Thursday, August 28, 2014

Long Key to Cape San Blas in a Hurry !

Hey,that's us,enjoying the view,camped peacefully Friday,making dinner !

Do you remember talking about musical campsites and how many changes we made in our reservations for the Keys ?  Well it finally caught up with us on Friday night August 22 at 630pm.


I was inside Ruby cooking up some delicious sausage,green peppers and onions when I heard someone say to Jim : "Uh we have this site for the weekend and we've been waiting since 4pm for you to leave" Jim replied: "No, we are here until Saturday".  Oh Oh, I quickly logged onto the reservation system and realized the booboo I made.  Even our campsite sticker showed leaving on the 22nd but somehow I had it in my mind that we weren't checking out until Saturday.  Thank goodness Roadtreks are so easy to pack up.  Although Jim did have to quickly put the bike on the bike rack and pack away the stove and beach umbrella while I was inside trying to secure everything and put away the dinner I had just cooked.  The folks were really nice and understanding and very patient.

This is the campsite we had to quickly pack up-you can't see the umbrella and chairs off to the side that also had to be put away !

Sunset during our escape from Long Key

And another big OH OH, no sites available for Friday night at Long Key !  Oh well,we figured we would head up the road and find something.  Big mistake.  First of all we forgot that if you don't have reservations the Florida state parks lock their gates at 8pm and there is no way to access the park to even see if there is a site available.  And the private parks that had sites available either didn't allow dogs or they were ridiculously expensive for just sleeping overnight.  Walmart was out of the question-it was 9pm and still 87 degrees with no breeze. Jim said, what the heck, let's just drive, I'm wide awake.  And drive we did .


After we realized we couldn't get into John Pennecamp state park,we u turned and headed to Tower Pizza in Key Largo for dinner to go.  And so glad we made that u turn.  Some of the best pizza we have ever had, just as good as Tony's in St Augustine that I raved about here.  So there we were,loaded with pizza,ice in our little cooler with cold water and cold soda,Hailey sound asleep in the back..off we were to destinations unknown.

Orlando traffic outside of Kissimmee-sure glad we weren't heading to see Mickey-wouldn't want to fight that line of traffic !

We made it to Kissimmee at about 230AM. Yikes,that was 7 1/2 hours of driving. We tried the KOA but couldn't check in so we ended up at the Red Roof Inn,dog friendly and cheap .  Actually cheaper than the KOA !  So whats a few stains on the duvet-ughhh..I threw it down on the floor and wouldn't even let Hailey sleep on it.  The sheets were at least sparkling white and the good news is -we didn't wake up in the morning with any bed bug bites !  We have never driven that long or that late in Ruby and will never do it again. Nice hot shower in the morning and straight to Starbucks to fill our thermos and hit the road again.  We knew we were headed to St Joe's Peninsula State Park but didn't know where we were going to stop on Saturday since we couldn't check into St Joes until Sunday-another road trip/campground adventure.

Rocky's RV Park

Driving along we stumbled on Rocky's RV Park in Perry Florida.  If you are ever in need of a 1 night or even longer layover in the Perry area (and it's not hunting season-because they get really busy) head to Rocky's.  The  cleanest restrooms in the South and the most wonderful laundry.  All the sights are full service ,flat ground and Rocky's has a gas station and convenience store that rivals Publix and Target combined-very very convenient.  We pretty much went to bed at 7pm and didn't wake up until about 9am on Sunday.

 Site #8 at St Joe's , one of our favorite

Sunrise towards St Joe Bay

It felt so good to see Cape San Blas-that wonderful feeling of being home again-even though we couldn't get into the condo until the 30th.  Our site #8 at St Joe is perfect, we sit right between the bay and the Gulf and there is a permanent breeze-sometimes gusting wind, that feels so good after the humidity and doldrums of Long Key.  Today we have the back doors of Ruby opened,the sliding side door is wide open and the AC is off. Nice ocean breezes blowing through.


We had our favorite,BLT tortilla with salsa and avocado and I'm headed to the beach for the rest of the beautiful luxurious day.



Happy Trails to all you beach girls and surfer guys out there...Be safe.

2 comments:

  1. You MUST stop at Deal's Famous Oyster House just outside of Perry! Get the Deal's dozen (15 oysters!) and fried shrimp and mullet combo. Unbelievable.

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  2. Oh my gosh Scooter, is there any place you haven't been ? You are such a wonderful resource,like our private Trip Advisor !! We wondered about that place-when we went by it was jammed pack,must have been at least 50 cars parked along the road and a line of folks outside. Sounds like a roadtrip this month !

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