10/12 Bahia Honda State Park, Marathon Key, FL

I've been wanting to come here for a long time, but it is almost impossible to get reservations, even eleven months in advance.  I decided a year ago to try for October of this year, so was able to get a prime sea-view site with electric and water hookups. I got all my laundry done yesterday at Jonathan Dickinson SP and picked up groceries, so with a full gas tank, off I went!

Once you are over this bridge, you are officially in the Florida Keys.

And after about six hours of driving, here I am! 

This is my prime, waterfront site.  Nice and big, with shrubs for privacy on each side.

 

The Intercoastal Highway is in the distance. It sort of ruins the sea-view, but I am happy to have a nice view.  Most of the sites in this campground do NOT have views!  Heading south (left) gets you to Key West in about 50 miles.

You can just barely see the remains of the old bridge on the far left.  I parked as close as I could to the front of my site so I would have a better view.

This older gentleman caught my attention as he unloaded this cute little boat from the inside of his van, seen on the right.  He said he built the boat from instructions in a magazine because it would fit in the van.  He uses the dolly to haul it out and move it to the water.  He also said he actually owns two of these boats and if he leaves the dolly at home, he can fit them one on top of the other in the van.  He kindly gave me permission to take these photos.

Cute, isn't it???  I like the relatively tall sides and curved front to go over the waves.

This tiny boat floats pretty well, considering it has a not-especially-lightweight man, small cooler, and motor attached.  Glad to see he wears a lifejacket anyway.

It's been horribly hot and muggy here, but as soon as we get a cooler and maybe cloudier day, I will go for a walk on this bridge. 

This is a beach on the day-use part of the state park.  The light color is sandbars.  Where it is dark, it is slightly deeper and has a lot of seaweed.

The dunes and sea grass help protect the island against tropical storms and hurricanes.

I noticed today that some of the supports for the bridge looked funny, so I got my monocular out and then took some telephoto pictures of the supports and this man in a kayak.  It looks like the road maintenance crews have reinforced some of the pillars with "bandages."

This is a longer-distance view of a section of supports.

And a close-up. It looks as if there are metal casing filled with cement, but I wonder why they would use metal in salt water??  I will have to ask someone tomorrow.