On the way back to the RV

Sunday, we drove back from Key West. We happen to stop at this place on the side of the road in one of the keys to have some lunch. As it turned out, it was a great place to stop. They had a great view and live music! Plus, they served mimosas with lunch. Here is the view from our table.

On the way down to Key West on Thursday, we passed a visitor center for the Big Cypress preserve. From the road, all I could see were a bunch of people on a boardwalk looking at something. On the way back to the RV, we decided to stop and see what it was.


Turned out to be a canal full of alligators. It was a relatively chilly day, so they weren't moving around too much. We were able to get a really good look at them.

Key West, FL

Our second day in Key West was spent exploring the town. We took our bikes and rode them all over Key West. After we parked the car at the hotel, we didn't get back in it until we left on Sunday. First stop was the southernmost point.


Next we went to the Mel Fisher maritime museum to check out some of the treasure of the shipwrecked Atocha. He searched for this shipwreck for 16 years and finally found the millions. The ship went down during a hurricane off the keys in the 1600's.

In the evening, we found ourselves at Mallory Square for the famous Key West sunset. Then it was on to Duval Street for the nightlife.

Dry Tortugas National Park

For the Thanksgiving holiday, Mike and I decided to drive down to Key West, FL. It took us close to 6 hours to get there. Little did I know that after you leave the Florida peninsula, the average speed limit drops to 45 mph through the keys. Anyway, we drove down on Thanksgiving day and went to the Dry Tortugas the next day. Dry Tortugas is about 70 miles west of Key West and it is only accessible by ferry or sea plane. We opted for the ferry because it was cheaper and allowed you to spend more time at Fort Jefferson. Mike and I took our seasickness meds just in case and we were very glad that we did. The ferry takes 2 1/2 hours to get there and about 30 minutes of it was rough by my standards, 3-5 foot waves. Here is our photo by the sign.

Fort Jefferson, on Garden Key, was built to be a military outpost and was later used as a prison. The National Park service took over in 1936. The fort takes up most of the island but there is one area of some land where you can camp, and a beach area where you can snorkel.

The entire fort is surrounded by a moat, which was for defense and it also protects the walls of the fort from the destructive action of waves.

The courtyard of Fort Jefferson.
Overall, it was a really good day. We met some nice people on the ferry and had a good time exploring the fort.

Peace River Cruise

Not too far down the road from where we are staying is a little bar called the Nav-a-gator. It's a cool, little local place and it's located on the Peace River. Just so you know, the Peace River runs into Charlotte Harbor, which then melds into the Gulf of Mexico. Anyway, the Nav-a-gator grill runs narrated tours of the Peace River area on a big pontoon boat. They tell you all about local wildlife and a little of the history of the area. I thought it would be a good chance to see an alligator and maybe a manatee so Mike and I went on a tour this last Saturday. It included lunch at the grill before departure and there was going to be live music at the bar when we returned from the trip. It was pretty interesting for the first 45 minutes (the tour lasted 2 hours). I did get to see a few alligators that were about 8 feet long. (Photos soon)

Ok, so there are alligators in the water, well, that didn't stop some folks from putting up rope swings from the trees on the sides of the river! Crazy! It was a sunny day and the temp was in the 70's so we wore shorts and a t-shirt for the boat trip. That turned out to be a bad decision. It got to be somewhat windy out there and most of the time I froze my butt off. On the way back to the RV, we saw some more Florida wildlife. (photos soon)

Later, Saturday night, we drove out to a dark place in the countryside so we could watch the meteor shower. We only stayed out for about an hour because the temp was 43 degrees, BRRRR. I thought Florida was supposed to be warm in the winter. :)

Thanksgiving is this week, which means a 3-day week for us. YEAH! We decided to go to Key West for Thanksgiving and I am really looking forward to it. We are also going to go to Dry Tortugas National Park while we are there, so we'll be able to check off another national park from our list. Stay tuned for photos.

Free money

You may have noticed the ad banner at the top of this blog. Well, I put it there as a way to make some free money. I figured, the banner wasn't too big and as long as it didn't detract from the blog, what the hell, I'll give it a try. Maybe it will help finance the trip ;) I just checked my earnings, and I am happy to report that since July, when the ad banner went up, I have made a whopping $2.98!!!!!! So maybe I'll have to work a little longer. The free money obviously isn't paying too well these days. But if you feel like it, or are genuinely interested in the ad being posted, go ahead and click on it. I would appreciate the 1/2 a penny that it earns me. (No offense to google. I really don't know how much each click is worth. They don't tell me.)

South Florida

South Florida is an interesting place. I don't think I have met anyone who was born here. It seems like about 75% of the people I have met, including people working at the hospital and the patients, are from New Jersey or the northeast US. It doesn't matter because they are all nice. It just struck me as kind of strange.

Anyway, Mike and I have been making plans for our weekends and we are booking them up fast. Last weekend we took it easy, hit a few local bars and Mike got some work done. This weekend we were going to go to Busch Gardens in Tampa but I discovered at the last minute that you can pay a little extra and go on the group adventure tour (or something like that) and your get to go to the front of the line at all the roller coasters, sit in front at the shows, get a complimentary lunch and go on the safari tour. This Busch Gardens is african safari themed and they apparently have a lot of animals, kind of like a zoo. Well, that sounds like the way to go! So I called and I guess everybody else thinks its a good idea too because they were sold out this weekend and next. Busch Gardens has now been postponed until the first weekend in December. We are also planning a Key West trip! Yippee!

Back to work

Well, I am officially a worker bee once again. On Wednesday, I started my locums contract and 5:30am somehow seems earlier than ever. In the days leading up to Wednesday, I tried to start waking up a little earlier than usual (9-10am) to ease the transition but I wasn't very successful, plus I thought...I'm going to take advantage of sleeping late as long as possible. Anyway, I arrived at the hospital at 6:30 and, after a short orientation, started my first case around 7:45. The people I will be working with all seem nice. Things went pretty well, I think.

Here is a photo of our campsite. Notice our palm tree? Very Florida :)