Florida Keys Ride, Third Day

Sid's Back Yard, North

Yesterday, we made it all the way down to Key West.  The ride down was okay.  The weather is great, the trees are everywhere, the air smells like pine or ocean breeze, depending on which area one is, and ocean is a pretty turquoise.  The only downside is the fact that Florida has no reason to build curvy roads as everything is pretty much flat.  I guess mountains or other obstacles are needed to justify bends in the road.

We went through the Everglades to get to the Keys.  The Panther and Crocodile Crossing signs only reinforced our decision to motel it this trip rather than camp.

In Key West, all the parking on the streets is taken, so if you want to see the sights, you need to park in a paid lot, then rent a bicycle or moped.  As such, we just rode through kind of slow.  The historic part was interesting.  It reminded me a lot of the old, colorful houses of New Orleans.  We went right past Ernest Hemingway’s house.  How cool is that?

On the way back up from Key West, we stopped at Cudjoe Key to eat.  I had Yellowtail Snapper, and it was delicious.  I also ordered a piece of Key Lime Pie for obvious reasons, also delicious.  When I ordered the pie, though, I neglected look at the price.  When I got the check, I about had some heart palpitations.  Eight dollars for a single piece of really tasty pie!

Sid's Back Yard, South

I was very relieved Stacie got a hold of her Uncle Sid and they let us crash in their beautiful home.  If she hadn’t, we were looking at a long ride on already tired butts out of the Keys and north a ways to find a decent motel.