A weekend to remember
Published on October 8, 2007 By stubbyfinger In Blogging
My girlfriend and I set out Saturday mourning to spend the weekend at a campground in the middle keys. On the way down we stopped at the dolphin institute in Key Largo and played with them for a few hours. Amazing creature dolphins, they accept you into their world with complete trust and genuine interest. I use to live right down the canal from the institute and could swim there and play with them anytime I wanted to. I miss interacting with them very much; I feel they enriched my life in ways I may never fully understand.

So we get to the campsite by noon and set everything up. After lunch we took a walk on the nature trail on Long Key. it was a typical summer day in the Keys so we took another dip to cool off and then a fresh water shower to wind down for the evening. Hot and buggy is just the way it is in the Keys but it’s still worth it. This time the heat just made us appreciate even more what nature had in store for us. After another one of my excellent barbecues, a line of storms began to funnel down the coast, like a giant train of air conditioners bathing us with clean cool air down from high. Never coming on shore and having infrequent lightning, this train lasted all night. It turned what can be a sticky not so comfortable night into perfection.

Now storms are certainly not unusual in the Keys but for there to be a constant line of them just off shore, not just for that night but all of the following day, is a once in a lifetime event and we had the best seats in the house to benefit from nature just showing off. The storms never got close enough to block the sun delivering only the occasional sun shower to wash the salt spray off our bodies as we lounged on a sandbar. I started mention how rare this was when she politely shushed me, whispering softly in my ear “we might jinks it”.

Over 2100 weekends on this planet and this was the best one so far. Not sure how I’ll ever top it but I’m going to try. I got 2400 more chances if I’m lucky.


Comments
on Oct 08, 2007
Sounds great. If I could afford it I'd live in the Keys, I love it down there. Which campground did you stay in?
on Oct 08, 2007
Long key state park.

It's a nice campground, the only downside is where the campsites are on the island you can piratically through a rock from one side to the other, and overseas hwy runs right down the middle so there is some traffic noise.

It's really not that noticeable and there's very little traffic at night.
on Oct 08, 2007

Long key state park.



It's a nice campground, the only downside is where the campsites are on the island you can piratically through a rock from one side to the other, and overseas hwy runs right down the middle so there is some traffic noise.



It's really not that noticeable and there's very little traffic at night.


OK, I know where it is but have never camped there.

I'm sure the offshore storms were awesome.
on Oct 08, 2007
You can go there in the winter and have a nice sunny 72 but with the colder surf temp it can get uncomfortable cold on the beach fast, (for a Floridian anyways).

We still had a 85 surf temp and a strong sun but as soon as it got a little to warm you would get this cool blast of air in the upper 60’s lower 70’s. If I had complete control over the whether with a remote thermostat I couldn’t have done it better.
on Oct 08, 2007

Sometimes I wonder what man did to deserve Dogs - and Dolpins. 

Glad you got the opportunity!  maybe one day I will make it down there.  With most of my family (read Mother and sisters) down near there, I guess I owe them a visit.