WV - May 14 Arrival till Present

      Leaving Key West was harder than I expected it to be!  I had a really good time down there.  My send-away party was awesome and I even got Iced!  For those of you who do not know what this is, come by the cabin and I will be happy to show you!! LoL  I really appreciate the friends and times we all had!  Thank you all again!!

      On April 2nd I left Key West and headed to my parent's house in South Carolina.  I spent about 10 days there doing home improvement projects and just enjoying being back around family.  I missed them and Christmas!  We started their garden and worked on the garage solar panels.  I also got to slip away to the mountains and do some paddling with my old crew!  It was a great turn out both days!  Got to run a creek and paddle the Green!

 This is a shot from near Greenville, SC!

      My visit to SC was cut a week short, due to me being need up here to start helping in the shop and on the campground.  I got up here in April 23rd and started getting things together.  I picked out my home for the summer.

     The Gear shop work is pretty nice.  I work part-time in here on Tuesdays and Sundays.  It gets me a solid 20hrs a week and I will start guiding trips on a set schedule right around Memorial Day.  For now, the Shop and campground maintenence has been keeping me pretty busy.  I like it.  It is good work. 

     Fun, is the reason I moved up here.  I have been taking full advantage of my surroundings!  I have been paddling about ten times, played disc golf for the first time, I went hiking, and checked out the local park.  This town has something for everyone.  It really is the Coolest Small Town in America!  I have been very blessed to be able to live so freely.  I really never thought it would happen!  Enjoy the snapshots from my hike!

 

 

 

 

 ~RF

KW - March 13 Cooks Island

On my days off this week, I tried to get some friends to go out to Cooks Island.  A plan was formulated for Wednesday to head out and party for a few days.  In regular Key West fashion, on Tuesday evening everyone backed out.  I decided to spend Wednesday hanging with Tim here in town and head to the island on Thursday.  I got my Friday shift covered at the bar and so I decided to spend Thurs-Sat out by myself on island.  Do some reflecting on life and just enjoy the sea.

Peter was kind enough to offer me the use of his boat and the cabin on Cooks.  I would be dumb not to take advantage of this opportunity when my schedule permits.  So I made the call and it was definitely the right one!  

The last time I was out there, Peter said there were key deer on the island.  I laughed and thought he was crazy.  I looked for signs of them but never saw a track or anything to indicate he was correct.  This trip by myself was a different story.  I don't have any photo proof but there are three key deer that live on the island!  They came out after sunset each night and would eat the grass and palm fronds next to me and my fire.  They were quite the entertainment each night.  

Here are the pictures from the weekend! 

 

This is the toilet room.  It has to be above flood level to pass code!

 

Sunrise the last day on island!

~RF 

KW - March 9 Day of Fun

This Saturday I woke up to an absolutely gorgeous day!  Crystal clear skies, temps in the mid 70's, and a slight breeze that just begged me to be outside.  I made some coffee and sat on porch reading a Hemmingway novel, when a thought occured to me.  My friend Josh had mentioned sailing today, earlier in the week.  I sent him a text to see what his plans were and sure enough her was still looking to sail in the afternoon.  This was beginning to look very promising!  I was planning to meet Brad at Vito's for lunch and to hangout with Rich, the bartender, so I threw an invite to Josh and we all planned to just meet there.  Here are some pics of Rich and Brad at Vito's outdoor bar!  It is really chill spot and they have the best pizza on Key West!! 

 

 

Josh met up with us a little after 1pm.  On my way to Vito's I ran into Erin and Tim.  I invited both of them to lunch and to go sailing.  Tim was working but Erin was very excited about sailing.  After finishing up lunch with the guys we headed for the dinghy docks and I called Erin to arrange a meeting location.  We all loaded up into Josh's 9' dinghy and headed out of the marina.  He moors his boat about a mile out of the marina.  Here are some shots of us leaving the marina and headed out to the boat! 

 

Erin

 

B-rad

The following shots are from inside the boat as we all got the tour and met Josh's cat! 

 

Sails up and away we go!

 

Captain Josh

 

Chilling on the deck!!

 

Sails up, great wind, and clear skies!  Told you it was a beautiful day!

 

Sunset Key

 

The Jolly Rover

 

Erin had this expression the entire day!

 

I commandeered the vessel for a little while!!

 

Boat leaned way over!!  Great wind!!

 

Brad was all smiles, but hung on for dear life most of the trip!! LoL

 

And the sails are back tied and we were back on the mooring!!  I could have stayed out forever!!  So peaceful quiet!  I can not wait to go and do this again!!  Thanks again Josh, for the awesome trip!

~RF