​We stopped in Port Saint Lucie for a couple of nights to visit friends of Angie's from Virginia Beach. Rick was an EMT with Angie for many years. Rick and his wife Jean sail to the Bahamas every year on their sailboat. They moved to Port Saint Lucie this year to cut two months off their travel time to the Bahamas.

Rick is happily married to Jean, a Virginia Beach native, who had not sailed before meeting Rick. Her camping experience prepared her well, though, and she is hooked on sailing now. They love Tarpon Bay, their over-50 condo community where they can dock their sailboat, as well as enjoy swimming, pickleball and an active social life with fun people.

We were greeted at our campsite by yet another gator in the canal. The campground office featured a stuffed bobcat that had been a neighbor. There was a pleasant breeze the night we arrived. We hosted Rick and Jean at our campsite and gave them a tour of our trailer. They are considering an RV excursion to the West.
After a rib dinner at a nearby brew pub, Rick and Jean showed us their condo and their 38-foot cutter-rigged Island Packet sailboat "Spindrift".

​Hank slept in to recover from the previous day's festivities. Angie played in the water with dogs for three hours. We did some more paddleboarding with the dogs, followed by even more swimming. Angie noted that it was, by far, the dogs' favorite day of the trip. 

We found and photographed the house where Angie's grandmother lived when Angie's Mom, Nan, was a little girl. The address is 1400 Petronia. Her grandmother used to say that everyday she lived in Key West was like a vacation to her.

We visited the nearby St. Mary, Star of the Sea, Catholic Church where Angie's mom Nan attended first grade. The grotto was a peaceful and beautiful garden. Then we had an amazing dinner at the Seaside Cafe at the Southernmost House Hotel located at the southern most point of the US. The conch fritters, ahi salad and lobster pizza were out of this world. It was a great place to wind up our visit to Key West. 

We attended 5th Street Baptist Church and then had lunch at Smoked Tuna, where a two-man country band played in the courtyard. Then we found a very talented folk singer named Elle Haley performing at Hank's Saloon. We only caught the last few songs of her set, but we learned that she was playing at the Tiki House for happy hour and were able to catch some more of her act there.

We visited Sloppy Joe's - where Hemmingway met his second wife. There was a country-western guitarist who did a nice version of "Friends in Low Places" by Garth Brooks. Later that night we came across on incredible guitar talent at Hogs Breath. His name is Matthew Curry. If you like Stevie Ray, you will like Matthew.

It rained hard, which resulted in the cancellation of a Glass Cats show at General Horseplay. We ended up back at Hank's Saloon - whose music talent had yet to disappoint - and enjoyed a set by Cliff Cody who got us dancing under the tent in the rain. He was very personable and told good stories of Nashville. 

​We attended an early yoga class in a lush garden with fountains and wood decks covered by athatched roofs. Afterwards we had brunch at a Cuban coffee shop. We walked to Hemingway's House, near Mile 0 of US-1.

After cleaning up and swimming with the dogs, we broke out our paddle boards for the first time on this trip. The dogs enjoyed the warmer, relatively flat water, which was much more comfortable for them than the chop on Lake Washington. 

Later we headed back to town for dinner and further exploration of the music scene. We saw an obnoxious solo guitarist who was riling up the raucous crowd at Irish Kevin's. We poked our heads in a couple of other places, but ended up back at Hank's Saloon, where we were delighted to see that the Glass Cats were performing for the second night in a row. It was a different set list, but just as awesome as the first night.

We capped off the evening with incredible Key Lime Pie at Kirby's.

The Sigsbee RV park at the Navy base sits on the banks of the channel to the well-sheltered, Key West Marina. We were only 50-feet away from a ramp where we could launch our paddleboards and play with the dogs. There was also a secluded beach just 30 yards from the ramp. And we only had to drive three miles from Mallory Square and Duvall Street in downtown Key West. 

After a swim with the dogs, we stopped for cocktails at the Base waterfront club. Then it was time to explore town. We found a great patio bar called "Hank's Saloon" where one of the best bands of our trip, The Glass Cats, performed.

They played jazz, 70s and funk. Amazing solos on the piano, guitar and bass. One patron dubbed them the "Glass Cat's Pajamas", because they made every song they played sound better than the original. I love jazz-style solos between refrains. Yes, they played some Grateful Dead, and yes, I even liked that song better than the original studio version. Very talented group. They played straight through from 5-8 pm with no breaks. Garbo's food truck on site served up awesome sliders, yum-yum shrimp and korean bbq tacos.

We arrived back at camp to a beautiful sunset over the bay.

Carri gave us a grand send-off and we were on our way to Key West. Angie's trip plan broke the trip into two parts with one-night stop at a campground on the Tamiami Trail. About an hour before we reached the campground, we started seeing "Panther Crossing" signs. When we arrived at the campground, there were lots of signs warning us to keep dogs away from the central pond in order to avoid attracting alligators. Sure enough, when we took the dogs for a leashed walk, we saw a gator in the middle of the pond. The gator immediately started swimming toward us. He stopped when Angie approached the bank to take a snapshot.

The campground also featured bear-proof food storage lockers. Panthers and gators and bears?! Oh My! Angie got a great picture of an ibis in mid-flight. We also large flying grasshoppers and strangely colored dragonflies. It was like visiting a biology exhibit!

Hank woke up feeling much improved. We had a late lunch/early dinner with Angie, Carri, Tracy and Tracy's father-in-law Dodd, downtown St. Petersburg at a sidewalk cafe. Dodd is a full-time RVer who has made a lifestyle of the trip we are doing this summer. He visits Tracy in his RV for two weeks every year. 
​
We got some great pictures at a banyan tree across the street from the cafe. Tracy and Dodd headed back to Tracy's home in Duneden, while Cari, Angie and Hank headed to a waterfront bar for drinks. Then it was time to pack the trailer. Angie had restocked our stores during Hank's trip.

​Hank's departing flight was delayed by a 50 minutes, but Alaska Airlines made up time in the air, so he made his connection in Chicago pretty easily. Angie picked him up at the airport. Went to bed early to aid his recovery.

​We had a pleasant drive through Oregon and Washington. Of course, the worst - and only back-up was on I-5 at the Tacoma Dome. All those years and all those dollars of construction and the traffic is still horrible there. Arrived in Medina in late afternoon.

Hank woke up with a sore throat and fatigue grew throughout the day. He thought he might have come down with COVID again, but tests and time proved otherwise. He got a lot of chores done and hit the sack early in order to catch a 6 am - washing Madeline's car and topping it off, dropping winter clothes from the trailer in the garage, shopping for chicken soup and cold meds.

​The Sacramento Valley was greener, with more hills than the San Joaquin Valley. I couldn't believe how low the water level was in Lake Shasta! The current drought is the worst California has seen in 1,200 years.

The drive from Redmond, CA, to Ashland is remote and beautiful. I-5 follows the twists and turns of the Sacramento River to Dunsmuir. Then you get great views of Mt. Shasta and Black Butte. Madeline enjoyed driving this stretch of freeway.

Finally, the road crosses into Oregon and drops down into the Bear Creek Valley, where Ashland is located. It is a beautiful valley, dotted with vineyards and pastures. There were no plays being performed on a Sunday night in late June, but we enjoyed driving around the quaint, small town with its small victorian houses and beautiful parks. We stayed across from Southern Oregon University. Hank enjoyed a dip in the pool before dinner.

After dinner we strolled through Lithia Park, where we saw many wild deer and a couple of wild turkeys. Hank hadn't visited Ashland in many years, the town hasn't changed much, except for the significant numbers of itinerants in and around the park. Forest fires and COVID have swelled the homeless population in the county.