Since we are planning on staying here at our walk-up site for as long as they will allow us, it might get pretty stale here on the blog in the coming days. But staleness is kind of what we have been hoping for. I have been looking forward to a couple of weeks of staying put.  At $43 a night, this isn’t a cheap state park. But at the same time, since we are not driving anywhere and there aren’t too many restaurants tempting you to spend money at, it is a pretty affordable place to spend our days.

Day 136: Will we ever get bored of this?

For the next 10 to 15 days, this is pretty much what our days will look like. From what we have heard, there has been a lot of rain and snow around the country. We wouldn’t know it because it has been sunny and warm here. High 70s to low 80s during the day and low 70s at night.

Day 136: Will we ever get bored of this?

Long Key has been the total opposite of Bahia Honda when it comes to the mosquito problem. Here we can leave our windows and door open during they day and spend a lot of our time hanging outside without hardly any problems with bites.

Day 136: Will we ever get bored of this?

Even though this place faces the open waters of the Atlantic, there are hardly any waves as compared to the Pacific ocean. We feel really safe about the girls playing near the water as it is only ankle deep for a long ways.

Day 136: Will we ever get bored of this?

The girls actually aren’t interested in playing too much in the water here but there is a lot of playing in the sand. Even playing princess dress up in the sand.

Day 136: Will we ever get bored of this?

They sure know how to live. They chose to eat their fruit cup snacks at the picnic table while looking out into sea.

Day 136: Will we ever get bored of this?

Another really amazing thing about being here at the keys is that our Sprint 3G internet is blazing fast. It is faster than any other 3G connection we have had in any spot and rivals some of the 4G connections. I don’t know exactly why but I suspect it has partially to do with the relatively low number of people living here so that the bandwidth at each cell tower isn’t spread as thin across all of the users. Since we have an unlimited plan, we even let the girls watch Netflix over 3G with good success.

Day 136: Will we ever get bored of this?

The tent has also been doubling as Mila’s spot for pleasant afternoon naps without anyone bothering her. The nice ocean breeze comes right up from shore and passes through the tent and lulls her to sleep.

Day 136: Will we ever get bored of this?

Ahhh…. I can do this forever. Do we HAVE to leave?

Day 136: Will we ever get bored of this?

At last, we are in what comes as close to paradise as I can imagine in the Mish.

Day 136: Will we ever get bored of this?

Even the firewood here is cheap. Each day, the camp host piles 12 sticks of wood to each pile in front of the bath house and the campers can come by to pick up as much as they need at $3 a pile on the honor system. That is compared to at least $5 for a much smaller bundle that I have bought in most other campgrounds.

Day 136: Will we ever get bored of this?

With only electric and water, we are going to have to really conserve our water usage if we plan to stay here a couple of weeks. There is going to be a lot of dish washing going on outside.

Day 136: Will we ever get bored of this?

Anyone care to guess what Marlene is doing here? Well, my bets are that she is either on her phone looking at Instagram photos or trying to identify a bird from her Florida Seabirds book.

over and out,
dan


3 Comments

danielle · December 21, 2012 at 6:32 am

What a beautiful life 🙂 I was talking to my husband about how wonderful it would be to get a camper and travel around the United States. Have a wonderful Christmas.

Amanda Watson · December 21, 2012 at 9:56 am

Looks like an amazing spot to relax for a few weeks! My dad spends the winters in Big Pine Key so I am very familiar with the lure of the Florida Keys. We hope to spend a good portion of next winter down there- but till then I’m living through your photos and stories. Glad you got a spot away from the bugs- they can be horrible down there!

dan · December 21, 2012 at 2:41 pm

Hi Danielle, it is a great way to travel especially if you have kids! Thanks and Merry Christmas to you!
Amanda, as you can tell, Long Key is working out much better for us with bugs! Although I do wish we would have gone to the farmer’s market at Big Pine Key.

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