I got so carried away on Tuesday with the leaks and the kayaking stories, didn't I?
Tuesday Morning was a fun time and I simply skipped right over it! :)
First of all, the weather, since the storms, this week has been beautiful. I have stopped checking the temperatures (I have gotten spoiled quickly.) Seems the temps this week have been around the high 70's. And, Jim reminds me, the temperature doesn't fall that drastically at night. Only about 10 degrees max, so, most of our nights here have been in the 60's.
Tuesday Morning was an oatmeal morning, as most mornings are. Jim needed to go back up to Spindrifts (the r.v. store) and I opted to join him in this adventure. As we crossed over the bridge nearest us here, we saw Sandy and John on the fishing bridge. Jim said he wanted to stop by and see them on the way back to the campground to maybe get some bridge fishing tips.
Spindrift is a tiny little store and jam packed with every little screw and bolt, as well as larger items, for a camper. They have to, just have to, have a money making business there. Everyone here goes up there for a $3.50 bulb, or some larger item, and let's face it, selling $3.50 tiny little bulbs by the masses has got to be lucrative.
I ventured into the store myself as Jim looked around waiting on the clerk to finish on the telephone. You have sidle room in the two aisles and that's about all. Pretty interesting little shop and as I have said, there are 1,000's of campers in this area alone and each camper has to make at least 10-12 trips to Spindrift during a winter stay.
When we left Spindrift's, Jim did not turn the car back down the highway toward our camp, rather headed what I would call North (technically, US1 may run east/west, although north and south makes awfully good sense to me.) Once out on the highway, I tried to casually mention that since we were headed in this direction, maybe we could go to Annie's and get some hummingbird cake and brownies. Jim surprised me by saying "that is exactly what I had in mind."
Not sure what the actual name of Annie's is, Hillary has just referred to it as Annie's, as Annie is the owner. Annie lives in a cutey little house right here on the road into the campground.
Annie serves sandwiches and great coffee. Although, my favorite is her hummingbird cake and brownies - absolutely decadent. A slice of the cake is $5.75 and before you gulp too hard, I need to tell you the slices are about a 1/4 of a large cake. This slice serves Jim and I well for several days. And, the brownies about 4" x 4" square, I'm thinking are about $4.00 a piece. One piece of brownie last a long time around here as well.
You can see, my spending quota for this week may have been dipped into, and to my way of thinking, well worth the dip.
Jim scoured the roadside for John and Sandy's red truck on the way back in, and we decided they had already left. We were both a little disappointed. I think we were both interested in any lessons we may have learned from John and Sandy as they fished from the bridge.
Almost as soon as we got back into the camper, I saw John and Sandy drive by. Jim said "they're headed to the fish cleaning sink at the lake." We headed that way and I had to come back for the camera. John and Sandy had a good fishing morning.
John had made a 'bait trap' from wiring he bought at home depot. He has already had one bait trap stolen from 'his bait trap' spot this year. When Jim asked, innocently where John catches his bait, John and Sandy both laughed and said we can't tell you! Sandy did say it is way back off a road, down among some mangroves, and you can hardly find the spot.
The bait trap is about 36" x 36". John uses colorful 'clips' to get into the trap and his 'doors' are designed to fit the size of fish you want to trap. They put this bait fish on their hooks, and hang a 'chum net' in the water as well. The theory is that the chum net will attract the little fish, which attracts the bigger fish to the pin fish they have on the hook.
John and Sandy said they cannot freeze their catch as their freezing space is limited. They generally eat some of their catch right away and also make fish dip. The fish dip recipe came from a camper here and they love it.
About this time, Marty shows up with his catches of the morning (Marty, we discovered also went back out to fish in the afternoon.)
We discovered that Marty has been John and Sandy's fishing mentor. And, Jim and I are thinking that Captain Bill, who lives here in the campground has been Marty's fishing mentor.
As we asked John and Sandy about their fishing spots, etc. they laughed and looked over at Marty and said Marty doesn't give away any of his fishing secrets. When I asked Marty if I could ask him some questions, he simply smiled and said, well, I'll answer you, I just may not give you the exact right answer!
It was fun to listen and take part in their fishing banter.
John and Sandy, after fileting their fish, wash their fish filets. Marty, on the other hand, filets (expertly I may add) his fish and does not wash. Marty says they will last longer if not washed. Even not washed, the filets are beautifully cut and prepared - Marty, a master of his hobby.
After the excitement at the lakeside fish cleaning, Marty, Jim and I were walking back to our respective campers and Marty just handed over his catch of the day - Mangrove Snapper - and said enjoy. We were delighted and when thanking Marty, we said "wow, this is way too much fish for us" We saw Walter and Lorraine sitting outside their camper and Marty suggested we share with them, which we did and they were delighted as well. Paying it forward is what it's all about isn't it?
A busy Tuesday Morning so far, and then, Jim remembered that horseshoes were rained out yesterday (pits far too wet) and had been rescheduled for today.
A 1:00 horseshoe tee-off with lots of people taking part. I went up to watch the start and Carolyn asked me to draw the names for the teams. Strangely enough, Jim's name was the first name I drew, and his partner for the day would be Mike.
I watched Jim and Mike win their first horseshoe game and that is when I came back to the camper and posted the Tuesday Blog.
Wandering back up to the horseshoe pits, I discovered that Jim and Mike are in the playoff for the ultimate winners against Floyd and John. I must watch this battle - Jim and Mike lose, but only after a 'judge' is brought in to determine the closeness of the Floyd/John teams shoe. Yep! The judge (how funny is that, a judge, for pete's sake) rules the shoe carries the winning point for Floyd and John. Much joking, ribbing and handshaking closes out the game.
Hard decisions, do we have our fish for dinner or eat the Dion's Chicken we bought on Sunday. Unanimous vote, party of two, board approved, Chicken it would be.....
Hillary has loaned me a book, The Nazi Officer's Wife, a true story of an Austrian girl/woman during WWII. She mentioned, I think, that it is also a book that Dentry has read. The book is a tremendously interesting read, so, after our meal of chicken I curled up in the back of the camper, on the bed and dove into the book while Jim watched a little t.v.
As it has been several days since we worked at the Lee's house, we traveled back down to Stock Island on Wednesday Morning.
I was excited to get my hands on those loppers! And, I did lope and lope some more in the pretty foliage area at the side yard.
There is a mystery to me that has me intrigued. While we were in the front yard of the Lee's, a helicopter continually circled and circled overhead. Picture those times you see, on t.v., of a car chase with a helicopter hovering over a certain area. This helicopter circled for about 5 minutes. I'm curious!
As we drove back up the keys around 1:00, there was a helicopter circling over the waters on our left, then, when we got back to the camp, a little later in the afternoon a helicopter was circling around over the mangrove/koa area.
Well, my imagination tells me something big is going down.
When our neighbor to the right of us, Keith, came in from work, I asked him about the helicopters. He is not sure, but he is thinking maybe they are dropping mosquito pellets. As you may gather, that is not the answer I wanted.
Walking up to take some trash off, I noticed Donna and Sally talking out front of the office and asked them. Sally said maybe a mosquito pellet drop. Well, don't you know my shoulders sagged. This was not the exciting answer I was hoping for. Then, don't you know, Donna said "well, they could be looking for boat people. This is the time of year the boat people (meaning Cubans, I guess, remembering the abandoned Cuban boat we saw last week) try to get into the Keys." Now, there's a more intriguing twist to a story, and one I could get my teeth into!
I mentioned to Jim that I wanted for sure to get a newspaper on Thursday Morning to see if there was any news of the helicopters. There was not!
Wednesday Night Dinner - to die for. Jim grilled the Mangrove Snapper, we had a salad, and nuked some potatoes in the microwave. The Snapper was delicious and again, we are so grateful to Marty for sharing.
After dinner, Marty came by in his truck, pulling his boat. As he went by the campsite, he hollered out to us, "Wahoo" - Jim walked up to Marty's campsite and found that Marty and Charlie (his fishing buddy for the day) had really caught some fish - yellow tail snapper, the 'wahoo', and dolphin (maui-maui.)
We went back down to the lakeside cleaning station, watched the master Marty at work, fileting his fish with Charlie helping. A great fishing day for Marty and Charlie.
An interesting side note - We have heard some conversation about the skeleton and heads of the fish floating in the lake and some people have complained about the smell. Marty says "well, it's not my fish, I poke the fish eyes out so the fish will sink." I didn't know you could poke out fish eyes and they would sink - learning and learning all the time.
As Jim and I were out and about anyway, we took a walkabout around the campground. It was a beautiful evening and we were able to see the moon rising from the mangrove horizon.
Just as Jim and I were about to call it a night, Sally drove by on her golf cart and said "remember guys, tonight is movie night."
A camper here rigs up a big outside screen and with his projector, hosts movie night outside the clubhouse, weather permitting. If the weather is bad, he simply takes his show inside.
I almost went up to see the movie, Jim was a little hesitate, so, as we both were spent from the day, we decided to stay in, I with my Nazi Officer's Wife book and Jim with his t.v.
When I got up this morning, Jim was having his coffee, with the promised paper in anticipation of a big helicopter story. I said "you didn't tell me it was going to rain today." Jim's reply was "well, it's not."
The fog was wrapped around us and so much so that it was dripping off every corner of the camper and from all the tree limbs.
It is now about 12 Noon and the fog is gone, the sun is shining and there's a bright blue sky out there.
The little girls, Gabby and Lily are coming up tonight for a sleepover.
The dinner tonight at the clubhouse is Green Chicken Kabobs and all four of us are signed up. Jim and I will be taking potato salad. There is such a great assortment of food brought to the dinner table, I can't help but think Gabby and Lily will find lots of different foods they like to eat. I'll let you know how the sleepover goes! :)
As I am winding up here, Jim has the slide out pulled in and is methodically working on/finding and caulking the leaks. He will be sorely disappointed if all this work doesn't pay off.
The tiny little Spindrift Store that holds all things wonderful for campers, either out of necessity or often in a shopping trip, spying that one item that makes you think, I may need that someday.
The street that runs in front of Spindrift. This is what many of the little streets coming off Highway 1 look like, as well, as many, many roads of 1, that seem to just meander down through mangroves.
This street faces Spindrift. Notice the water still standing from the rains.
John, Sandy and Marty cleaning their fish. There is a huge grouper that lives in the lake, and as they are tossing their fish parts, the grouper came by for a little snack. Jim is looking for the grouper in this picture.
A close-up of the fish cleaning. You can see Sandy gets near the running water faucet and Marty is at the end of the table as he doesn't wash his fish until ready to eat.
Annie's delightful little shop right off Hwy 1. I asked the lady, having her sandwich and coffee, on the porch, if it was alright if I took her picture. She smiled, readjusted her posture and said sure.
Way cute decor inside Annie's.
Horseshoes 1-0-1. You can see Jim about to throw, that's Sandy bending down (her partner was - oh, I forget) andd Walter with the hat on the right. There are two pits, so, two games can go at a time. The scoreboard is the white stripe of wood you see on the fencing. Teams are yellow and blue, with blue washers and yellow washers hung on nails on the scoreboard to keep score.
Jim and Sandy watching their partners throw their shoes. That's Charlie that appears to be walking across the yard. I think he was just getting a shoe that fell way short of the pit.
A lineup of spectators and shoe players waiting their turn. That's Joann in the foreground, Charlie's wife, from Canada, Floyd is next in the blue shirt (have I mentioned he and wife Terry are from New Mexico - formerly from California) then Mattie with the white shirt, and on and on down the line.
The salt flats, or shallows, across the the horseshoe playing field.
Part of Marty's catch on Wednesday.
Mangrove Snapper Dinner on Wednesday Evening
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