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Published: November 21st 2010
Hello again from us on our Journey. Things are great, people are good and the weather is awesome.
Mon- Nov 01, 2010
We are really starting to suck at sleeping in and so again we are up with the sun and after chatting until about 10:00 a.m with the other hostel guests in Charleston South Carolina, we packed up our gear and headed towards Savannah Georgia. We didn't have a long ride ahead of us so we kinda took our time and meandered through a couple of different towns. The sun was very toasty warm, and we wanted to enjoy the warmth so we decided to stop early for the day and just chill in the sun. We found a cheap hotel, unloaded the gear, threw on swim suits, found the pool and parked our butts on the lounge chairs. We sunned ourselves for the next 3 hours or so until the sun went down. After our 3 hour vitamin D boost Rene ran to town to get some supplies, I worked on our blog, we had some dinner and the rest of the night was spent with Rene watching baseball and football and me doing Internet "stuff".
Tues-
Casa Yahalla
Hostel in St. AugustineNov 02, 2010
Our new brilliant Irish friends were headed to St. Augustine, Florida. That is on our way to the Florida keys, so we made plans to meet up with them again in St. Augustine. So after a great nights' sleep and our newly sunkist glow from yesterday we loaded up our gear and left Pooler SC at about 9:00 am. We thought we would possibly stop into Savannah and check out that city, but as we got closer it began to rain, so.... no Savannah Gerogia. OK so it started to rain (remember, we had just days before been stuck in a rain storm where we got soaking wet and had to wait 2 hours in Subway) well this time we stopped and took out our rain gear, put it all on and away we rode thinking we were so smart to put our gear on. Not gonna get soaking wet this time. Well...... We rode for about 4 minutes and the sun came back out. Yup a whole 4 minutes. So we stopped ... took off the gear, put it all back onto the bag and off we went. All that work for 4 mintues. Oh well
....we had a good laugh and carried on to St Augustine. Got there and met up with Mel and Audrey. They made us dinner and we spent the night yakking, laughing and just hanging out together. Oh yeah.. There was this other guy staying at the hostel as well, D.J was his name and he and a bunch of others were cooking up a mess of fried oysters for their dinner and shared some with us. Battered deep fried oysters. They were AMAZInG!!!
Wed- Nov 03, 2010
We woke up with plans to explore this oldest city in America. First we went for a run/walk. We try to exercise at least a couple of times a week . We of course feel better when we do and because we are not really active while on the bike, we try to discipline ourselves to be a active. Doesn't always work but we try. After our run we got ready and went out exploring the town. Quite a unique little city and with the beautiful weather, it makes it all the more fun to check out. After exploring the town we came back to the hostel, found the incredible swing on
Raining in St. Augustine
Poured rain for about 10 minutes and 10 minutes later you wouldn't have known the front porch and did some reading, visiting and listening to music. Also, when we arrived back at the hostel we met yet again another couple who we have met up with a couple of times now. Walter and Karen are from Belgium and are travelling for 6 months and are on a very similar travel plan as us. So nice to see them again too.
Since Mel and Audrey decided to cook for us last night we wanted to return the favor so Rene I made dinner. We had our dinner and again gathered on the front porch to catch up with Walter and Karen and visit some more.
Thurs- Nov 04, 2010
Rene went Ghost Hunting last night with Martin, another hostel guest and Karen. I guess since St. Augustine is America's oldest city, supposedly the ghosts of many are hanging about and many people who believe in ghosts flock to this ancient city to commune with these folks who have "gone on". Although neither of us believe in ghosts Rene thought it would be interesting and kind fun to see how one goes about hunting for ghosts, so off a few of them went. I went
Beautiful gate in St Augustine
Rene helping the lady take down her Halloween decorations to bed. Rene finally got back at 3:00 am and of course had funny stories to share about the hunt. Didn't find any ghosts though.
We slept until about 9:00 and woke up to even more excitement. You see, many hostels are homes that are in the downtown of the city. They are in these areas because it is easiestfor travellors to access them from the bus or train depot. Well Casa Yahalla in St. Augustine in a 150 year old home is no exception to this rule and it is right downtown. Now also in many cities the downtown area is often times the place where the low income, the homeless and the drug trade also reside and again St. Augustine is no exception and the hostel was 2 doors down from a corner store where a family was heavily onto the drug scene. It appears they were selling, buying and performing other illegal activities out of their home and store. The corner's nickname is "Coke Corner" ( sounds safe eh?) Anyway the owners of the hostel have been trying for years to have this business busted and supposedly the local and federal police forces have also been waiting for
Ghost Busting
Rene's ghost hunting trip the right time to raid the business and shut it down. Well lucky us!!!!! We picked the most exciting day to be in the neighbourhood. When we woke up we saw about 6 police cars, about a dozen officers and heard shouting and crying. The police tape was up and and surrounding the area and when the family was finally taken away, more officers came to confiscate the contents of the store and home. The rest of the day was a flurry of activity in the neighbourhood. So many happy neighbours, but none as happy it seemed as our hostel owner. Great day for him.
We really had nothing much planned for the day, so Rene and I decided to issue ourselves a challenge. Our challenge was to see if between the 2 of us we could only spend $10.00 on food and entertainment for the whole day. So..... We started out with breakfast; we had already purchased some eggs the day before so - cost for breaky- $0.00. Then for lunch we found this place that served 2 for one drinks and 2 slices of pizza for $6.50- so - cost for lunch $6.50. Then for supper we had a
St. Augustine
Just a character in town huge salad that we had all the fixins for, again from the previous day, so- cost for dinner $0.00. We then had some $ left burning a hole in our pockets so we bought some candy to top off our $10.00 food day. Cost for candy 2.50. So grand total for food and entertainment for the entire day.... $9.00. O.K, it was kinda easy when we had leftovers from previous days, and free entertainment from the neighbours, but kind of a fun and exciting day. Finished the day watching a movie with some other hostel guests eating free popcorn and drinking tea.
Fri-Nov 05, 2010
Now, since Monday morning we have been monitoring the scheduled launch of the last and final shuttle into space from Cape Canaveral. The first scheduled launch was supposed to be early in the morning on Monday. Then it was postoned until later on Monday. It didn't get launched then so it was re-scheduled for Tuesday. Tuesday it was cancelled because of the weather. Re-scheduled until Wednesday. All of us from the hostel were going to watch the launch from the fort in St. Augustine. Ready??? Yup, postponed yet again. O. K now re-scheduled for
A new frock
My new dress in St. Augustine Thursday. Woke up to find out it was postoned again because of a fuel leak and scheduled for Friday afternoon. Rene and I decided we had enough waiting around and would ride closer to the launch site in Cape Canaveral and watch it right there. On our way we stopped at a gas station and found out that it was postponed yet again. We went to the NASA space centre and were told there, that yes the launch was postponed again, but this time it is not scheduled to launch until Nov. 30. What a hassel. I can't imagine what it must feel like for the astronauts and their families to have all that anticipation of "going" up, to then have the launch postponed and rescheduled again and again. I guess for them it's all part of the package of being able to fly into space.
After we found our that the launch was definitely off, we zipped along the interior of Florida. We stayed the night in a motel in a town called Okochobee Florida.
Sat - Nov 06, 2010
The interior of Florida is lush ripe farmland. We passed all kinds of farms. We saw a dairy
farm that milks 8500 cows!!!!! WOW!!! The farm had four different milking barn sites. There were Holsteins everywhere. We also saw beef cows, Orange Groves, palm tree farms, vegetable and flower farms and crazy huge sugar cane fieds that they were busy harvesting while we drove through. Farming everywhere. Now one thing we found very fascinating was this lake we followed. Lake Okochobee is 14 feet above sea level and there is a dike and this elaborate water system around and throughout the whole lake. We couldn't figure out why, so when Rene asked someone, they told him that in 1920's the Florida government sucked loads of water out of the Everglades and swamps, filled this lake and built this system to contain the lake. They wanted to contain the lake so there could be this rich beautiful farm land. Kinda ingenious for the farmers, but of course very controversial because it then messed up the whole Eco environment around it. Loads of differing feelings and opinions about the project. Of course we are not invested either way, so really just a fascinating story for us. The next part of our ride was on a highway through the everglades called Alligator
Space Shuttle
Didn't blast off while we were there :( Alley. The highway is right through the middle Of the Everglades. Nothing but swamp grass and wind for miles. Didn't see even one alligator. BUT, then on the next highway, called the Tamiami Trail, which is another featured ride we wanted to take, we saw lots of alligators. Most just laying in the swamp grass sunning themselves. Very cool!!!!!! We of course stopped to check them out and took tons of pictures. That night we stayed in the Everglades Hostel in Florida City. This hostel was the funkiest place we have stayed yet. Along with the regular dorm rooms, there are all these tents for guests' use and cots and mats with pillows everywhere outside. There is also a huge gazebo, with cushions and more pillows. A real hippy type compound that screams free love, peace and tranquility to all.
Sun- Nov 07, 2010
We knew we were on our way to Key West, but no hostel and hotel rooms that were way over our meager budget so Rene went on Craig's list (an internet site) and found this ad for a bedroom in a family home on Key West. We called Dea and she said the bedroom
was available for the next 4 nights, so we booked it. Our featured ride continued today all along the Florida Keys. We left Florida City and rode for the next 3 hours over the keys. We rode over the bridges and gazed at the bright blue green water. What a interesting ride. We found Dea and Heather's place easily on beautiful sunny Key West. The house is in the old historic section of Key West and these ladies run it very much like a hostel, but it's their family home. They have this great stone pool in the back yard in an open air yard surrounded by big palm trees, ferns and other beautiful plants. A private cozy little paradise that is just off the kitchen. Big screen T.V and a wonderful front porch to read on. Definitely lucked on on this place. Then, just when we thought we heard and saw the best, we met the family and another guy named John. John works for a boat touring company and told us we could come out on the boat for a snorkel trip and sunset cruise for just $20 each. We booked it for Monday!!!!!
We settled onto our
room and went to check out the town of Key West. We checked out the touristy things like the marketplace and the wharf on Mallory Square and then we watched the sun set. There is a tradition in Key West that folks come out to watch the sun set and then go on their merry way. A couple thousand people on the square clapping and cheering with the descent of the sun. So fun!!!! Found Jimmy Buffet's Original Margareitaville resturant and of course had to have a cheeseburger (hence the title....cheeseburger in Paradise)
Mon- Nov 08, 2010
We got up a little later and went for a run/wall on the beautiful cloudless bright blue sky. While walking through the old part of this town , it became very apparant to me that there are several pre-requisits to residing in Key West. Firstly one must have a home with a sunny frony porch, with funky porch furniture, or more preferably a porch swing. Secondly one must have a little kitten to lay on the porch on the sun and last but not least one must own a bicycle or better yet a moped. There are thousands of mopeds in this
Burning the sugar cane in the field
then they harvest it and bring it to the plant city. Everyone and their dog (literally) rides a moped. As we walked down the street we could hear the whine of the moped much more than any other sound we heard. As we continued to explore the area, we met a couple from Long Island New York. Tom and Dawn were staying at their condo for a week and invited us to join them at their complex on Tuesday night for their annual Margarieta Party. After chatting with them we left and met John at the pier. Off we went with the snorkeling tour on board the boat called the "Fury". Snorkeling was spectacular with 1.5 hours spent in the water gazing at the coral reef and the brighly colored fish who call the reef home. After the snorkeling we sat out on the water and watched as the sun set again over the ocean. How beautiful!!!!!! Came back to the house and had a dip in the stone pool and went to bed.
Tues- Nov 09, 2010
We had decided last might we were going to make this our beach day and then in the late afternoon hook up with Tom and Dawn. We found a beach
( not hard to do in Key West!!) and parked our butts on a blanket with our books to read and lay in the sun. After a couple hours I looked at Rene's chest and it was pretty red. My legs also were feeling really warm, so we packed up our blanket and books and went for another walk. We walked to the Southern most tip of North America. From this marker it is just 90 miles to Cuba. Another interesting thing about Key West is there is chickens and roosters clucking and pecking everywhere. It appears that these fowl are protected here and they are free to peck and roam anywhere they please. Kinda cool. At one point I saw a momma and 5 of her babies just hanging about. Nice to be a chicken in Key West!!!!
It was also boat week here in Key West, so there were dozens of these huge fast power boats here. We walked past where all the boats were parked and admired their fancy paint jobs and sleek bodies. The gals who own the house invited us to go with them on Wednesday to watch the races on the ocean in their
Allligator
Just hanging out in the sun own pontoon boat. We readily agreed we would love to join them. Anyway after our suntanning session, we came back to the house and got ready to meet our new friends. Got to Tom and Dawn's and spent the evening having a great time with them and some of their friends in and out of the hottub. Hmmm another couple who we feel we really connected with. So much fun and so like us. Thanks for all your hospitality Tom and Dawn and welcome to our journey. Still waiting for you to remember the book title 😊 😊 Hopefully we will meet again one day!!!!!
Wed- Nov 10, 2010
Woke up early cause it was the boat race day. Packed our gear and helped Heather and Dea pack theirs and headed off to the water. We spent the whole day on the pontoon boat with 7 of us. We fished and watched these power boats kicking up at least a 12 foot wake and going about 100 miles an hour. They barely touch the water they are going so fast. It looks like they just skim the surface. And they ROAR loudly. Incredible!!!! We spent the entire day on
More alligators
Look pretty harmless don't they? the water and came back to the house exhausted. Rene had a nap, while I read and then we decided since we were leaving Key West the following morning we needed to try 2 more things that are quite unique to Key West. We needed to try a Cuban sandwich and Key Lime Pie. Had our Cuban sandwich (a sub like sandwich) at a quaint little walk up street cafe and then found a piece of Key Lime Pie and coffee at another little resturant. I guess we have experienced much of what Key West has to offer. If we really have to leave this paradise I guess we are as ready as we ever will be. It truly is a little island paradise. So we leave tomorrow
In the words of Jimmy Buffet, who is an icon here in Key West
"no shirt, no shoes, no problem
And so we remain
In the Grip of Grace
Rene and Crystal
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big bruce
non-member comment
luckyu
What fun. I spent some time down south a long time ago. I seem to remember more bugs! You really do seem to be traveling in Grace. Never made it to the keys. It's one of my "one day trips" Along with New England. Just a reminder, we met in Robert Service Campground in Whitehorse. Have fun folks. Fried Oysters! Now I'm hungry!