City mouse, country mouse

Thurs. and Fri. March 8 and 9, 2012 ROCKLEDGE, FL – Our location is considerably more northerly than our last entry, as we sit at the threshold of the Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral in the Space Coast RV Park. It’s a lovely spot with mostly permanent residents, now emptying as snowbirds start heading for home. We didn’t even have to make a reservation to stay here, despite the fact that it’s March Break. Yesterday we said farewell to the Keys, where life is easy and laid back, and everyone is a beach bum, content to sip from a coconut under a palm tree and watch the pelicans dive bomb for fish. The contrast was notable when we turned toward the east coast and followed Highway 1 through the long chain of towns and cities south and north of Miami proper. Several times as we traveled along, cars zipped into the lane in front of us with no warning, and more than once we heard a sharp car horn snapping at some driver who failed to instantly respond to the green light the moment it came on. Instead of tiki huts and lazy beaches, we passed endless malls and then the high-rises of Miami. It wasn’t until we neared our stopping point for the night, the Johnathan Dickinson State Park, that the landscape became a little more spread out and rural in appearance. The park was the first we’ve stayed at in Florida, and it’s named after a Quaker whose boat was shipwrecked near Hobe Sound, where the park is located. We passed a large expanse of park land that had clearly suffered a fire at some point in the past. Palm trees had blackened trunks and their green fronds were singed and dead at the tips. A lot of ground vegetation was also burned, but was showing signs of re-greening. The park ranger said this was the result of a controlled burn that they carry out every few years. Apparently it’s an eco-system that depends on periodic fires, so the rangers oblige under carefully monitored conditions. To us, it just looked like we were camping in a scorched earth zone. But we did enjoy the natural surroundings, and the facilities were fine. There was no danger of fire during our stay. Showers doused us as we set up and throughout the night. I felt sorry for the young couple in the next site, who set up a tent, fresh out of its cardboard box, and endured a night of drenching rain! We were on our way again this morning, continuing to follow Highway 1 in spite of the GPS voice that tried to guide us to the Interstate 95 at every possibility. We wanted to see the coast on our way north! But actually, almost the whole way, we were set back from the Atlantic shore proper, because a long string of islands lies parallel to the coast line like a buffer between the mainland and the ocean. It provides a lot of wonderful spots for fishers and sailors, protected from the brunt of weather that may come from that direction. Several times on today’s journey the skies opened and poured down on us. Any vestige of salt that our pounding in the Keys may have left on the RV was certainly washed away today! While we don’t have internet connections at our site, there is a special room here that’s open around the clock, so we’ll be able to post this and review our e-mail.