Roughin’ It In The Keys- Travels
What a crazy title to give, does roughin’ it and the Florida Keys even go together? It’s not like I stayed on a boat with no toilet, running water, shower, windows that let water in when it rains and a 20 minute trek on kayak and walking alongside a highway to get back to the car… oh wait. Although it could’ve been way worse and my travel buddy Morgan and I laughed about it the WHOLE time… it definitely was not what we expected. I can say that not many people I know would’ve been so okay with what we experienced and so go with the flow, so thanks Morgs for being you <3
Before I left for this weekend in the Keys a wonderful co-worker of mine gave me one of the genuine gifts I’ve ever received. A mini passport journal and a Beechmore Books travel log. She shares the same love of travel for mine and gave me these to encourage me to write about my travels. One of my biggest regrets is not journaling everyday while in South Africa, Colorado, Arizona, Wisconsin, etc. BUT here’s to a new amazing start. So this blog is going to be a summary of what I wrote in everyday for those 4 days I was in Florida.
“Blessed are the curious, for they shall have adventures.”
Day 1- 1/15/21
Last night I stayed in Dubuque with Morgan so we could catch our 7 AM flight in Madison. The drive last night was capital H-orrible. A blizzard. What a way to leave Iowa, am I right? Morgan’s dad ended up driving us to Madison at 3:30 AM due to roads and no parking fee (woot woot). Our morning was off to a typical Meg scenario. When we got to the airport we accidentally thought we were VIP’s and checked into the security clearance line, where Morgan could go ahead but my boarding pass declined on my phone so I had to print them off back downstairs near the main lobby. Thank goodness it worked and I went through the normal, not VIP, security. Some of the nicest workers TSA workers I’ve experienced. One of the guys told me a joke because of the Smokey The Bear shirt I was wearing. “What do you call a bear with no teeth?” ….. “A gummy bear.” :)
The trip was a GO after that and I got my toothbrush (I forgot it at home of course) and some snacks because I eat 24/7. There was a delay in our flight because they needed to deice the plane with that special spray. The guy who was in charge of spraying whatever the heck came out of that hose had the biggest smile on his face the entire time, for some reason I can’t get that out of my head lol. Next stop- Charlotte, North Carolina!
Made it to North Carolina and now waiting to board the plane for Fort Lauderdale. Before that though I need a sandwich. Go figure. I got a wonderful tuna sandwich at Potbelly.
Made it to Fort Lauderdale, the first thing I did was take off my coat-whew! We got our rental car and agreed that her name should be Marge. She was an Eclipse Cross and boy was she nice. I thought about trading in my Escape right then and there. 12/10 stars for Marge. Anyways, the first thing we tried doing was go to our Airbnb to drop off our bags but that wasn’t happening. Our host didn’t send our front door combination number to get in and after trying to get ahold of her by texting/calling we decided to give up for the time being and explore in the mean time. We went to Dania Beach and walked along the strip where there was so much live music, restaurants and stores ready to welcome us as the nightlife was very much alive! We decided to get Italian-American take-out at a place called the Broadwalk.. not sure if they meant to call it the Boardwalk but… I got a chili dog and that was exactly what I needed. That wasn’t the end our dinner so we also got frozen yogurt at a place that reminded me a lot of Orange Leaf. The workers were so fun (and cute). We joked around with them and even though Morgan told me that we should have secret identities and tell people that we are from Wisconsin, the first thing that came out of my mouth was that we were from the Cedar Rapids area. Sweet god why haven’t I been kidnapped yet.
This is Marge. Next car I have, this will be mine hands down.
After some dessert we walked around some more and stopped at a bar to grab a drink since we still weren’t in contact with our lovely Airbnb host. We danced with these 3 ladies who all were from somewhere different in the US. We finally got a text back around 9 pm from our host and decided that it would be a good idea to head back to “home.” When we arrived we almost got shunned because Creamsicle the cat almost got loose when we opened the door. We soon realized that it was an actual home with MULTIPLE rooms in there for Airbnb. We were only allowed to be in our room and the bathroom. This bathroom was shared with everyone…there was a reason this was $50 a night. I went to bed peacefully that night watching 90 Day Fiancé, without realizing until the morning that the owner actually was sleeping on the couch right next to our door. I forgot to add that when we arrived the owner was talking to us behind one of those Chinese dividers that had cherry blossoms decorated on them, not allowing us to see them physically. What.
Day 2- 1/16/21
We woke up around 7:30 AM to get ready to hit the road to head to Key West! This would be a 4 hour journey according to Maps. I love to drive so I volunteered and honestly the drive felt like 2 hours. This could be because the drive was insanely beautiful. Also it is local law to go over the speed limit in Florida, not sure if the cops agreed but I was just following the Floridians. We went over many bridges including the 7 mile bridge. I’m going to be honest I was hyped about this from the pictures and signs I saw prior to coming to Florida… but it was just a cement bridge. BUT. What was cool was the art stand we decided to stop at in Marathon. It was just this little stand consisting of three artists, 2 women and a man. It felt like we were MEANT to meet them. We exchanged travel stories, one of them being a story from one of the ladies who went to Panama for a month. I was also told by one of the art ladies that I had O negative blood because the bugs were EATING ME ALIVE. She said buggies tend to go for us O negative peeps and I told her this made sense because although I do love to camp, I come out looking like a bumpy science experiment. We said farewell to our new friends and off we were again!
We got to Key West and to our supposed “meeting” place from our Airbnb instructions. You are about to be entertained. We were told to park at CVS and go to the public boat ramp by the marina. We went to the marina and after walking around and asking one of the workers, we were told that the public boat ramp is down the road. WE WALKED ALONGSIDE THE HIGHWAY WITH OUR BAGS. Imagine this, two white girls looking lost as shit walking down the highway. Again, I don’t know how I haven’t been taken. This is some shit from an action movie. As we are walking alongside the highway, trees to our right.. we hear a “Morgan!” through a small clearing in the trees. It’s our Airbnb host guys. We followed his voice down a tiny trail. As I’m writing this I’m laughing because we are so trusting. There Tim was, in a little boat with a kayak by its side. TIM WAS THE COOLEST DUDE. Gosh if you were to picture an island man, it was him to a T. Loved his green, tan leathery skin and wore socks with his sandals. We met another guy at the first interaction with Tim, he came alongside Tim and his boat. He was a polish man who said oh “beautiful girls, my daughter is coming later for a party. Please come.” This is where a bit of our common sense came in and we didn’t say a WORD.
Morgan and I got ourselves in the kayak and left ALL of our belongings in Tim’s boat. Now that I think about it that was kind of dumb. We don’t know this guy at all and here we are just TRUSTING that he follows us to the boat we are going to be staying at. Guys our phones were in our bags with Tim. I don’t think the fish were going to be able to save us if something happened.
It was a 10 minute kayak trip to our destination. We got to the boat and realized it was not what we were really promised in the pictures. There was no bathroom (okay a lil pot), no shower, obvious water damage to the interior cab and a stench to the boat. This stench would eventually get worse. Oh well, what are ya gonna do. It’s what you make of your situation. Well, after we got “cleaned up” we headed into town to Duval Street- the famous street in Key West. It’s about 1.2 miles long. This is saying a lot for an island that is only 8 miles long :) We took our picture at the famous tourist spot, the buoy stating the southern most point of the continental United States. Also some sunset pictures of course. We walked down the street, exploring all of the art exhibits, bars, shops and much more! We stopped at a Mexican restaurant (I forgot the name) where I was talked into getting the crab and spinach quesadilla by our waiter Joshua D. When I go to restaurants or bars I do the risky “surprise me” and see what I get. I also got a Cajun mojito there, yummy in my tummy.
After that we headed back and TRULY contemplated sleeping in Marge so that we didn’t have to walk on the highway in the dark AND paddle back to our boat, but we did it. When we got back we sat outside on the boat and looked at the stars. Incredible. I did a lot of reflection on my life out there. I wanted to talk about the one place we could “charge” our phones in the boat. Tim literally took what looks like the end of a damn flashlight, stuck a car usb port into it and called it a charger. It took all night for one phone to get roughly 50% battery. I love life, like it truly makes me giggle when I reflect on the situations I’ve been in. Lights out for us around 11pm.
Day 3- 1/17/21
This morning we woke up risin’ and shinin’ around 8:30am. Holy crap we both slept AMAZING. It was so peaceful being rocked back and forth on the boat. But, we felt disgusting. The air made us feel real slimy and I also think it was a mix of the boat funk that has us feeling some type of way. We left around 9 am (on our kayaks to land lolz) to good ol’ Marge. We were headed to the beach at Fort Taylor Park! We paid the $7 entry fee… I’m going to be honest the reason why we went to this particular park is because it listed on their website that they had public showers. What we didn’t know was that these public showers were outside. Morgan and I had to push a button that let out a little burst of water. It was ice ice baby cold. Both of us were in our swimming suits, I just wanted to share that. No scaring the public today with our nudity. We did our half ass showers and brushed our teeth there. We were truly living like wild women. We couldn’t stop laughing at our situation. That’s exactly how I want to live my life, laughing. Although the shower situation wasn’t ideal, we felt 1,000 times better already.
We laid out on the beach for a bit then wanted to explore the trails. We didn’t realize we were actually on a military base lolz and came upon some old barracks and the old fort that was used in the Civil and Spanish-American War. How crazy and cool was this?! They were holding tours but we did our own little exploring of this base.
After our little guided tour from ourselves we walked on some trials to the coast and sat on some rocks in the water. Incredible. The water is SO BLUE. We walked back to the Park’s café to grab some lunch. One of the best turkey, bacon and ranch wraps that I’ve ever experienced. We sat on the beach some more until we were both shivering. We headed back to explore more of Duval Street.
We walked around the places we hadn’t explored yet and just admired the uniqueness of each store and the story that came from the atmosphere, signs and music being played at each stop. This one guy was selling joints in a little shack, there was tons of candy stores, the tiniest bar you’ll ever witness that could only hold two people and there was a store famous for selling the first ever Key Lime Pie. I was blown away that KEY LIME PIE was made in the Keys. Haha makes sense, doesn’t it? I of course was hungry again. I stopped at a smoothie bowl food van to get an acai bowl. I spilled some of it on my new white shoes trying to take a picture of it. Typical.
Can you guys tell what happened next? Yeah I spilt the acai on my white shoes.
On our way back to head to the boat I got a little cocky and thought I could get back to the area where we were supposed to park without navigation. I even made a comment stating that I was a local now and was one with the island. Next thing you know 20 minutes later, Morgan is reading street names and says Oh hey Duval Street! Which then took us about 2 seconds and an “oh shit” followed by a burst of laughter that we realized I took us in a big circle. I was mind blown this happened because I literally went STRAIGHT the whole time. Like I said, it’s an 8 mile long island.
We FINALLY got back, still with no navigation after a couple more trial and errors :) We got back to our CVS parking where I then pulled in a puddle and had to Simone Biles my way out of the car. We kayaked back (super scary but so peaceful at night.) Fish were jumping so that added to the scariness of it. C’mon don’t call me a sissy. It’s dark and spooky when you’re all alone IN THE OCEAN.
Day 4- 1/18/21
Our last day in Florida :( Holy crap I don’t think I’ve EVER slept so peaceful, like a damn rock. No, a boulder. Maybe the boat life is for me ;) I forgot to add that I initially woke up at 7 AM because my stomach felt like it was 6'“ descended because I had to go potty so bad. The lovely pot looked like heaven at that moment in time. As I stepped outside I was immediately hit with this HORRENDOUS smell. Like 1 billion fish had died a horrible death. When I came back in after that trauma I noticed there was a blanket over Morgan’s head. Weird, whatever floats her boat I guess. Haha, see what I did there. I would soon be informed after waking up again at 8:30 AM that it was because it stormed that night and rain had been coming through the boat ON MORGAN’S FACE. No wonder the boat looked like it had severe water damage and everything smelt so musty. After we got all of our things together- smelling rather stinky (even after our luxurious Park shower) we started our journey back to land for the last time. Thank baby Jesus. We noticed a new, big boat overturned in the trees. What. The. Heck. This wasn’t here yesterday. We finally got back to Marge and went to CVS one last time to brush our teeth. A 4 hour drive here we go!
After about 1 1/2 hours I had to stop for coffee (of course). We stopped in Islamorada at this cute coffee shop called Cafe Moka and I got a beautifully executed Iced Chai Latte. After a bit we stopped in Key Largo to the most wholesome, yummy place called Henrietta’s for Lunch. I got the most delicious chicken salad croissant with a cucumber, tomato and onion salad for a side. The best staff was working there too.
After that we had to be a bit speedy to make our flight with 15 minutes to spare but we made it :) We flew to Dallas, the plane TV screens that streamed free movies so although I couldn’t hear anything..due to no headphones…I put the captions on and watched Lady Boss. Guys this movie had me literally LOL’ing. I was making a bit of a scene trying to hold in my laughter but I didn’t have a care in the world. Then from Dallas we landed in Madison at 10:30 PM. Morgan’s boyfriend picked us up, even greeted us upon arrival in the lobby. How cute is that? We drove the 1 1/2 hours back to Dubuque, me passed out in the back seat lolz. Then I drove the last 55 minutes back to Anamosa. Let me reassure you that the FIRST thing I did was take a shower AND brush my teeth.
I miss the sun already. I’m not meant to be in Iowa y’all. I know it in my heart. I had a great time being out in the ocean. Thank you Morgan for being you <3
Adventure Through Your Yellow <3