The Florida Keys

After we got off the ship, picked up the tow car at the cruise parking lot and got the motorhome out of the storage lot, we drove 38 miles to a casino on the southwest edge of Miami.  We dry camped there for just one night.  We decided to go ahead and drive out to the Keys on Sunday afternoon rather than stay another day to be able to make that drive.  We left at 12:30 thinking it would be about a 3 hour drive out and 3 hours back.  We had intentions of having a cheeseburger at Jimmy Buffet's Margaritaville.  Shortly after we left, we saw a sign saying that there was an accident at milepost 71 and that there would be a delay.  We thought the road would be open by the time we got there.  People had told us that when you go to the Keys, if there is an accident, it can stop traffic for hours. 

Very true!

 

Key Largo is at the beginning of the highway to the Keys.  Key West is at the other end and approximately 113 miles away.  Key Largo is known as the Diving Capital of the World, and Key West is the southernmost city in the continental U.S. and is only 90 miles from Havana.  Key West is very small -- 2 miles wide by 4 miles long. 

 

 

We were stopped at milepost 77 and were moving very slowly or not at all for over 2 1/2 hours.  During that time, we discussed if we should turn around or continue to wait.  We decided that since we probably wouldn't be back again any time soon, we'd just wait it out.  We didn't dare stop to look at any of the shops along the way because we had no idea how long this would take us.

 

 

Off in the distance are some of the smaller islands that make up the Keys.  There are a total of 1700 small islands!

 

There are over 40 bridges linking the Keys to the mainland.

 

Another picture of the Keys.

 

Sunsets are beautiful on the Keys, so "they" say.  It was setting before we even got to Key West.

 

And this is the only picture we took in Key West.  We were so busy trying to navigate through construction, heavy vehicle traffic and pedestrians and we had to follow bicyclists down Duval, the narrow main street.  This was Sunday night, mind you, and all of the galleries, boutiques, sidewalk cafes, souvenir shops, open-air bars, jewelry stores . . . everything seemed to be open but parking was impossible!

 

Instead, we grabbed a cheeseburger at McDonalds, and headed back. 

We got back at 10:30 . . . a 10 hour drive!  Wow!  But we're glad we made the drive.  

 

Pictures of this drive are abysmal!  I don't know what I was thinking!