Key West, Fl

A change in lattitude = a change in attitude!! The pace just seems to slow once you are here. What a great two days we spent in Key West. It was in the upper 70's with plenty of sunshine. We celebrated Fat Tuesday by stopping at MM39 near Marathon to visit BK and watched a Mardi Gras parade by members staying at the $90/day RV park!
In Key West we made our stop at Margaritaville and then enjoyed Wayne and Mike at Sloppy Joe's. They are two funny guys who play music and tell stories. We wandered around Mallory Square and rode our bikes through the streets overflowing with tourists before calling it a night on Simonton Street.


On Wednesday morning we are parked by Bayview Park watching the homeless begin their day while kids skateboard by on the way to school and other people play with their dogs in the park. There doesn't appear to be much difference between us and the homeless. They have 2 bikes, we have 2 bikes, but our bed is on wheels and their's is in a garbage bag.
Today we will wander on the boardwalk along the bay, ride our bikes over to the southernmost point in the US, eat some seafood, and watch the sunset and street performers at Mallory Square. Ask us sometime about our bikes disappearing.
The weather is here, we wish you were beautiful. Check the other pictures.
Just a little bit of history I find interesting: The keys belonged to the Spanish until a Mobile, Alabama businessman, John Simonton, bought the land for $2000.00 and Key West was founded in 1822. By the 1850s there were 2,70 people, many who came from New England and the Bahamas as "wreckers." When there was a shipwreck they would salvage millions of dollars of cargo from ships that ran aground on the reefs. By 1830 Key West was the richest city per capita in the U.S. and which was the case for about 50 years. In 1856 the 2,000 residents split almost $400,000 in booty.
Later in the century Cuban immigrants led the city into becoming the world's leading cigar manufacturing center with 100 million cigars rolled by hand per year. This business later moved to Tampa. The next industry to arrive was sponging, once grossing $750,000 a year. In 1910 a red tide killed the Key West beds and the industry collapsed. Today tourism is alive and well.