March 22, 23, 2017
Driving back up the Keys to Homestead, we stopped at Robert’s, a great fruit and vegetable place and were lucky enough to be waited on by Robert who told us about his brother and how they had a rift about the election, politics and marches on Washington. Now they don’t speak. This is a very cool place with a great story I will tell you later. Must go now and pick up the Airstream that has had a complete solar make-over by Lew Farber. I can’t wait!!
We drove into the park to Long Pine Key Campground. This is a first come, first serve campground with no hookups. It was very nice, but pretty empty. A raft of mosquitoes greeted us as we unhooked, and we quickly realized why it was empty. We sprayed down and I sent Martha into the trailer. We were amazed at people walking down the road with no apparent problem. People were bike riding, but across from us a young group quickly broke camp, packing up their tents and cars while swatting themselves. After talking with a few people, we found out you were safe in the road, or riding a bike, or on the water in a boat, but step on the grass or in the shade and you will be swarmed. We drove around a bit, but didn’t discover anything much.
I still remember driving through Homestead in the spring of 1993 less than a year after Hurricane Andrew had hit. The area was completely devastated. I will never forget that.
Make sure you keep yourself drenched in DEET. Mosquito viruses are a real problem in South Florida.
http://www.foxnews.com/science/2017/01/11/researchers-discover-2-new-disease-carrying-mosquitoes-in-florida.html
We seem to have survived the mosquitoes, but are now in Macon, Georgia on our way home, but in our way are some scary storms. Can’t run back south or west. Might break out north in the morning. We went through a very bad storm today. it looked like a tornado off to our east, and we passed the area where trees had come down on I75. As usual, people drive with abandon regardless of the conditions. A little sleep and we will reevaluate in the morning. Local schools and government offices are closed already. I’ve not seen that before.