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| Higgs Beach |
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| Buddy playing sand volleyball - for HOURS! |
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| Mike and Buddy scouting for girls! |
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| Pam at Mallory Square |
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| Santa Baby really liked Mike! |
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| Check out the drag queen in the yellow boots! Looks like a lineman for the Steelers!!! |
Mesa to Pitt 2015
Mesa to OBX
Thursday, January 17, 2013
The Roses do Key West
We went to Higgs Beach and sunbathed the day away while Buddy played beach volleyball all day. He had quite an international experience, with players coming and going, along with the quality of the games. He played with people from Michigan, Key West, Iran, Israel, and other unknown places.
After our beach time, we walked Duvall Street and Mallory Square(where everyone gathers for sunset) and ate at a place called Kelley's, which turned out to be pretty good. We stopped in a few places, and took pictures of the Key West drag queens. Buddy and I even entertained the crowd with a hand in hand prance across the street in the area of town where sexual roles are confusing! We did all of our tour, and got home by 10 o'clock, which is about the time that Duvall Street is just getting started.
Christmas in the Keys - December 25
Christmas Eve we went over to the KOA pub to celebrate with Susan and Charlie.
Christmas morning forecast at the KOA marina!
Check out our great gift from Jamie and Andi!!! We LOVE it!
We also traded gifts with Charlie and Susan. They gave me a Steeler biking jersey, and Pam got an alligator fan, that will really come handy in moving some of the air on the days when it is so humid and hot because of a lack of wind. Pam spent the day cooking, and we had a great feast on the picnic table. (Correction on this - I did get to spend some time on the KOA beach before I started to cook. For months I said that I wanted to snorkel on Christmas Day, but the guys left me and went boating.)
While Pam was cooking, Bud and I rented a 17 foot motorboat, and Bud captained a trip thru some of the 'cuts' in the area, and we also went 6 miles out to sea to the lighthouse on the American Reef, and took turns swimming in the warm, opal colored water. What an experience!
We saw two sea turtles for a short time before they dove, and two dolphins, one of which jumped completely out of the water on their way by.
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| Captain Buddy! |
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| Different view of the burned out bridge. |
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| Canal or cut |
Sugarloaf to Key West. 56 miles round trip. Dec 23
On the final leg of the trip south, I was accompanied by Charlie, and Buddy. We did some side trips, including checking out a bridge that Buddy might be interested in jumping from sometime. We also took pictures at the Southernmost Buoy, ( everything down here is the southernmost something...) the famous mile 0 marker on Rt 1, Smathers Beach, Higgs Beach, Ernest Hemingway's house. We ate lunch on Duvall Street (the Bourbon Street of Key West), and even checked out a clothing optional bar. When in Key West... Bud decided to hang out at Higgs Beach, and Pam picked him up in the Jeep later in the day, and Charlie and I pounded out a decent pace on the trip back. Bike trails were still very deficient, but there was construction going on that looked like some day, the trails would be complete on the lower Keys. Biking in Key West is an adventure because of heavy traffic, (cars and pedestrians), multitudes of people who haven't ridden in 30 years on rental bikes, and especially people on rented motor scooters that just didn't have a clue about ANYTHING !
We also saw a fight between two roosters in the street, next to a bar full of tourists. The fight went on for a short time before a local came running into the street and scooped up his chicken, and the wife cussed out the entire bar in a foreign language for not breaking up the fight! Roosters are a very common sight here. They are everywhere and held in high esteem. Cocks of the walk, I would assume.
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| Bat tower - some guy built this to house bats so they would eat the mosquitoes. Well he built it, shipped in all these bats, and the first night the bats flew out......and never came back! |
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| Mike at famous Southern most point in continental US. |
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| And Buddy... |
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| Mike at start of US 1 - famous mile marker. |
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| And Buddy..... |
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| And Charlie Watson.... |
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| Famous bar - clothing is optional - of course we had to check it out!!! |
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| Charlie and Buddy on the balcony of Garden of Eden, looking out over Duval Street. |
We also saw a fight between two roosters in the street, next to a bar full of tourists. The fight went on for a short time before a local came running into the street and scooped up his chicken, and the wife cussed out the entire bar in a foreign language for not breaking up the fight! Roosters are a very common sight here. They are everywhere and held in high esteem. Cocks of the walk, I would assume.
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| Why did the chicken cross the road??? |
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| To get to the sewer pipe of course!!!! This was on our campsite. |
The first weekend at Sugarloaf KOA - Dec 21
Saturday was a low key day, still cool and windy, result of the front that was pounding the north with snow. Charlie and I took a four mile walk to the 'burned out bridge,' a part of the old road that wound through Sugarloaf Key before US 1 was built. It went across a 'cut', a man made canal thru the mangrove trees and narrower creek, for the ability to have boat traffic. No one really knows who burned the bridge, or why.
We picked up Buddy at Key West International in the evening, and we got our first driving tour of Key West, by our guides, Charlie and Susan. It's gonna be really nice to have someone who has been coming here for 20 years to show us the area. They are really not our guides, but good friends who inspired us to come here! The evening ended with a memorable meal at Hogfish Marina, served by Patti the barmaid. She is a legend of sorts, made famous in a song about another bar, Mangrove Mommas. We also struck up a conversation with a local charter boat fisherman who told us, among other things, the best cure for seasickness, and informed us that "the keys are all about the water. "
Sunday was highlighted by our first iguana sightings. It turns out that this place is crawling with them. They even came out of a palm tree at the pool, and sunbathed right next to Pam! We watched the Steeler game at a bar on Big Pine Key called Boondocks. We saw another animal that is an endangered species, a key deer. It looks like a whitetail deer, only very small.
The only ill effects I have of my windy , cool ride the other day is a sore throat, that I hope doesn't hang around. The wind is dying down. And the water is calming and clearing up, and the weather is supposed to get beautiful.
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| Old burned out bridge, unfortunately, you can't see how beautiful the water looks. |
We picked up Buddy at Key West International in the evening, and we got our first driving tour of Key West, by our guides, Charlie and Susan. It's gonna be really nice to have someone who has been coming here for 20 years to show us the area. They are really not our guides, but good friends who inspired us to come here! The evening ended with a memorable meal at Hogfish Marina, served by Patti the barmaid. She is a legend of sorts, made famous in a song about another bar, Mangrove Mommas. We also struck up a conversation with a local charter boat fisherman who told us, among other things, the best cure for seasickness, and informed us that "the keys are all about the water. "
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| Key West international airport - it was freezing! About 69 degrees! But it was breezy..... |
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| Waiting in the airport for Buddy's plain to land. |
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| Haven't seen my baby since August! It's been a long time! |
Sunday was highlighted by our first iguana sightings. It turns out that this place is crawling with them. They even came out of a palm tree at the pool, and sunbathed right next to Pam! We watched the Steeler game at a bar on Big Pine Key called Boondocks. We saw another animal that is an endangered species, a key deer. It looks like a whitetail deer, only very small.
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| Key deer - kinda looks like a large dog!!! |
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| Coming down the tree next to Pam. |
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| Female iguana sunbathing next to Pam's chair! |
The only ill effects I have of my windy , cool ride the other day is a sore throat, that I hope doesn't hang around. The wind is dying down. And the water is calming and clearing up, and the weather is supposed to get beautiful.
Homestead Fla to Sugarloaf Key KOA 112.2 miles in 8:15 December 21
This trip turned out to be one of the great biking adventures of my life. Anticipation of getting on the islands, weather, darkness, and not knowing what to expect, gave the whole trip a great deal of excitement compared to other days. I left Homestead and headed south on Rt. 1 thru swamplands, which turned into shallow lakes, with a 20 mph wind at my back. I knew the wind advantage I was enjoying was gonna change after I left the mainland and turn west across water. What I didn't know was that the wind was going to keep increasing in velocity as the day went on. Before the trip was through, the wind was a steady crosswind at 30-35 mph. I have NEVER ridden in such a situation , especially for such a long distance. The trip was slowed by crosswinds, so I rode about the last hour, in darkness. It was in the 60's, the water was white capping, didn't look clear at all; definitely not the Keys I was expecting! The wind was really rocking over the bridges, of which there were many, including one that was seven miles long. The mangrove trees, or whatever they were, did buffer the wind a great deal when I was on land. When the trip was over, my biceps and triceps were fatigued from white knuckling the handlebars, and that has never happened before. Every gust felt like it wanted to take my front tire out, especially on the bridges. Did I mention that there were a ton of bridges, and many more Keys than I expected?
One of the things I really noticed on the trip, was the memorial markers for each highway death that Florida installs on their highways. I have seen them all thru Florida, but the sheer amount of them thru the Keys was always a sobering reminder that I had to pay attention , not only to the wind, the scenery, but also to the large volume of traffic that was pouring into the area for the Christmas holiday. It was like a parade for 80 miles, and there were more people leaving than there were coming! Another thing that I didn't know about was the parallel, now unused for traffic of any kind, train bridges that run next to almost every bridge, especially in the upper Keys. It was built by Henry Flagler, who is definitely the most influential person (at least on the east coast) that I've never heard of , until this trip! He made his money with Standard Oil, and his name started to appear in South Carolina, all the way down the coast. He has as many streets and buildings named after him as Martin Luther King!
The ride was made even more interesting by the quality of the shoulder on which I was riding. I gave up on the bike trail after a while because it ended and started quite randomly, switched sides of the road without warning or markings, and was usually a low quality ride because of the root swells in the asphalt caused by the very trees that were helping block the wind.
WOW! What a ride! I wouldn't have traded it for anything. When I got to the campground, all I wanted to do after 112+ miles was eat a half gallon of ice cream, but I was immediately whisked off to KOA's very own outdoor bar by my welcoming party, (Charlie and Susan Watson)(Pam was there too!! Thank you very much!) for beer, pizza and many hours of joviality.
Not to take anything away from Mike's ride, but it was a white knuckler driving down in the motorhome. Every time I got to a bridge or a gap in buildings or trees on the keys, I got hit broadside with a major gust of wind! When you are a 37 foot tin can that is towing a light weight jeep, you get nudged! Before I would hit a bridge, I would tighten my grip and steer slightly onto the shoulder, that way when I got pushed to the left, I didn't hit the oncoming traffic! Sugarloaf KOA was a welcome sight to me! After I got set-up (no awning today due to the winds!) I went to visit Charlie and Susan who have a lovely sight on the edge of the water. Unfortunately the wind was whipping across the water and they were both bundled up like it was a Pittsburgh snowstorm!! We decided to go over to the pub and have a drink and watch the bridge that Mike would be coming across - I could only have one beer since I didn't know if I would have to go out and pick-up Mike after dark. Right! Like he would let me pick him up! Anyway it did get dark, we got worried and Charlie drove us out to look for him. We got about 20 yds up the road and here comes Mike! Talk about a weight off my shoulders!
One of the things I really noticed on the trip, was the memorial markers for each highway death that Florida installs on their highways. I have seen them all thru Florida, but the sheer amount of them thru the Keys was always a sobering reminder that I had to pay attention , not only to the wind, the scenery, but also to the large volume of traffic that was pouring into the area for the Christmas holiday. It was like a parade for 80 miles, and there were more people leaving than there were coming! Another thing that I didn't know about was the parallel, now unused for traffic of any kind, train bridges that run next to almost every bridge, especially in the upper Keys. It was built by Henry Flagler, who is definitely the most influential person (at least on the east coast) that I've never heard of , until this trip! He made his money with Standard Oil, and his name started to appear in South Carolina, all the way down the coast. He has as many streets and buildings named after him as Martin Luther King!
The ride was made even more interesting by the quality of the shoulder on which I was riding. I gave up on the bike trail after a while because it ended and started quite randomly, switched sides of the road without warning or markings, and was usually a low quality ride because of the root swells in the asphalt caused by the very trees that were helping block the wind.
WOW! What a ride! I wouldn't have traded it for anything. When I got to the campground, all I wanted to do after 112+ miles was eat a half gallon of ice cream, but I was immediately whisked off to KOA's very own outdoor bar by my welcoming party, (Charlie and Susan Watson)(Pam was there too!! Thank you very much!) for beer, pizza and many hours of joviality.
Not to take anything away from Mike's ride, but it was a white knuckler driving down in the motorhome. Every time I got to a bridge or a gap in buildings or trees on the keys, I got hit broadside with a major gust of wind! When you are a 37 foot tin can that is towing a light weight jeep, you get nudged! Before I would hit a bridge, I would tighten my grip and steer slightly onto the shoulder, that way when I got pushed to the left, I didn't hit the oncoming traffic! Sugarloaf KOA was a welcome sight to me! After I got set-up (no awning today due to the winds!) I went to visit Charlie and Susan who have a lovely sight on the edge of the water. Unfortunately the wind was whipping across the water and they were both bundled up like it was a Pittsburgh snowstorm!! We decided to go over to the pub and have a drink and watch the bridge that Mike would be coming across - I could only have one beer since I didn't know if I would have to go out and pick-up Mike after dark. Right! Like he would let me pick him up! Anyway it did get dark, we got worried and Charlie drove us out to look for him. We got about 20 yds up the road and here comes Mike! Talk about a weight off my shoulders!
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| Spiney lobster stature |
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| My bike wanted to go diving.... |
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| This is what US 1 looks like heading thru the keys, on the bridges I had nice shoulders. |
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| Took a detour over to Long Key State Park |
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| This is about one of the railroad bridges - the longest and most famous in the Keys |
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| Yeah, the water was rough! |
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| This is the 7 mile train bridge |
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| Look at the branches on the palm trees! That was my wind - looks and felt like a hurricane (but it wasn't) |
Little Havana to Homestead Fla. 56.75 miles in 4:45 - Dec 20
After checking out a map, I found a street that would keep me from backtracking thru downtown Miami, with all the traffic that probably would be there . I left the motel at about 9:30, and headed due south, which kept me west of downtown, and took me thru an Oriental section, then pretty much into prosperous suburbs, then into Coral Gables. This place can hold its own with any place I have been in Florida that just oozed $$$$$$$. The road I was on (old cutler road) was lined with Banyon trees, which I have only seen in Hawaii. The road was shaded for miles by these trees and other types of tropical vegetation. There were no shoulders on this twisty path, but there was a multi use path that was of very little use to me because the large root systems of the Banyon trees had buckled the asphalt path and travel was very slow. Dodging these roots and joggers made for slow going for a while.
Finally good road appeared into Cutler Bay Fla. There, I found a bike shop, stopped in, and they gave me a less traveled route off of Rt.1, and I decided to give it a try, even though I really wasn't sure where I was going. With a few questions for other bikers on the route, I found my way to Homestead, where I was to meet up with Pam in the evening. She said she left Wachula and would be in town. Between 6 and 7.
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| Banyon trees |
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| Sure was fun riding thru here...... NOT! |
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| My first coconut trees!!! |
Finally good road appeared into Cutler Bay Fla. There, I found a bike shop, stopped in, and they gave me a less traveled route off of Rt.1, and I decided to give it a try, even though I really wasn't sure where I was going. With a few questions for other bikers on the route, I found my way to Homestead, where I was to meet up with Pam in the evening. She said she left Wachula and would be in town. Between 6 and 7.
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| City or county park/beach |
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| No explanation needed! Toto, we aren't in Pittsburgh any more!! |
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