Jolly Roger RV Park has been a great park. The facilities, pier, seawall and swim area, beach… We have loved the sunsets from the RV park beach. In almost every way, it is better than Mallory Square. The only thing I can say about Mallory that is better might be the community feeling. Of course, that is also a bad thing. Being packed in with a couple hundred people is not always fun.
At Mallory Square, it is almost impossible to get the sun dropping all the way into the sea unblocked. Here is never blocked unless it is by clouds.
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As I said in the blog post for the first trip to Dry Tortugas, we won a free trip back to the park. They were able to find spots for us on the trip today otherwise we were unlikely to go the second time. So up early, again, to catch the boat.
Two hours later and we are back to the fort.
Frigate birds guided us in to the docks.
Time to tour the fort.
This amazing cactus is growing in the fort.
That crazy thing is to heat up cannon balls before shooting them at ships. I would think it would be a bit overkill. I mean a cannon ball hitting your ship would do lots of damage hot or not.
The sea planes were back again. A pricey trip but a lot quicker than the boat.
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Time for some snorkeling on the north side of the fort. This time we saw 8 parrot fish eating algae on the coral and a live horse conch. They are huge. We could see the animal's bright orange color in the grass beds.
Getting hungry so we got our lunch sacks from the boat. Our view for lunch was wonderful.
We took a walk along the moat wall of the fort.
It was a fun day but time to go back to Key West.
Our first stop is The Key West Butterfly and Nature Conservatory. This is a great place to see butterflies and relax.
This place is amazing. We took WAY too many pictures of butterflies and flowers.
A pair of Flamingos, Rhett and Scarlet, live in the conservatory.
The conservancy and birds in the building.
There is a warning at the exit.
I did not add any commentary because this was a place all about beauty. Hundreds of butterflies everywhere. At times, it was overwhelming how many were all around us.
Time for a walk. We decided to see the “Southernmost Point in the Continental USA” which is not actually the southernmost as when we were on the beach a couple of days ago that is just a bit south of here.
Lots of shrimpers just offshore.
Time to head up Duval Street.
We stopped in a French restaurant. The south side of Duval Street has a heavy French influence. A very old home converted to a French restaurant. Very cool.
A few blocks the street we stopped in an old church.
After a bit of walking and window shopping, I just had to stop at the First “Original” Margaritaville.
I had a Cheeseburger in Paradise and Shawna had a big piece of Key Lime Pie. Both were really good. We also got drinks Shawna’s was the ‘5 o'clock somewhere’ and mine was the ‘Fin’s to the Left’. Did I mention that this is a tourist trap? A fun one but still...
The Hemingway house is diagonally across the street from the lighthouse.
We visited the Lighthouse. Originally the lighthouse was on the coastline at the most southernmost point but was destroyed by a hurricane in 1846. The current lighthouse was built further inland and first lit in 1848.
Though most lighthouse keepers are men, three women have held the job at this lighthouse for a total of 38 years. In the beginning, the keepers had to maintain the light by hauling up oil to keep it lit. Later the light was converted to gas, so it was no longer necessary to bring up oil. Today, it is electric.
To get to the top we needed to climb 88 steps in a tight spiral. There were two landings to let others pass but otherwise it was very narrow and steep.
The caretakers house has an example of a cistern.
Before a very very long pipe was put in all the way from the Florida coast, people had to collect their fresh water from rain or haul it in barrels.
Water is very expensive in Key West. Every single drop is pumped all the way down the Keys. There are emergency plans such as large tanks spaced along several Keys should a break happen. Key West even has a desalination plant for emergency use only but they use a lot of energy converting sea water to fresh. We had a great day and made it back to the truck just before our 6-hour parking ticket ran out. Our first stop was Blue Hole which is an artificial contained lake. Originally it was a quarry and once tons of limestone was removed, it was abandoned. Rain drained from surrounding land and salt water seeped in from the ocean. The process was slow and the allowed two layers and is referred to as a lens. It has a strange configuration as the top 20 feet are fresh water and below is salty. The water level is stable enough to support some freshwater fish and a few alligators. Saltwater fish have been found in the salt area of the lake. It is unknown if they were placed by humans or dropped by osprey. There were several deer. A doe and her fawn had no fear of people. On to the state park. We decided to go to Bahia Honda State Park and hopefully do some snorkeling. I can only barely call this a beach. Between the rock and the water was no more than 10 feet of sand and many places even less. Still enough room to set out some chairs and get a little sun. This was a park we tried to get a campsite but were not successful. The park is pretty though very busy compared to others in the area. One interesting thing to do at the park is to walk up to a portion of the old highway 1. A few pretty flowers and a lizard. Our last stop was the 7-mile bridge. The bridge to nowhere, at least when traveling south, it seems to be. When traveling south on highway 1 and starting on to the bridge, it looks like the bridge just continues on forever with no land in sight. Of course, it is just an illusion, and it does not hold when traveling north. When they call this the overseas highway, they really mean it. We got to walk over the old but altered bridge. The original side extensions were removed, and new guard rails added. The surface replaced with concrete. The original unaltered bridge still exists at least here. It is amazing to think that as a child over 50 years ago, my family traveled over that tiny bridge all the way to Key West on vacation. I always remembered the bridge as narrow but wow! On the old bridge a tree, several bushes, and weeds are growing. It is amazing knowing that there is no source of fresh water other than rainfall. Nature will find a way. It does show that no matter if we do not maintain things what we build, it will eventually start to be broken down by plants. The tree is called "Fred" and the largest bush "Peace". Sorry, that is very far away. I will zoom in.
Today, we visit the Key West Tropical Forest and Botanical Garden which is on Stock Island and not on Key West. It is actually just across Highway 1 from the RV park. We did get a surprise while visiting. Just to let you know there will be a LOT of pictures of plants and flowers. The park is also the southernmost point on the Florida Keys National Scenic Byway and the other end is 110 miles up the Keys at Key Largo. There is a trail that weaves its way around the many unusual trees they have in the garden and several small ponds. And the most unusual palm we had ever seen. There are two different poison trees. Yes, Trees. This is not a place to carelessly touch a tree. Yes, there are a couple of types of cactus in the Keys. This bird was determined that we could not see her on her nest. Lots of flowers. A couple of lizards. Even the stone had a sign. And someone got a bit carried away with the “scarecrow”. As for the surprise at the garden, it was a group of boats. These are boats that were used by Cuban people who successfully got a foot on dry land. Our plan was to go snorkeling and relax on the beach. The wind is out of the south and kicking up waves on the beach that ended the snorkeling. The water was so clouding we would not have been able to see anything anyway. I was not impressed by the beach. The beach faces south and the Navy radar station is to the east end. Well, I have not been impressed by any beach in the keys. In Key West, they are almost all artificial and the source of white sand is a crushed coral and is not really sand as much as very small gravel. It is sad to think that some of the people here have never seen Pensacola’s beach. We decided to use a covered picnic table on the west side of the park. The cover was really neat as it was a traditional build of a cover. We had a few lizards/iguanas visit us. It had a rock wall and we saw lots of boats headed to and from the port. After a little sun, relaxing, and lunch we decided to tour the fort. More History: I know but I just can’t help myself. The fort was constructed in 1845 as a defense of the country's coastline. At that time, the fort was 1100 feet off Key West. It looked very different from today's fort. Even as late as 1914, the fort was offshore as shown in the Key West Maps. Originally the fort was 3 stories tall, had 140 cannons, and 450 soldiers. I don't have any information on how the area filled between the shore and the fort. It may have been a storm but could have been deliberately done by the military. By 1945, the fort was no longer surrounded by water. At first just the back of the fort was attached to Key West. The fort was also modified to two floors and gun emplacements were changed for modern guns of that time. Even as late as 1960, the fort still had two walls in the ocean but just 10 years later it would never again have the ocean against its walls. Today, it is actually over 500 feet inland. President Zachary Taylor died in office a few months before completion of the fort. Because of this, it was named to honor him. During the civil war, two other forts were built to defend the Key and keep it under Union control throughout the war. The forts were a major part of the Union blockade of Confederate ships in which 140 ships were captured. The fort was kept under US control during the entire Civil War. In 1898, the fort was modified. The top two tiers were removed, and old cannons were used as fill in strengthening the outer walls. Now some of the old cannons are exposed for us to see. The fort looks very different from its original 3 story tall version to what it is today. New longer-range artillery was installed. It continued to be used to defend the Key from the Spanish-American war through World War I and II. In 1947, the fort was decommissioned and became a historic landmark. Another fact was that the bricks for the fort were made from Escambia Clay and were baked in Escambia County Florida. Enough history for now. Fort Zachery is actually further south than the “Southern Most Point” marker. At the beach they have their own version of the southern marker. It reminds me a lot of the one on the TV series, MASH. The park is nice and the fort is very well maintained.
Sometimes you just have to take a break. Full-time RVing cannot be a vacation every day. Sometimes there is maintenance, washing clothes, grocery shopping, or just relaxing and working on the blog. Yes, it is a rough life, but someone has to do it. We did get our return trip scheduled for the Dry Tortugas. They were able to squeeze us in for next Tuesday. Yea! Here are a few more pictures around the RV park and the many palms at our campsite. As in Hawaii, Key West has wild chickens. They are protected and should not be fed or harassed.
Today, we get up really early to go to the Dry Tortugas. It was just barely twilight when we started out for the docks. We have looked forward to this visit for a long time.
The boat that will take us out is the Yankee Freedom III.
It is a pretty fast catamaran and can make over 25 knots or 29mph. It is 2 floors, just over 100 feet long and 32 feet wide, up to 150 passengers on each trip out to the park. There are both inside and outside padded seating, 4 bathrooms, breakfast and lunch are included, and serves snacks drinks both non-alcoholic and alcoholic are for sale. The alternative to this would be a float plane or lease a private boat. Both of which would be at least 10x more expensive.
The park is about 70 miles to the west of Key West. Fort Jefferson was built as a protection against enemy ships traveling in the Gulf. For all that effort, the fort never fired on an enemy ship. video103507
The fort was built with bricks from Escambia County Florida. Yes, most of the brick used to build forts before and through the civil war were made with “Escambia Clay” which was considered the best clay for making long lasting bricks. Considering that 16 million bricks were used to build the fort, it must have taken a lot of boats to bring them over. The fort is the 3rd largest fort in the United States. Fort Pickens would fit just inside the walls of Fort Jefferson.
Before touring the fort, we grabbed our snorkeling gear and headed to the southern beach.
The beach is strange. Sand is ground up coral, so it is kind of course. Sponges and coral fans are washed up on shore. I would love to bring something home with us, but the rules are very strict. Nothing can be removed from the park.
We put on our gear and headed out along the outer moat wall. There were a lot of coral and fish to see. After about 45 minutes, we decided to head to the boat for lunch and to warm up then back to the beach to see what else we could find.
Touring the fort, it was apparent that it is starting to show its age and needs more renovation.
It is amazing to see that coral was used in the concrete at the fort.
The primary use of the fort was as a prison. Dr. Mudd, who is famous for treating John Wilkes Booth after he assassinated Abraham Lincoln, was held here for just under 4 years. The cell he was kept in is here, but the bars have been removed.
There were some pretty views from the top of the fort.
Back to the boat for the return trip. We got something to drink and some snacks.
We said goodbye to the fort as we pulled away along with the sea planes.
We both filled out a comment card and turned them. I had no idea that they draw a card for a free trip. Guess who won. We did! We will have to call tomorrow to setup a return trip if they have room.
When we landed, we headed to dinner at a restaurant and Mallory Square for the sunset.
We had a great day!
We drove into Key West for two reasons. One to find where we would park and the dock where we meet the boat for the Dry Tortuga's trip. Second to be tourists where we will visit several museums. Parking is crazy in Key West. There is no free parking. The standard is $5 per hour but some places will max out at $40 per day. The parking garage near the docks seems safe. Off to get in our steps walking around Key West. Along the way, we passed the original train depot for the Overseas Train that brought people from Miami to Key West. We saw the Conch “Train” which I remember riding as a little boy when we visited. Time for some lunch. It seems every other store has their own “Famous” Key Lime Pie although I do think the name is cute. On our walk to the first museum, we passed a famous house. There are a lot of old houses and buildings with signs in Key West. Our first museum today is the Mel Fisher Maritime Museum. Originally, the building was a Naval Storehouse Mel Fisher is known for being a treasure hunter. A successful one. He had always been interested in ships and the possibility of finding treasure. For many years Mel Fisher searched for a specific ship, the Nuestra Senora de Atocha. The Atocha sank in 1623 at about 56 feet of water during a hurricane between the Marquesas Key to the Dry Tortugas. Soon after the hurricane attempts were made to recover the treasure even documenting with some drawings but the same year a second hurricane scattered and hid the ship. Spain kept very detailed records of the contents of each ship. Estimates of the value of the known contents of the ship were up to $500 million in today's values and that does not include historical values. It is one of the most prized treasure ships thought to have sunk near Key West. Fisher searched for over 16 years. Each day he boldly stated that “Today is the day!”. He did find some treasure but most of that he was able to confirm was from other ships. Some silver bars were found in 1975 and those were confirmed to be from the Atocha. A son, daughter-in-law, and a friend were killed in a boat accident that same year. Even with this loss he kept searching knowing he was close. They struck the “Mother Load” in 1985. Seeing the small amount in the museum of the total treasure recovered was amazing. Gold Bowl Gold Plate Cross/Ring ment for a Pope Chains destined for royalty. The planed destination of the treasure was the Spanish Crown. Piles of silver. A large portion of the value of the treasure from the ship was silver. Gold bars. It turns out that this is what gold bars looked like for transport in the 1600's The treasure was amazing, and this was just a small sample. Wow! After years of struggling and work to find the wreck then starting the salvage and recovery, the state of Florida and the Federal government decided it should all be taken. At the beginning of the legal fight, Fisher offered to give 25% to the state. They turned that down and demanded all of the treasure. How is it the state of Florida’s? It is Spanish treasure stolen from the people of the Caribbean and Central America. Once the state turned down the 25% offer, Fisher took them to court. After eight years moving through the courts, the US Supreme Court ruled in favor of Fisher and gave him ALL of the treasure. The state got nothing but a bill for the court costs. Being so greedy, they deserve just getting a bill. There were other items recovered that would not be described as treasure. The area of the museum was dedicated to pirates and not all were men. Pirate treasure… Warning: History lesson to follow The next stop was the Truman Little White House, but they don’t allow pictures in the building. The building was originally officer's quarters. Interesting that he was not the first President or famous person to visit the house. The first President to visit the site was William Howard Taft who came by Flagler's Overseas Railroad and stayed in Key West before sailing to Panama to inspect the canal then under construction. During World War I, Thomas Edison lived in the house for 6 months while he perfected 41 underwater weapons. I had no idea that Edison worked on weapons. Truman visited the Keys as part of a base tour and visit to the Panama Canal. When Truman got an evaluation by his doctor that he should spend time in a warm damp environment, he made this building his little white house. He loved the house and the Keys. He loved wearing Hawaiian type shirts. There were several on display. He was able to walk the streets without concern and at most would get a wave and hello from the locals. During his presidency, he spent 6 months at the Little White House. The house was used for many important events in our history. The development of the Marshall Plan and writing of his Civil Rights Orders. The creation of the Department of Defense was agreed on at the dinner table that we walked by during our visit. There is a poker table where Truman played every day during his visit. The table had a special cover that hid the fact that it was made for poker. This table was used during several peace talks between countries that did not want to meet in Washington. Other presidents continued to use the Little White House. President Dwight Eisenhower had meetings in the house when he was recuperating from a heart attack. President John F. Kennedy had a summit meeting with British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan here for them to discuss and make plans for the Bay of Pigs. Kennedy used the house again to make an inspection following the Cuban missile crisis. President Clinton in 2005 and President Carter in 2007 stayed at the retreat with their families. In 2001, Secretary of State Colin Powell opened peace talks in this house between the presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan. End History Lesson The Presidential limo was outside, so I got some pictures of it. It was an interesting museum, and the furniture is what was used during the Truman’s time there. Our last touristy thing was the Zero marker for Highway 1. On our walk back to the truck, we did stroll down Duval Street. Wow, bars and adult clubs, we have been warned to never be on Duval at night. Things can get very wild.
We did decide to get out of the heat and stop at a sports bar for a snack and drinks. It was a long day and we got in 10,000 steps
Today, we hopped on our bikes and rode into Key West to go to the Seafood Festival. It was only 4 miles one way and had some good bike paths.
We like the campground, and it is the most convenient to Key West.
I recorded some of the ride in and it was interesting. We will not be doing that again. It was way too stressful trying to not be hit by impatient or careless drivers. The truck will take us into Key West from now on.
Along the way, we stopped to look at some Manatees along the shore.
Key West has an annual seafood festival. This is the 16th year, and it mostly attracts locals.
There was lots of seafood everything from conch, lobster, stone crab, shrimp, and fish.
There was beer, Wine, and other adult beverage booths. Hey, it is Key West. The Rum Runners were a big hit with both of us.
There was live music and lots of booths selling clothes and knickknacks. I especially liked the Conch Republic booth and got a flag and hat. They threw in a Southern Point zip up bottle koozie. We bought some local honey as well. Later, we walked around the RV park. It is an interesting park.
Signs near the docks and fish cleaning stations were unusual.
At the docks we found some more sea life but not many fish.
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