Merry Christmas Everybody!

Pam and I wish everyone a Merry Christmas!  

We hope the New Year brings you the 

Best of Everything!

We appreciate the many folks who take the time to check in and see what is happening on the Roadrunner Chronicles.  It has been a great year with big things to come in the next. 

~ Randy and Pam

Biking Around Key West

One of my favorite things to do in  Key West is to ride my bike.  The place is very bike friendly and it is fun to take the 12.5 mile 'circuit' around the island.  I use the MapMyRide App and it logs my route.

I think the best time of the day is early morning when shop owners are out and spraying down sidewalks and opening up.  But that's not the only time I ride.  This past week, it was a mix of different times for my bike rides.

On the first day out, I was getting underway, crossed a bridge and before I got to the Charter Boat docks I saw this fellow on a large pipe.  He was just enjoying the day and sunning himself.    It might be the largest iguana I have ever seen.

As I got down around the Harbourwalk area near the Schooner bar, I saw that they had some lobster crate Christmas Tree decorations up.

Lots of boats in the harbor ready to take tourists out to fish or see through the bottom of the glass boat or take a sunset cruise...

Later on, as I passed by Front Street and Mallory Square, I rode up Whitehead Ave past the Hemingway House.  It was still pretty early so there was not a line there to get in yet.

Farther on down the road, the Southernmost Point buoy was pretty crowded.  Best time to see that and get a picture is early morning.

Around the way and along the seaside, I passed Higgs Beach which is colocated with an African Cemetery.

It commemorates slaves who died after being rescued off the coast from slave ships in 1860.

Across the way is another beach - Smathers Beach which has a lot of area for folks to get some sun.

The bike trail goes right along the sea wall here not far from the airport.

One highlight of meandering around Key West is to see the gorgeous roosters.  These birds are the most beautiful I have ever seen.

At one time these chickens participated in 'cock fights' but after that was outlawed they were allowed to run free and are protected.

Out of the seven days, there I got to take a bike ride four of those days.  It was something that I thoroughly enjoyed and got a little bit of exercise during my 90 jaunt around the island each day.

Fortunately, we had mostly good weather.  It was hot - which is always nice at the end of November.  Not sure when we'll be back to KW, but I look forward to biking around the island again one day.

Thanks for joining us on the Roadrunner Chronicles!

Getting to Key West

We figured we could squeeze in a short trip to Key West during this year's visit to Florida.  We left Virginia Beach the first week of November and are scheduled to return the middle of December.

We made it to the Sun City area for a one night stay at Manatee River State Park.  We called ahead and asked if they had any "Walk Up" sites and they said a couple were available so we took our chances and snagged a good one.

We like to try out as many Florida State Parks as we can since they are the best we've seen in our travels.  Like others, it had a laundry and full hook ups.  So we were able to get a lot done even for an overnite stay.

Despite a very busy schedule cousin Kevin and I were able to get together for a bit later that evening.  That was fun!

The next day we made our way south past Miccosukee Casino and on toward Homestead and the Keys.  We stopped for diesel and almost had an "oops!".

 Instead we took it slowly and agreed -- this is a No Go.  We had to unhook, back up the Roadrunner and pull into the other pump.  The fueling truck directly in front was finished by the time we unhooked and we were able to fuel up, hook up and continue on our way.  Disaster avoided.

 Next we were onto Highway 1 and headed on to Key Largo for the night and a stay at John Pennekamp State Park.  Another gem for an overnight stay.

The highlight of our time in Key Largo was meeting up with Habitat for Humanity Care-A-Vanner friends Tim and Cindy.

Last time we saw them was in August in Sheridan, Wyoming where they were participating in a build.  It was fun seeing them.  Their 'kids' - grown children were due to arrive the next day for the long weekend.

Wednesday we moved on down the road to Key West.

One of the great drives in America in my book is the 45 MPH drive over the 42 bridges from Florida City/ Homestead to Key West.  I love that drive!

 Eventually we come alongside of the famous Flager Overseas Railroad remains.  Henry Flagler financed the building of the railroad starting in 1905 and completed in 1912.  It was the first railroad to Key West and operated for 23 years until the hurricane of 1935.  Most was destroyed and never rebuilt.  Instead, the overland highway 'replaced' it in 1938.

 It was 100 miles and about two hours from Key Largo to Key West.  Our campground at Sigsbee Navy Station was just of Mile Marker 3.

 The campground caters to hundreds of campers with 90 full hook up sites and 310 'overflow' dry camping sites.  We spent two nights at this spot in dry camping.  Pretty great views and a lovely way to enjoy Thanksgiving Day.

We were going to got out for a Thanksgiving Day dinner at the local VFW, but I caught a bug of some sort and was out of commission most of the day.  We had a back up and enjoyed our turkey TV dinners and a quiet day of football.

Two days later we moved to a full hook up site.

It was a great start to a few days in Key West!

Thanks for joining us on the Roadrunner Chronicles!

Roadrunner Financials - January 2013

Roadrunner Recap
After spending over a month in Key West, we headed north to Tampa for the big RV show.  We have always wanted to see that one.  We met our friends Tom and Cathy there so that was a bonus.  From Tampa, we did a build at Habitat for Humanity in Sebring Florida, then we finished off the month in Fort Myers with Tom, Cathy, Bonar and Christa.

Good News Areas We Are Under Budget
Once again, the biggest area for being under budget was in diesel fuel and gas where we came over $250 under budget.

Thankfully, we had no RV maintenance bills so we were almost $500 to the good there.

Biggest Expenses
We had a big month of campground fees because of our time in Gulf Waters RV resort.  That place cost us over $50 a night.  But it was worth it.  It is a very nice campground and we got to see good friends for eight days.

Cell phones/TV and Internet still run high but that is an expense we are willing to deal with.  Our groceries were above average and not really sure why...

Large One Time Cost Item
My largest one time expense this month was an upgrade to my two-year plus old iPhone.  I got an iPhone 5 and love it!

Monthly Average
Over all, we were a little over $800 under budget and that was good.  Our groceries since June 2012 (when we began year 4 of full-timing) have been running about $520.

Thanks for joining us on this edition of the Roadrunner Chronicles.  Until next time...

Eating Places in Key West

We didn't eat out a lot while in Key West but we did manage to go out a few times…

Last year we found Sandy's Cafe.  They have FANTASTIC Cuban sandwiches.  And Cuban coffee.

Downtown off Mallory Square we had lunch here one day.  It was OK.  Not too memorable, not sure even what I had.

Our Christmas Lights Tour on the Conch Train took us right by El Siboney.  We asked around and it had very high recommendations.

 The meals were outstanding!  And the prices were surprisingly reasonable.

The day before we left Key West we went to the Rooftop Cafe on Mallory Square.  Pam had blacked a Mahi Mahi fish sandwich and I had the special which included Conch fritters, a Cuban sandwich and Key Lime pie.  It was all very good.

Our last meal in Key West was spent with Marg and George at Hogfish Grille on Stock Island.

I had fried Yellow Tail and Pam had the shrimp Caesar Salad.  They were great.  It was a bit pricey but it was a restaurant we heard about last year and were glad we went.

There are a whole lot of other places to eat in Key West, these were just the one's we tried out this time.

Hope you all are having a great New Year.  Thanks for joining us on the Roadrunner Chronicles!  Until next time...

Fishing in Key West

We don't fish much but it seemed like the right thing to do.  We got some advice from the lady at the campground check-in desk who said, "My husband always takes the Tortuga IV and likes them."
Since we didn't have any better tip, we took that one.

Jon and Kelly were here for Christmas and we picked Monday to go out on the boat.  Jon called and found we could just line up at the dock and buy our tickets.

After we got some Cuban coffee.

 The ship mates were cutting up bait which Jon and Kelly were looking around the boat.

We claimed a spot off the stern and put our tickets onto a fishing rod.

 As we left the harbor, you could see a couple of cruise ships docked at Mallory Square.

Then we talked with our neighbors and had our picture taken.

We went out for about an hour and stopped at our first area.  It wasn't too long before Jon caught one!

I tried to hold it while Jon took the hook out.  Kelly wasn't too sure she wanted anything to do with it…

Then I caught a grouper.  It was the biggest fish I've ever caught.  But at 14", it was a full 6" too small, so it went back into the Straits for Florida.

A little later and Kelly hauled in a Yellow Tail Snapper.

And so did Jon.

They sure are pretty fish.  This little guy was too small so he went back in the water too.

We fished for about 2 1/2 hours and it took us about an hour to get out to our first spot.  Then we moved around a couple more times.  We got 7 or 8 keepers of yellow tail snapper, grunt fish, mackerel and a porkie.

So it was a good day.  The weather started out a little cool but it was only cloudy for a little while.  And we all had a good time.  We didn't get skunked, we caught some nice fish and no one threw up.  Yep, that is the first thing I think about when we talk about going out on a boat.  We weren't deep sea fishing, but we had enough waves to get a couple of guys on board looking a little puny.  But I took some Dramamine and it work.

The trip was a little less than four hours and at a great price ($44/each) so it was well worth it.

 After we got back to our slip, we waited for our fish to get cleaned.  And we weren't the only ones.

It took about 20 minutes and we were on our way with a mess of fish for dinner.

I cooked them on the grill and we had a nice meal together.

So that was our first and only fishing trip in Key West.  We had a great time!

That's it for this edition of the Roadrunner Chronicles ~ thanks for joining us!

Until next time...