Tampa to Key West

We left the Tampa area on Wed, November 1^st and headed down I-75 and then U.S. Highway 1 to Key Largo. It was a nice drive and we were excited to see the Keys again. We stayed at the year old Keys Palms RV Resort on the north end of Key Largo. The weather was great and the sunset was beautiful.

It was heartbreaking to see all the damage from Hurricane Irma that hit on September 10^th on our drive to Key West. Most of the damage was from Islamorada to Sugarloaf Key, a 70-mile swath of the middle keys. FEMA estimated 25% of the homes in the Keys were destroyed and about 65% suffered damage. We also noticed many of the trees and greenery in the middle keys were brown.

Key Largo on the northern end of the keys and Key West on the southern end sustained very little damage, except for a few uprooted trees, a few damaged roofs, and some boats washed ashore.  

We are in Key West for November and December. We usually stay at the Navy base campground but it hasn’t re-opened to us military retirees because of minor hurricane damage. They hope to reopen by mid-December. So we’re staying at Boyd’s Campground on Stock Island, adjacent to Key West.

Steve & Julie Cornelius