Life is more than good at Bahia Honda..... for the mosquitoes. We just completed our emergency evacuation. This chair is in our "back yard" breeding ground at the Volunteers' RV parking. The camper in #20 emailed me today (Oct 28th) about their emergency evacuation, after vicious mosquito attacks. And we were informed of at least one other camper who had to get medical attention for their bites. Hurricane Rina is now a tropical storm, which chose The Keys as its dumping grounds for the moisture it's been scooping up in The Gulf. At first a lake rising around us was rather a novelty. Our neighbor, John, just got out his kayak to mock the flood. But then the police boat SANK, Buttonwood Campground vanished under water, and our RV sank ever deeper in the sodden mess.
The brown waters of the campground made islands of the restrooms. The campers were very brave. Here's Volunteer Andrew strolling in our front yard. And the last pictures are of park rangers saving the police boat.
So...what does one do? There are better things to do with a life than offer your body as mosquito bait and live trapped in an RV to escape the bugs, mud and weather. Let's go on an adventure! We really are in Florida, and our youngest son and his darling family are in Orlando. Where should we flee? (2B continued....)
Treasure hunting!... not exactly panning for gold. But the sun came out! Now it's time to clean up our beaches from all that the storm left behind. Plastic of all sorts is the main trash item amongst the tonnage of sea grasses and coral that were uprooted by the churning waters. But thanks to Bob's metal detector, there were coins for the collecting, too. (You can order your own detector at good-deal prices from the Amazon.com link to the top-right!) Beach-goers wanted to have some detector fun, too. We offered to let them try it out, but they said they had to have their own. Especially fascinating was how many dimes were in the sand offshore. We're not sure why.
We survived the deluge and our campers are on the beach and doing what they came here to do.
Hurray! In the photo on the left, the birds have even joined in. Ahhhh....the Florida Keys at their best.
Bob had been trying his best to get me to take up the fine art of snorkeling. He'd say, "You have to see the coral beds..." Well, sadly, today quite a bit of coral washed up from the storm and is bleaching in the sun. I picked some pieces out of the smelly sea weed piles and made my own coral viewing area...and I didn't even have to deal with a mask filling up with water to view it. >> sputter<< >>sputter<< Below are my films of an "undersea adventure" on Loggerhead Beach, Bahia Honda.
October 17, 2011, brings another 24 hours of rain. Our RV is sinking in the quick sand, as Bob inspects our neighbor's new half-acre lake. We've got our rocking camp chairs set up under the Gumbo Limbo Trees, but there's no using them today. We've been watching NOAA radar images for days. Bahia Honda Key has been lit up in dark orange bands... Scary enough to stay home from church and skip the 7-mile bridge ride in a cross wind! The storm is just getting some real muscle when Bob says to grab our $1,200 Sony HDR-DX550 camera and wade out to take some footage. I don't know.... It's mighty wet out there.... Handycams don't like soakings.
We came "naked" into the Keys. We went crazy trying to find scuba gear and even simple things like a pink "noodle" so I could float about the aqua-blue tropical waters. I really needed an HDMI cable. We couldn't get TV reception. Three months was too long for Bob to go with his news shows. But if we had a cable, we could watch things off of the computer on the HD big-screen TV. Isn't it silly sometimes what we think we must have?
But some camp hosts lack even the necessities....like the couple who landed in Southern Utah and found they were without an electric hookup. It's tough to get comfortable when the temperatures are pushing 100 and you have no A/C. It was also tough to locate a battery-operated fan and an outdoor extension cord and small portable refrigerator when the nearest store of any kind was over 30 miles away.
I found the solution. Just order what you need from amazon.com and have it delivered. Start here:
Your only worry is getting your delivery address correct. Have fun!
Required Disclaimer: Please don't repeat this stunt. Jeff says, "If it wasn't dangerous it wouldn't be cool." The key word here is DANGEROUS! A Ranger pointed out to Jeff and Stan, "Surviving this was an act of God.. .. on occasion our biggest job is simply protecting the public from themselves..."
Some of the deepest channels in the Keys are near Bahia Honda, so our jumpers may have been shark bait. Personally, I'd worry more about jumping onto some rebar from Flagler's failing bridge
Bahia Honda State Park is such a wondrous place...from our "achingly beautiful" beaches to our camp sites cut out of the jungle. Come visit us and go on an iguana hunt!
go to http://youtu.be/PvNuxTM19Dk to see the above Cuban Refugee Boat video on YouTube
(if you can't get this to play on this page....)
Every Friday the volunteers have a happy hour at John and Thel's site...I think it's at their spot because they are veteran volunteers and kindly shepherd us "new kids" when we need it. This Friday one of the park rangers started telling the story of an unsinkable refugee ship that was paddled ashore not long ago on Bahia Honda State Park. It was not unbelievable that they made it safely here from Cuba, as their "ship" did not even sink when it was shot through with a bullet or two. It's "secret for success" was masses of styrofoam encased in sturdy gunny sacks, reinforced with steel reebar. No, the amazing part of the story was that every Cuban who puts a foot on dry ground is awarded $10,000 (kids, too) and given every assistance to set up a new life in Florida. If they didn't get all of the way up on the beach, they were taken back to Cuba, where they would be put in Cuban prisons. But then the stories really started flowing. There was the refugee who collected for his entire family, used $5,000 of the cash award for a down payment on a new boat, which he promptly used to haul 28 more Cuban refugees back to Florida, charging them $5,000 cash per person! I thought if any of this could be true, I should have heard something about it before.
I checked out Catholic Charities of Central Florida to confirm the "wet foot/dry foot" stories we'd heard. Another ranger said the Cubans were so anxious to be quickly picked up by authorities that once they came on shore at this park, they'd go right to the concession stand and wait for someone to "turn them in". What? Why would that be? John, our host, told us that one night he heard a large group of refugees coming ashore right behind his trailer...cheering, because they had stepped on dry ground. Another day John saw one in an inflatable boat, lined with spray-in foam, unable to land and he threw him a rope. Was this refugee guaranteed a $10,000 grant and full services? ...or were these just happy-hour-stories?
Here's what I found out: "Once a person or family is enrolled they receive the following services:
community orientation services
financial assistance
employment assistance
referrals to local agencies for additional services
Eligibility for services is limited to those individuals with Refugee, Asylee, Cuban/Haitian entrant or Amerasian status. Program enrollment must occur within 30-days of arrival or in the case of asylees, within 30-days from the date asylum was approved." [So that would explain why the rush to be apprhended.] But I couldn't find specified cash award amounts.
Wouldn't it be cool 2B Cuban? Viva los Cubanos!
In one sense it almost seems like a bribe for Cubans to risk their lives to reach our shores. But isn't the aim to relieve suffering and oppression? I admit I have a bias here. My own grandparents were immigrant "refugees"... wanting religious freedom. They certainly struggled. I wonder how different life would have been for them if they'd received assistance.
There are 3 camping areas. We've only been trained in this section so far (with the RVs in Buttonwood Campground)... as of Oct 8, 2011. In the very center of this picture is the camper marina where Bob has been doing his fishing. It's wildly alive with fish. Don't try to count them. Hundreds of hosts apply for Bahia Honda SP...and keep trying for years. You are supposed to have a minimum of 500 volunteer hours to even apply. We came with zero. We just happened to submit an online application at the exact time another set of hosts had to decline their "place in the sun". We work 3 days on and 4 days off. We've explored the other keys this week and are well satisfied we landed in the best one!
I know if you are a human-fish or paddler, island lifemust be paradise. But I am a "Shore Bird". This key is seriously the stage for the most enticing and exotic post cards ever made...but to a non-swimmer with a sinus infection and feet that must stay warm... "what the?!!@!!" Nevertheless, we pulled into our assigned spot the evening of October 4, 2011, with the wonder of Florida enveloping us. There's a nurturing feel to the warm, moist air...and who can resist a flamingo pink sunset with silouettes of darkened palms along a shore... complete with the sound of gently lapping waves. What does one do?....why hurry and cruise the whole park on bikes to see where everything on the map might be and what we will shortly be tending.
There's 80 glorious campsites and 8 big cabins on stilts. Four overly "delicious" beaches have pavilions, outdoor showers (known to have nude bathers we need to ask to cover up) and lovely tiled change houses. There's even a Nature Center and butterfly garden! Click-4-pictures!
The brown waters of the campground made islands of the restrooms. The campers were very brave. Here's Volunteer Andrew strolling in our front yard. And the last pictures are of park rangers saving the police boat. 
So...what does one do? There are better things to do with a life than offer your body as mosquito bait and live trapped in an RV to escape the bugs, mud and weather. Let's go on an adventure! We really are in Florida, and our youngest son and his darling family are in Orlando. Where should we flee? (2B continued....)
