East Coast 2021:
Day 19 - Gainesville, FL


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East Coast 2021: [Day 1 - Erie, PA] [Day 2 - Syracuse, NY] [Day 3 - Littleton, NH] [Day 4 - Ft. Kent, ME] [Day 5 - Bucksport, ME] [Day 6 - Hampton, NH] [Day 7 - Branford, CT] [Day 8 - Bensalem, PA] [Day 9 - Jessup, MD] [Day 10 - Petersburg, VA] [Day 11 - Columbia, SC] [Day 12 - Baxley, GA] [Day 13 - Titusville, FL] [Day 14 - Homestead, FL] [Day 15 - Homestead, FL] [Day 16 - Homestead, FL] [Day 17 - Tavernier, FL] [Day 18 - Marathon, FL] [Day 19 - Gainesville, FL] [Day 20 - Natchez, MS] [Day 21 - Nashville, TN] [Day 22 - Heading Home]

Tuesday, September 28, 2021: We awoke to another beautiful sunrise, got packed, and were out of the hotel by 8 AM.
We were planning to snorkel this morning, so we were headed south again to nearly the end of Marathon Key.
Some day we will have to drive the Overseas Highway at night to see all of the neon signs lit up.
This well-dressed manatee was outside the Marathon Government Center.
We had a snorkeling trip planned with Starfish Marathon Snorkeling Tours, and we checked in over 30 minutes early as requested.
We signed waivers and waited, and more of our fellow snorkelers showed up, none of which were wearing masks or social distancing. We were getting increasingly nervous about the risk of taking this trip, and then after watching the maskless first mate preparing the boat and constantly spitting his chewing tobacco overboard, we decided that it was too much.
At 8:45 AM, we went back to the desk and told them we were canceling, packed our gear in the car, and headed out. The risk was just too much, especially with none of the other people seeming to acknowledge that there was still a pandemic raging.
Confident in our decision to cancel, we headed north and decided to stop at Curry Hammock State Park on Little Crawl Key, another place we had originally planned to stay when this was going to be an RV trip.
The golf cart crossing sign here clearly shows golf clubs, which we don't think we've seen before. It was especially amusing since there is no golf course here.
Our persistence to "go where the people aren't" was paying off, and we were the only people at the beach part of the park this early in the morning.
The grounds were lovely, with a view of the resort to the north, ...
... and a nice beach to the south.
We walked along the beach, admiring the flowers, ...
... and the birds, ...
... and an octopus?
There was an octopus sculpture at the end of the beach made of bottle caps that had been picked up by volunteers cleaning up the park.
A mile post showed roughly where other places of interest were, including "Fred the Tree."
We were able to see the campground where we had reservations in a private area of the park. This would have been a really nice place to stay if we still owned an RV, but we hadn't owned one for six whole days.
We took a few minutes to change out of our swim suits and to stow the snorkeling gear and to take another last look around at this beautiful park.
We headed north, keeping a sharp lookout for interesting mailboxes, like this pink dolphin mailbox, ...
... this lighthouse mailbox, ...
... this seahorse mailbox, ...
... and this dolphin mailbox.
Nailed it! We finally got a picture of the Long Key sign. That should be the last missing Key sign. Probably.
The weather looked beautiful for our long drive today.
Another dolphin mailbox. We noticed that a lot of the animal mailboxes didn't have any numbers of other street information on them. It must be somewhere else nearby and we just didn't see it.
We passed the Florida Keys Brewing Company, ...
... and the giant conch outside the Theater of the Sea, ...
... before stopping again at the Blond Giraffe for more Key Lime meringues and two more slices of pie. We still had meringues left from the last purchase, but since Tom decided that he does actually like meringues now, we thought it would be a good idea to stock up for the drive home.
This big mouth fish mailbox has the street number on the post, ...
... and the cute manatee mama and baby manatee mailbox set have the number on the front of the mailbox itself.
Check out this giant octopus on the top of the Mother Ocean marine consignment shop.
We continued north, passing Lake Surprise, ...
... and the Southern Glades, ...
... and watching out for crocodiles at all times.
Debbie noticed that these fence indentations allowed access to the water of the wetlands, but we didn't know if it was to allow crocodiles and alligators a way to get back into the wetlands, or if it was a way to let them out.
We took our last chance to eat at Pollo Tropical, with Tom getting a Cuban sandwich, and Debbie getting the Pollo Trio. Good bye, Pollo Tropical and your delicious plantains. We will miss you.
Buh-bye, US-1! You've been great!
We took the entrance to the Florida Turnpike, whose motto is "The Less Stressway." That sounds very nice.
We got a closer look at the Miami-Dade landfill that we saw on our snorkeling trip in Biscayne National Park. Our guide had called it Mount Trashmore, and that's what we called it and every other landfill that we saw all the way home.
Debbie noticed this Mini Cooper's taillights were the British flag. We saw several older Minis without them, so the Union Jack taillights must be only on the newer models.
We were very taken with the guitar shape of the Seminole Hard Rock Casino in Hollywood, Florida.
We passed another Mt. Trashmore (the Monarch Hill landfill), ...
... and another (The SWA North County landfill), ...
... and another (the St. Lucie County landfill)?!? Apparently Florida has a lot of trash.
After many, many hours of driving we stopped at the Twistee Treat in Ocala, Florida, ...
... for two of the most delicious fancy cones ever. Tom (left) got a choco-nut fancy cone with sour apple (don't judge), and Debbie got a choco-nut fancy cone with German chocolate. Yum!
Just before 6 PM we checked into the Hampton Inn in Gainesville. It was a very nice suite, with an exterior entrance opening onto the sitting room, ...
... and then a separate bedroom with a king bed, ...
... a half-bath off the sitting room, and ...
... a full bath off of the bedroom.
We treated ourselves to Steak 'n Shake takeout for dinner before settling in for the night.

Day 20 >


East Coast 2021: [Day 1 - Erie, PA] [Day 2 - Syracuse, NY] [Day 3 - Littleton, NH] [Day 4 - Ft. Kent, ME] [Day 5 - Bucksport, ME] [Day 6 - Hampton, NH] [Day 7 - Branford, CT] [Day 8 - Bensalem, PA] [Day 9 - Jessup, MD] [Day 10 - Petersburg, VA] [Day 11 - Columbia, SC] [Day 12 - Baxley, GA] [Day 13 - Titusville, FL] [Day 14 - Homestead, FL] [Day 15 - Homestead, FL] [Day 16 - Homestead, FL] [Day 17 - Tavernier, FL] [Day 18 - Marathon, FL] [Day 19 - Gainesville, FL] [Day 20 - Natchez, MS] [Day 21 - Nashville, TN] [Day 22 - Heading Home]

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