New tires

A big expense, but an important one: new tires. Motorhome and truck tires don’t wear out like car tires, but instead age out. Tires can last up to ten years, but the advice is to check them starting at five years, and aim for about seven years to replace them, or sooner if there are signs of cracking.

Our 2017 coach had the original tires, made in 2016, so were about due. And when we recently had our brake seize up, raising the temperature of the tire over the danger zone of 200°F, we decided it was time.

These big tires are over a grand each, and we have six of them, so it isn’t a trivial expense, but good tires are very important for the safety of the coach.

We went to Bay Diesel in Red Bay to get this done:

Bay Diesel

While there, we also got them to look at our generator, which had misbehaved earlier, but of course was working perfectly while they looked at it:

Generator

The rear wheel without the tires:

Rear wheel

New tires:

New tires

New tires installed; they were all manufactured in late 2023, so they should be good for another 5-10 years:

New tires

We also did a test drive with a couple of techs to tweak the alignment of our Safe-T-Plus steering control system:

Test drive

Yay for new tires:

New tires

Fort Zachary Taylor Historic State Park

While checking out Key West, Florida, we also visited Fort Zachary Taylor Historic State Park.

I previously posted some pictures of the beach part of the park, but this post is about the historic fort.

A sign at the start of the path to the fort:

Sign

Cannon:

Cannon

Blacksmith:

Blacksmith

The fort:

Fort

Building

Fort

The courtyard inside the fort had a bunch of tents from re-enactors:

Tents

Fort

Re-enactors with cannons:

Re-enactors

Fort

Tents

Fort

Re-enactors

Tents

An old sail ship, flying a pirate flag and firing cannons, and the re-enactors:

Ship and re-enactors

Ship

Ship and re-enactors

Re-enactors

Another ship:

Ship

They were probably going to re-enact a sea battle, but we didn’t hang around for that.

A fun array of cannons:

Fort

Another fascinating historic fort.

Florida Keys Eco-Discovery Center

In Key West we visited the Florida Keys Eco-Discovery Center, with fascinating information about the waters around the keys:

Florida Keys Eco-Discovery Center

Key West, Florida

We did a quick visit to Key West, Florida.

Lots of golf carts on the roads:

Lots of golf carts on the roads

And tour trams:

Tour trams

And bikes:

Tour tram

Also lots of free-range chickens (mostly roosters):

Chickens

Rooster

We visited the Florida Keys Eco-Discovery Center and Fort Zachary Taylor Historic State Park, which will be featured in subsequent blog posts. But we also stopped by the beach in the state park for lunch, which I’ll include here.

This beach is one of the southernmost points in the continental US. Quite a nice and popular beach, too:

Fort Zachary Taylor Historic State Park

Direction sign on the beach:

Fort Zachary Taylor Historic State Park

We grabbed some lunch at the cafe on the beach:

Fort Zachary Taylor Historic State Park

Another rooster:

Rooster

We had considered visiting the Ernest Hemingway Home & Museum and other touristy places, but had enough of walking around, so drove by them instead.

Houses with nice Caribbean paint jobs:

House

The aforementioned Ernest Hemingway Home & Museum, with a bit of a line outside:

Ernest Hemingway Home & Museum

Why did the chickens cross the road? No, really, why?

Chickens

The famous Southernmost point buoy, which as mentioned isn’t actually southernmost, but is a popular spot for selfies, with a long line of people waiting their turn:

Southernmost point buoy

Really not our kind of town; way too crowded.

Sugarloaf Key / Key West KOA Resort

We stayed at Sugarloaf Key / Key West KOA Resort, in Sugarloaf Key, Florida. (Campground Reviews listing.)

A very nice resort, that actually lives up to the resort label. We wished we could have stayed longer.

Dates:

Check in: 2024-02-02
Check out: 2024-02-04
2 nights

Weather:

Mostly clear
High temps 70°F, lows around 65°F
Little wind, gusts to 24 MPH

Noise:

Some highway noise
No train noise
Live music from pool area on the first night

Site:

#102, back in, gravel
Needed to disconnect toad, parked in front of coach
A little unlevel, high on left; used hydraulic leveling
Gravel driveway about 50 feet long by about 10 feet wide
Shrubs between sites
Picnic table and fire pit on gravel area
Clean site

Utilities:

50 amp power, conveniently located
35 PSI water, conveniently located
Good sewer connection, very conveniently located (1 10-foot pipes needed)

Internet (in usage priority order):

T-Mobile: 52 Mbps down, 67 Mbps up, 37-437 ms ping
AT&T: 37-50 Mbps down, 0.2 Mbps up, 70 ms ping
Verizon: 25 Mbps down, 16 Mbps up, 30 ms ping
Starlink: not used
Campground Wi-Fi: not used

Amenities:

Garbage pickup from site
Pool
Pub and cafe

Our review on Campground Reviews:

Most resort-like KOA ever

This was a last-minute change as we had reservations at another place in the Keys, but needed to avoid a major storm and came down a couple of days earlier than planned. We only stayed two nights, but I wish we could’ve stayed for our entire trip in the Keys. We’ve stayed at lots of KOAs and lots of other so-called “resorts”, but this one felt the most like a true resort that we’ve ever stayed at. The pool and bar area were like something at a beachside resort in Cancun, with lush landscaping and attentive bartenders. It does get a bit loud in the evenings when they have live music, so if that’s not your scene, just be aware that you will hear it from your site.

We had a back-in along the perimeter, which we enjoyed. There is very nice landscaping between the sites, so it was relatively private. The site was just long enough for our 40′ motorhome, with our tow vehicle parked perpendicular at the front of the site. Since everyone does this, the road was a bit narrow when backing in and when we left, so make sure you have a reliable spotter.

The cost is a bit higher than we are used to, but it is what it is. It was cheaper than a less-fancy resort that was further away from Key West, so bear that in mind. We would definitely stay here again. We camped at Sugarloaf Key / Key West KOA Holiday in a Motorhome.

Campground map:

Map

An interactive map:

Our site:

Our site

Office:

Office

This KOA is different in that it has a couple of hotel buildings for non-RVers:

Hotel

Other sites:

Other sites

Dog park:

Dog park

They have nice paths in the middle of rows, so people aren’t tempted to cut through unoccupied (or occupied!) sites:

Path

Sothernmost KOA:

Sothernmost KOA

Marina:

Marina

Rentals:

Rentals

Boat ramp:

Boat ramp

Hammock:

Hammock

Pools:

Pools

Pool

Always nice when there’s food onsite. They have a poolside pub:

Pub

Menus:

We tried some beverages:

Beverage

Bar

Sandwiches and fries:

Sandwiches and fries

Second round:

Beverage

The next day, more beverages:

Beverages

And pizzas:

Pizzas

Pools

Cafe and store:

Cafe and store

Store

A path to a “beach”:

Path

Bridge:

Bridge

Mangroves:

Mangroves

“Beach”:

Beach

A nice resort. We’d be happy to stay here again.

Video

Video: Homestead to Sugarloaf Key, Florida motorhome travel timelapse

A timelapse of driving our RV, a Tiffin Allegro Bus motorhome, 122 miles from Everglades National Park in Homestead, Florida to Sugarloaf Key, Florida, including a picture-in-picture from the 360 camera on the truck being towed behind the coach.

Travel from Homestead to Sugarloaf Key, Florida

We drove our coach 122 miles, about 3 hours of driving, from Everglades National Park in Homestead, Florida to Sugarloaf Key, Florida.

This was a late change; we had planned to stay a couple of days more, but decided to leave early to avoid some bad weather.

Here’s a map showing our route, heading down the Overseas Highway in the Keys:

Route map

An interactive map:

Leaving our site:

Leaving site

We stopped at the dump station, which was rather popular at that time:

Dump station

A bird in Everglades:

Bird in Everglades

Leaving next to the entrance station:

Entrance station

Road works:

Road works

Entering route 1:

Entering route 1

Our coach in traffic cams:

Traffic cam

Overseas Highway, with an adjacent fishing bridge:

Overseas Highway

Fuel stop:

Fuel stop

Paladin sat on the dash at the fuel stop, but jumped down once underway again:

Paladin on dash

Turtle hospital:

Turtle hospital

Overseas Highway

Passing Encore Sunshine Key, where we stayed a couple of days later:

Encore Sunshine Key

Overseas Highway

Our destination:

KOA

Guided to our site (even though it was literally right around that corner):

Guided to our site

Engine compartment insulation

The insulation above the engine in our motorhome came loose. Apparently this is a fairly common issue, but not ideal:

Engine insulation

I used some aluminum tape to temporarily repair it:

Engine insulation

But while in Red Bay we got one of the after-hours vendors, Mark Tedford (662-706-0692), to properly fix it for us.

There is an access panel to the engine compartment in our rear bathroom (yes, the engine is at the back, commonly called a “diesel pusher”):

Engine compartment

He removed that to enhance its insulation:

Engine compartment

The first time I’ve seen inside that compartment on our coach, looking down on our Cummins ISL 450 diesel engine:

Engine compartment

The default engine hatch insulation:

Engine insulation

His enhanced insulation:

Engine insulation

His improved insulation from the back:

Engine insulation

Much nicer. The bathroom floor used to get quite warm after a drive, but it is now much cooler. And now we shouldn’t need to worry about it falling apart.