Persistence Pays Off

In early 2023, The Colonel and I would get up in the morning, turn on his computer and my iPad, go to the Florida State Park website for Bahia Honda State Park in particular and hit the refresh button repeatedly. We wanted to rent one of the 6 cabins there. They are very much in demand and are difficult to rent. We did this for about five days before our persistence paid off. 

We accepted whatever dates we could get. The dates happened to be March 22-26 of 2024. We invited my sister Jennifer and her husband Jim to join us.

After the many months of waiting, it was time to head to Bahia Honda State Park on Big Pine Key. The Colonel and I traveled in our truck and Jennifer and Jim in theirs. We met them at a grocery store near Bahia Honda where we would load up on groceries for our stay in the cabin. There was a Key deer walking around the parking lot. Key deer are a subspecies of white-tailed deer, and they live only in the Florida Keys. They are the smallest North American deer species. The males usually weight about 55-75 pounds and females 44-64 pounds. They are endangered. 

When all the groceries were packed, we headed to Bahia Honda State Park. We pulled up to the Ranger's booth and were told to park our vehicles and come inside. There, we had to register and pay for our stay.

We stayed in cabin #5. It was very nice and clean. Linens were provided. It had two bedrooms, one full bath, a full kitchen and little living/dining area inside. There was a little porch with a bench outside on the upper deck (parking was below). There was a wooden deck with a picnic table and a grill below, along the waterside. We would see several fish every day from our deck, especially parrotfish.

One of the main reasons we wanted to stay at Bahia Honda State Park is the old bridge that is there. The bridge (parts of it) can be accessed at night by those staying in the park. It is an excellent place for star gazing. There is virtually no light pollution.  

The bridge was built in1904-1912 by Henry Flagler. It was a dream of his to build a train track from Miami to Key West after his first visit to Florida in 1878. The hurricane of 1935 damaged the tracks and killed many people. In 1938-1940, the Overseas Highway was constructed. If you drive down U.S. 1 to Key West, you will see some of the old highway and the Bahia Honda bridge.

We stargazed three nights. The full moon was making it a bit difficult to see many stars. Our luck to get rental dates during a full moon. Still, it was very beautiful up there. It surprised us that we were the only ones on the bridge each night. It was nice to have it all to ourselves.

During the daytime we walked some of the park, hit the pretty beach and drove around some of the nearby keys to see some sights and wildlife. Sunsets were beautiful at Bahia Honda.

The moon rises were beautiful too.

What an experience! We all had a great time at Bahia Honda State Park and the surrounding areas. I am so glad that The Colonel and I kept on pushing that refresh button back in 2023. Persistence does pay off indeed!

Happy New Year

 Happy New Year

2025

Ode to 2024

 Ode to 2024

Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa.

I have no one to blame but me,

That my posts of 2024 numbered only 4+3.

They were interesting that is true,

A night of the werewolf, aka Nuit de Loup-Garou.

An 18th century wedding, so very nice

And a potluck of Creole beans and rice.

A memorial to the Lincoln-Douglas debate,

Seeing Tower Rock in the middle of the Mississippi River, great.

Finally, a tiny house stay, all rain and no sun,

That could not stop us, we still had fun.

How many posts will I write in 2025, I cannot say,

Let us just take it day by day.

Trying a Tiny House on for Size

After The Colonel and I attended the 18th Century wedding in Sainte Genevieve, MO and began our return trip back home, we made a little side trip to Dover, TN. There, we stayed in a tiny house Air B&B for three days.

We have always wanted to stay in one (once we knew they were a thing). This tiny house was beautiful. It was owned by a mother/daughter team. It was situated on high ground along the Cumberland River. 

We drove along the winding, hilly road until our GPS told us our destination was on our left. We pulled up to this pretty house. You get a sense of the size of the house next to our truck parked alongside.

It stormed the whole time we were in Dover, so sadly we did not take advantage of some of the amenities the tiny house had to offer like the firepit and riverside seating. The house was cozy so that did not impact us much.

We walked up to the front porch and then opened the door. What we walked into made us almost giddy. It was beautiful and spacious for its size.

The main room flowed into the kitchen. Down the short hall, on the right was a set of bunk beds and on the left was the spacious bathroom with a huge shower (cannot believe I forgot to take a photo of it). At the end of the hall was the master bedroom. Up the ladder in the kitchen was a good-sized loft. I slept in the bedroom and The Colonel slept on the bottom bunk in the hall. We chose not to use the loft because the ceiling was a bit too low for us and our older knees did not want to crawl around on the hardwood floors. We both thought it would be a perfect place for youngsters to sleep. There was also a full-sized washer and dryer (stackable) which we took advantage of. 

The tiny house had an electric fireplace in it, and we turned it on for atmosphere more than necessity. The back porch was a very nice spot but again we did not use it as the weather was very stormy. 

We walked down to the river. It was very steep and thank goodness they had installed a rope handrail to assist us in the coming and going. The tiny house was perched on top of the hill above the river.

This is the pretty firepit we passed along the way. Too bad we could not use it during our stay.

The tiny house was very near to the Land Between the Lakes National Recreation Area and Fort Donelson.I will tell you about that in another post.

The Colonel and I enjoyed our stay in the tiny house and believed we could stay in one as a vacation home but not live in one full time. There was not enough room for an office or craft area. I suppose you could add a couple of out buildings if you chose to live tiny all the time. Being able to spend time out of doors would be beneficial too. We are glad we had the opportunity to experience living in a tiny house.

A Stop in the Land of Lincoln

The Colonel and I are history geeks as you know if you have been reading my blog for any amount of time. While we were visiting Missouri earlier this year, we crossed the Mississippi River into Illinois and checked out some of the bits of history there.

We happened to stumble across this gem...

…this rock with a plaque attached and these life-sized statues of Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas as well as a couple informational boards within a beautiful, shady park.

These items memorialized the third senatorial debate between Lincoln and Douglas which was held in Jonesboro, Illinois.

In 1858, Lincoln and Douglas participated in seven debates about the fate of slavery which were held in various cities in Illinois (a non slave state). The main issues of the debates were slavery extension into the territories of the United States. Douglas charged Lincoln stood for racial equality and Lincoln accused Douglas of being unfaithful to the intent of the framers of the Constitution by promoting states rights as a means to perpetuate slavery. Douglas argued that whites should decide for themselves whether or not to allow slavery, while Lincoln claimed slavery was immoral and should eventually be abolished. Douglas chose Jonesboro for the location of the third debate because of its southern sympathies.

This debate (as well as all of the others) lasted three hours and it was attended by less than 1500 people-the smallest crowd in the series of debates.

In the 1858 midterm election, Douglas would keep his Illinois Senate seat but Lincoln won national acclaim. He would win the U.S. Presidency two years later in 1860.

What a nice little memorial of history. You never know what you may find and learn when you travel the roads of this great country of ours.