Headin' to the Keys!

Monday, December 10
We said goodbye to the Space Coast and headed further south past Miami. Our destination is the Florida Keys but we won't take the trailer that far. We stopped at Miami Everglades RV Park just outside of Homestead which is south of Miami.

When we first entered Florida we stopped at the Visitor Center to pick up some maps and touristy stuff. We also picked up a Sun Pass, which is an electronic card that attaches to the windshield. You can buy them out of a vending machine for about $5. You load some money into your Sun Pass account and then you can breeze through the toll booths without having to stop. We normally don't use toll roads, but this is Florida and toll roads are everywhere. They are also pretty easy to navigate and pulling the trailer through areas we have never been to makes the use of toll roads a good idea. Expensive? Well it depends how you look at it. It did cost us about $26 in tolls to go from Cocoa to Homestead, but we never made one turn, encountered light traffic, and significantly less overpasses than on the Interstate which means less merging traffic. Plus, we don't travel these roads every day, just the once. In fact some toll roads don't accept cash so you need a transponder or they mail you the toll plus an admin fee. So the $26 seems well spent.

Greeter

Our site

Nice and shady.

This Avocado tree above us. It was loaded with HUGE green skin Avocados. At night if the breeze came up you could hear them fall off on the roof. I had to sweep the slides off before we brought them in when we left. The birds and lizards made quick work of the fallen fruit.

Tuesday and Wednesday, December 11 and 12
One reason for coming to this part of Florida was to visit the Keys. One of the great scenic drives in the country, the stretch of Hwy 1 from the mainland through the Keys to Key West is about 130 miles and takes well over 3 hours to travel. Lots of traffic and slow speed zones and of course the scenery.

We left the trailer at the RV park, packed a bag and made our way down Hwy 1 to the Keys.

Beautiful scenery and those long over-the-water bridges. The longest is seven miles long and is named 'Seven Mile Bridge'! Hmmm, very imaginative.

Pretty narrow lanes when they had to move you over so they could do maintenance on the bridge. I was happy not to be pulling the trailer!

There is an old bridge that parallels the new bridge. Parts of it are still used for pedestrian and bike traffic. Some spans are removed.

Some spans have been removed to allow large boats to pass. The new bridge is much higher on the navigation spans.

The new and old bridge with the power lines running between the two.

We arrived safely in Key West then made our way into the old part of town and the harbor area. Very narrow streets in old Key West.

Two cruise ships were docked when we arrived, which added several thousand more people to the already busy streets.
This was Norwegian Cruise Lines.

This was the larger of the two, the Carnival Victory ship.

Some cool garden art. Life size.

Ernest Hemingway life-size meeting around the table.

The tour bus/trains were very busy.

Museum

Old US Coast Guard building now a museum. Opened by a fellow that struck it rich. He found a sunken Spanish Galleon loaded with gold!

Their prices scared us away.

This was a popular spot. Reasonable prices, good food, and.....

......nicely decorated....

....and live entertainment. This guy was very good.

Down the street was another great bar, Irish Kevin's. Lots of people and great entertainment. Apparently downtown Key West really rocks at night. Nope, I didn't find out.

St Paul's Episcopal Church. This church was built in 1912, the fourth church on this site. Previous churches either burned or were destroyed by hurricanes.

Beautiful interior

The oldest house in Key West, built circa 1829.

The kitchen house in the back yard. Cooking outside kept the heat outside the house and was safer, due to the wood fired stoves.

Back of the oldest house. Very nicely restored.

The winter White House of President Truman. He spent his winters here.

Earnest Hemingway lived in this house for a time while he lived in Key West.

Mile 0 of Highway 1. The other end of Hwy 1 is at Calais, Maine which is where we entered the US on October 15. Although we didn't drive on it all the way to Florida we did drive on Hwy 1 occasionally on our trip down.

This corner is the Southern-most point in the continental United States......so we had to get a picture.

.......and so did a thousand others. The line-up to take pictures was a block long....

So I quickly snapped a picture as folks were changing poses. 

Great way to patrol the beaches.

Nice concrete pier. Nobody was having much luck fishing......except....

.....this guy. The Pelicans we so funny to watch diving into the water. Their bodies are so buoyant all they could do was get in just past their neck. 

In the right light you could actually see the little fish they caught going down their throat.

This is El Siboney restaurant. A tour guide downtown told us it was his favorite Cuban place so we tried it!

It was awesome food. We had roast pork and shredded beef dishes. Both came with rice, beans and plantains. We had never had plantains before. Soooooo Good!

Nicely decorated and homey feel to the family run restaurant. They've need in business for over fifty years.

Tuesday we headed out to the beaches again. There is a lot of free beach area.....and parking too.

Beautiful white sandy beaches. They had just been groomed.

Weddings are at the beach are popular. The chairs are all set up and they are taking pictures just back in the trees to the left. This was before 11 AM.

Fishing on the flats. This guy caught a huge fish, but at this range I can't tell what type it is.

We started heading back north toward Miami. We stopped several times on the way.

One of the many RV parks along Hwy 1. Surprisingly there were lots of open sites. One KOA was still closed due to hurricane damage.

This seemed like a good spot to stop for lunch. And it was!

Beautiful grounds around the restaurant.

Nicely decorated restaurant.

Next to the restaurant was a Bass Pro store. It was a beautiful store. Also had a boat inside....a special boat it turns out.

Inside the Bass Pro store in Islamorada.

This is the 'Pilar'. A gorgeous old boat  built in 1933. It is a twin to one that Ernest Hemingway had in Key West.

This boat was used in the movie 'Key Largo' starring Bogart and Bacall.

Beautifully restored in 1997.

The fishing chair. Note the foot rest to brace the fisherman when he lands the BIG one.

We just HAD to stop at Plantation Boats in Tavernier in the middle keys. They handle HCB center console boats.

They come in all colors. You can get the motors to match. Three outboard motors are the minimum it seems.

You can get four motors if you need the power. This one had four 350 hp motors.

This one was amazing! It had four 627 supercharged Marine 7 motors. It also had at least twenty huge stereo speakers. A real toy!

I though I had seen it all until I spotted this beauty. It is a 65 foot Estrella HCB boat with ....count em....FIVE 627 hp engines. That's 3,000 horsepower! The boat also has an 1800 gallon fuel tank. Want to have a look inside? Click here.
For those interested in the Marine 7 engines, click here.

While we were standing on the dock admiring the pretty boats, the mechanics started to spray water from a hose. Turns out there were two Manatees hanging around and they were looking for a drink of fresh water. Even though they live in salt water they drink fresh water.

It was so cool to be so close to these giants.

We kept heading back towards the mainland along Hwy 1.

Lots of Mangroves

Back at the campground we saw this sign. They must have some fast moving pedestrians around here! They have to post speed limits for them. At least that's the way I read it!

This very cool Airstream. It's about a 16 footer. Love the license plate.

So much to see and enjoy. We had a great trip to the Keys, but lots more to see in Southern Florida.


......and that was Our View From Here!