October 15th we got up a bit early and drove 277 miles to Larry and Penny Campground in Miami, Florida. The last 30 miles were through mostly stop and go traffic so we did not get setup until after 5PM. The 50AMP was messed up at our campsite so we had to use 30AMP and in the close to 90 degree temperatures and high humidity it had trouble keeping up. This is the only photo of our campsite and it has some haze since the lens fogged up due to coming out of air conditioning into the humid weather:
Since this is a county park everyone from the office goes home at 5PM so we could not move until the next morning. The campground is only about 1/4 full so they gave us a nice pull thru site. Everything worked here except the satellite dish was getting partially blocked by tree limbs. Here is our new campsite:
We moved the satellite dish since we were a bit worried someone would hit it in the old location:
We knew where Costco was and where local groceries were since we had been in the area before.
We toured Everglades National Park on October 17th, Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4
We visited Biscayne National Park on October 19th
The campground is built in an old avocado grove. Here is what one looks like in a tree:
What they look like cut open:
They did taste fine.
Miami MetroZoo October 22, Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8
October 24th a hawk was in the campground. Bill grabbed the Nikon camera and went to take photos and the lens fogged up because the air was hot and humid. These first two photos have the contrast turned way up to show the hawk, but that means the colors are wrong.
Bill got the Canon A710IS camera out of the car and got this photo before the hawk took off. These colors are more authentic. From the size and colors we think it was a Red-shouldered hawk.
Then we drove down into the Keys. We had lunch at Lazy Days in Islamorada, it was just as good as we remembered from two years ago. Then we drove all the day to the Seven Mile Bridge at the south end of Marathon.
There is a place to park at the Seven Mile Bridge:
The Seven Mile Bridge, with the pedestrian and fishing bridge to the right:
A view to the north:
Caught this butterfly with the camera:
We did make a couple stops for shopping and did see a couple Great White Herons, but did not take any more photos. It was a great day trip since it again showed us how much we like the Keys.
October 26th we planned on going to Deering Estate at Cutler but it rained all day. We went on the 27th, a Saturday, thinking it would be crowded. Little did we know.
Our visit to Deering Estate at Cutler on October 27th, Part 1, Part 2
One day we drove up to Sawgrass Mills, a huge outlet mall west of Fort Lauderdale. We confirmed that Wolfgang Puck's Cafe was now closed so we had lunch at Bahama Breeze. No one had moved in where the cafe was so the signs and such were still up so it had closed recently.
We also had a good time visiting with our campground neighbors Joyce and Allen. They have a Tradewinds LTC motorhome, the one we had planned on buying before National RV stopped making it.
While in Miami we bought a navigation GPS, a Magellan Maestro 4040. It did help us find restaurants and such but we learned it was not always right. We will treat it as a helper, not as the authority on where to go.
Somehow our time in Miami was mostly a time to relax. About half the days we ate all of our meals at home, which is rare for us. We did have some windy days and most days were hot and humid.