Thursday, February 07, 2013
Well the day was finally here, the trip we had been talking about for years - a visit to Dry Tortugas National Park. The weather on the Keys was beautiful and the day was selected with care. All three alarms sounded at o- dark hundred (5AM) - this was going to be very good! Ron was instructed to walk the dog but when he opened the door it was raining. What had happened to all that careful planning??????
After much conversation we gathered ourselves and off we went. Cick, click, click, what is that noise we were hearing??? Ron stated must just be pebbles dislodging from the tires….. no not for the last 5 miles. So we stop and low and behold someone had closed the passenger side door with the back pack strap hanging out. Problem quickly solved.
Now mind you we have been grumbling about the 35 MPH speed limit on Big Pine Key, so Ron was taking it very slow. We were following another slow moving vehicle when…….. you guessed it, a deer was suddenly right at our left front bumper. 4 wheels screeching and sliding on the wet road caused by the now stopped rain, and THUMP, THUMP - OMG!!!!! WE HIT THE DEER!!!!!!!!!!.
We stopped, but thankfully, the deer had disappeared - now how did the Jeep fare? We drove up the road to Boondocks Bar and stopped to assess the damage but not one single trace of the impact we had encountered?
So now we were back on the road to continue our adventure, a little shaken, but OK. When we arrived at the Ferry the parking garage had a complicated kiosk to pay that rivals our subway ticket purchasing experience in NYC. Finally, we bought the ticket and returned to place it on the dash.
Ron always thinks I am nervously waiting to get going –his perception - that is wrong, but he states that I’m always in a hurry. He said I had all the gear stacked outside the car but that didn’t happen until he gave me the ticket to put on the dash. (He’ll argue that point though)
We board the ferry and get in line for the buffet breakfast then sat down to enjoy it and the 2 ½ hour ride to the Fort. Finally, we are on our way so what possibly could go wrong now you say!!!!! WRONG, WRONG, WRONG, quadruple WRONG - sooooo after looking in the bag Ron states “we have a PROBLEM Deb!!!!” Have you seen my camera (his faithful sidekick is always attached to his belt). Yep, his digital camera that he decided on this day to place on top of the LARGE burlap carry -on that we had provisioned as if we would be going for a year and experiencing 4 different climates. Yes, that bag.
Ok now where o where could it be? AAAAHHHHH, Ron says - with that sudden screeching stop could it have ended up on the back floor of the jeep and gone unnoticed by my antsy bride when she took the expedition gear out of the car? Or was it on the ground near the accident or on the floor in the parking garage? Is it now someone else’s prize camera or was it run over by another car and rendered a small piece of junk? The mystery continues!!!
After fretting about the cameras fate for the entire 12 hour trip we slowly and cautiously approached our parking spot, NO PILE OF JUNK, on the ground near the car. SO far So good. Ron opened the back door and there was the little devil just sitting on the floor and we do think it had a smile on its case.
After analyzing the morning events we determined it was actually a set of missteps leading to the camera being left behind. Ron did not attach the camera to his belt like he always does; the Jeep has no good place to store anything; the camera was tossed in the open bag on the back seat; the strap on the back pack was hanging out the door so we stopped for less than one minute to fix that slowing us down just enough to have the deer run in front of us causing us to brake hard tumbling the camera out of the bag. Another issue is that the Jeep has no light in the back so unless you were looking you wouldn’t see the camera on the floor. Ron has always believed for something to go very right or very wrong a series of events will always determine an outcome. This really proved his point.
No dead deer was spotted on Big Pine Key on our return trip, but believe it or not we did observe a deer acting nutty, jumping and prancing on the side of the road. It looked like it was going to take off across the road in front of us so Ron slowed down even more. We figured one encounter with a deer was enough.
Anyway, just thought we should get that part of our day trip out of the way first.
Just so happens we were lucky enough to pick the best day of the season to take the 2.5 hour ferry ride to Dry Tortugas. The guides were happy that the wind had clamed as well as the ocean. They told the passengers that the weather had been pretty miserable and even thought they go out on this excursion every day they could not get accustomed to the rough seas.
We were served a light breakfast and once the trauma of the morning events had lessened we enjoyed the boat ride on vey calm aqua seas. Fortunately, Ron had his flip video camera in his backpack so although we did not have our digital camera we would be able to get some video of our day.
While we were sitting and enjoying the ride a woman came and sat by us. She told us that she had met a couple while eating and they are in the condo next to hers in Key West. “What a small world.” she said. The man stopped by our table to talk to her and mentioned that he was from Washington. I asked him what town he lived in and he told us Ellensburg. Wow, our granddaughter Megan lives in Ellensburg where she attends school at Central Washington University. I also mentioned that Megan works at the oldest furniture store in Ellensburg and he told Ron and I that he is good friends with the owner. Go figure, we’re in Key West on a ferry to Dry Tortugas and run into someone form Ellensburg, WA who is friends with Megan’s boss. Talk about six degrees of separation. One never knows who you will meet and how you will be connected.
We arrived at Fort Jefferson on Dry Tortugas at 10:30 am and the first order of business was a tour of the fort. Fort Jefferson is huge compared to the other forts we have toured but like the others it was never finished, nor were there any battles fought at the fort. It appears that the government spent an awful lot of money for forts that were outdated before they could be completed.
Once done at the Fort we had a quick lunch and headed out to do some snorkeling. We felt like we were in a tropical paradise with pristine crystal waters the most spectacular shade of aqua we have seen. Initially the water felt cool but once in it was fine. I snorkeled for about 30 minutes and saw several schools of very colorful fish. I had to head in because I had a hamstring cramp that was killing me. Ron snorkeled for a while longer and got to see some very pretty fish.
We had a total of four hours on Dry Tortugas so once done snorkeling we opted to take a walk on the moat wall that surrounds the fort. On one side was the the crystal clear water of the moat and the aqua/blue seas on the opposite side. It was absolutely beautiful, made even better because of the remote location – 70 miles from Key West. We enjoyed watching the sea-plane make its several trips in and out of Tortugas dropping off and picking up passengers. Interestingly, the sea-plane was from Anchorage, Alaska, spending winters in Florida.
Since we were unable to to take still shots and pulling a still shot from our video was arduous we opted to put in the link to Dry Tortugas instead. See Below.
LINK:
The day was running short so we headed back to the boat. Unfortunately there were other things we would have liked to do but there was no time. We’re thinking it is a place we would return to and even spend one night camping at the fort. We can only imagine how beautiful the night skies would be in that type of a setting. Thank You Kelly, Patrick and Megan for an incredible gift.
The drive back to the CG was uneventful and we arrived home at 6:30 pm. Jewel always greets us with smiles (yes, she smiles) then grabs her squirrel and wants a walk. We actually took her for two walks and she was especially happy. Another great day in Paradise.
Since we we didn’t get any snorkeling photos Ron decided he would don his snorkeling gear for a photo shoot:
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