Bahia Honda State Park and No Name Pub…

Well we have been down here in the Key West area for a couple of weeks so it was time for a road trip. Where to? Bahia Honda State Park was the destination since it is said to have the best snorkeling near the shore in this area, along with a great beach to boot!

So into the CRV with snorkel gear in tow and we headed north on the Overseas Highway till we got to the small brown sign announcing our arrival to the state park. Entry fee for this park – $9.00 – a little steep but what are you going to do, everything in the Keys is expensive. They also allow RV camping at this state park with a lot of waterfront sites for only $36.00 per night (which is a bargain down here in the Keys).

So we drove into the park near the beach and found a shady spot so we could sun when we wanted to and shade when we needed to. We donned the snorkeling gear and after about a 1 hour snorkel we were once again disappointed with the snorkeling. Now it isn’t like we didn’t see anything as one can see lobsters just about anywhere down here but there is a real lack of hard corals and not much diversity in the fishes seen in these clear blue waters.

Granted we are a bit spoiled as we have snorkeled in some wonderful places such as St. Lucia, Grand Cayman, Isle de Pins and Fiji but we were expecting much better snorkeling here in the keys than we have been able to find. Now we hear if you spend the big bucks they can take you out to a reef some 3-5 miles offshore and the snorkeling is great. Being as we have seen some great snorkeling in our past, spending 80-100 bucks to see some coral and fishes seems a bit steep for us in our new lifestyle.

So we packed up the gear and headed over to No Name Key. Its fame is that No Name Key is known for not being connected to the power grid, the endangered Key deer live here and it is most known for the No Name Pub. Said to be the oldest establishment in the lower keys (since 1936) and they proclaim to have the best pizza in the universe. We didn’t go here to test either of these claims but we came to see it and to see all the dollar bills adorning every square inch of wall and ceiling space (and to have a cold beverage or two). Neat little spot – check it out…

As we left the No Name Pub we saw a nice male Florida Key deer in velvet which simply highlighted what was an overall great day despite the lackluster snorkeling…

Big News for us… Sold the House!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We temporarily interrupt this blog about the Florida Keys and RV’ing to bring to you the exciting news of “WE SOLD OUR HOUSE”!

Yes, it is true, after over a year on the market and two price reductions we finally sold our house. This vacant house has been costing us between $400 to $500 per month… Do you know how much fun we could be having with an extra 400-500 bucks!!! Of course you do!

We mention this for all of you who worry about selling your home to let each of you know it will eventually sell. We set our initial price high on the house since we listed it 8 months before we planned to retire, but in our budget we had a lower number for what we expected to sell it for. We fell just short of what I expected to get for it.

Our biggest worry in selling our home was that our market and local economy is driven by the 45,000 student Texas A&M University. So if we hadn’t sold our home by the end of July we were going to have to rent it out to students most likely. Not good!!! They tend to trash your place… We are glad to have sold it and now we don’t have to worry about it or the expenses associated with keeping it on the market.

This was our third contract on the house and after the other two backed out before closing we kept this one to ourselves as to not jinx it… must have worked :). There is hope for all you people out there trying to sell your homes to hit the road. You can do like we did and just go and hope it sells soon, it worked for us… or for some you will have to stay till it sells. We have no regrets but were getting a bit worried…

I now return you back to the regularly scheduled blog about RV’ing in the Florida Keys… at least the pictures are from the Keys!