- We are back in Key West
for a month this winter, and we're doing things that
we have never done before. - Like this stuff right here. Where the heck are we? - Like kayaking. - Like kayaking! - Well, we've kayaked before,
but just not in the Keys. - Yeah. - Well, actually we kayaked
the Keys, but not in Key West. - First kayaking in Key West. Right off of our back deck. - [Tara] Oh yes. That's definitely a first. (upbeat music) ♪ No matter what you and I do ♪ ♪ Whatever comes next, I'll
be right there beside you ♪ ♪ This is right where I want to be ♪ ♪ I'll be right there beside you ♪ ♪ I know right where I want to be ♪ ♪ I'll be right there beside you ♪ ♪ I feel right I feel right I feel right ♪ - We're trying to get out of the cold. It's not working very well. - Everything's good to go, but
Lucille must be angry at us. She's been out here in the cold. Covered off course. Went to start this morning, and being that it's like
20 something degrees, she didn't like it and
then something popped. I don't know what that pop was, but I'm gonna have to get stuff, take it apart to find the problem. Don't have time for that now. Luckily we are on a downhill right here, so I'm going to put the RV right here and then just coast it in. - I, I'm not fan of this idea. - It's really our only option other than getting help pushing. - [Tara] You want the back
of the RV to be about here. - Yeah, I'm thinking maybe more because it's a little crooked there, probably right about where this tree is. - [Tara] Okay. Yikes. So I'm standing right
here where the tree is. Okay, stop. I was like backing up, not paying attention. I could have fallen down that. - [Chad] Yeah, I'm gonna go
down just a little bit further. - [Tara] Not too much more. Maybe a foot or two. It's good. Stop. But I don't know how you're
going to get up enough momentum to get up into the garage. No pun intended. Baby, this is kind of scary. I don't like it. - I'm thinking it's
going to be kind of fun. It's kind of Evel Knievel. - [Tara] Oh yeah. It's still sloped up, love. - This is just a touch,
but this is down though. All I gotta do is get over this hump. Easy.Easy peasey
- [Tara] Easy. Easy 900 pound motorcycle. Easy, he says. I'm not a fan of this idea,
but I have faith in him. ♪ No matter what you and I do ♪ ♪ Whatever comes next I'll
be right there beside you ♪ - [Tara] Want me to push? Want me to push? Here. Wow. Look at you! - Boom. (Tara laughing) - [Tara] You are my hero. - I had that timed just right. - [Tara] I never doubted you for a minute. I was just, I wasn't sure about physics. (Chad laughing) But you were. - You know me and physics. - [Tara] I know you in physics. Good job, babe. Proud of you. Did you see how easy he made that look? I mean. - I almost didn't have enough steam to get all the way up.
- I almost dropped the GoPro and tried to help. I don't know what, I think even just a little extra push from even a weakling like me
might've helped, but. - Yeah. Luckily I was able to give it just enough human horsepower. - Yeah. Good thing you
didn't like pull something while you're trying, you know. We have about a thousand
miles to go from Franklin, North Carolina to Key West, so we're going to spread that
out over about four days. - Yeah. Some of you crazy
people might do that in like one or two,
but that's just not us. We don't,
- That's not us. - we don't drive at night. - Plus we wanted to make
a pit stop in Bradenton, Florida to see Chad's daughters. - But our first stop was at
I75 RV Park right off I75 in South Georgia. We've stayed there a few
times now on our treks back and forth between
Florida and North Carolina - [GPS] Arriving at I75
RV Park on the left. ♪ Back to you ♪ ♪ Back to you ♪ ♪ Back to you you you ♪ (upbeat music) - The next day we drove from I75 RV Park to Timberlane RV Park and
Resort in Bradenton, Florida. - [Chad] That's one of the
first places we ever stayed, so we were pretty familiar with that park. It's also very close to
where my daughters live. (car dinging) - [GPS] Arriving at
Timberlane on the right. ♪ I swear we belong ♪ ♪ I'm still hanging on ♪ ♪ But something brings me back to you ♪ ♪ Back to you ♪ ♪ Back to you ♪ ♪ Back to you ♪ - [Chad] After a couple of nights there, we headed on South, stopping
at another familiar location, Everglades RV park. - [GPS] Arriving at Miami
Everglades RV Resort on the left. (upbeat music) - Can you hear me? - [Chad] Roger roger. That it right there? (upbeat music) - Our poor neighbors are like, if we were hooking up sewer for the day, our sewer would be right in their patio. Look at this. Check. See? It was a little bit tricky
getting out of that site, - Yeah. A little tight.
- but he handled it. No problem. And then we were on our way to Key West. Instead of pulling forward because there's a lot
of potential obstacles, Chad's going to back this
thing up and out that way. So we're going to give it a go. - Yeah. And a lot of times it's not
about making the turn here. It's about being able to come
out far enough over here. And I think I could do
that and get over there, but it's a little bit iffy. So we're going to go that way. - [Tara] Yeah I think it's easier so. - [Chad] Yeah, it is. - [Tara] Okay. - [Chad] My back tire's
already cleared, right? - [Tara] Yes. Back tire cleared it. I don't know how he does such a good job. - [Chad] Good. You're just going to watch the trailer swing. I'm pulling forward. - [Tara] I'm watching. Day four. The best day, though. - Yeah. - 'Cause the final
destination is Key West. Daisy is pumped. Can you tell? (Chad laughing) ♪ Anywhere we'll get there soon ♪ ♪ We'll get there soon ♪ - [Tara] It's always
exciting getting onto US1 and driving over the water. - [Chad] Yeah. This section of the drive is obviously the best. Once you get onto the Keys,
that's just a beautiful drive. There's just gorgeous things
to see in all directions. ♪ We'll get there soon ♪ ♪ Two light up ahead ♪ ♪ I heard somewhere all the
stars are already there ♪ - Happy place. Happy place. And we were heading down
to Boyd's Campground, which is one of our favorites. We hadn't been there since
2019 for your birthday. - [Chad] Yeah, my 50th birthday. - [Tara] It is expensive. - [Chad] Super expensive. - [Tara] Very expensive, so
it was our Christmas present to each other to stay there for two weeks. Their prices do fluctuate. We're going to get into
talking about this campground in just a little bit. ♪ Anywhere we'll get there soon ♪ ♪ We'll get there soon ♪ ♪ We could be anyplace ♪ ♪ We'll get there soon ♪ ♪ We'll get there soon ♪ ♪ We'll get there soon ♪ ♪ We'll get there soon ♪ ♪ We could go anywhere ♪ - We have made it to our favorite site. Boom. Water. Sorry. Water. - There was a little
food truck here this time - Yeah.
- that we saw when we pulled in, so we just want to see
what that's all about. 'Cause I know I don't
want to cook anything. - [Chad] Nope. (upbeat music) - Something really exciting
happened the next day. - So we're about to
take our very first trip on our new Oru. - Bu Oru, he means that's
the name of the kayak that we're trying out. - [Chad] We finally got our new kayak out. - [Tara] This is the first time, and we've had this kayak
for a little while now, and we've been in too cold of
weather to be able to us it. - [Chad] Yeah. All I did was take it apart and put it back together and take it apart and put it back together for practice. But you're going to see
it's a foldable kayak, which is really super cool. - Social distancing at its finest. - [Chad] We wanted to share this with you, but there's a gen two
coming out of the Oru, which is the tandem kayak. So we're going to wait and
do a full video on that and kind of review the differences. Honestly, I don't know what they changed because gen one is freaking awesome. - [Tara] We have the
ORU Haven tandem kayak. It's 15 feet long. We bought it ourselves because we really just wanted this kayak. And we got a refurbished one, so that saved us a few
hundred bucks I believe. - Yeah, a couple hundred. - [Tara] We love it, so we're excited to
eventually get the gen two, like you said. We were so excited to try out this kayak, we forgot to grab our life jackets. Luckily, we can stand in this water. - It's only, It's only that deep. - [Tara] I was like, yeah,
these new life jackets don't, they, they don't feel like
wearing life jackets at all. - Awesome. - [Tara] So big faux pax. We're turning around, so don't worry. We're going back. So we went back. - [Chad] Went back and got them. - [Tara] You never know when
you're in that kind of water, when it's just going to
drop off and be deep, so it was the smart
thing to do to go back. And then once we got back in the kayak, we thought let's head towards Boca Chica which is the Navy base. - We're legal. - Safety, safety first. These things are pretty
cool, super lightweight. These are worth it
because they're not bulky. They don't have this thick back pad thing. - [Chad] They're inflatable,
in case you can't tell. - [Tara] Yeah. If we get
submerged, they inflate, or we can inflate them ourselves. So nice and light. Like it. ♪ It brings me back to you ♪ - [Tara] There's US1. We didn't make it all the way there. - [Chad] No. We got to the bridge part. I wanted to get there just to
see how bad the current was. But by then we were getting tired and just decided to head back. - I'm getting hangry. I felt super secure in that kayak, which you guys know that
I'll be the first to tell you if I feel scared about anything. You know that. - There's no bears in the water. - There's no bears in the water. ♪ Baby they can't ever say ♪ ♪ That we lost our way. ♪ - [Chad] Speaking of Boca Chica, that's actually part of the Naval base, and that's where I used to work. That's how I actually went to the Keys the first time back in the eighties. - There are a lot of jets that
come out of that Naval base. (jet engine roaring) - Oh yeah. - So that is something to know when you are booking your
vacation at Boyd's Campground is that you are going to get overhead traffic noise from
the jets from the Naval base. (jet engine roaring) The airport is right there
as well for Key West. - Yeah. - I kinda liked the jets going overhead. I think it's kinda cool. - [Chad] Because you're
going to get air traffic either from the airport or the air base. One of those too. - Right. - Obviously the air based
air traffic is much cooler. - Yeah. And louder and much louder too. - Yeah. (jet engine roaring) You can hear Reveille in the morning. - You know that you can hear that. You can hear the National Anthem. So it's was kind of cool. It gives me a little bit
of goosebumps sometimes. So I like that part about Key West. - I was tempted to stand
and salute the flag wherever it was on the air station. Our next trip out was
on the e-bikes again, this time doing a recon trip to look for kayak launch sites around Key West. - 'Cause all we did was ride
our e-bikes or go on the kayak. - Pretty much. But when you're in Key
West, why not? Right? - Right. And we wanted
to find a different area to launch the kayak because we didn't want to just keep going around the waters near Boyd's,
but we wanted to explore. Our first recon stop was
at Hurricane Hole Marina, which is right there
where US1 and Roosevelt kind of split off. And they do have a
kayak launch site there. They also do tours and
things like that too, through the mangroves. And the next stop that we went
to was in town on 11th street and it was called the
11th street boat ramp. - [Chad] Yeah. That looked
like a promising location to maybe go kayaking in the
future through neighborhoods. - [Tara] I think I like
this idea of going through the houses and stuff. I'm not gonna like this. See, I just, I doubted
myself was all it was. I didn't think I could do it, so I didn't. - [Chad] Our next stop
was up to the north side of the island to Simonton Beach to see if we could put in there
'cause we wanted to try to kayak around Mallory Square at sunset. - [Tara] During the sunset. Yeah. We wanted to watch
Mallory Square from the water. If you're unfamiliar with Key West, Mallory Square is a very popular
place where people gather at night to watch sunset
and there are performers and vendors and things. - [Chad] A really good time. - [Tara] So we had to go through a lot of Old Town Key West to get
to the Simonton Beach area. And right there, it was a kind
of a little neat beach area with a place called Loggerheads, which is a little beach bar. - [Chad] Like a cool little each bar we've never been to before. - [Tara] Right. And we thought, well, this could be another cool place to launch that kayak at another time. - Well, we found a good spot here to get some drinks, to kayak in. This is
- [Tara] And I'm being a party pooper. - Because you know, we
might hit some traffic. - I was Debbie Downer and didn't want to, only because it was Friday night, and people were starting to drink, and I didn't want to stay there, and then ride our bikes
back through Key West. On a Friday night, there
is a lot of traffic getting off of the island, so I vetoed it. - Vetoed the drinks, went
home and made drinks instead. - We went home and made
painkillers instead. - That's right. - If you guys are
interested in how we make those painkiller drinks that we talk about every time we're in Key West, - Oh yeah. - I'll put the recipe in our blog post and also in the newsletter
that goes out with this video. - It's a sweet drink. - Very, very sweet, lots of sugar. I only had a small one. We kept riding, and we rode
through the Truman Annex and we got to Fort
Zachary Taylor State Park. We weren't going to go in and check out the park this evening. We just wanted to talk to
the ranger and find out what the deal was about
kayaking from that park. So we just pulled into the gate, asked a couple of questions, found out that you have
to fill out some forms if you do want to kayak from there. And we decided we would come back in the next couple of days and bring our kayak and check it out. - [Chad] Yeah. Those forms are mainly so they can come find your body if you don't come back. - [Tara] That's right. (upbeat music) Oopsie. I must've not had it in
all the way or something. - [Chad] Then we just
took the long way home, but the long way home was
down around the south side along Smathers Beach. - [Tara] And Higgs' Beach. - [Chad] Yeah and Higg's Beach. So that's always a beautiful ride. We had a super headwind, so we were really happy
to have the e-bikes. - Very, very strong winds
that we were fighting against. And I think it ate up
most of your battery. - Yeah my battery was toast. - And it actually ate up
my battery was down to 50%, which it never gets that low, but I was using the throttle a lot. - A lot. It was like, but you're tired by then. You're just throttling a lot. - Yeah. - [Chad] But as we got around the corner right off the runway for the airport, there was a lot of people gathering and there were police and people pointing. Turns out the sea plane- - [Tara] The sea plane we
took out to the Dry Tortugas a couple of years ago. - [Chad] It had an engine failure, and then I would say crash landed, but that's not really- - [Tara] It's a sea plane. It landed. - [Chad] It landed in the water. - [Tara] And how fortunate
that it was a sea plane because it just landed in the
water like it's built to do. Two years ago for his birthday, I bought us a trip out on the sea plane, out to Port Jefferson in the Dry Tortugas, and that was such a fabulous trip. We absolutely loved it. - [Chad] That was a blast. We'll link that below. If you haven't seen that,
its' a really neat place. - [Tara] We highly recommend doing that. And there's a ferry that can
take you out there as well, or you can take your own boat
out there and camp out there if you want to. We really loved that. That's definitely one of the top five most memorable experiences we've had. - [Chad] Definitely. - Alright. We're trying
something new today. And what we're going
to do is we're going to try to do a campground
review in 60 seconds. Might be 90. - Go. Super expensive. - [Tara] Most expensive ever. - [Chad] Yeah. 170 bucks
a night in the winter. Might be cheaper during the summer. We don't know. Look on their website. No online booking. Call only. You can book a year in advance, and you need to book a year in advanced. All the sites here are full hookup. Of course, six out the 10 sites. So you have water, sewer,
electric, full 50 amp. - [Tara] Water pressure is great, and the water quality here
seems to be very good. - [Chad] Yeah, I got 50
PSI, and it has good flow. Also, they do have cable TV hookups. We don't know how good it
is because we don't use it. The sites are just big enough. - [Tara] We would have more
room and probably more options of sites to choose from if we
chose to keep our patio up. - Also, you do have to keep all your toys and trucks and everything
on the site here, and we just barely fit. - [Tara] Yeah. No extra
parking within this campground, so everything has to
fit on your site only. - [Chad] Park aesthetics. - Beautiful. I mean, hello. - Yeah. And they've recently
redone a lot of the sites, particularly the one we're on, from sand to gravel, which is really nice. - [Tara] Which is much
better than tracking sand in every time you go outside. - [Chad] With a nice cement
pad now, which is awesome. - [Tara] Awesome. - [Chad] You are very
close to neighbors here, but that's just a Key West thing. If you drive through
the neighborhoods here, even the houses are close to each other. It's just the way it is. - [Tara] They do have
multiple types of sites in this campground. They have for bigger ones like ours and beautiful tent sites as
you walk along the water. - [Chad] Park amenities,
they have a camp store. They have a clubhouse, a
rec area with a pool table. - [Tara] And they have a
swimming pool with a Tiki hut. - [Chad] Yeah. Very, really, very nice. - [Tara] You can see they
have boat docks here. There is a kayak launch and kayak rental on the other side of the campground. - [Chad] They have washrooms
staggered throughout. - [Tara] And they have a laundry room. - [Chad] They also have rentals here. They have bikes, kayaks and scooters. As far as park rules
go, they have the usual. Keep your dog on a leash. That should go without saying, we hope. They have quiet hours
from 11:00 PM to 7:00 AM. - [Tara] Park proximity to - [Chad] stuff to do. - [Tara] Stuff to do. It's the closest that we can
get to Old Town Key West. If you are military and you can stay on the
military camp grounds, then you'd be a little bit closer. - [Chad] Right. - [Tara] But for us, this
is the closest we can get. It's only a couple miles
to the grocery store. - [Chad] There's a home Depot. There's a Publix. 5.2 miles to the heart of Duvall Street. 3.7 miles to Smathers Beach. We've ridden our e-bikes around the island like three times now. - Lastly connectivity, and you know that's very important for us. - Very good cell signals from
both AT&T and Verizon here. I've been getting about
10 down and 10 up on each. Again, speeds are going to vary, but we've had really good
luck buying them both together with our pep wave. Go see the video on that. - [Tara] Okay. So our overall impression of Boyd's campground, you guys
probably know is a thumbs up. I mean, would we like it to be cheaper? Yes, but we expect high
prices in Key West. And for us, this is a treat. We haven't been here in a couple years, so we splurged. - [Chad] This is our Christmas
present to each other. - [Tara] It's our Christmas present. And we look forward to it every year. So we love it. - [Chad] Book a year in advance. - [Tara] Okay, it's a big day. - [Chad] Daisy's going to try
it going on the kayak with us. We have her tiny little doggy life vest. - [Tara] Yeah. She's been
on a canoe one time with us. You want to go on a boat? She's like, Oh, I don't know about this. - [Chad] Come here.
- [Tara] Come here. - [Chad] This will keep you safe, even keep your little head above water. - [Tara] That's right. You're so cute. We have to wear them too, Puffy. She's like, what are
you putting on me now? - [Chad] Why do you feel the, why do you feel a need
to keep dressing me up in these weird things? - [Tara] Why? Whenever we put clothes on her like this, she acts like she can no longer move. Her legs are stiff. Her body's stiff. You'll be all right 'cause
you get to come with us. - [Chad] Handle. - [Tara] Oh my goodness. It's a doggie purse. Oh, puppy, I sorry. I do feel really bad, but I
think she's going to enjoy it once we get out there. - [Chad] Yeah. ♪ I went away for a little too long ♪ ♪ I held out when I should
have been carrying on ♪ - Oh look at this puppy. (Chad laughing) ♪ I should have called up the family ♪ ♪ Would have said unknown
on your called ID ♪ ♪ Well maybe my number's still saved ♪ ♪ Now I'm standing here ♪ - Kayaking round two. - Yeah. - This time we remembered
our life preservers and even Daisy has a life preserver. - [Chad] It is 10:45 in
the morning and it's- - 72. ♪ I'm ready to go ♪ ♪ Yeah I'm ready to go again ♪ ♪ Yeah I'm ready to know ♪ - I think she's starting to like it. ♪ Yeah I'm ready to go again ♪ ♪ Ready to go again ♪ ♪ Took a minute then I figured out ♪ ♪ That no one never really
has it all figured out ♪ ♪ Fall down, get up and repeat ♪ ♪ Don't believe it let me demonstrate it ♪ ♪ I took apart who I was
and I rearranged it ♪ ♪ I'm better than I was before ♪ ♪ Now I'm standing here hungry
and I'm ready for action ♪ ♪ So let me tell you I'm
ready to jump right back in ♪ - I feel like you're close
to smacking me in the head with the paddle. We need to go home against the wind. - Yeah. ♪ Yeah I'm ready to go again ♪ ♪ Yeah I'm ready and I want you to know ♪ ♪ Yeah I'm ready to go again ♪ - We mentioned that this trip to the Keys was a little bit different
than it's been in the past, and so we're just going
to go kayaking again. Because we woke up and it
was a beautiful morning, and we thought, what the heck? Why not? - [Chad] Plus we had to
try out the kayak on Daisy or Daisy on the kayak. - [Tara] Daisy in the kayak. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. She really enjoyed riding in the kayak. It was a beautiful morning. We just went further around
Stock Island this time. - [Chad] Just exploring the mangroves. - [Tara] Man, that water was so clear. The water there is beautiful. And in most of the areas
is just crystal clear, and you can see right through it. So it's just spectacular. That is above the water. Look. That's how clear it is. That's cool. ♪ No matter what you and I do ♪ ♪ Whatever comes next I'll
be right there beside you ♪ ♪ 'Cause I'm right where I want to be ♪ ♪ I'll be right there beside you ♪ - [Tara] So look, you can
rent paddle boards and kayaks. This is Boyd's right here. You can put your boat here. Pretty cool. ♪ I feel right I feel right I feel right ♪ ♪ Right away beside you ♪ ♪ You know right where I'm gonna be ♪ ♪ Right there beside you ♪ - [Tara] Hello. More tents sites or small
like truck camper sites right through here. - [Chad] They've got like
a little tiny, little mini- - [Tara] A little dock. Yeah. And it's like, you know, I don't know too many places where you
can get a beach tent site, but this is pretty cool. ♪ No matter what you and I do ♪ ♪ Whatever comes next I'll
be right there beside you. ♪ ♪ 'Cause I'm right where I want to be ♪ ♪ I'll be right there beside you ♪ - We've been here for six days. We haven't done a whole
lot other than kayak and get on the bike and
walk and stuff because- - Yeah, bicycles. - You know, 'cause things
are different right now. There's a little restaurant point three miles away
from here called Rustica, and we've never eaten there. - Yeah, we've seen it several times. It's wood-fired pizza. - Right. So we're going
to just walk there, and pick up our order because
the truck is actually at Ford getting serviced anyhow. - Yeah. - And it kind of seemed like
if we hopped on the e-bikes, it might be more of a pain in the butt to try to bring back a wood-fired pizza. So, so we're just going to
walk over there and grab it. We'll be right back, Daisy May. ♪ I'm not alone ♪ ♪ No and neither are you ♪ ♪ Its a hell of a time
to be living through ♪ ♪ I'm not afraid ♪ ♪ No and you shouldn't be too ♪ ♪ I got one hand to hold the roof down ♪ ♪ And the other's holding on to you ♪ ♪ Holding onto you ♪ - [Chad] What kind did you get? - [Tara] Well, I got mushroom and sausage, but it looks like they
just skimped on it Right? - [Chad] Doesn't look like
a lot on there, does there? - [Tara] No. This is
their gluten-free crust. - [Chad] My lobster ravioli looks yummy. We'll find out. - In case anybody's wondering, we planned on having this
for a couple of meals. - [Chad] Yeah, we're not
just feasting right now. Dump station. - Dump dog. - [Chad] Dump. - Dump. I need a dump bag, please. - Dump bag, okay, hold on. I'm surprised you're not cold in that. - I'm not, I'm not, not cold. (Chad laughing) - [Chad] Why are you crossing the road? - [Tara] To poop. That's why. To poop right in the
middle of the road, see. - [Chad] Is that what he did? - [Tara] Yeah. It looks
like a little Hershey's kiss in the middle. Don't step on it. - [Chad] Free Hershey's kisses. - [Tara] My pants rolled up
and my huge hiking shoes on, like, it looks like I got ginormous feet. How huge does my head look? (Chad laughing) My little legs and my
giant clod hopper shoes. My feet really aren't that
big, but they look like it. Make sure that we put her in that, and, what? - [Chad] Get out of here. (upbeat music)
