The original Sloppy Joe's

Blue Hole

Weather balloon, or spy balloon???

Tue, 12/16/08

Sugarloaf Key: A beautiful day. I set up a pot roast in the crock pot for dinner tonight. Mike worked on the bikes. Ended up taking them to the bike shop on Big Pine. He needed new tires and a new seat and my rear wheel had to be adjusted. Also stopped at the thrift shop and bought some books. Relaxed outside reading for a while. The warm sun felt so good. The iguanas were very active. After dinner we watched a DVD we rented, “Trans Siberian”. Very good movie.

Key West Bight

Mon, 12/15/08

Sugarloaf Key: Had breakfast this morning at the Galley Grill—formerly Captain Crossbones. We’re glad to see it reopened as we used to frequent the place a lot. Mike wanted to stop at the facility which houses the “weather/spy” balloon since it was really low this morning. He took a couple of pictures and we headed over to Big Pine to do some grocery shopping and decided to stop at the Blue Hole on the way. They’ve extended the bike path on this road all the way to the shopping center where we buy groceries, so we can park in their lot and bike all the way to the end. We usually see a lot of key deer here also. And there’s a hiking trail at the end. There were also some improvements at the Blue Hole. They paved the parking area, painted the deck out over the water, and added some more signage. The couple working there turned out to be from our campground. They’re right across the lake from us. We mentioned we were planning on going to Utah and Arizona this summer which prompted a long conversation on some of the better places to go in Utah. They’ve spent a lot of time there. We’re going to get together with them and get some pointers. These two (Ray and Bonnie) are volunteers and work at the Blue Hole one day a week, maintain the trails around the area, and Ray volunteers at the Eco Center in Key West one day a week. Busy people. After grocery shopping we discovered that Floyd and Terry had returned and were just getting set up. Talked to them a little bit and then back home to put everything away and relax a little bit before happy hour. We went over early and had a great time catching up with people returning for the winter and getting to know some people here for the first time. A beautiful day today--low 80s.