From Miami Beach, FL to Key West, FL
From Miami Beach, FL to Key West, FL
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I got an earlier start than usual today. The weather gurus are again predicting isolated thundershowers in the Florida Keys beginning in the afternoon and continuing into the evening. Rain is one thing; lightening strikes are a whole different ball of wax.
Today's route again avoids Interstates. I meander down A1A (Collins Avenue) detouring to avoid construction as necessary to meet up with the MacArthur Causeway that leads into downtown Miami. Then I turn south onto Highway 1 (Biscayne Boulevard). Highway 1 runs all the way into central Key West. It is an easy route to remember.
I make a stop for breakfast at a place called Wolfie Cohen's Rascal House. This was a recommendation by a local and also appears in "Eat Your Way Across the USA" restaurant guide. The meal gets mixed marks but definitely surpasses my 'normal for this trip' breakfast experience. The restaurant building is pink with aqua upholstery. Artwork depicting customers and the Miami Beach scene adorn the wall. The art is primitive and highly colorful utilizing many different media. I sit at the counter where Cesar is my guide to the Wolfie's breakfast experience.
I ordered a ham and cheese omelet. Cesar serves a generous basket of wonderful cheese biscuits that are straight from heaven. The omelet is served and I am appalled. The egg and ham portion are carefully prepared. The cheese portion is where I have to hit the brakes hard. The omelet has a protective layer of American cheese covering it from tip to tip. Despite having been grilled in order to melt the cheese, the individual cheese slices are clearly apparent. Now I'm hoping that the uniform squares of yellow cheese substance are carefully sliced pieces of a good Tillamook or Cheddar. But my first bite confirms that the layer is the dreaded Kraft American Single Cheese Food.
What was in the head of the food technologist when they decided that this mélange of flavorings, texturizers and stabilizers was a reasonable approximation of some naturally occurring food product? What consumer sees this as a satisfactory substitute for real cheese? It does not offer a flavor that approaches any cheese that I have ever eaten. The texture is wrong. The color is too vivid. It is horrible and it blocks the way to my omelet. It is no wonder that Europeans mock American cheese.
Finished
with breakfast, I'm out of Wolfies. I take a quick spin around South
Beach, still quiet in the early morning. I want to take some pictures
but decide the need to get to Key West is more pressing. So off I go.
I did grab a picture of the Bass Museum. Under a wide eave, a
sculpture is hung from the bottom of the overhanging building. The
sculpture is hundreds of pieces of metal that hang in a wide concave
shape.
Miami is known among many things, for its architecture. The famous Art Deco buildings are part of a National Historic District and are being preserved and renovated. In the last twenty years a newer Miami architectural style has evolved that is vivid in the use of color and experimental in its use of form.
My route back across Biscayne Bay takes me along a road that is opposite the cruise ship terminal. There are three ships in port with space for another three or possibly four more. Two of the ships are huge.
Across the causeway and back on the mainland, downtown Miami looks very handsome. An impressive new Performing Arts Center bears the American Airlines logo. A rapid transit system is in evidence. This looks like a nice place worth visiting again. Add it to the list.
The ride from Miami to the northern end of the keys is in congested city traffic. I pass through or adjacent to so many famous places: Key Biscayne, Coral Gables. Finally I come to Homestead: the last town before you head across the southern end of the Everglades to the Keys. Homestead was of course brutalized by Hurricane Andrew some years ago and there are still large tracts of land that have not been rebuilt.
I have to admit to being surprised by the trip out to Key West. I had expected that the road would be a long bridge or causeway to a tiny dot of an island, followed by another dot of an island, long causeway and so on. Of course it is not like that or there would not have been an economic incentive to build first the railroad and then the highway. The keys are long slender barrier islands hooked together by a succession of something like 43 bridges. Another surprise is that they are geologically related to the Appalachian Mountains being the submerged ridge of the southern end of that mountain range.
Key West was first a Spanish settlement, then a British property before becoming part of the US in 1819. In addition to a trading port, Key West's real wealth came from salvaging ships that had run aground on the reefs of the Florida coast and Caribbean. A turtle and then sponge industry followed creating a very wealthy city. Access remained a problem until the construction of the Overseas Railroad in 1912. Evidence of the railroad is still visible in bridges that are now used as fishing platforms. The earlier wealth of the city is evident in the many beautiful homes and buildings.
A hurricane in 1935 destroyed portions of the railroad and it was never rebuilt. It did however provide some of the bridges and the right of way to build the first Overseas Highway. The highway now uses new bridges and the old highway bridges can be seen as I drive to the south. Nature is well on her way to reclaiming these older bridges. The guardrails hang or sag as rot or rust destroys them. Plants: grasses, palms and some small trees can be seen growing on the old roadbed.
Traffic was very dense as I passed through the first set of keys referred to generally as Key Largo. Islamorada encompasses seven keys and lies to the south of Key Largo. Once south of Islamorada the traffic became much more manageable.
Marathon, named for the mammoth task of constructing a seven mile bridge across the ocean to link with the lower keys, is the approximate half way point for the trip to Key West. The trip across the Seven Mile Bridge is amazing. This is the point where I got the full effect of flying over the water. It was particularly thrilling where the bridge arches high to allow yachts to pass under the roadway.
Once in Key West, I'm impressed by the old part of town. I'm lucky enough to be staying at a gay guesthouse that is within blocks of the center of the old town and Duval Street. The grounds of the hotel are a lush garden filled with palms, ferns, bougainvillea, ginger and other tropical plants.
Key West is celebrating its Independence Day, Key West having seceded as the Conch Republic a few years ago. An afternoon bed race is held down Duval Street. Beds. Participants are dressed in a range of creative disguises for the race down the street. The rules apparently require at least one 'rider' and four pushers. The Coast Guard Station seems to have fielded the most athletic team. Style points go, in my opinion, to the bar that has prepared a bed in the form of a giant high-heeled shoe a la a Priscilla Queen of the Desert. The entry from Bourbon Street with the four leather men providing power and the dominatrix as a rider might have won if she had been more convincing in her wielding of the lash. The crowded cheered and it all seemed to be in great fun.
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Leather Men push the entry from the Bull and Whistle / Garden of Eden. They did very poorly. |
The team from Hogs Breath was better dressed for a footrace. The entry gave off a really foul odor. |
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This team from Diner Shores is dressed for a night out but at least they left their 'pumps' at home. Sensible flats -- gotta love that. |
Speaking of pumps! This entry from Bourbon Street Pub did its best to evoke a great scene in Priscilla Queen of the Desert! |
No chance for the evening sunset ritual tonight as the cloud cover continues to threaten rain but doesn't really ever deliver. Mark, a internet motorcycle buddy and local Conch is meeting me for drinks. I wait outside the guesthouse for him to arrive and I get another deja vu about Venice Italy. I have spent many nights in Venice. Her personality changes as the tourists retreat and night settles in like a heavy blanket. So it is in Key West. A light rain has chased most everyone indoors. Brigades of passing mopeds periodically break the quiet of the evening. The quiet soon returns with the soft tapping of the rain on roofs, cars and the tropical plants.
Key West feels like it could be heaven.
A rain delay turns my two day stay into a three day stay, but do I leave, read on.
Depart Miami Beach on Florida Route A1A (Collins Boulevard) heading south.
Turn right, heading east, onto US Route 41.
Turn right, heading south, onto US Route 1.
Arrive Key West.
(c) 2001 Thomas N. Engler` Revision Date: 04/29/2001 revised on
09/23/2001
