee I work on for the United Way.

We first headed south and at the very end of Long Key is the Edgewater Lodge…if anyone watches America’s Most Wanted .. it is where the guy who shot and killed several family members during their Thanksgiving meal somewhere in Florida was caught. He escaped from the crime scene and there was a manhunt for several weeks throughout the southeast. The crime was featured on America’s Most Wanted and the people who ran the Edgewater Resort recognized him, called in and the law came to get him with the AMW camera’s rolling. We had noticed it in the national news because it was on Long Key and watched AMW to see the capture. We drove into the parking lot and tried the internet connection and although it said secure I was able to log right in….took care of my messages and even harvested my crops in “Farmville”. We will go back again and I can try to upload some of the blog.

Then we headed north to Islamorada exploring and in search of fish to cook for dinner and some gas for the Sprinter. The gas we found easily but the fish took some searching. We finally bought some snapper at the Islamorada Fish Company. There is an arts festival tomorrow so we plan to go back and investigate some of the shops along the way. Islamorada seems to be more interesting than Marathon although Marathon must be larger as it has 2 major groceries and Islamorada does not have any.

We returned to camp and Jane cooked dinner. The weather is warmer but we decided to eat inside again and will be using the heater again. The outside temperature is 55 and with the heater is 70 inside the Sprinter. Ben got to give his sales pitch on Sprinter Vans to some guy this evening. He was camping in a tent and traveling with a van and thought ours looked unusual and wanted to know about it. Most vans do not allow you to stand up in them but of course ours does. Ben always enjoys giving his sales pitch…would be nice if he got a commission if anyone bought one.

I have finished the blog, gotten the photos all downloaded and edited. I deleted quite a few but did learn a lot today that will help me in taking future panorama and timed photos….off to read more of my current story of international intrigue.