Bottom Up

We believe in working our way up in the world. Or at least it seems that way this year.  

We started out on the first of December at the bottom of the Everglades, had some adventures, and after enjoying the full length of its paved road over 2 weeks, spent a day along its northern border.

Why change a good plan? So that’s how we approached the Florida Keys. Go straight to the bottom and work our way up.

Many people have told us that you can “do the Keys in a day”. A couple of hours down, a couple back. 
I don’t think they have been there in a while.

Out of the 126 miles length of the Keys, it took us over 2 hours to do only the first 96 miles. No stopping. The traffic was steady, and the speed limit was 45 for most of the way. And boy, was there traffic. This is like a really, really, long town with only one main street. 




It certainly wasn’t all ocean vistas all the way along, like I had thought. There are a lot of residential and business areas interspersed with bridges with good views.

We took a chance on a campsite at the most southern state park, thinking that since we only had a tent they could fit us in somewhere. Previous research had told us that RV spots were hard to come by in the Keys without reserving a year in advance, so we did not bring the trailer. It turned out that we were able to come in without a reservation for just one night, but they did not have tent specific sites. We had to put up our tent on RV sites. On gravel.  On hard, sharp gravel. Coral gravel, to be specific. That’s what they have in the Keys.

It took us an hour to drive the last 30 miles to get to Key West. Then we got the bikes out.

Key West is a very bike friendly town. It doesn’t have any bike lanes, but it does have bicycles and scooters and pedestrians everywhere. 

And chickens, too, for some reason. So drivers, by necessity, have to go slow.

It’s also very much a party town.

The main street is lined with pubs and bars and restaurants. Mallory Square, beside the western pier, is party central at sunset. 










We moved along with the crowd, passing vendors and buskers, and got to the waterfront just in time. 

As a group, we watched the sun go down over the Gulf of Mexico, and then the buskers and noisemakers started up again.

The next two days were spent working our way slowly north. 

We went looking for the petite Key deer, about half the size of our northern species. Somehow they manage to survive in a residential area just off the main road.

There is not a lot of wilderness on this narrow series of coral islands, but we found colourful iguanas in the trees and enjoyed a visit to a dolphin research center.

We also enjoyed watching parrotfish with their bright blue mouth picking algae off the rocks along the coast.

We woke up early on the last morning, bothered by the little sand gnats that had gotten into our tent, and decided to leave the bugs behind and go for a paddle. So, within a day and a half, we went from watching the sun set over the Gulf of Mexico, to watching the sun rise while paddling our canoe over the Atlantic.

It’s easier to travel sideways on the Keys than from bottom to top.

W