24 - Keys-ze living
By the end of January, having spent more than two months off work, we were
ready for a holiday! Since mid November we had visited ten states and stayed
in dozens of different campsites, so yes, we needed a break.
Fortunately we had built a couple of weeks of R and R into our
schedule, planning to spend as little as possible of the time driving and a lot of
the time lying down. Our destination of choice for this holiday from holidaying
was the same one favoured by many native RV-ers - the Florida Keys.
This stretch of islands spans 126 miles from the southern tip of the
state's mainland and is comprised of lots of beaches, lots of hippies, and very
little in the way of roads. One main carriageway cuts through and between all
the isles, and the directions to most places consist of 'mile marker 32,
Oceanside'. For variety there may be 'mile marker 32, Gulfside'. It made a
refreshing change from navigating the big cities.
In spite of our intentions to take things easy we did not spend the entire two
weeks sunbathing.... if nothing else it would have made for a boring chapter if
we had. Our first drive off the mainland took us to Key Largo, one of the
bigger islands and located at mile marker 106 (so 20 miles from the
mainland). Dolphins were what drew us to Largo, one of our pre-booked
luxuries as Emma was going to swim with them. Although, perhaps if she had
been aware of the reality of this experience prior to taking part she would not
have regarded it as a luxury.
There she was, shoe-horned into an undersized wet suit (which