2023: The Florida Keys

Hello Islands

March 13-14

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I was sad to leave Orlando, not because I'd had such a good time there, but because I hadn't. I felt old and out of place there, just like when I tried to scuba again. I began to wonder if the whole trip would just be one disappointment after another.

We took off from Orlando in a rainstorm, but we soon outran it. The drive down to the Florida Keys was over 300 miles, but it was a pretty easy drive for Mike. The new steering stabilizer he'd installed seemed to be working and Behemoth was holding the road much better. Soon it was sunshine and water as far as we could see.

Back in December I'd stumbled across a brand-new Sun Outdoors RV park in Islamorada that had space available for us. This was no small victory; RV space in the Keys is nearly impossible to get. Of course, because the place was new, there were no reviews or even photos, so I had no idea what we would find. The last available satellite photos from Google still showed the decrepit trailer park that had once been on the site.

Island vibe.

Okay, when I say this place is NEW, I mean just barely hatched. The section where we would stay was completed, but construction and finishing work was going on all around. Even so, it was a beautiful property, especially by the standards of other RV parks we'd seen on our way here. I once again marveled at our luck.

The place was nearly deserted, which I attributed to its newness; but it turned out that they had suffered a number of setbacks in opening the park (the original opening date was targeted for November). They were forced to repetitively cancel and reschedule advanced bookings, such that many people just gave up and didn't try to rebook.


The park is right on the water. For the first week of our stay, there were empty spaces all around us and we had a wonderful view of the Atlantic out our front window.


Bumping heads. S-T-R-E-T-C-H! Long cords.

The place wasn't perfect. We were assigned a space that had a small pergola built at the back of it. This meant we couldn't back Behemoth up to the full length of the space and we barely fit without sticking out into the road. It also put our utility connections far, far away from the hookups. Luckily Mike is prepared for this, but even so we barely had enough sewer hose.

The most maddening part was, the pergola served no function other than decoration. It was too small for the picnic table to fit under it, and its too-open latticework provided no real shade. Clearly the the landscaping designer doesn't own an RV. That aside, the park has wonderful, brand-new amenities.



Also in the not-perfect category: TV. While we were able to get our roof-mounted Trav'ler to connect to the western satellites -- the horizon was visible in all directions -- we'd traveled out of the Tampa area, so those locals were no longer receivable. And Dish was now in the throes of its cyber-attack issues, so there was no way to contact Dish customer service to get our locals address changed. *Sigh*. Back to cable-only channels for now.


The disastrous scuba experience at Ginnie Springs had discouraged me from trying again, but getting to the Keys and being surrounded by diving whetted my appetite. With some supporting encouragement from Mike, I decided to contact a dive service about doing a refresher. I ended up with Horizon Divers in Key Largo, and the refresher was scheduled for the Saturday five days hence. That wouldn't leave much time for actual diving, but so be it.

While I waited to dive, our first days in the Keys were an opportunity to look around. Very nearby was an irresistable touristy opportunity, Robbie's of Islamorada. It's a restaurant, but you can do much more than eat there. You can book various watersport activities, such as snorkeling, kayaking, and parasailing. However, the big attraction is...something else.

According to Robbie's website: "Voted the No. 1 place in the Keys that every tourist should visit...home of the world-famous tarpon feeding!" Robbie's has a marina where over a hundred giant tarpon, each several feet long, congregate to be hand-fed by the tourists. Naturally Robbie's sells you the bait fish, a bucket of 5-6 fish for $2.50. Yeah, it's hokey, but seriously, who could resist that? Not me!

There's actually an interesting story behind Robbie's. In 1976, owner Robbie found a tarpon floundering in the shallows near his dock. He rescued the fish, which had a broken jaw. A local vet sowed up the injury, and after some recovery time in a tank, the healed tarpon -- nicknamed "Scarface" -- was released back into the waters off the dock.

Afterward, Scarface continued to frequent the docks for hand-feeding. Sometimes he brought a friend. Or two. Soon more and more of the fish began to appear, and thus began the legend of Robbie's and the tarpon feeding. Both Robbie and Scarface have gone to Keys heaven, but their legacy lives on with thousands of tourists and hundreds of fish.

Turns out I wasn't very good at tarpon feeding. One unexpected hurdle was the pelicans; they were not shy about darting in and taking the bait, and possibly part of your hand. But other people nearby were more successful, so we got some decent video of the experience.


Caveat emptor.

In true tourist-trap fashion, Robbie's also sells all kinds of souvenirs, including miniature surfboards (for only $50 a pop) with funny sayings that are mostly about getting plastered. Such a Keys thing to do.