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(Note: This blog entry represents a combination of writings and pictures already posted about our Cool Change II, Land Yacht Adventures 2021 through Cindy via Facebook and Rick via email. So for some of you, the following posts may be duplicative, but for others, this is the first time you are seeing them. We are repeating them here to centralize the record and share our experiences more broadly.)
RICK’S POST, with additional photos and captions in italics by Cindy:
I have wanted to visit the Florida Keys about as long as I can remember. There is just something intriguing about this part of the US that is like no other. This string of tropical islands linked by bridges extends over 120 miles from mainland Florida and lies between the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic. This was the farthest point from our home that we visited on this trip. It was also the official turning point for the trip back to California.
We got an early start getting out of the Miami campground. Luckily, right before we got on the causeway that traverses the Keys, we found a Walmart and a gas station, both easy to get to. So with the refrigerator stocked and a full tank of diesel, we were on our way, destination Big Pine Key!
The first and largest Key we came to was Key Largo. Of the bridges connecting the Keys, the longest one is seven miles long, named, (you guessed it) “Seven Mile Bridge.” The last Key in the chain is Key West, probably the most densely populated of the Keys, and the main tourist destination. A lot more tourists fly to Key West or arrive on cruise ships than those who actually drive there like we did.
Taking what it means to be a lineman to a whole other level, a helicopter lowers a lineman onto a utilities pole sunk into the ocean. 
The “seven mile bridge”
One of the things that would make our trip to the Keys extra special is that Cindy’s youngest sister Kim and her husband Pete would be flying in to Key West from Chicago to meet us and hang out with us for a few days while we were there. We have been very fortunate that by the end of the voyage, we will have been able to visit with Kim and Pete three times, as well as twice with each of our adult children and my sister Chrys and her family.
Cindy had a hard time trying to locate a campground for us to stay even as she was trying to book us somewhere months in advance. She did find an RV park on Big Pine Key that had a space for us and she made a reservation for a 14 day stay. The park, named Royal Palms RV Park, did not have any kind of modern reservation system. Cindy had to make the reservation over the phone followed by sending them a check. A couple of weeks later, Cindy was getting concerned as she had not heard anything back so she called them and confirmed that they had received the check in the mail. The whole thing had us wondering a little what to expect. It appeared that there were mostly full time or at least seasonal residents there and they had a few open spaces that they rented out to transient travelers like we were.
As it turned out, Royal Palms is a great place with an even greater group of residents who we got acquainted with during our stay. What we found when we arrived was that as expected, the park consisted mostly of trailers that have been permanently located there. We pulled in and stopped on the entry road and Cindy went to find out where we were supposed to go. A gentleman named Gary came over and introduced himself as the manager of the park and directed us where our space was located. From where we were, it would have been easier to back out onto the road and go to our site from there, but Gary said he thought we could make the sharp turn up ahead if we wanted to go forward. I decided to go for it but as I made the turn I was getting too close to a retaining wall so I stopped to reconsider. About this time another man appeared named Dale who Gary introduced as the President of the park. He obviously knew the park very well and suggested that I back up a bit and have another go at it. I did so and started the turn a bit wider and was able to clear the wall by about three inches. Gary and Dale walked along with us as we got to our site and backed in. We would later see that whenever someone arrived at the park, a posse would emerge to assist in positioning the RV to their liking.
Gary invited us to come to their cocktail hour at 5pm at the “clubhouse.” The clubhouse is actually a large and beautiful palapa structure with post and beam open construction and a thatched roof. We are familiar with palapas from our time in Mexico and the South Pacific, and this one rivaled any we have seen. The structure is fairly new, having been built after the 2017 category five hurricane Irma. Before the 2017 storm hit the park, they had an some kind of trailer and patio where the palapa now stands. The trailer/clubhouse was destroyed and they built the palapa right where it once stood. It is about 100 ft long by about 40 feet wide and very solidly built. The floor is cement topped with paver tiles, the structure is nicely wired for power and lighting, and there is even a large flat screen TV and theatre sound system mounted overhead. All of it is just very nicely done. The residents meet every night for cocktail hour, they have a movie night on Thursdays, and on Friday mornings they serve coffee and have a morning get together. Each month when the moon is full, they all assemble at the palapa and go for a full moon walk around the neighborhood after cocktails. When they get back to the palapa they serve everyone ice cream sundaes or banana splits as chosen. This is not your average trailer park!
There is another clubhouse across from the palapa that is a large trailer, which has been completely remodeled. It has a bar and kitchen, a book and video library, another big flat screen tv and a home theater audio system. The clubhouse is air conditioned so if its too warm to be out in the palapa, it becomes the place to get together.
The grounds are kept immaculate by the seasonal residents and shareholders. They post on a bulletin board what needs to be done each week and they all work together a couple hours each morning to get it done. As we got to know them better, they told us about how their enterprise works. There are about 25 sites total within the park. Seventeen of those sites are occupied by shareholders. There are a few shares that are available to be purchased at this time. But to become a shareholder, there are several requirements a buyer has to meet and they are very clear about them. First of all, should a person be interested, they have to be proficient in a skill that the community is in need of. For example, in the current pool of shareholders, there is a retired plumber, an engineer, and a utility company lineman. You also have to be fully retired; you are not allowed to work anywhere, even part time! You may not have a pet of any kind, nor any children living with you. If you meet the above requirements and are still interested, you then must rent a space and live there for a minimum of four consecutive months. During that time you would be interacting with the the other residents and shareholders and at the end of that time, they all have to be in agreement to let you buy in. The cost of a buy in is determined by a yearly property appraisal of the entire park. That figure is divided by the total number shares both owned and available, and that is the cost to the buyer. After the buy in, each shareholder pays $1000.00 per year + their utilities. The residents live there only during the winter months and must vacate during hurricane season from June thru October. A couple of people stay year round to secure the property.
The place and the people living there reminded me of the 1988 movie Cocoon, where a group of seniors stumble on a fountain of youth via powers absorbed from a swimming pool in their community.
Most of the residents in the park are in their 70’s or 80’s. We were actually the youngsters for a change. But they seem to be living large and having a wonderful time there by all accounts. The thing about living in the Keys though, is that you are always between hurricanes. That last Cat 4, Irma, fortunately only destroyed the former clubhouse. None of the residences were damaged. But right behind the property was another residential RV park that was obliterated. They said that most of the damages on Big Pine Key were not actually from the hurricane, but from tornadoes that were spawned by it.
Another interesting thing about Big Pine Key is that it is a sanctuary for what are called Key’s deer. They range on quite a few of the Keys but Big Pine Key is the epicenter of the Key deer population. They are thought to be descendants of the Virginia White Tail deer. They are small by deer standards and about half the size and weight of deer that visit us back home in California. They are very inquisitive and friendly and and do not fear humans. Often we would be sitting outside in the campground and one or more would come very close to us, munching on some green grass or berries from a tree that was in our site. One night we were eating some chips and I made the mistake of giving a couple to a doe, who never let me forget it. She would look for me each evening and if I was there she would walk right up and nudge me with her snout. I did not feed her anymore but she never gave up trying! At some point, Key deer were put on the endangered species list when their numbers had declined to just a few dozen. The decline of their population had been mostly due to poaching. Today their numbers are in the hundreds and their status is reassessed every 5 years. The biggest threat to their existence today are cars, and there are warning signs and lowered speed limits throughout Big Pine Key to help protect them. There is a sign at each end of the Key that tracks their fatalities due to cars for the year to date. When we were there, the sign showed a total of 111 and said “Please slow down and protect our endangered Key deer.” These deer are truly loved by the residents of Big Pine Key.
Kim and Pete arrived in Key West the day after our arrival in Big Pine Key. We let them have a day to get settled and rested after their flight and we made plans to meet up with them at their hotel the following morning. They found a cute hotel on Duval Street in Key West. Duvall is the road that is host to most of the tourist hangouts in Key West. There are block after block of bars, clubs, souvenir stores and ice cream shops. You can’t throw a rock without hitting a T shirt shop! It tends to be pretty wild and loud at the numerous bars & clubs. Fortunately for Kim & Pete, their hotel was at the quieter end of Duval, apart from the general chaos. It is a small place called the Orchid Key. It was quiet, clean and had a nice pool area and a beer & wine bar next to the pool. Kim & Pete had their own small outside area with a table in front of their room. Once they were settled, we met them there to plan out some activities.
Kim and Pete’s hotel on the mai drag 
A view of Key West and adjoining keys from their airplane
The drive into Key West from Big Pine is 47 miles, so it takes about an hour each way. There is a law in Key West that you can’t bring in a vehicle longer than 20 feet, and it is for good reason. The streets are narrow and parking can be difficult. The days Kim and Pete were in Key West were just ahead of a major sporting event, a cigarette boat world tournament. As a result, the town was packed with participants and spectators arriving for the weekend action.
We got lucky and found a space in a residential area to park just a few blocks from the motel. We considered renting a golf cart for the day to get around, but it was about $160 per day so instead, we all got in the truck to do some exploring.
Nearby at the south end of town is the famous buoy marking “Southernmost Point in the United States.” The buoy is actually on land rather than serving any navigational purpose. It is a place for tourists to pose for a photo, which of course we did. There was a line of people there when we arrived so Pete and I dropped off the ladies while we hunted for a place to park.
After all the excitement of the buoy… we walked a couple of blocks and arrived at what was purported to be the Southernmost Bar in the United States. We stopped in and got a nice table overlooking the beach and each had a Mojito while we chatted and got caught up on each others’ exploits since we visited them in Chicago earlier on this trip.
We had no sooner left that establishment, when we stumbled across another Mojito Bar, which allegedly is the closest US bar to Cuba! What luck. In addition to their location and their Mojitos, their claim to fame was that they make a lobster pizza. That was all it took to reel us in. We got another nice table, again overlooking the beach, and ordered another round of Mojitos and a lobster pizza.
Though the first round of Mojitos was good, these were awesome. I think we all agreed they were the best on the planet. The Mojitos’s are served with a sugar crystal stir stick. Yum. The pizza was really good as well. We had booked a Cuban food tour for late in the afternoon. It would be a guided walking tour where we were to visit several Cuban restaurants and sample their food. The company offering the tours was named Key West Food Tours. Our tour was going to cover a couple of miles so Cindy and I dropped Pete & Kim off at the restaurant where the tour was to begin, and we staged the truck at the end point of the tour, then walked back, figuring it would be a welcome sight at the end of the day.
Our tour guide interestingly was a young Mexican woman. She and her partner had come to Key West a few years back and opened a restaurant. Apparently they had a rough time of it so they decided to switch gears and go into the food tour business.
She knew the area and its history well and made the tour as interesting as it was tasty. We went to several restaurants and also to a very old Rum bar in a building that dates back to 1889. The property was purchased in 1920 by a man named Raul Vasquez. Raul was a prohibition era rum runner who smuggled rum from Cuba. The house served as a speakeasy and patrons would enter from the back of the house. He used to leave the speakeasy open when he was off on a rum run and payments were by the honor system. He claimed that no one ever abused the privilege.
There were some other interesting sights our tour-guide shared with us along the way. One was the childhood home of the famous trumpet player Fats Navarro. It is a small, brightly painted cottage. At some point, the city purchased the property and installed a porch railing of a trumpet theme in his honor. Right next door to this home stands an old residence that at one time was a church. The paint on the outside was all but disintegrated. Our tour guide explained that this was not because the owners chose to leave it that way. There are preservation ordinances in the area that are so strict that you cannot even repaint a historical structure unless you can match the exact makeup of the paint that was originally used!
Hurricane shutters in Key West
We passed a home with a large old style ice box beside it that the family used to sell their daily catch of fish. Today the small home sits empty, though like all the properties in Key West, I am sure it is a very valuable piece of property.
House with the ice box previously used for fish
Here are a couple of fun facts about Key West, also known as “The Conch Republic” by locals. The name Conch originates in deference to the delicious seafood delicacy made famous in Key West. But it is also historical because of some events that occurred in 1982. It was then that the US border patrol set up a roadblock and vehicle inspection point at the beginning of Highway One, the only road connecting the mainland to the Florida Keys. The purpose was to intercept narcotics and undocumented immigrants. The mayor of Key West complained to the government that the roadblock was hurting commerce and tourism in the Keys and he wanted it to end. The government ignored the mayor’s repeated requests. There were failed court injunctions aimed at ending the blockade also. Finally they had had enough and the mayor and city council declared that as the US government had chosen to set up a border crossing point as if the Keys were a foreign nation, that they therefore had elected to become one. They declared Key West’s succession from the union on April 23, 1982 and became the Conch Republic, whose citizens were to be referred to as Conch’s.
The mayor was given the title of Prime Minister, and at a local gathering he declared war on the United States. The Prime Minister broke a stale loaf of Cuban bread over the head of a man dressed up in a military uniform to symbolize the declaration of war and then immediately surrendered and requested a billion dollars in foreign aid. Though this was all tongue in cheek, it got a lot of publicity and eventually the blockade was removed. But the people of Key West to this day, consider themselves Conch’s and citizens of the Conch Republic.
The next day of our visit with Kim & Pete got off to a later start so everyone could rest up after the previous long day we all had. We arrived late morning to their hotel and we had coffee together on table in front of their room. From there Cindy and Kim took off to go souvenir shopping and Pete and I stayed back to hold down the fort. We landed a couple of lounge chairs by the pool and talked about life, family and travel. Anyway, we had some good brother time and enjoyed the day.
When the ladies returned, we set out to see some more of Key West. We were going to visit the Truman “Little White House.” In 1822 a military base was built in Key West. In 1890 a first officers quarters building was added, which at the time was built on the waterfront. Eventually as the base expanded, landfill was added and buildings were built in front of the quarters, which took away the waterfront view. Around 1937 the base was converted into a naval submarine base. In 1946, Harry Truman, the 33rd president of the US, spent some time in the house at Key West on the advice of his doctor, who had recommended a warm climate. Truman at the time was exhausted from his first 19 months in office. He had a working vacation in the building that was the old first officers quarters and returned several times, spending a total of 175 days of his presidency there. Truman came to realize that the White House was wherever the president was. In time, the place became known as the Truman White House, or The Little White House.
In 1987 the state of Florida took possession of the property and designated it as a museum. By that time, the base had been closed and sold to a private developer, who was turning the entire base into condominiums. He was persuaded to give the building back to the state in lieu of demolishing it. We went on a tour of the Truman White House and it was really quite worthwhile. Everything had been restored to what was there at the time Truman was president. When you first walk in there is a small closet-like room where a secret service agent used to be posted. Off to the right was a large living and dining room. There was a desk that Truman used when he was working and a beautiful table they had glassed over, which had been Truman’s poker table. He used to love to play poker with his guests but the table had a special top that would cover it when not in use for poker and would disguise it as a dinette table. He did not want to get bad press over his poker game fun.
Speaking of bad press, Truman loved to play the piano and often entertained guests and even the public with his music. Our tour guide showed us a framed photo of Truman playing piano with the actress Lauren Bacall perched on top of his piano. The photo ended up being published in the national news, and apparently Truman’s wife Bess was infuriated when she saw it. It was to be the last photo ever published of Truman playing his piano!
The most popular visitor attraction in Key West is the former home of Ernest Hemingway. He lived there during the 1930’s and wrote many of his most famous works during that period. The house was built by a man named Asa Taft who became very rich as a salvager of ships’ cargo for the numerous cargo ships that ran aground in the Keys. Hemingway had little money of his own at the time but his second wife Pauline persuaded her uncle to buy the home for her and Ernest as a wedding present, which he did. Our tour guide showed us out to a balcony off of the master bedroom upstairs. She explained that Ernest used to have a catwalk between the balcony and a room on top of another building across the courtyard. Ernest would walk the catwalk to the room where he did all of his writing. The catwalk had since been destroyed in a hurricane. We were able to go outside and walk up some stairs to Ernest’s writing room and see it in an intact condition from when he worked there writing, including an old Royal typewriter that he used to write his manuscripts. All about the house are what are known as The Hemingway cats. Many of them are polydactyl or six-toed cats. Our tour guide said that they were all descendants of a polydactyl cat named Snow White that was given as a gift to the Hemingways. The cats living there today are all named after actors, actresses and other famous people and have run of the house. They are very well cared for by the hired staff. A vet gives them monthly checkups to ensure they stay healthy.
While we went through one of the rooms, Pete saw a photo of Hemingway holding a shotgun and he jokingly asked the tour guide if that was the gun he took his life with. She told Pete that yes, that was the gun. Oops!
In the evening we had reservations for a dinner cruise on a large motor catamaran. It was a nice night for being on the water and we enjoyed the evening just being with Kim and Pete, but the cruise was a disappointment. First of all, the boat was packed like cattle, which we probably should have expected. It had two decks so half the participants had dinner on the lower lower deck while the other half were above on an open air deck listening to music from a band that was not very good. The bar was staffed by kids that had no idea how to make the drinks! The dinner felt rushed and the food was mediocre so the experience was not one to be recommended.
The best part of the evening was after we got off the boat and we walked the length of Duval street back to the motel. Early on we stopped and had ice cream sundaes and then continued down the road. There was a bar with a drag show going on that was hilarious. We visited the bar named “Sloppy Joes” that was made famous because Hemingway enjoyed drinking most nights with his friend Joe. It is joked that he would only find his way home from the bar by following the light from the lighthouse that operated just across the street from his home.
The streets were full of people, lots of them there to see the cigarette boat races that would be happening that weekend, so we saw lots of characters. We decided it was the aquatic equivalent of a Nascar race crowd, complete with numerous aqua Billy Bobs. We tried to sit down and have a drink in Sloppy Joes, but the air was so thick with cigar and cigarette smoke we could not stay. The laws in Florida prohibit smoking in restaurants but allow it in what they refer to as stand alone bars. Further down the road we found, a bar that had tables right next to an open outside wall so we went in for a nightcap margarita. There was entertainment by a woman who was doing Karaoke that was called “The singing Realtor.” She claimed to have a repertoire of 10,000 songs. Fortunately, it appears that from her stage name, she has kept her day job.
As we we made our way down Duval Street, we saw one of the cigarette boats on display, numerous golf carts and scooters driven by some very intoxicated people and one woman so drunk she fell on the sidewalk and paramedics had to be summoned. Key West actually has a medical business called “The Hangover Hotel.” A person in need can call and they will dispatch medical professionals to hook the patient up with an IV to rehydrate right in their hotel room. Their website has testimonials from patients with glowing reviews about their services.
We had one more day to spend with Kim and Pete. We did not have a lot planned but Kim had made reservations at a Tapas restaurant that sounded good, and we for sure wanted to visit Mallory Square at sundown. It is well known for the street entertainers that gather there and put on performances at that time each day.
We got to the Tapas restaurant right when they opened so we would be sure not to miss the events at Malory Square. It was a good thing we came early because we spent over 2 hours there.
The restaurant is a few blocks off of Duval Street in a quiet area. They are a very popular place and with good reason. Everything we ordered was delicious. Our waitress was excellent and knew the entire menu very well. They timed the arrival of the tapas we ordered perfectly and we had a great time visiting and enjoying the food along with some nice wines. When we arrived, we were the first customers there but but by the time we left, the place was pretty well full. If you find yourself in Key West, Santiago’s Bodega is a place not to miss!
We walked the mile or so to Mallory Square and managed to arrive before sundown. It is a large area on the waterfront and though we expected to see more performers, there actually were only a few that night. There was a person doing card tricks, a juggler that stacked chairs and then climbed as he stacked to the top of the pile of chairs. Another was a juggler on a very tall unicycle, and last, a young woman who was fire dancing.
There was something very odd about all but the young fire dancer. The performers all seemed like they were unhappy and were insulting to their audiences. It was more than just normal teasing, as part of a show. People were offended and leaving the performances mid-act. As street performers, they were performing for tips, but by their actions they were sending people away unamused and unimpressed. On the other hand, the fire dancer was fun and looked like she was having a good time.
She performed her act and took the time to pose for photos with some of the young children that were mesmerized by her act. It was very sweet and needless to say, her tips reflected that. We all walked back to the motel from Mallory Square. We stopped along the way for some ice cream. Kim was still looking for some souvenirs for her grandkids so Cindy and she went shopping along the way while Pete and I took in the sights on Duval Street as we walked it’s length one last time.
Following in the footsteps of NOLA, it seems many a bar has been named after my husband 
We have met up with Kim and Pete in several far away places including Australia, Mexico, and New Orleans. It has kind of become a tradition and is always a good time. I am looking forward to our next adventure with them whenever and wherever that may be.
Though Kim and Pete headed back to Chicago the next morning, we still had several more days left of our stay in the Keys. We had seen enough of Key West so we spent the rest of our time exploring on Big Pine Key, and it’s neighboring keys, No Name Key and Marathon Key.
In our evening cocktail hours at the RV park, we got to know our hosts there much better. A couple of them were former sailors and were interested in having us give them all a showing of our pacific crossing video & talk. The park manager made it an event and posted a notice of the event set for Tuesday evening in the clubhouse. About 18 people showed up, which was most of the people in the park at that time, and they seemed to really enjoy our presentation. It was something different from their normal movie night.
Just by chance, Cindy had happened on a Facebook post from a woman we have never met but have known a few years as part of a facebook sailing group. Marlena and her husband Toby were in a marina on Marathon Key, which was about a half hour’s drive from where we were staying on Big Pine Key. They own a Pacific Seacraft 31, the same model as our boat but a few years older. They are the only PS31 owners that we know of that have circumnavigated the planet in their boat. They have owned it since it was new in the mid 80’s. So we sent them a text to see about getting together and we made plans to go see them the next day.
The name of their boat is Rum & Tonic and they live on her full time in Florida. They have a dock at a private home that they stay at some of the year in Naples, Florida, but other than that, they are either anchored out or in a marina. The marina we found them in on Marathon Key is a favorite of theirs and I think they visit there often. It is about a 100 mile sail from there to Naples. The marina is quite nice and when we arrived, we walked down to the dock they were on to say hello. Marlena invited us aboard and insisted we share one of their signature drinks, of course, a Rum & Tonic!
We had a great visit with them and after they gave us the full tour of their boat, we compared notes on how each of us had equipped our boats and we shared some sailing stories. Marlena is an author and was telling us of a couple of novels she wrote that are fiction but based on her experiences at sea. She told us that in 1990, during one leg of their circumnavigation, they found themselves stranded for a time in Kuwait. It was when Iraq had invaded Kuwait and all they could do was lay low until the hostilities ended. At the time they were circumnavigating, it was before GPS was available for civilian use. So they navigated as sailors did hundreds of years before them, using celestial navigation via the sun and stars. The next morning, Toby and Marlena were leaving for Naples and they invited us to visit them there on our way back north if we had the time.
We did some more exploring in our final couple of days in the Keys. A place we really enjoyed was Bahia Honda State Park on Big Pine Key. It is on the water and has RV and tent sites, trails, cabins, a day use beach and a safe, alligator free swimming area.
In Big Pine Key there is a city park there on the water with soccer & baseball fields, and playgrounds. We took a walk around it and came to a small pier with a historical marker on it. It marked the spot where the ferry from Lower Matacumbe Key landed to drop off passengers and automobiles bound for Key West. The ferry ride took four hours on top of another four hours of automobile travel from Miami to Matacumbe and then the final leg from Big Pine Key to Key West. The ferry service, which was known as “the fishing route,” opened up in 1928 and operated for ten years until a bridge was completed that finally linked Lower Matacumbe Key with Big Pine Key.
Back when we kept our boat in Sausalito, there was a bar in town we liked to visit called “No Name Bar.” As we were driving on No Name Key, I mentioned to Cindy, “hey wouldn’t it be funny if we found a No Name Bar on No Name Key?” and no sooner had I said this when we came around a corner and saw a sign that said “No Name Pub, you found it!” Of course we had to check this place out so we went on in. It is one of those bars where people have decorated it with dollar bills on the ceiling. It is estimated that currently there is $90,000 in one dollar bill decorations there. People like to decorate the bills with markers or to write their names on them and the wait staff will bring you markers and a stapler if you want to add some. The actual bar is made out of Dade County Pine and is 90 years old. Dade County Pine is very coveted as a building material in the Keys because it is highly resistant to termites, which thrive in the tropical environment of the entire area. There is a sign on the base of the bar near the top surface that marks the high water mark from hurricane Irma in 2017. The place is well out of the traffic path though it has somehow survived to this day regardless of the obscure location! We were glad we found this place and that we tried and enjoyed their signature fish spread and a couple of sandwiches.
Sometime before our arrival in the Keys, we discovered that our refrigerator had stopped working when it was set to run off of propane. One of the people in the trailer park gave us a referral to a local company, who I called and set an appointment with to take a look and make repairs. The cost of a service call was $100 just to show up and then $50 per hour. After a couple of minutes’ diagnosis, the technician said that he thought the problem was in one of the circuit boards of the refrigerator controls. He did not have the boards with him however, so he said he would return the next day to make the repair. He said it would be late in the day as he had to see his wife off at the airport in Key West that morning. Then the next day we got a call from a person, actually of another RV repair company that regularly works with our guy. He told us that our technician was stuck in Key West as there had been an accident on the one road out. Highway One was shut down with no ETA on opening. He asked if we wanted to reschedule, but I explained to him we were leaving the next day. He begrudgingly said that he could come out and do the work. When he arrived, he was clearly not in a good mood and just seemed to have a poor attitude. He started swapping out circuit boards but his process of troubleshooting was not, in my opinion, very sound.
At some point after having replaced both boards, the propane side started working but it was not directly following either of the circuit board replacements. Also, when he first arrived, he said that he only had a test circuit board for one of the replacements and then after he had replaced that board, he claimed it was a new one and denied saying what he had told us before. In the end though, it appeared to be working and he also took care of another repair to one of the mount brackets of our awning. The bill ended up being over $400, which we gladly paid to have the problem fixed.
I left the refrigerator in propane mode the rest of the night and for our travel out of the Keys the next day. We were headed for the Florida Everglades for the next few days. Unfortunately we found on our arrival in the Everglades after a several hour drive, that the refrigerator had again failed while running off propane. We could have called back the repairman had we still been in the Keys, but as we had left, we did not have that option anymore. Fortunately, the campground we were staying in had power so we did not need to rely on the propane operation. A big lesson learned on that adventure: we should have had the work done well before we left. The problem with that option was that we could not get the work scheduled any sooner as the company was booked up on their service calls. That seems to have been the same story everywhere on this entire voyage.
And next, the Everglades!