Trippin' with Susan Straley

Hello Friends and Folks Trippin' with me! It is Monday, October 21, 2019.  I am writing this from the relatively cool patio of my home in Inverness.  The windows are open, the fan is going, I am in my space in my place.  Tired and happy to be here. There are no ants crawling up my leg, no fellow campers playing country music. Last I wrote to you I was at the McDonald's in the early morning on Friday.  I was tired of being hot and disappointed with my beach snorkel experience at John Pennekamp State Park.  The park is known for it's reef and snorkel experience. I found the water murky and once the water got deep I could see nothing but the murk in front of me.  I got scared. I would swim back to where I could see the bottom, and then try again.  Maybe it was the slant of the sun, I thought.   But each time I saw nothing and the fear that something big might appear, was too scary.  I gave up. I was tired of waking up in the night with no breeze and feeling over-heat

I am back at McDonald's in Key Largo this morning October 18th.  I only have two more days here and I can't wait. But before I get to the whining, let me tell you about the vultures. I had vultures in the title of my last post, but ran out of blog time before I got to the story of the vultures. On Wednesday October 16th I was up before daylight and I packed up in the dark.  Once I turned the corner off the Timiami Trail (Highway 41) and headed south toward the Keys I was in territory that was new-to-me .  The road wasn't as rural as I expected and was mostly just a two lane road with lots of construction. I figured I will never get down this way again, so I should check out Flamingo.  I had wanted to go to Flamingo since I heard about the trip my bike group took there years before George and I moved here.  They had biked the road passing many gator. I stopped at the visitors center on the road to Flamingo and asked if I would see Flamingo there. No, the r

It is Thursday, October 17, 2019 and I am writing this from a McDonalds in Key Largo, Florida. I like going new places and being surprised by new sights. I last wrote from a Starbucks in Miami.  Then I thought I only had one more night at the Everglades campground.  I was mistaken.   I had two. Kamp-rite Tent Cot I like sleeping in my tent cot.  I am outside so much.  If I wake up in the middle of the night I can see the stars and listen for any sounds. I expected the Everglades campsite to be full of sounds.  I expected a shrill of frog calls and the rustling of bushes and the rumble of gators.   Crickets, I heard crickets and an occasional air boat in the distance.  In the early mornings I heard trucks that seemed to thunder across the Everglades on the Tamiami Trail in the early morning hours.  I didn't see a lot of trucks when driving that road. The one downside... or maybe two, to sleeping in my tent cot.   Sometimes I wake up and there is no breeze.  I am