Winter Star Party with Doug Biernacki from January 27 to February 2, 2025
This was my third consecutive Winter Star Party. The decision to go was made well ahead of the registration web page opening mid-October, and another year of focused preparation, and six nights of great sky conditions made this one the best ever.
The trip down began on Saturday, 1/25, and we made the customary stop at the Richmond Hill KOA. It was colder than before and a good bit of snow remained on the ground from the unusual snowfall across the southern states. The camper furnace was needed to keep warm.
The trip down continued earlier than usual on Sunday with the destination being The Overseas Pub on Marathon Key for the NFC championship game at 1500. Although this was our plan all along, it had just become more important because the Washington Commanders had advanced in the playoffs. We arrived at 1450 only to find that the Pub had shut down for rennovations the day before.
We tried one other place for seeing the game, but it was mobbed and there was no place to park with the camper hitched up. From there we checked into the hotel, dropped the camper, and proceeded to Boondocks on Ramrod key. We arrived late in the 1st quarter, and got a great seat.
Arrival at the star party on Monday was, as it usually is, unusual. This time I was notified that the previously announced 0800 gate opening was delayed until 1600. We decided to eat lunch and get into the entry line along the highway at 1230, thinking that there might be an opportunity to enter earlier than 1600.
Seeing RVs entering, we walked up to see if we could enter. We found that some RV participants had received notices that RVs could enter earlier, and they let us in. We entered the gate at 1315, and were parked about three spaces nearer the entry gate than we had been the previous year.
Even with the better than expected 1315 entry, the mid-80s temps that I am not used to made setting up the camper and astronomy equipment a bit of a challenge.
The weather conditions for this year’s WSP were astoundingly good! Every night was clear, and there were no high winds to deal with. The forecast for the last night of the event was spotty, so we elected to pack up dry equipment for an easy departure on Sunday morning rather than pack up wet equpment.
Beside attending the event, we traveled into Key West as we have done in the past. This time we toured the Hemmingway house before venturing down to his haunt, Sloppy Joe’s, for lunch.
Another interesting story is that part of one of the camper roof hold down latches fell off on the trip down from Savannah. Thinking that this might be a common hardware item, I first checked at Ace Hardware on Big Pine Key. They didn’t have it there, but I was told that SpinDrift RV Parts, about 15 miles away on Cudjo Key, might have it.
We had to call ahead to find out if the owner was in, and he was. His establishment was basically an RV junkyard with some common parts on the shelf. It was not much to look at from the outside…or the inside.
Upon arrival I showed in one of the other latches that I had brought along, and he knew exactly what it was. He told me, as I expected, they are hard to find because not many pop up campers are made anymore.
But, he thought he might have one. He went to a display pegboard about 10 feet from his desk, pushed some stuff aside, reached in and pulled out a box. A right decent amount of dust came off with a stout puff of air.
The price on the box was $9.36. Since the box had obviously been there for a very long time, he wandered aloud what the up-to-date price might be. He looked it up and that price turned out to be $10.36.
The part inside the box was exactly what I needed, and I told him that I would gladly pay $10.35. He wouldn’t hear of it, and that was that.
The return trip was uneventful. On the way home we agreed that we would be back for the 2026 WSP. We tentatively agreed that we would probably stop over in a hotel on the Georgia side of the Fla-Ga line the next time rather than putting up the camper at the KOA.
