Day 1 KW

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18:08 Local Time. I hope I can remember enough from day 1 to write it down. We actually made it out of the door on time. 5 minutes after midnight and we were already rolling after taking a few minutes in the Jeep to get everything situated for the drive. Nothing exceptional about the trip. Our place is only about 20 minutes from being on I95 at the south end of Jax. Had enough gas in the tank to make it to St Augustine. $50 later we had a full tank across the street from the outlet mall and were headed back out onto the road. Alot of 95 was blanketed in smoke. I have no idea what it was from. But it made driving a little more interesting. Part of me hoped there was some kind of fog monster that would jump out at any moment and give me some excitement since the old lady decided night time was when "normal" people sleep. Whatever. The highway was basically empty. I set cruise control at 80 and kept there. Except for the moment when 2 cop cars showed up pretty far behind me with their lights going. So I dropped my speed down closer to the speed limit and let the blow by me. They were easily doing over a hundred. I never saw what their rush was. But they didnt bother me so I didnt care. We picked up the turnpike in South Florida. As soon as I got on it, that damned gas light dinged at me. So we stopped at the next exit. Somewhere south of West Palm I think. Jeepzilla doesnt get the best of mileage. Another 50 bucks to the Saudi Arabia and I was on my way. I have no idea how long it took me to get to the bottom of Floridas mainland, but I am pretty sure that had my wife been awake all that time, She would have been ready to burn Margaritaville to the ground for all the Jimmy Buffett music I listened to on the drive. We were somewhere along the middle keys when the sun came up. Thats around the time the wife woke up. I wanted to find a spot to watch it rise, but never found anything with a decent view. Apparently the sunset is a much bigger deal than the sunrise down here. We stopped at a little diner for breakfast called The Wooden Spoon. Nothing impressive. Had we gone another couple of blocks we would have found a nice cuban place that looked much more appetizing that was serving breakfast. Around 8:30 we rolled into Boyd's Campground. Its on Stock Island, which is the island just before the Key West island. It has a Key West address and advertises as being the southern most camp ground. But I am pretty sure I found another one that may be farther south. It just wasnt on the water. This one is along a bay that opens up to the Atlantic Ocean. I wanted a site on water. Thats why we ended up here. Check in isnt until 11 I think. But out site was empty and they let us check in early. The staff as seemed very freindly. Almost too much so in one case where I think the chick working the counter was feeling me out to see if we were into swinging or something. Telling me her husband is very supportive of her "desires" while holding my hand a little longer than normal after shaking it makes me think she was trying to tell me something she wasnt saying. anyhoooooo.......
Yea sorry the wife had to wait in the car while that was going on, but I got out of there as soon as possible.
I am soooooooooo not impressed with the rest of the camp ground. Our site seems to be about average for the other sites of its type. Which is incredibly small. Our tent takes up the WHOLE FREAKING THING!!!!!!!! Our tent isnt huge. I think its an average size tent for a family. But for fucks sake, really? I had read the sites were small, but I still expected a little more. If you go here, dont expect a site that your car fits in if your car is anything bigger than a prius.
I was beat by the time we got to our site. Being completey exausted makes for a very unhappy Michael. The wife was great about getting the Jeep unloaded and helping me set up. Unfortuantly, the ground is all coral and lime rock. Not very condusive for banging plastic tent stakes into the ground. I broke 2. Ended up using a screw driver as one of my stakes. One of the plastic ones isnt even all the way into the ground. So thats the corner my wifes 900 pound suitcase is holding down on the inside of the tent. As tired as I was, I still couldnt get any sleep once everything was set up. It was 85 degrees in the tent. We have one batt operated fan that runs off of 4 D cell Batts. It did nothing for me. A blur of moments is riding my bike to a convience store just outside the camp, where I found out there are plenty of drugs and hookers in the neighborhood if I wanted any. We went to Miami Subs for lunch. Its a fav of the wifes and we dont have any in Jax that I know of. We drove around Stock Island a bit. Drove around KW a little. I got a few hours of barely sleep while the wife was roaming the campground or something. At some point she called me to say she couldnt find her way back to our site. I asked if I needed to come get her. She said she was ok. Hours later when I finally gave up on sleep, I rode up to the office to find her sitting at a picnic table bored to death and still no idea of how to ride her bike back to the tent. Oh well.
Dinner consisted of burger king. the first fast food I have had this year. I gave up fast food as a new years resolution. I dont think vacation counts as cheating on stuff like that. I tried to find a nice place to watch the sunset from Stock Island. But I just kept ending up in ghettos. We ended up sitting in the car, parked by an old smelly fishing wharf, while we ate our BK in the Jeep. At somepoint in the day I got a shower. My experiance in that was a bit better than my wifes. To hear her tell it, she had to viciously fight off swarming ants and bathe at the sametime. I believe her because the mens bathroom was also full of ants. The showers are not in with the bathrooms. Atleast not on the building we used. The showers are on the outside of the building and it doesnt matter what sex you are to use them. They are individual shower closets basically. Sleep wasnt bad. Wasnt great. But wasnt bad. We have a nice air mattress and have it pushed up to the screen window of the tent that faces the water. The highpoint of our campsite is that it is right on the water. Our tent cant be more that 15 or 20 feet from the water. Atleast the view isnt bad. The campsite seems to be in an airtraffic pattern. So the planes are pretty loud during the day. But night didnt seem too bad at all.
So thats what I remember from day 1 even though I was completely running on fumes. Pictures to come in future posts.
From Boyd's Campground, Stock Island, Florida,
MLB out.

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