Day 9- Last day, Key Largo to Coral Springs

Today was a long day for me, 102 miles from Key Largo to Coral Springs. By eliminating our stay in Kendall I made two 50 mile days into one long day trip. . 

I left our Holiday Inn in Key Largo at 6:30 to get an early and cool start of the day.

My first stop was around 7:15 to provision road snacks before I had gotten deep into the lonely and unpopulated route on Cane Bay Rd into Florida City. 

Crossing by Cane Bay with a rising sun behind the morning clouds.  

 

Around mile 30 on Cane Bay road I passed two very long semi’s that were staging some newly manufactured and very, very long concrete beams.  They had had  hired 3 vehicles for each truck carrying what looked like +100 ft. concrete beams for a new bridge somewhere.  Cane Bay is a very narrow road, no shoulders at all so the guide vehicles actually stopped south bound traffic far ahead of me to give the trucks plenty of time to pass me before releasing traffic again.  Very kind and thoughtful. 

We find so many cool things along the trail, like this spiffy Gulfstream cap. Who knows, maybe I’ll have my own Gulfstream jet one of these days and it will come in handy!

 

34 miles to Florida city around 9:45 I treated myself  with a very tasty breakfast at the Waffle House.  Great service too. 

3:10 I’m stuck in after school bus traffic in Weston. I’ve ridden about 80 miles at this point.  

After 9 miles on the gravel ditch trail that runs between the ditch and the Everglades I’ll have just 7 miles through the suburbs of Coral Springs.  I was hoping to beat Steve, Sandy and Angela home but the gravel path (and my growing tiredness) slowed me down too much.  

A few minutes after 5 I roll into their garage and head to the pool to cool off but not before I grab a celebratory beer. 

After my beer in the pool, and a shower, we celebrated the end of our trip and our great hosts and Sherpas, Sandy and Steve.  They’re great south Florida tour guides, let us crash at their house and watched Lucky the Dog while we were away, and made a special trip to Key Largo, a 100 miles away, today to pick Angela up and then took her on a snorkel trip in Key Largo before driving her back to Coral Springs!  Great hosts and a great trip. 

Day 8- Marathon to Key Largo

Our mission today, to ride from Marathon to Key Largo without injury, and hopefully a lot of fun!

The winds were lighter today and mostly cross or slight headwinds from the north. While we didn’t set any speed records, we kept our anxiety quotient low and enjoyment high. 

Entering Islamorado around 10:15. We had a lazy start this morning, biking by 8:30. The temperatures were in the high 50’s this morning and only up to high 70’s by midday.  Great weather to ride!

By eleven we were almost 30 miles into our total expected distance of 46 so we took a break for an iced latte and a breakfast burrito to feed our furnace.  It was  very nice break. 

I think that’s an osprey up on her nest, thinking about swooping down and taking Angela’s Bobo Bar. Nobody else, including us, like them.  Apparently the osprey wanted something more tasty for her babies and let us pass intact. We still need to throw that Bobo Bar away.  

Angela says only 8 more miles to go!!  I’m hot and sweaty, let’s get to the hotel already!  She’s very expressive with just that one finger isn’t she?!

And now she tells me, with only her face, that this pool water is too cold, we should move to the heated pool.  Maybe she should have been a mime?  So expressive!

And finally she tells me, again with only her beautiful face, that Skipper’s Dockside is a wonderful place to have dinner because of the excellent flat bread Havana pizza, her amazing Paloma, the great live music and her wonderful husband sitting across from her. And….she knows that Sandy is coming to pick her up tomorrow to go snorkeling and she won’t have to sit on that damn bike again for a while.  Good night. 

Day 7- Key West to Marathon

Off before sunrise, but headed in that direction on Truman St./US1 otherwise known as the Dixie Highway.  

And there’s the sunrise!!

We were making good time this morning but not going to fast to take a break after the first 15 miles for a Nutella Beignet and iced coffee to keep our motors running from Babies Coffee. I liked their stickers so much my bike helmet and bike are now advertising for them everywhere we go. 

Our winds were variable but mostly cross winds from the north today.  No harm, no foul. 

At 10:45 we were 45 miles into our ride and about to cross the 7 Mile Bridge. Ang was the Queen of the Highway today and  we made it across in 35 minutes, in spite of the wind buffeting   

At 11:30 we were on Marathon with just 5 miles left to our hotel so we scratched a BBQ itch we’d been having and got a pulled pork sandwich, and a Budweiser for me, at Porky’s BBQ. 

We were able to check in at 1pm at the Hampton which gave us all afternoon to lounge by the pool and enjoy Mai Tai’s front the poolside Tiki Bar. 

I just wanted show off my legs by the pool.  

Across the highway we found an excellent but busy restaurant called Island Fish.  We sat at the bar, people watched, and had shrimp cocktail and crab spinach dip.  I also enjoyed a Yuengling beer. 

And we continued our search for the best Key Lime pie. We’d been hearing and seeing things about fried key lime pie so we tried one. It was surprisingly tasty and crunchy but it stands alone in the key lime competition as an interesting footnote.  

Day 5 and 6- Key West

We really enjoyed our 3 nights and two days in Key West.  There’s so much history here, and touristy stuff to do too. This is Earnest Hemingway’s office as it was in the 1930’s when he wrote books such as Green Hills of Africa, Death in the Afternoon and started For Whom the Bell Tolls at this desk. The cat sleeping in the chair is one of the 57, mostly six toed cats, from the original “Snow White” cat  given to him by a captain when he first moved into the house around 1930. 

That’s Hemingway on the right and his drinking buddy Joe Russell of the eponymous Sloppy Joe’s Bar where it’s said Ernest hung out every afternoon when he was done writing. Apparently Joe was a rum runner from Cuba as well as a fishing buddy to Earnest during and after prohibition.  I haven’t been to Sloppy Joe’s yet, even though we’ve walked by a dozen times on Duval St. but I hope to make it tonight.  

This is the obligatory picture of the Southern Most Point in the US marker.  There was a line of people waiting to get their picture taken by it.  We were good with this shot as we passed by on one of our many walks. 

We did a lovely sunset set cruise on the Appledore Star, a two masted sailboat with about 20 guests on board.  

We had made to order omelets every morning by the pool side at our hotel. Not a bad way to start a day in Key West. 

Besides the Hemingway home and a “Hop On Hop Off bus tour we also got a tour of the historical “Southern Whitehouse” that was founded by President Harry Truman.  He originally came to Key West on Dr.’s orders due to poor health, but he came to love Key West and spent about 120 days out of his presidential terms working from his “Whitehouse” home by the sea.  

After our morning walk-a-bout we were becoming a bit peckish, and….we hadn’t had a cheeseburger in forever, so we decided to stop in at Jimmy Buffet’s Margaritaville and have a Cheeseburger in Paradise, a Rum Runner and a “It’s Five O’clock Somewhere” rum drink for our lunch.  We did a good job of staying hydrated today! And thinking about what a legacy Jimmy Buffet left behind!

I wish I saw more of these bike friendly bumper stickers on cars passing us by.  It’s really nice if the 3’ clearance is a real law, even nicer if they let more drivers know about it.  

So we’ve been having some very fine dining during our trip, and we’ve been sampling Key Lime pie almost everywhere we’ve gone since we were in New Orleans. We’ve had some mighty fine Key Lime pie but today, we think we found the best at Seven Fish just down the street from our hotel.  It also was our finest dinner as well.  Way to finish strong Key West!  Tomorrow we ride again!

Day- 4 Mararhon to Key West

We took our time this morning and didn’t start  riding west to our final destination until we grabbed a couple of breakfast burritos for a chance to fill our bottles up with ice and water. 

Within 4 miles we approached our 7 Mile Bridge crossing to Key West.  

After hustling across the bridge we found a great little spot on the beach to catch our breath, take water and get a quick snack before heading off. 

Taking Elevens’es on the curb of a Circle K, a chicken tender and chocolate milk is our choice of the day. 

Even the “tri-peds” were out with us bi-peds on the Florida Herotage Trail as we neared Key West. 

The last 5 miles into the heart of Key West were very enjoyable.  The traffic was slower, everything was greening up and there was lots of civilization for to take back in.  In fact today was probably the best day of our trip so far.  We were tired of course, but the weather was mid-70’s and mostly sunny all day, the wind was north westerly which made it more of a cross wind and it even had our backs a few times. We had plenty to eat and drink along the way and places to stop and rest like a small fair we stopped at.  

We checked into the Silver Palms hotel at 3 and went directly to our rooms to relax in and around the pool. 

Then we had a wonderful evening walking Truman and Duval St, a great meal and a stunning sunset.  

Day 3- Key Largo to Marathon

Our first stop of the day was the Islamarada Visitor Center where we enjoyed a pineapple bar and learned about the road ahead. 

And the road ahead wasn’t all that great.  More construction and heavy traffic. 

Today was a day of “mini” stops.  At the Wendy’s around 10:30 our bikes wanted a rest and some shade so we decided to share a chocolate frosty and an egg and bacon sandwich while they rested. 

This guy had a big fish on the line and I was hoping to catch the moment he brought it in. Fortunately for the fish he got himself off the line before that moment. 

Again, as Old Glory waves hard, the headwinds have moved to be in our faces again today. 

Another mini-break around 11:30 was to make and eat a peanut butter and jelly sandwich from this mornings breakfast fare. 

These dark clouds turned into a steady sprinkle which turned into stinging pellets on our face driven by the wind.  Well, maybe it wasn’t stinging pellets after all, but it wasn’t that fun either. 

The light rain turned into 15 minute storm 4 miles later when we got to Layton.  We found shelter at a nice guys food truck. 

We finally arrived after all the mini-breaks and slow miles into the wind at our motel for the night, the Sea Dell. 

We had our best meal of the trip at the Cracked Conch Cafe and then settled in for the night.  Tomorrow Key West!