MPH Travels: ‘Glades and Keys

We got up early this morning and hit the road headed south. We crossed the Sunshine Skyway bridge and soon got off the interstate (because of a traffic jam). Then we followed US 41 south along the coast through Ft Myers and Naples. Ft Myers seemed very commercial and Naples too, I guess, but there were some pretty flash looking places there.

If you look at a map, you will see that there are two roads that lead right through the Everglades, east-west. The northern one is a toll road, and we’d heard the scenery wasn’t as good. The southern road is US 41, and the scenery is spectacular.
The ‘glades are part wetlands and part primordial forest. They are amazing. They are famous for their alligators but also contain black bear and panther (close relative of cougar).

We stopped and looked around at Big Cypress Bend State Park. And yes, we saw alligators in the wild. We may take an airboat ride on the way back across.

After we’d crossed the ‘glades, and the interminable slow traffic of the farming town of Homestead, we headed south on US 1, and entered the Florida Keys.

This is one of the most spectacular places on Earth, surely. We just cruised along and the sky was blue and the sea was really blue and the sand was white and it was glorious. Pia spotted dolphins playing and we also saw some giant iguanas. Pia liked the dolphins better. We booked a spot in an RV park in Marathon, and arrived in Key West, at the very end of US 1, about 90 minutes before sunset. The keys are bigger than you think until you drive along them and it takes over an hour to get from Marathon to Key West and along the way we crossed the 7-mile bridge.

Sunset is a big deal here and they have a sort of informal street party in Duval Street, the main street through town, every night of the year. This being a Saturday night, it was even better. I (Mark) had a beer and Pia had a mojito at a shabby little beach bar called Island Dog’s Bar and we watched the sunset over the Gulf of Mexico from a quiet little pier. It was stunning.

Then, before returning to Marathon for the night, we crossed to the south side of Key West and stood at the very tip of the Southernmost Point of the United States, looking out over the Caribbean, toward Cuba, 90 miles away.

It was here that I (Mark) decided it would be cool to jump off the concrete pier and walk out on the tidal rocks to really, really stand on the southernmost tip. Easy enough. But getting back up onto the concrete pier was really difficult. So the wind is blowing, it’s dark and the rocks I’m standing on are awash and slippery, I’m wearing shorts and thongs and the edge is just a bit too high and too far away. In the end I had to launch myself at it hard. It worked and I lived to fight another day, but I sure did bang my right knee up. Bugger.
We were pretty tired and went to sleep in the van, at Marathon, just before midnight.

Sailing into the Sunset, Key West