I was planning to spend two nights camped in the Everglades but ended up staying an extra day in Key West due to severe weather reports. The weather report called for anything from small hail to 2" hail depending on who’s report you were reading. To avoid the hail, I paid to park about one block from Duval street in a covered building. Or course, the severe weather ended up mellowing out and moved North of Key West, but I thought I’d wait it out since I wasn’t looking forward to driving through it on the bridges that head out of the keys.

While I was waiting out the storm, I hung out at a hot sauce store known as Peppers of Key West. Peppers is owned by Michael who is Kathey’s husband. Kathey is the person who found me my stealth camping spot in Key West. While I was there, the cast of the local production of the Rocky Horror show was there drinking beer and sampling hot sauces. I joined them in an extended tasting and we ramped up to the second hottest sauce they carry. 

That sauce claims to be three times hotter than Police pepper spray!
Only one of the sauces really hit me (the third from the hottest), otherwise my
eyes were dry and I wasn’t sweating too much (the guy sitting near me was really getting hit hard… see photo below). I used to really be into hot food and have built up a tolerance for hot sauces.

After the storm passed, I drove to Florida City, FL and stayed overnight in the Walmart parking lot. This was my first Walmart stop and I found a mini city of RV’s parked in one corner of the lot. I’d estimate that there were no fewer than 15 RV’s parked that night. Most Walmarts will allow RVers to park overnight.

I heard a knock at my door, right when I was starting to get ready for bed. It was a group of German guys who’s RV was parked next to mine. They had spent two weeks exploring America starting in California and where about to fly home. They had huge boxes full of food to give away (they shopped at Costco). I ended up with enough pasta to easily last me 1.5 years along with boxes full of canned and packaged foods. They were either going to throw it away or give it away, so I was happy to help.

After parking at Walmart, I went into the Everglades to shoot sunrise. It looks like the campground at Flamingo could easily handle my rig, so I made a mental note to explore this area in the future. I would have liked to spend a lot more time in this area, but I had an appointment in Tampa on Tuesday, so I had to move on.

Posted from Walmart parking lot, Florida City, FL