The End Of The Highway

We were up bright and early to enjoy our final breakfast in the gardens at the back of the hostel, before setting off to Key West. The road is called the Overseas Highway, as it is 126 miles long and comprised of some 40 odd islands joined by 42 bridges, the longest spanning 7 miles. It's mainly single lane, so it can be slow going if you get caught behind a slow vehicle, or at a drawbridge, but the good thing was that we could put away the GPS - there is only one road.

After a couple of hours we stopped for morning tea on Big Pine Key for coffee and a slice of Key Lime Pie. Lovely, but very sweet, so we shared one. Arrived in Key West at the end of the highway about lunch time. It's incredibly crowded as cars can't go anywhere, and there is almost no parking. Really long tourist trolleys wend themselves through the narrow streets full of tourists.

After feeding the parking meter we followed the throng down to the tip of the island, billed as the southern most point of the USA. Actually it's all a lie. The southern most point is actually in the nearby Navy base, but it would be very inconvenient to have everybody tramping through the base, so they have conveniently designated a spot on a nearby corner. A photograph there is so popular that you actually have to join a long queue and wait your turn to take your happy snap. We took a profile shot instead, and moved on.

Walked around and looked at lots of the old buildings, then popped into Subway for lunch. After feeding the hungry parking meter yet again, it was off to the harbour and market areas of town. Seems that a sunset over the water is such a rare thing in the US, that they have designated a special sunset viewing area that thousands of people cram onto each night. Having seen a sunset on the bay lots of times, we gave it a miss, and took the car down to the southern beaches were we wandered around the parks and along what public beaches there are.

Finally headed off back up the highway to our hotel - 60 miles away. Another lovely Hampton Inn, and after we checked in we went to the Outback Restaurant for a laugh. It's themed as an Australian restaurant, but the 'shielas' and 'blokes' on the dunny doors are about the only authentic things. They have Alice Springs shrimps - nowhere in Australia has shrimp, let along Alice Springs. Their hamburgers have mustard and pickles. They don't have chips - they have fries, and they list California cheese on their 'authentic' Aussie burger. Give us a break.

A walk after dinner in the balmy evening. Turns out that the hotel has its own seaplane tethered in the backyard of the hotel, but I couldn't convince Mandy to take it for a spin.