7.23.26 Rain, Return to Civilization and Gideon Driving

After seeing the stars, I slept much better and all the way to 7:30am (odd an unusual for me)! Adam got up at 6:30 to read — too hot to sleep. We hung out in the sauna tent until about 8:30 am when we couldn't take it anymore and started breaking down the camp. But first, I make Adam go dispel any fear that the ferry isn't coming by checking the cork board. All clear! We all decided together that there was not a chance in hell any of us were changing into new clothes. The smell was there no matter what and trying to put on new clothes onto these sweaty bodies is a whole special type of torture. We planned to be packed up by 9:30, drop our stuff off at the drop point and then go back to the air conditioned shop and grab some goodies before we get back on the boat when it landed at 10:30. I told Adam and the kids I would absolutely be walking uphill against the grain of everyone offboarding and fighting to get back on board. The ferry stays at port from 10:30 until 3:00 daily and everyone can come on and use the bathrooms (a bit better than compost toilets but not too much…), sit in AC, get food/snacks and water. We had planned to go hang on the boat and then disembark to take the 11am tour of the fort, go eat lunch (jersey mike's subs) on the boat, and then read until 3:00pm when we leave. All of us felt we got the full picture of Dry Tortuga and this was a great plan.

As we were packing up, we had to walk VERY CAREFULLY because there are hermit crabs everywhere in our camping area. Courtney — you are being dramatic like usual — no way there were that many! You are wrong! There were crabs absolutely everywhere. Teeny as my pinky nail to large as a fist. They were constantly crawling and making moves on each other. Sometimes they fought each other and Gideon would break them up. They are not shy at all to humans and were crawling towards us constantly walking between our feet and onto our stuff. They LOVE trash but we had to hang ours on a stick so that they couldn't get into it (sad — I bet they would have loved granola). The best part was there was two groups of them doing the famous shell exchange where they line up and switch shells based on their sizes — it was really cool to witness. There were also a ton of anoles around. As we were pouring out the remaining water in our gallons, the anoles came dashing out to get fresh water. Gideon and I were able to feed a bunch of them water on leaves and it was a bit of a kind deed for the day. Neat to watch them come and drink off small leaf puddles.

As we continued packing up, these darker clouds start entering the scene. And slowly we started getting some small droplets of rain. Thankfully, we had mostly finished packing and we decided it was time to run to the dock to drop off our stuff before we all got soaked (wouldn't want to get fresh water on our salty, sticky, sweaty, skin!!!). We make it to the enclosed area of the dock and it starts POURING. Florida rain where you can watch the wall of rain come towards us. There is no thunder or lightning and no notice on the board that the ferry isn't coming but I'm still getting nervous. The rain passes and we leave Adam with our stuff (thank you!) and go to the air—conditioned store to buy our goodies. At each store we buy different things — Gideon is collecting national park tokens in a passbook, Abby collects posters and stickers, I collect coasters and walking stick badges and Adam doesn't purchase anything unless he needs it (wild concept). Abby and I notice that Adam's hat is getting quite…Old? Sweaty? Disgusting? So, we grab him a Dry Tortugas hat along with our other goodies and head back out to wait for the ferry with him. Then we see it — the second coming — the ferry is approaching the island!!! I sigh with relief and patiently wait for them to let the passengers off. Adam takes our stuff to the loading area because it's no longer raining and we wait. The last passenger gets off and then the rain starts again. Welcome to Virginia rain. We hide back in the covered area along with 172 other people. We laugh at the irony of not wanting to get wet from rain while wearing a bathing suit and waiting to go snorkeling, but we get it. The rain delayed any plan to get back on the ferry AND ensured our stuff got soaked waiting on the dock! What a treat!

As soon as the rain started to subside (around 11am — aka the tour time), people started braving the wetness and disbursing around the island. We never spoke of it, but all agreed we were NOT doing the 11am tour and were in fact getting on the boat. We got on a pretty empty boat, grabbed our well—earned jersey mikes subs and enjoyed air conditioning, comfortable seating and no oppressive sun or heat. We then napped and read for a bit until it was time to leave. We waved fondly at the island as we left and got ready for some epic naps and reading done. But first, Hollywood pointed out Masked Boobies on an island. He has been doing the tour gig for 20 years and has only seen them 12 times so this was impressive!

We get off the ferry around 5pm, grab our gear while Adam gets the van from the parking garage and we pack it back up and get ready for our 3 hour drive off the Florida keys. On the drive down the keys, we realized that this would be a great practice road for Gideon to drive on. Straight. One lane for the most part. Some merging. Few lights. Steady pace and etc. Only complications would be people passing him in passing zones and bridges, lots of bridges. Gideon was totally up for it, though a bit nervous. Adam drove us out of Key West and then Gideon took over for the next two hours and over 80 miles! It was a smooth drive. Calm. Great decisions made and only one time that made us a bit nervous and included a chorus of the three of us loudly saying break, break, break!. He drove us to a DQ and we got the great driver some well—deserved ice cream!

We got to the hotel around 9pm, and the front desk guy (Ian) was friendly but a bit odd. He said he couldn't check us in because Adam had made the reservation using our JOINT Marriott account. He said he needed to see Adam's license (Adam was helping the kids unpack the car). I said we've never had anyone have a problem with this before — I am his wife — and I am on the account and he just stared at me. So, I went and got the ID from Adam. Ian accepted that and then proceeded to say you have one king room and one 2 queen bed room and I said correct. And he said, who is staying in each room?. Is it me? Or is this getting weird? I said, me and my husband will stay in the king room. He then says what are the names of the others in the other room?. I just stared at him and he said in case they need to come down and get a key. I answered but was still worried this was a strange plot twist and I wasn't smart enough to figure out the ramification. I was so tired and just wanted a shower and a bed, and in that order.

He gives us the keys and we are floors away from each other. Typically they put us right next to each other or on the same floor. I make a comment about being far away from each other and Ian says Yeah, we didn't have the room to keep you near each other. Okay? Against my better judgement, we went with it. The kids retreated to floor 3 and Adam and I headed to our room on the first floor.

I showered and watched the dirt wash off me and down the drain. It was joy to the maximum. I got in a cozy bed with the AC blasting and slept like a rock. Though I did miss the sound of hermit crabs rustling around…

Good Deed for the Day: Feeding anoles H20

Ended the Day: Townplace Suites in Homestead FL

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