Trip of a lifetime

I may get in a little trouble about this blog, oh well.  One of the members of our group is adamantly opposed to social media.  I challenge you to figure out who it is. 

On Wednesday October 5th, Dad, Uncle Daniel, and I pulled out of Elba around 1 pm.  We were going to pick Uncle John up in Marianna.  We picked JK up and headed to Tallahassee.  Our flight left at 7 so we kicked around until the plane boarded.  Once we boarded we settled in for the hour and 20 minute flight and proceeded to make fun of Uncle John.  He hates flying by the way.  We landed safely and met up with Teddy and Jerry, who were coming in from Montgomery.  We picked up 2 4-door Jeeps, got a bite to eat and bed down for the night before truly starting our trip.

Thursday morning we left Miami and hit US 1 in Homestead.  We stopped at the last gas station before you get on the Overseas Highway and took the tops off the jeeps.  The views are pretty amazing as you drive south.  We hit Islamorada around lunch.  We quickly learned a few things in the Florida keys 1) they use "resort" very loosely 2) no need for watches because the time doesn't matter.  We got to our condo and it was very nice with spectacular surroundings.  Thursday we just lounged at the pool and tried to get familiar with the place.  That evening we ate at the Hog Heaven, it was a good local place with a good vibe.

Friday morning we were going to try a spot for breakfast that the bartender at the pool suggested.  Our place was at mile marker 84. The place we planned on eating at was The Mideway Cafe it was at MM 80.  It happened to be closed that day so we  thought we would continue south until we found something.  Well, we found Stout's, only problem was it was on Marathon and 20 miles farther south than we anticipated.  This is where Uncle John's saying "We we going for breakfast and ended up in Key West" came from.  So this is when we decided to see the place that made Buffett famous.  It took us over 1.5 hours as we never got over 50 mph.  As we descending into KW we followed US until it ended.  We parked and hit Duval.  We quickly found that the walking was gonna be tough on Teddy and I.  So I took one for the team and hung around Capt. Tony's while they went walking and Teddy was in my chair.  We got a group pic at the Southernmost marker and will put it on here as soon as Uncle John gets it to me.  We left KW around 2 and decided to try a place Jerry had seen on the Travel Channel.  The Hogfish Grill was just north of Key West.  It had a great vibe and the hogfish was good, but the conch salsa was better.  We left there and we were heading back to the hotel.  As we got off the 7 mile bridge on Marathon we noticed "The Sunset Grill".  This place had a great back patio to watch the sunset and also had a good band.  We stayed there until the sun went down and then trekked backed to Smuggler's Cove on Islamorada.  We listened to a few sets of the band before it was time to hit the hay.

Saturday morning brought rain and college football.  If it was gonna rain we might have been at the most picturesque setting imaginable.  We set around and watch a couple games and rehashed the trip to this point and waited for the rain to start again.  Saturday night we made a return to Hog Heaven as they had a ton of tv's.  We commandeered a few and watched Bama.

Sunday morning marked the end of our trip.  We finally made it to Midway Cafe.  It was a great way to end this trip.  We packed the Jeeps up and headed north as we all had fights to catch.  We tried to kill time as our flight weren't until 5.  Around 3 we dropped the Jeeps off and then we split back up from Teddy and Jerry.  Our flight was uneventful and we dropped Uncle off at his truck and we rolled in to Elba around 10.

I know this has been written more than once on this blog.  This trip was pretty much set up in Baptist South Hospital 3 years ago.  To see it come to fruition with the group that went was very special as the 5 guys that were with me were very instrumental in my recovery.  Thanks Boys it was a blast!

I hope you enjoy reading this recap and I apologize in advance for the grammar and spelling.

Fins Up,
Jr

Wow

I had no idea it has been almost a month since I last blogged.  I will try to do a recap of my travels on Sunday.

Have a great weekend, don't smoke anything synthetic, and RTR.

Jr.