Thursday Jan. 30 - I suspect many of you have had a couple of sleepless nights, wondering about the fate of Junior the Cat. You will recall that he had gone missing, to the great dismay and anguish of his owner, Candy. This cat is 16 years old, and has been with her through all of her troubles of late: losing her husband, her parents and her daughter all within two or three years. Junior was her companion through these times, her source of comfort. So you can imagine how upset she was.

Well, we didn't see Candy for a day, not until we were getting ready to depart yesterday. We didn't know what to expect. Our efforts to find Junior had been in vain, as had been the case with others looking for him. But when we saw Candy, she was like a new person. Smiling, happy, relaxed. She told us someone came knocking on her door at 2 a.m., having found Junior in a bush not far from home. He is now in confinement once more, never to explore the big bad world again. Happy endings are hard to find, so there's one for you.

We enjoyed the drive back to Key Largo, probably more than we had going the other way, because we had a couple of stops in mind, and so weren't frustrated with not being able to pull over for some of the views, there being very limited space for such with r.v.s We stopped at the Key Deer Preserve, with hopes of seeing some of these little guys, but it being mid-day, all were hiding in the bush escaping the heat. We did a 3/4 mile trek through the scrub, but saw nary a one. These deer are much smaller versions of white-tails, which because of their restricted environment here in the Keys, have evolved over the years into smaller versions of their larger cousins. We've seen them in the past at the Schiller Park we visit in Homosassa, but it would have been neat to see them in their natural environment. They were overhunted at one time, almost to the point of extinction, but have since come back, so that there are now about 300 of them on this Key.

We also stopped at the Bajia Honda State Park, which son Jeff highly recommended. It's a very nice spot, with beaches on both the ocean and gulf sides. Did a wander, had lunch, and moseyed on. Back here in our little spot in Key Largo. Lovely sunset last night as we sat on deck chairs by the beach area. So no complaints. Today it's sunny and breezy, so Gail will have to decide if she wants to rent a kayak or not. I'll stick to my bike, thank you very much.

Pictures: Gail on the beach at Bajia Honda. An alligator who came over to say hello at the Blue Pool at Key Deer Preserve. One of the old sections of the bridge that connects two keys along the route. (Don't want to go for a walk in the dead of night on this section...mind the gap.) Some work is being done to restore sections of the old route, possibly to create two two-lane roads. The old original train bridges which were the only connectors were destroyed by hurricanes in the '30s, I believe. Then the roads and bridges were constructed (no more trains), with again a lot of damage from hurricanes. But today's versions are fine, although only two-track for much of the drive, making for slow progress through the main settlements. Quite an impressive achievement to have all of these keys now accessible. It's 100 miles from Key Largo to Key West, and takes probably a minimum of 3 hours.

That's all for now. More later. Stay tuned.