Day 141: Lunch in Marathon and a visit to Curry Hammock.

Bill the mobile RV repair guy came by this morning to check out our battery charger problem. Luckily for us, we were able to use everything except for the inverter all day yesterday. Only when something is plugged into the inverter does the battery voltage start to drop.

I was hoping for the best but expecting the worst. The worst being having to get a new converter-charger which had its own silver lining as it was going to be not just a replacement, but hopefully an upgrade. Fortunately, Bill found out that it is just simply a loose screw on the fuse box that has caused some arcing which would explain the charred negative terminal. Through all of the miles that I have driven, the screws that hold the 6 gauge copper wires down have just walked their way back. It got loose enough to the point that it was not holding a consistent connection.

That also explains why our voltage wasn’t always low. When I noticed the problem, I started keeping my eyes on it. It was low most of the time but periodically it would bounce up to ~12.5 volts or so before dropping back down. That is good news because I have temporarily delayed the inevitable, replacing the factory charger. The bad news is that I just paid this guy to come over to tighten a screw to the tune of a $90 service call.

Ouch. Now you go check your fuse boxes and make sure all of the screws of tight. I mean it, GO!

OK, I hope you made it back to the blog to continue reading about our adventures today. Just as most other days here at the keys, there are a few more mind-numbing photos of our very boring, yet very satisfying days here.

Today is Ava’s friend Grace‘s 7th birthday. They have known each other since Ava was born and use to live just a couple of miles away from us. A couple of years ago they decided to move south so we don’t see them as much any more. Being on the road and having no steady friends except for her sister, Ava really misses her friends at home. She made a drawing for her as a birthday present. From what I can tell, there is a cake, a teddy bear, a present wrapped in brown polka-dot paper and some random string on the bottom of the floor. Presumably it is leftover ribbon from wrapping the present.

We decided to drive down to Marathon today to get a bite to eat for lunch as well as stocking up on some more food and get ready for Christmas. This great egret is just cruising around the campground here at the park. It’s normal.

At Marathon, we stopped at one of the local favorite breakfast and lunch joints called the Wooden Spoon.

The portions are generous, staff is very friendly and of course, there are wooden spoons hanging everywhere on the wall.

When this restaurant first opened back in the 1950’s, it was called Ted N’ Mary’s. No, not Ted Danson and Mary Steenburgen but it would have been pretty cool if it was. Ted N’ Mary sold the business in the 70s and it became the Wooden Spoon. A few years ago, the current owners bought the restaurant but it has been pretty much serving the same food for the last 60 years.

On our way back, we decided to pop into Curry Hammock State Park to check out their facilities. After our stay at Long Key, our plan is to move to Curry Hammock for New Years. The only problem is that we have 4 days currently unaccounted for as far as reservations go. We need to leave our spot at Long Key on December 26th but we had only been able to find a site at Curry Hammock starting on the 30th. We will have to keep checking for cancellations or try our luck with a walk-up site when we get here on the 26th.

We got to walk around the campground to get an idea of the sites. It is a much smaller campground with only roughly 20 sites. It is also the newest of the 4 state parks with campgrounds in the keys so they are really nice. It also has a playground for the kids which we have not had at either Bahia Honda or Long Key. It should be a nice stay here and hopefully we will be able to bridge those 4 days between Christmas and New Years with a site here so we don’t have to go to a commercial campground (parking lot).

We got back to Long Key just in time for the sunset. Our campsite here faces pretty much directly south so we are able to see both the sunrise as well as the sunset over the water with our 180 degree ocean view.

Well, I must go check Reserve America for cancellations. You guys can stay here and play with Ava in the sand if you’d like.

over and out,
dan