Cedar Key, Week 2

Wow, the time is flying by here in Cedar Key. We’ve been here 12 nights now, and so many awesome memories already made.

This week we’ve enjoyed many walks into town, which is about 1.5 mile from our campground. Sometimes we are joined by our nomadic friends for a spontaneous lunch and errand run. Sometimes it’s a romantic walk on our own. And sometimes we don’t know which it’ll be until we’ve left – things tend to happen rather randomly around here.

Some evenings our group has pre-planned evenings, such as a Chili Movie Night this week. Each nomadic household was requested to make up a pot of their best chili – we had vegan, vegetarian and meat entries. And I don’t recall a single complaint.

Afterwards, Bill and Debby set up their projector with a white sheet attached to Sam & Tracy’s rig – and we all enjoyed an outdoor showing. (We watched Looper.)

Other nights, someone rather last minute invites everyone over for a campfire or happy hour on our group’s Facebook group (which is a fabulous way to un-organize a meetup like this.). Earlier this week it was our turn. Thanks to Clarke & Elaine setting up their awesome wash-tub fire pit at our place which has a better water view and socializing area, we’re able to host well into the chilly evening.

We’re not normally campfire folks, but when you have a crowd of friends – well, that changes things.

And of course sunset time in Cedar Key is time of quiet observation, a tasty beverage and friends as nature regals us with all her beauty. Every moment the sky changes a different color. And every evening is a different experience.

Project Time!

Aside from lots of community socializing, lots of productive work time… it’s also been project week around these parts.

We’ve helped our friends Pace & Kyeli track down some propane and water leaks in their new-to-them 5th Wheel.  RV problems suck, but they’re so much better when they happen amongst a wealth of knowledge, experience and helping hands. We’ve certainly been on the receiving end of such generosity many times ourselves, so it’s great to be able to give back.

And we’ve started our own project of installing new LED strip lights. With much thanks to Clarke, who just did his own LED install, is loaning us some left over parts and expertise.

We have a goal of having major parts of the LED project done by Tuesday when both our parents arrive to spend a couple days with us in Cedar Key. Chris’ folks were so generous to gift us the supplies, and they’re anxious to see it installed!  We’ll – eventually – do a full post on our install and impressions of the new lighting.

The Eagle has Landed!

One of the… benefits(?).. of being parked amongst so many fellow active techy nomadic RVers, is it’s a constant stream of new ideas. Each of us has found solutions, and if you leave a meetup like this without spending or allocating a few hundred dollars – well, you must already be pretty well outfitted!

In the past week we’ve added – wash-tub fire pit and projector to our wish list.

And now… we also have a kayak!

Ever since we hit the road back 2007, we’ve had ‘inflatable kayak’ on our list of desired acquirements. I used to have an Ocean Kayak when I lived in Florida, and have really missed it when we’re parked in locations like this. We hadn’t gotten around to really researching the options yet (it’s only been 6 years afterall), but knew there were cheap ones that aren’t great, and very expensive ones that are pretty darn good.

Soon after we arrived, Clarke & Elaine had shipped in a Sea Eagle 330 kayak after reading many recommendations on it from fellow blogging RVers. When we found out the price, we got really intrigued – at around $300 complete, it seemed like a great middle ground of price vs. quality. And heck, they had already done the research for us.

They came back with smiles after their maiden voyage, only citing the size possibly a tad on the small side. Since they’re smaller framed than us, we knew we’d want the larger size.

We meant to take it out for a test row ourselves, but got tired of waving to all our friends coming and going from the launch at our site when the weather, tides & timing align. So instead of continuing to miss out on the fun, we clicked the ‘Buy’ button on Wednesday night on the slightly larger Sea Eagle 370 model for $349.99, and had Amazon deliver it yesterday (we just love Amazon Prime – $4 for overnight shipping of a KAYAK!!!). That’s peer pressure for ya.

It arrived too late in the day to get it on the water before the tides fell. But we did get it put together. The toughest part was attaching the inflation rings, but once that was done, it just took a few foot pumps and she’s ready to go!  We were anxiously awaiting high tide this afternoon to go out for our very own maiden voyage (or as the original technomad, Steve Roberts, suggested – a TRACK – Technomadic Rambling Around Cedar Key) – but couldn’t resist.  We took her out at  midnight last night, during perfect conditions, very fitting for these night owl technomads.

So that about wraps up this week in Cedar Key. We hope you’re having a great week too!

I’ll leave you one more sunset shot…

Yeah. Cedar Key doesn’t suck.