Meeting up with old friends and losing an old friend

As we left Key West we drove to Marathon to see Jack’s old friend Jeep. Jack Corcoran and Paul “Jeep” Keenan have been friends since they four and lived across the trolley tracks from each other. Keenan moved to Florida many years ago. Joe DeConda who lived in Clifton Heights moved to Florida when he was young. He survived selling fruit at a stand and now is owner of the Cracked Conch Café. The Cracked Conch is known throughout the Keys as the best place to eat conch. The four of us had breakfast together. The three men reminisced about old times and then off we were on our way to Naples.
We drove on through Homestead and then we came across farms and farms of Palms trees. We were taken by their beauty so we stopped at a nursery along the way and asked if we brought one home would it live in Philadelphia, the people sitting around a older woman in a long skirt looking like she stepped out of an old cowboy movie said she spoke no English, a man volunteered saying he spoke English. It was a bit broken but he understood us. He said he had worked in New Jersey and no, no palm trees grow there in the winter. I admired his honesty because you knew he needed the money but he wasn't going to rip you off with false hope. So we scrapped the idea and went on our way.
We took a left on Rt. 41, which is called Tamiami Trail Scenic Highway. On the corner is the Miccosukee Casino. The road winds around through Indian Reservations and the Everglades. You can take airboats seating up to 40 people to tour the Everglades in search of wild birds and alligators. We went through the Big Cypress National Preserve and stopped at the welcome center. There we saw alligators sunning and swimming in their natural habitat. Onward we went to Naples taking Rt.75 There is Panther Preserve on Alligator Alley on Route 75. I looked but didn't see one panther. As we were rolling down the road, a man pointed to our R.V. We stopped to see what was wrong and to our dismay our front side panel had blown off. We stopped at a rest area and duct tapped the side so the window wouldn’t fall out. This RV is like Jack’s 9th grandchild so he and I were both overwhelmed. We didn’t know what to do. We stopped at two more stops and ended up in Bradenton, which is between Sarasota and St. Petersburg. We stopped and got dinner. My motto is when you don’t know what to do eat or shop. We stayed at the rest stop. The next day drove to an R.V. dealer who said it was too dangerous to drive R.V. all the way home. He said the police would stop us. The duct tape didn’t hold because it kept coming off when the wind got under it. . All our duct tape was falling off. Steven Erdman of Dream RV located in Bradenton set us up at Encore R.V. Park. He showed us RVs that we could take home right away if only we had cash up front. Being on vacation we didn’t have that kind of money just sitting around even though we did find one RV we really liked; a 2007 Dutchman Express. Now our dilemma was how to get to the Phillies game in Clearwater. And how were we ever going to get home.