Day 9 Key Largo to Islamorada

Well today we left our cozy suite at Marina Del Mar, and relocated to Lime Tree Resort which said it was in Islamorada, but is actually on the South end of a little village called Layton. As we came further south, it really started to seem like the keys. Bridges, islands, and visible water on both sides. This is really a beautiful place. Our latest landing spot, is a very quiet, older seaside resort in a very unpopulated area. My car is parked in front of the room 50’ from the ocean. I’m writing this under a tiki hut 25’ from the ocean, with a cool onshore breeze and a glass of Martini & Rossi Asti. Vickie is in a hammock suspended between 2 trees nearby. She just said I should stop and pick her up on the way back from Key West. This once again is something I just picked out from the Internet and turned out just about the way I pictured it. It is probably little changed in the last 40 years. Had a weird experience getting here today. The GPS insisted the place was abo ut 4 miles North of here. We pulled in and it looked like some kind of flea market. Knowing it was wrong, we returned to the road, and relied on the mile markers and finally found it. We were early so we asked where the Post Office was. (we wanted to mail our sweat pants home to make more room). We did the mailing, and then asked the lady where to get lunch. She directed us to the Islamorada Fish Co., which was a restaurant and seafood store. Dining was outside and the food was great. While there the lady beside us told us to check out Robbies’ where you could feed the Tarpon from the dock. She said it had been featured on 60 minutes. I thanked her, and after lunch we proceeded to look for Robbies’. As it turns out, Robbies’ was the exact same place we had pulled into thinking it was our resort (according to the GPS). We paid the $1.00 admission out to the docks, and really did see huge Tarpon just hanging around the dock. For $2.79, you could buy a small bucket of whole dead fish to feed them. We didn’t have to, because several fathers had already dutifully bought buckets for their children. The Tarpon literally climbed over each other to get the fish. Of course you have to run the pelicans off to keep them from snatching all the fish away from the Tarpons. It was amazing, and the fish were huge. I think Vickie got some good pictures. We left Robbies’ and headed back South to our resort. The room was ready so we moved in and hit the beach. No Internet here, so this will be a day late coming. We had a relaxing afternoon, and a good dinner at the Italian Fish Restaurant next door called Little Italy Seafood. We had a thunderstorm last night, and this morning we packed up and headed down the road after both voting NO to a tour of the as yet unstarted (only thing complete is a small boat dock) NEW Lime Tree Resort Condos starting at $800,000. After an absolutely gorgeous drive with the roof down, we arrived at Key West. What a great place. Now we’re back on the WiFi again. More later.

Wes and Vickie

Day 8 Hanging at Key Largo

Good day yesterday. We lazed around in the morning, and then laid by the pool all afternoon. We went to the dockside restaurant for lunch. Had conch chowder, coconut crusted shrimp with coconut rum dipping sauce, and fried cracked conch strips. After the lunch hour, we retired to the pool and did some water exercise. (well Vickie did some then slept by the pool while I finished) Later we watched the pelicans and cranes beg for fish scraps from the fishing boat when it came in to clean fish. Then it was off to Coconut’s bar to enjoy some frosty treats and a rather amazing guy. They had a performer with a modicum of talent, and a mastery of electronic assistance. He had a keyboard, 2 speakers, an amp and a mic. He could play any song, as long as it was on one of the floppy discs he plugged into the keyboard. He did, however, have a lot of showmanship and a voice that was quite adaptable. He kept the crowd rolling long into the night. You can imagine an open-air dockside bar, and a hundred or so folks singing along and dancing to oldies through Jimmy Buffet. We met a lot of folks, and partied till it was time to stroll down the dock to bed. This resort has made it to the top of our short list. We will be back here again. Thinking of working up a lounge act and coming back "on the circuit" next winter. This morning, it’s off to Ismorelda and hopefully some new adventure.

As ever,

Wes and Vickie

Day 7 all the way to Key Largo

ay 7 all the way to Key Largo

We lazed around yesterday a.m. and then hit Rt. 1 for the short trip further South. Around Florida city, we picked up Rt. 905 which is a secondary road across a toll bridge ($1.00) to the Northernmost point in the Keys. It was a beautiful drive with little or no traffic. When it got to the Keys it made a "T", so we decided to see what was North from there. It was only about 2 miles, and we ended up at some kind of gated community called Ocean Reef Club. I checked it out on the web, and it is very interesting and appears exclusive. We turned around there and headed South to Key Largo. After all the stress and mess of Miami, just driving here was a pleasure. The roadside is dotted with fishing and diving businesses, along with local type restaurants and boat sales. We came into, and passed through Key Largo without ever seeing the place we were to stay. We got out the trusty Delorme, and Vickie guided me right to it. We were immediately pleasantly surprised. We had picked our dest ination from the Internet with little more than what the web site told us. The resort is off Rt. 1 on a nice quiet boat harbor where the fishing and diving boats come and go. It has numerous moorings that are full of beautiful boats. Our room (which for some unknown reason was upgraded to a King Suite) is on the 3rd floor with a deck overlooking the main boat channel. Across the way from us is a Lagoon 440 catamaran that we looked up on the Internet this morning. It carries a $585,000 base price, with a long available options list. The resort is old style Keys with hurricane shutters on the windows and all concrete construction. It is in very good repair, and quite comfortable. There is a large open-air restaurant and bar called Coconuts serving lunch and dinner with happy hour from 4-7 p.m. During happy hour, they have peel and eat shrimp, steamed clams, and oysters on the ½ shell. Also conveniently, the shuttle to the gambling boat leaves here several times a day. Vickie availed herself of that last night while I went to the bar for oysters and beer. I think we may have found a new home away from home. This place is idyllic, convenient, laid back, and reasonable. Might just have to buy a boat, and move to a mooring here. Today we are just vegging out enjoying the sunshine and ocean breeze. Plan to hit the restaurant for some cracked conch for lunch, and spend a little time in the pool. More later.

Wes and Vickie

PS - some pictures

Day 6 South from Vero Beach

It was the best of times and it was the worst of times. Don't remember what novel that comes from, but it truly describes our day yesterday. We got up, got moving, and stopped by a very nice coin car wash to get the crud off Mr. Vette. The car wash was one of the nicest I've been to, and had this new do dad that has a nozzle and lets you blow-dry your car. It's sort of like a captive leaf blower with a hose and hand nozzle. Using that after the spot free rinse gave an excellent result. We pulled out to a nice finish up area, and did a little detailing. We then went next door and paid the highest for gas so far on the trip. Chevron premium for $2.68. After fuel, we hooked up with our friends Neil and Andrea to visit for a while. They live in a very nice gated community in the Southern part of Vero Beach. After a nice but too brief visit with them, we headed South again on A1A. It was a 100% perfect day, with the roof down, sun shining, and about 76 degrees. As has been the norm, A1A is difficult to follow, but with Vickie on the Delorme, we persevered and kept with it. As we proceeded South, we passed through different named areas, but eventually came to West Palm and Palm Beach. WOW, this is where some of the old money must be in Florida. As we traveled A1A going South toward Ft. Lauderdale, we passed ocean front castle like houses, with landscaping that must receive daily attention. Most had walls and/or 10-ft high perfectly manicured hedges, with ornate iron gates. It impossible to describe how beautiful all of the landscaping was. The sub tropical climate here allows them to grow exotic plants, and what we consider annuals grow in unbelievable colorful abundance. Another thing I noticed was of the oncoming traffic, every third car was a Porsche, Bentley, Jaguar, Aston Martin, and occasionally a Ferrari. This is where they must sell all those exotic cars. Up until this point, we had a perfect day, but things started going a little sour. We thought we might land for the night in Pompano Beach, but we were unable to score a decently priced place. So Wes said, Ft. Lauderdale is where all the kids go for Spring Break so there must be hundreds of rooms. So we drove on South. Somehow, we never seemed to find where the hundreds of hotel rooms were in Ft. Lauderdale, and the traffic got really abominable. So Wes said, let head back toward Rt. 1 or I-95, there ought to be lots of rooms there. What we didn't know was that snowstorms up north had snarled air traffic, and everything we tried was booked solid. We found a Holiday Inn that still had 2 rooms left for only $309.95 each plus tax. The clerk cheerfully told us it was "just supply and demand" but I call it extortion. We tried a Marriott we found in downtown Miami, and it was in the $260.00 range, so Wes said, I'm heading South on I-95 until we get out of town. Don't know if anyone has ever driven I-95 from Hollywood FL South through Miami, but best I can tell you is DON'T. It is 8 lanes of dodgem car insanity. And then to really fool you, you are rolling along on I-95 and there is a sign that says Junction RT 1 and it literally does that. One moment you are barreling along I-95 with 5000 other idiots, the next you are on Rt. 1 and stopping for traffic lights. I've never seen such a mess in my life (except maybe Northern VA or Cranberry Township in PA). Well we kept on driving, finding nothing, (it's now about 9:00 p.m. with no supper) until we spotted a Best Western. About 3 turnarounds and a couple of U-turns later, I came the wrong way into the driveway. We got a room for a reasonable price and crashed. Turns out in addition to everything else 10 gazillion people were also in town for the Food Network's big deal in South Beach. (found out via the paper this morning) Today we are going to continue to head South, we'll just have to come back and see South Beach and Miami Beach another time. Since we got a little ahead of schedule due to last night's marathon drive, we called the resort in Key Largo, and they agreed to extend our stay for another day at the same rate. So, we aregoing to head for Key Largo today and check in there tonight. Looking forward to some laid back R&R. More later.

Wes and Vickie

Day 5 South to Vero Beach

What a day what a day what a day, this is long, but quite a bit to relate. Got up early this morning, and watched the sunrise. We were planning to go Kennedy Space Center or as it’s called again now Cape Canaveral. (today I actually learned the real distinction between the two) We headed out and drove Rt. 3 North into the visitor’s center. Let me preface all this with, I had a great time, but I am appalled at how poorly run/managed the Space Center Visitors Center is. Please don’t think I am negative about the Space Center experience, but given 6 months as manager, I could improve the operation by 600%. We arrived and got in line to pay for our admission. Of about 16 or 18 possible booths only about 8 were open. The lines were fairly short but extremely slow moving due to the complexity of the purchase transaction at the window. I was also not real impressed with the price--$38.00 per person general admission and $59.00 if you took one of the special tours. We decided we wanted to take the special tour, and had a coupon for $3.50 off each, so we went for it. I figured, we might not be back any time soon. As it turns out it was worth it. But then in the meantime, you had to go through a rough parody of airport security. What another circus. NASA could certainly learn a few things from TSA. Of course they are both government agencies—who would ever expect them to talk to each other. We finally got inside, and jumped on the 11:30 showing of the #1 IMAX movie. All sounds pretty good to here, but reality of it is getting everyone seated in the IMAX Theater was akin to the confusion of buying the admission tickets. They could have opened the doors on both sides, and filled the theater quickly and efficiently. But, they insisted on having an entrance and exit side, and yelling steadily at everyone to move all the way to the right to make room. Well the folks that got there early and got the good center seats were not about to move to the right, so they promptly ignored the yelling lady, and so all the late arrivals ended up crawling over seat backs to get to the seats on the right side of the theater. Finally everyone managed to struggle to a seat, and the movie was great and very inspirational. This one was made by Tom Hanks, and was so incredible. The movie finished up about 12:15 and we needed to get something to eat prior to the next 1:00 movie. We went directly across to the food court, and once again, confusion reigned. They had three lines, one for burgers and stuff, one for Italian stuff, and one for the salad and wrap carousel. (which was a pretty interesting idea, it continually rotated at they kept stocking it with salads, wraps and stuff behind the wall) Only problem with all this was 1 they didn’t have enough trays. 2. All the lines backed up and blocked the check out lines. 3. The lines crossed over and blocked each other 4. The lines blocked the drink stations 5. You could walk out past the cashiers without paying if you we re dishonest (or tired of waiting) cause they were so covered up by the intersecting lines they didn’t have any idea who paid and who didn’t. Vickie and I got 2 pretty good-looking salads (not real large) and 2 medium size drinks. The bill was $24.17. But then a hot dog was $7.99. We stuffed down our lunch (which was quite good) and then went through the same circus filling the second IMAX Theater. We got out of the second movie in time to check out the Missile Garden of old space missiles. Soon it was time and we headed over to the bus loading area. Once again we stood in line waiting on our particular bus for the special tour. Boy were we ever in luck. As it turned out the shuttle is due to launch on March 15, and was just rolled out to the launch pad this week before we got there. We got to see everything as the tour says "Up close and personal". Our guide was very knowledgeable, and the expanded tour is definitely worth the money over the standard tour. Also, since Cape Canaver al is a 250 square mile nature preserve, we got to see all kinds of water birds, wild boars, alligators, and several bald eagles. The eagles were worth the trip alone. One of them was sitting on a light pole, and when the bus came by started zooming and swooping all around the bus. Guide said it was probably just showing off. All this space stuff is unbelievable when you see it in the flesh, so huge and larger than life. Make the trip sometime if you haven’t, you won’t be disappointed. The tour concluded with dumping us off at the Saturn V building. The Saturn V building holds a full scale moon rocket that was never used, not a model or mock up—the real thing. It is so big as to be incomprehensible. They also have the real original mission control room, just as it was during the last moon flight. Looking at all this (60’s) technology, it is staggering to think that men got in that stuff, and flew to the moon. The guide said the first Apollo computers had less memory than a hand hel d calculator today. I’m a believer. The astronauts are all VERY brave people. Another interesting thing, they are in the final construction stages of a Disney World type shuttle flight simulator, which will hold 45 people at a time. They used astronauts that had actually flown on the shuttle as consultants, and the guide told me, they (the astronauts) said, they had really nailed the experience. Of course, given our experience with the whole Visitors Center thingy, you’ll have to stand in line for 3 hrs to get in, and then crawl over the seat backs to get into it. After visiting the Visitors Center, you have to wonder how NASA ever manages to launch anything. Hopefully the guy running the Visitors Center is not in charge of anything else. We were quite late getting out of Kennedy---oh yea, the distinction. Cape Canaveral Air Force Base (which still exists) was the site of all the manned launches up till Apollo 3. All manned launches after that moved to Kennedy Space Center, which i s on Cape Canaveral (the landmass). (confused yet?) Then recently the Government decided to change the name back to Cape Canaveral Space Center, but they have not changed the signage or anything else. But then it’s the Government, so who would expect anything less. As I said, we were late getting out of there, it is really a full day if you see a lot—2 if you see everything. So we jumped on I95, and I defended my turf in the fast lane at 85 mph for about 60 miles. We got to Vero Beach, crashed at a Best Western, and walked across 4-lane Rt. 60 to the IHOP for dinner. Will see our friends in Vero Beach in the morning, and then head south on A1A.

Wes & Vickie

Day 4 Daytona South to Canaveral

This morning we didn’t get a real early start, Vickie walked on the beach, and I made like the closet writer I am, sitting looking at the ocean and pounding the keys. We didn’t go very far—about 5 or 6 miles over to Daytona USA at the Daytona racetrack. On the way Vickie (having been once to the Daytona 500) was relating to me what it is like when 250-300,000 folks descend upon the place. Looking around, and knowing what race weekend is like in Martinsville, I could imagine what a circus it must be. Since our timing was perfect (between race week and bike week) Daytona USA was not mobbed, and we had a very pleasurable time. Our guidebook, which now is quite a few years old, said admission was 12 dollars. Well now it’s 24 but we had found 2, 3-dollar coupons in some Daytona coupon books, so it ended up being $44 and change for 2. (we aren’t old enough for the senior rate yet) We wandered around a little and planned our attack. Next track tour was 11:30 and next IMAX Theater show was 12:30. While waiting for the track tour, I hit the snack bar for a little booster. (Vickie hit the huge souvenir store to look around) $6 and change later I was the proud owner of a plain hotdog, and medium drink that was mostly ice. I took advantage of the generous condiment bar (mustard, ketchup, and relish, nothing else) and soon had a lovely dog. Consuming my glorious repast, we got in line, and boarded the tram for the tour. After thoroughly annoying the woman behind me by telling her to shut up so I could hear the narration, we enjoyed the tour. (I’m usually such a polite guy, but the louder the narration got the louder this woman talked) First thing that amazed us was how big the track really is. Can’t even imagine it from looking at it on TV. Second was the banking and track. The 31 degree banking is STEEP, and the track isn’t very wide at all. I have quite a respect for those guys going 2 and 3 wide @ 190 MPH on it. On the other hand, I’d kill to be on there by myself in theVette, and put my foot in it till I scared myself. (or ran out of gas) After the track tour, we went back inside and looked around till time for the IMAX Theater presentation. We got great seats, cleaned our special 3D glasses and got ready. The first feature was all about the Daytona 500, and was in normal vision. Part of it was very touching when they showed Dale Earnhardt Sr. and you realized what a real part of the sport he really was. Also, the shots of the old guys reminded you of where the sport had really come from. The second feature was the IMAX part and it was the story of NASCAR. The IMAX experience has to be experienced to understand it. It’s like the old 3D movies, but in techno spades. Literature said they had a 12,000-watt sound system. I believe it. Even Wes, who is half-deaf and likes loud music, thought it was loud. They needed to do about 87% of what they had it set at. All in all, it was a great show and quite moving when it showed the giant flag, huge cr owd, National Anthem, bald eagle, and fighter plane fly overs. After the theater, we toured the rest of the exhibits, and headed out. On the way out we caught a late lunch at the Krystal Burger. (sort of like White Castle, but not as good) Everyone will be glad to hear they have added a few things to their menu. They now have mini pups (3 bite hot dogs) mini corn dogs and mini chicken sandwiches. Every selection full of artery clogging goodness. Oh and the Krystal now has free WiFi so you can surf while eating, to take your mind off the mega calories and fat you are consuming. We left Krystal, and jumped on I95 to get South of Daytona. Cruising down the Interstate, Vickie studied the Delorme, and found something called Rt. 3 that went off Rt. 1 down through some kind of wetlands nature preserve. We jumped off and picked that up. It was scenic, and we had the road to ourselves, until. Oops, here is the security gate for Kennedy Space Center, and we have to turn around. Well we took a detour back over to Rt. 1 and headed South again. While we were driving, Vickie wanted me to consult about our route and final destination for the day. So I pulled over into an asphalt turnoff, beside some railroad tracks. We were sitting there looking at the computer and maps, and all of a sudden there was a loud knock at the window. Just about scared me to death. It was some local Sheriff dude, telling us "we were trespassing on railroad property". I told him we just stopped to look at the map and he none to politely told us to move along. Boy does he need to get a life. I’m sure he was just bored, and figured harassing some guy in a Vette was a good pass time. (I mean, it just looked like a little side road) Well we moved along, and took Rt. 528 off Rt. 1 toward Coco Beach. We came past the cruise ship terminals in Port Canaveral, and we got to see 4 big cruise boats cranking up to pull out. (it was around 4:30) We got to Coco Beach, and started looking for a place to land. We pulled up in the parking lot of a Marriott Courtyard, parked in the shade, and got on their free WiFi. (big motels are always good for free WiFi in the parking lot) Marriott guy walked by and I told him we were just borrowing his shade looking at the map. We did the Hotels.com and Orbitz thing, and found the Hampton right beside where we were sitting was a pretty good buy. We got on the cell, booked it, and cruised across the parking lot to check in. Quite painless. Room was great, 8^th floor with water and ocean views on all sides. Took a bunch of sunset pictures, and went out for dinner. On the way we stopped at one of the biggest liquor stores we’d ever been in. It was the size of a small grocery store. They had things we’d never seen before, and enough wine to fill a tank truck. I decided this is where I’d take shelter when the hurricane was coming. The nice lady at the liquor store hooked us up with a good seafood pubby kind of place, and we had a great dinner. Stuf fed flounder and oysters on the ½ shell for me, and house skirt steak for Vickie. Today it’s off to Cape Canaveral to see the shuttle and rocket stuff, then South to Vero Beach to see our friends Neil and Andrea.

More later,

Wes and Vickie

Day 3 Fernandina Beach South to Daytona

Got a good start this morning, and headed South on A1A. Sometimes this old road is easy to follow, and sometimes, it’s quite a mystery. Before we left on this trip, we bought Delorme 2007 Streets and Trips for our laptop, along with a GPS antenna that plugs into a USB port. It has proved invaluable in finding our way today. We went South for a period of time, and arrived at the St. John’s River ferry. You have to take this over the St John’s River to stay on A1A. We got on the ferry (costs $3.25 per car) and settled down for the ride. I decided to get out and take some pictures. About the time I got to the front rail, I realized we were getting ready to dock. Turned out to be about an 8-minute ferry ride. (must be pretty boring duty for the ferry captain) We continued South on A1A, and again got lost. The sign said to turn right for A1A but then the route vanished. Once again the trusty laptop navigation program (not to mention the world’s greatest navigator) found our way. We t ook a side trip off A1A on 203 which is also known as Pointe Verde Blvd. which rides along the coast through the land of the rich and famous. I’ve seen richer and famouser areas, but this one was pretty amazing. All the houses looked like an army of 4000 Mexicans were on landscape duty full time. We continued down the coast on A1A passing through a continuous strand of condos and beach houses. There is very little buildable coastline that doesn’t have something on it. The vacant lots that are left are there because someone wants 5 bazillion dollars for them. There are still some areas that look like what I imagine FLA must have looked like 20 or 30 years ago, but they are few and far between. In fact, similar to where my son lives in Manassas VA, parasitic building has started. This is when someone buys a little old 1000 sq. foot ocean front cottage for 3 or 4 hundred thousand just to get the lot. Then they tear down the still functional home and build a new 4000 or more sq. foot M cMansion. The temp got up to the 80’s, so we decided to stop early and clean up the car so we could put the bra on. (we couldn’t put it on at home cause the vinyl wouldn’t stretch much at 20 degrees) So we stopped early in Ormand Beach, and got another room at the Comfort Inn with a view overlooking the ocean. Since we are in the week between the Daytona 500 and Daytona Bike week, accommodations are readily available. We cleaned up the car, put the bra on, and then did the most amazing thing. We went driving on the beach with the roof down. They let you get on the beach just a ½ mile or so from our motel, and we drove way down the beach about 4 or 5 miles. We then turned around and came back. It was approaching sunset, so everything was beautiful. Trust me, driving on Daytona Beach in a new Corvette with the roof down, good sounds on the radio, sea birds flying all around, the waves crashing, and the sky getting rosy as sundown approaches, is pretty close to perfect. (oh yea, and a Mojito in the cupholder) After that, we had a gourmet dinner at the Waffle House (I can’t get enough of their Scattered and Smothered hash browns), and some ice cream at The Creamery just down the street. We turned in for a good night’s sleep, and then this morning, Vickie is walking on the beach with her coffee, crossword, and shell bag. I’m sitting in the sun in my shorts communing with my laptop. Today, we plan to visit Daytona USA and the Daytona track. Then we are going to head in the general direction of Cape Canaveral to see about the tour there.

Hola,

Wes and Vickie

Day 2 South from Hilton Head SC

We left Hilton Head this morning heading South, with no concrete plan in mind. Coming out of HH we cut off on a back road toward Bluffton and got out of the heavy traffic. We rejoined Rt. 17 further South. We followed 17 to Savannah and exited just after another amazing bridge toward downtown. We toured the old part of Savannah and went by Paula Dean’s restaurant. It wasn’t mealtime, so we continued on. We saw most of old Savannah and then rejoined Rt. 17 to continue South. Saw one of those classic road signs you see in the magazines leaving Savannah. It was a big official yellow road sign, and said "Street Closed When Flooded"??? as opposed to what???? Rt. 17 continued its predilection for being straight with nothing but trees and marsh to look at. We took a side trip just past Eulonia, GA out Rt.99 that parallels 17 but is even more rural. The scenery was truly undisturbed rural Georgia. We passed, uneventfully, through Brunswick, GA on our way t o Jekyll Island. Jekyll Island is quite an interesting place. In the early 20th century, it was a private resort owned by the Vanderbilts, Goodyears, Carnegies, Fords etc. It was said that at one time the owners of Jekyll Island Resort controlled a full 20% of the world’s wealth. Now days the state of Georgia has owned it for the last 40 years. Many of the old original "cottages" are still there and have been restored. The huge home of the Vanderbilts has been converted to a hotel and is run by heirs of the family. While we were touring that, we saw folks out on the front lawn in period dress playing croquet just like must have happened earlier in the 1930’s and 40’s. Our guidebook told us you could actually stay at the Vanderbilt hotel, but prices were in the $375 a night range. (but with gourmet meals) We guessed that the folks on the front lawn were regular guests and knew what dress to wear for period croquet. We toured the rest of the island, and noted there were ma ny very nice houses in the residential areas of the island. Most of them looked like brick ranchers from the 60’s, but looking at the real estate listings on the Internet, most of them went for half a million or better. Rentals were in the 2 grand a week range. All in all though it was a beautiful place—very well kept and manicured, and little or no traffic. We left there and continued South on 17 heading for the Florida border. In Woodbine, GA we saw an antique dealer with a sense of humor—had a sign out front that read "Dead People’s Things For Sale" We crossed into Florida, and finally turned onto Rt. A1A with 734 miles showing on the trip meter and 74 degrees on the vette outdoor temp. We followed A1A to Fernandina Beach on Amelia Island, and decided to land for the day. Got an ocean view room at the Comfort Suites, and had a good meal down the road at Sliders. (fresh grouper was excellent). We’re camped for the night, and plan to head down A1A tomorrow morning. Should be some top down weather tomorrow, had the AC on today when it was 78.

More later........

Wes & Vickie

Southeast #1

Hello all,

Well here we are back on the road again. We left M’ville Saturday morning, and spent the weekend with some friends in Georgetown SC. Watched the Daytona 500 on Sunday, and saw some of the sights in Georgetown Saturday. Georgetown is a quite old seaport about an hour South of Myrtle Beach on Rt. 17. It is also home to a steel mill and paper plant. It has a very cool waterfront with a small boardwalk with neat pubs and oyster houses. We left Georgetown Monday morning headed South. The stretch of Rt. 17 between Georgetown and Charleston SC is nothing but a straight road through some pine trees—not too much to see but a lot of marsh and wetlands. Charleston is really old. According to the literature, many of the buildings are of the 1700’s vintage. We toured through the old Battery section of the city, and were amazed at the well-preserved old city. Many of the streets were paved with Belgian blocks, which came over as ballast in the old sailing ships. For my friends from Pittsburgh , I’m sure you remember the Belgian block streets (cobblestone) that have now mostly been replaced by soulless asphalt. Also in Charleston is a magnificent bridge called the Cooper River bridge which Vickie got some good pictures of as we crossed. We headed south from Charleston, and slipped onto some side roads that paralleled Rt. 17. We took a side trip out to some island, which dead-ended us in the parking lot of a towboat company. On the way back we took a little side trip where I had noticed a sign advertising a waterfront lot for sale. We found a 2-acre lot overlooking a beautiful marsh vista, complete with dock permit. Just for curiosity, we called the number on the sign and inquired. The lot was on sale for the bargain price of $589,000 (no house). According to the fellow we talked to, another nearby lot on the same water vista had recently sold for $985,000. Keep in mind, that this lot was a long way from anything except Rt. 17 and some marsh. Can’t believe what the influx of boomer snowbirds is doing to the price of any waterfront lot in the South. We continued South, and took a side trip out Rt. 21 to Huntington State Park, which is near Paris Island Marine Corps training base. It was a beautiful 20-mile drive to some gated community island way out on the Atlantic Ocean. There is quite a maze of off shore islands off the coast of SC and GA, some of which are accessible only by ferry. They are beautiful and remote, but look like somewhere I wouldn’t want to be during a hurricane. (or when global warming raises the water level by 10 feet) We continued south to Hilton Head Island. Hilton Head is a classic example of too many people having too much money and time on their hands. The whole island is one huge maze of condos, resorts and golf courses. (I literally felt like a Corvette rat in some giant alien’s maze) The traffic was unbelievable, and the interesting method of disguising everything (even McDonalds and KFC) to look like a plaza or resort, m ake finding anything very difficult. We decided to call it a day at Hilton Head, and started considering our landing options. Just on a whim, we called our Marriott Vacation Club to see if they had a vacancy. They didn’t, but hooked us up with another Marriott property that did. We ended up at a very nice 2-bedroom condo at the Barony Beach Club for motel prices. We got settled in, and headed to the Westin something or other next door where we had reciprocal privileges. We were told we could get a drink and eat, at something called Turtles Beach Bar. It was a short walk and we found it handily. As is typical of these resorts, they give you a cheap room and everything else is ridiculous. 2 drinks cost us like $17.50 with tax and tip, but it was cool cause the bartender was a Corvette guy, and we had a good time talking to him. We looked over the menu, and decided to pass on the $14.00 appetizers, and $36.00 grilled ribeye. We had a small mishap…. on the way back to our room, I misse d one step and took a fall. (I’m ok, just a skinned knee and a slightly sore right hip) This was due to darkness and bifocals contrary to what you might believe alcohol was not a factor (this time). We really didn’t want to head back out into "the maze" so I manned the trusty yellow pages. Found an Italian place nearby, which was on the Internet, took American Express, and delivered. We scrutinized the menu on line, ordered some choices, and while I relaxed in the giant whirlpool tub, they brought our stuff, hot and tasty, right to us. Ended up costing a fraction of what the resort was trying to screw us out of, and great food to boot. Thanks to Giuseppi’s; we had a great dinner right in our own condo, in front of the 754-inch TV. More later.

Wes and Vickie

Heading out

Well Vickie and I are on the road again for 3 weeks or so. We will be sending a journel of sorts, and we have included you on our distribution list. If you are not interested, please reply and let us know so we won't create SPAM in your Email. Otherwise, join us as 2 boomer retiree's take on the Southeast.
Hola,
Wes and Vickie