Fiesta Keys... our home for the week....

Matt and I found the best place to camp! A nice quiet little key north of Marathon.... the entire key is a campground! Just a happy floating piece of land - covered with happy camping people. Right now, Matt and I are doing the primitive camping thing, which means no electric or water hookup - but it is cheap and all our neighbors are the best... The guy to our left (Mike with the Bike) - Lost his job in Detroit.... took his sign off bonus to travel around the US on his motorcycle.... you should see all the stuff he manages to pack on that bike - a tent, a stove, his clothes, his life, his guitar, he is even looking into getting a bike rack put on the back of the motorcycle - amazing stuff.... Our other neighbor is a crazy fisherman who swims around the reefs and stabs fish with a spear! To our luck, he also loves to cook for strangers - Last night our new guitar playing friend, a cute traveling couple, some random guy from across the way, Matthew and I - we all drank wine and ate Trigger Fish, Snapper, Lobster, Smoked Trout.... and talked about the Keys.... a nice break from all the crackers and bagels we have been eating....

Matthew is officially sick of the beach. I know it is horrible, but I keep dragging him to a new beach every morning.... without cash, the only thing that is free out here is the ocean and the sand (and even then, some of the ocean and sand costs money to hang out on). He says that I am trying to 'bake him alive'.... Truthfully, I am.... I am baking him alive for all the times he called me an 'evil bitch' and he meant it... I shall burn you with the sun, Matthew!! Take that... and that....

Yesterday we were at Sombrero Beach and we got to swim with dolphins.... it was amazing.... there was a pod of maybe four dolphins, only 15 feet from us... so so pretty...

Matt has fallen in love with Dan, the twenty-three year old guy who runs the front desk here.... It is endearing - because Dan is incredibly straight and completely oblivious to the fact that Matt keeps hitting on hit..... Last night, Dan invited Matt and I over last night for a campfire and some drinks. Dan's story is really nice to listen to - he lived in Ohio his whole life, got sick of it, took his last paycheck, drove to the Keys in his pickup truck, got a job at the campground. He lives on this island for seventy-five dollars a month, works seven days a week, sleeps in his truck. He can climb palm trees, hatchet coconuts, kayak the open ocean, and sleep until 4pm.... Dan, kinda-sorta, has the life here.... I am sorta-kinda-completely jealous on all accounts...

I will mention.... that Dan mentioned.... that half the people who work on this island - came from Ohio. It made me giggle a bit...

Dan has a blog. I have not read it yet, but it is here: Dan-the-Campground-Man

This campground is thee-shit.... two hot tubs all night, a full bar till 2am, happy hour until 7pm (drinks are $1.50!), just enough people in the camp - that it is neither claustrophobic nor dead at night.

Gotta get going.... Matt and I have quite the day today! In case you have not guessed it yet.... the two of us are going..... to.....The beach! Coco Plum Beach! Really sad that we have to leave for Miami tomorrow.... Going to miss it here... For the first time in my life, I can truthfully say, "I am enjoying FL." Never thought that I would ever say something so ludicrous....