Key West

Lucilu here. I'm turning the blog back to Charlene. She has her concentration and focus back, she thinks!

Why do they call it Key West when everywhere you go it talks about the Southernmost....? Should they have named it Key Southernmost? Anyway, after driving down the center of Florida on US 27 (where we have the intoxicating smell of orange groves and lemon groves for miles on end) forever, we finally made it to Key West. The drive through the keys was great and the water was an indescribable color - not aqua, not blue, not green, I don't know what color it was but beautiful. The dogs were welcome at most places - on the patio at restaurants. Here Lily tries to corral them. The palms are from outside our B&B room. Wouldn't they make a great quilt pattern?

There were too many people at the tourist place to see the sunset. So we went to another location and got this picture - the sun is right in the middle of the picture. But what was beautiful was this sailboat (yacht or pirate ship) off the coast. I tried to get a picture but wasn't too successful. Use your imagination!

This is the southernmost beach in America??!!

We ate, we walked, we lounged, we saw, and then we left. Without being 22, looking great in a bikini, cruising the beaches and bars or parasailing, after seeing Truman's Summer White House, the Light House, Hemmingway's House, the six-toed cats, the beautifully colored roosters, there isn't much else in the small stretch of land. So we headed north. The traffic to Miami on US 1 was constant and going 45. Then in Miami, on US 1 and I95, it was 12 lanes of bumper to bumper, constant, going 85. It was either keep up and get off the road. So I kept up and Lily pretended to be asleep so she couldn't see the narrow misses (Lucilu and Prissy had no idea how much danger they were in). We stopped in Ft. Pierce for the night at a Holiday Inn Express - of all the chains they have the best breakfast we think - the biscuits and gravey are delicious!

The next day it was back to Ray's for the Day.

That's as long as I can concentrate. So I'll save that for another day.

PS. I'm still a non-smoker. I have gotten over wanting one first thing in the morning, after I eat, when I go to the bathroom, when I leave the hobby room, when I get in the car. My bowels are no longer in an uproar, my house and car, my hair and Lucilu smell a lot better! Now to get my sleep straightened out. I don't know whether to blame all the symptoms on Chantix, lack of nicotine or the trip. But............. I am a non-smoker!