Friday, November 28, 2008

Key West, South Point


Another turning point in our trip, the most south eastern corner of the continental United States. At Latitude 24 degrees 33 North and 82 degrees 35 West. We will be heading west from now on. At this point we are 90 miles from Cuba and about 150 miles from Miami.

Key West Harbour

A very pretty harbour at Key West with a cruise ship in port for the day.

Key West Museum

Key West Museum of Art and History at the Custom House. Built in 1891 as a Customs House and later served as the Post Office, a District Court and Civil Service Office until the 1930's.

Houses

We came across this house completely built with coral blocks. Two other houses we came across during our walk around the streets of Key West.


Modes of transportation

These little electric cars were everywhere around the streets of Key West, they came as two, four or six seater models. The Conch Train was another way to get around town and have a narrated tour at the same time


Classic Yacht

The good yacht 'Mary' was high and dry and had been in the tropics a little too long.

First and Last Chance Bar



One of the original 'watering holes' in Key West. I think the picture tells the whole story!

And other 'local images'!

Ernest Hemingway's House

Ernest Hemingway bought this 1851 Spanish Colonial-style mansion in 1931. Among his works written here was "For Whom the Bell Tolls". The house, set in a lush tropical garden planted by the author, is home to more than 50 cats, descendants of Hemingway's felines.


Highway 1 - Mile 0


The start and end of this famous highway. US Highway 1 stretches over 3800 kms from Key West Florida to Fort Kent on the Maine/New Brunswick border.

Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Florida Keys and Hwy 1


These pictures taken from the navigators seat, through the front window of 'Dutchess'. The only way we can get high enough to look around is from the connecting bridges between the Keys.


Highway Accident


On this whole trip we have been very lucky and have seen very few accidents. Unfortunately this one was fatal for a local policeman in an unmarked car as he pulled out directly into the path of a semi trailer truck. Traffic was reduced to one lane for most of the afternoon just a mile before we arrived at our campsite.

We have been surprised at the number of police and State Troopers that we are constantly seeing on the highways.

Florida Keys con't

In the late 1800's a gentleman named Henry Flagler built a railroad from the Florida mainland down through the Keys to Key West. Today unfortunately, you drive on the new bridges and follow the old railway bridges along with the ugly power poles south. At Pigeon Key, the new road and Seven Mile Bridge bypasses it but they still use the old bridge to get to and from the key. We camped at Jolly Roger Travel Park at Mile 59 about half way down the chain of Keys at Marathon.

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Miami

We drove 'Granny' through the western suburbs into Miami. We were surprised how Hispanic the whole area is and felt we could have been in Mexico. The Port of Miami had several cruise ships in port that day. But we really enjoyed seeing the 1930 to 1940's 'Art Deco' buildings along the water front of Miami Beach, even with the mid fifties convertible Buick parked on the street.



Fort Lauderdale Beach

Fort Lauderdale Beach, no body swimming but quite a few bodies sunning themselves on the beach. I was able to pick up two coconuts as the city maintenance had just trimmed the palm trees. This was just a 'small' house on the corner of one of the canals.




Boat House

On one of the canals we found this boat house, on the water side we could see that it housed four 80 to 100 foot power boats. On the street side there were two garage doors for each boat house for the owners cars to be stored.

Canals

The canals off the intracoastal water way through both Miami and Fort Lauderdale were suburbs unto themselves. Each house had a dock across the lawn and either a sail or power boat.

Monday, November 24, 2008

Gator Park - Hwy 41

Gator Park

We found Gator Park Camp Ground through the Passport America Book, not realizing that it was a thriving tourist attraction. We arrived around lunchtime and set up camp and were warned to be careful if we stepped outside a night as there were at least two alligators in the pond that we looked out on. We could hear the 'Air boats' roaring out into the Everglades and decided to take the tour.



Birds at Gator Park