The "View From Here" Jan. 4

The View From Here Monday morning Jan. 4
Chapter one: The people we meet
A happy and blessed new year to all of you. Grace and I wish every one who comes here a peaceful, safe, joy filled year in 2010. We are doing well. After arriving down in the Keys here we spent two full weeks in one spot at Long Key State park at mile marker 62. This park is about half way to Key West and is particularly unique ( and nice to stay at ) because every site backs up, facing South, onto the Atlantic Ocean. Every morning we woke up with the sun coming up across the water, and each night it went down in a huge ball of fire. If there were clouds in the sky they would be all scalloped and red and seemingly on fire. Pretty spectacular. Needless to say this park is in high demand and it is hard to get a site in here. People make reservations for the reservable sites 11 months in advance and you are only allowed to stay here for two weeks at a time. Still there are ways around it and we managed to score a first come first serve site for two weeks last month, and now we are here again!
Traveling is a good way to meet new people and we have met many great folks along the way. During our first two week stay here we met Joan & Al. They are a couple from Arizona, who travel for their work and have lived in their motor home for most of the last ten years. They shared many interesting stories about that. They flew here for the holidays and rented a car at the airport. They then went the thrift store to buy all their pots and pans and cutlery, lawn chairs, blankets and sheets, towels, books, a table lamp, and any other camping needs they had. Then to the lumber yard for scrap fire wood, a cement block and a bit of rope. We watched them set up camp when they arrived. Then, armed with their books and inflatable lawn chairs tied to the cement block they headed out into the ocean. They dropped the cement block in the water and sat there in their chairs anchored in place reading till the sun went down, watching a spectacular sunset right from their chairs in the water. We had a great supper together around the fire one night. Grace and Joan are both addicted to reading, so they spent ages talking about books, and swapping ones they’d read Another night after it blew so hard that every ones tents, including theirs blew flat and filled up with water, they slept over with us the next night in the spare bed above the seats. They were great company, but alas, they had to go home and get ready to head to their next job … in Alaska! We missed them when they left.