Conch Nation - The Florida Keys Part 1

Our stay in Crystal River was over too soon. We took care of the necessary items to checkout and hand delivered a check to Bob the AirBnB owner. He lived a few houses down the road and had lived in the Ozello Keys for years. In his 80s he was still spry and went fishing in his kayak for his dinner many times each week. Ponce De Leon may have been on to something because this guy would have passed for mid 60s any day. We walked back to the car and got to getting to our next destination.

Most all of our trips going forward are 2 day trips to limit the number of hours in the car. So for our trip to Key Largo we were going to spend a night in Port Charlotte, FL which is south of Tampa and just north of the Everglades which occupy the Southern tip of Florida. We had a hotel booked which would put us at 3 hours for the Saturday drive and 3-4 hours on the Sunday drive depending on traffic. We had a special guest coming in to Ft Lauderdale that we intended on picking up on the way through on Sunday as well, so it was set to be a full weekend to say the least.

Our drive south to Pt Charlotte was dominated by the conversation surrounding the phosphorus mining practices in Florida. I mean what else would you talk about on a long drive through Florida right? Piney Point was a manufacturing plant that went tits up in the late 80s and left behind some holding ponds full of industrial waste. This waste was beginning to leak and was in danger of creating a full breach meaning there would be a potential 20 ft wall of water which would flow all the way to Tampa Bay killing all of the marine life along the way. As a family we discussed what the phosphorus was being used for and the pros and cons of the operations existence. Its mostly used for fertilizer, but is used for other things like gun powder. Turns out Florida has a bunch of these plants. The problem is there is a lot of byproduct created and a lot of it is radioactive. We aren't trying to raise the next generation of environmental protesters but so we are giving them multiple angles on this issue to consider. However, its really hard to pick a good "pro" angle when the con is a decimating 20 ft tall wall of water that will kill everything in the water it comes in contact with.

The next day we left Port Charlotte to head to Ft Lauderdale. The route we took crossed a road named "Alligator Alley", it is also known as Interstate 75. I have never seen so many dead turtles. I mean Shredder just needed a minivan to finish off those ninja turtles. We were about 1 hour outside of Ft Lauderdale when we found out Grandma Dianes flight was delayed due to weather. There was high wind and lighting in the area that they expected would clear up by later in the afternoon so we rerouted to the AirBnB in Key Largo.

The house we rented was a 5th floor pent house with 3 bedrooms and 3 baths and a constant view of the water. It was a dream! The condominium had a pool and its own docks. We pulled in, loaded all of our stuff upstairs, enjoying the sunshine. Krystal and I put together a food shopping list and we headed to the Win Dixie. After a 30 minute visit or so we head back outside to a totally different type of weather than what we had when we went in. The wind was blowing and the sky was dark, and we were meant to go get grandma in about 20 minutes. I had a 90+ minute drive ahead of me and I was now clenching my cheeks a bit.

We decided that I would go solo because now the weather was high winds, lighting, thunder, and heavy rain. The storm was expected to clear by the time grandmas plane was set to arrive, so I needed to get moving. I ended up arriving 30 minutes late to get grandma but in my defense I had to go around 2 trees in the road and wait in traffic for a 6 car pileup on the freeway. I loaded grandmas stuff in the car and I talked her ears off (yes both of them) all the way back to the condo. I cant help myself. She is one of my favorite people on this earth, I just want to talk to her. We pulled in right around midnight, we were all tired so we turned in.

This week we took some time off so there is a lot more to cover so part 2 will be able the week we had enjoying the Conch Nation and the Florida Keys.