Key West!

Day 41, May 12, 2011, Key West!

35.1 miles averaging 14.4 mph

Route - from Bluewater RV Resort to mile marker 0 in Key West, FL, around Key West and back to Bluewater.

Best Moment – Okay, I know it is crazy because it isn’t all that impressive of a photo, but the best moment was to actually see Mile Marker 0, the southernmost point of the United States, and to think that I had bicycled all of the way from Phoenix to get there.

Worst Moment – Our RV Resort is about 14 miles from Key West.  We took Rocket to the end of the Keys and around Key West.  (It is truly scooter heaven.)   But, driving home on Rocket after an afternoon in Key West and dinner at the Hogfish Grill was a bit unnerving.  There was a lot of traffic and it was going fast – a lot faster than I wanted to go with Neita on the back.

Because of the heat and humidity, Neita decided it would be best if she didn’t bicycle to Key West.  I agree, she would have had a bit of difficulty though it was a fairly easy ride.  I went on the road bike – what fun that was after riding the heavy touring bike for all of this time.  Had I not spent time scouting Key West, my average mile per hour would be over 17.

Watching the sunrise over the ocean is really quite a novel thing for a west coaster.  It’s a huge orange ball until quite high in the sky.

Around 8, after fixing another flat tire, I left for the ride to Key West.  Here again, there were mostly bicycle paths that I could take advantage of to avoid the traffic.  In reading information from Adventure Cycling, it sounds like in many cases, the sidewalk serves dual purpose as both pedestrian and bicycle path.  There is a Naval Air Station on Stock Island and I could watch and hear the jets flying in formation overhead.

Key West reminded me a bit of New Orleans with beautiful old homes – many of them here have been repurposed into bed and breakfasts, offices or restaurants.  Most of them are quite charming.  We saw, but didn’t tour the Hemingway residence and the retreat that many presidents including Truman, Eisenhower and Clinton have used.

On the Atlantic Coast are some incredibly beautiful public beaches.  Probably because of the time of year, they didn’t seem overly crowded.

On the trip into Key West with Neita, we really played tourist.  Neita has a new cap.  We went wine tasting at the Key West Winery.  They make wine from fruit other than grapes and the only thing that was sort of dry was a blackberry wine.  The tasting room was quite interesting.  They asked you to look at the retail selection and let them know the wines you wanted to try.  We did get a couple of bottles of white sangria.  Called “Category 5 Hurricane,” it is their number one selling wine. 

We had to stop for a Margarita at Jimmy Buffet’s Original Margaritaville?  Is it really the original? Really?

We wrapped up our Key West tour with dinner at the Hog Fish Grill – a local favorite that is on Stock Island.  We both ordered hog fish – something new to us.  It was really good, flaky and just slightly sweet.  The place was on the docks and certainly had a lot of Key West local color.