Friday, June 24, 2005
On the Road Again
posted by Jonathan at 11:55 AM
Current location: Brunswick, GA, N 31 08.403', W 081 35.039', elev. 40 ft.
On Wednesday, I drove all day to get out of Florida. I was sick of the rain everyday, the mosquitoes, and the humidity of the swamp, so I drove and drove all day. I left Naples and traveled North on I-75, until I got to Lake City, where I took I-10 East to Jacksonville, then I-95 North until I got to Georgia. Once in Georgia, I tried to find a place to camp for the night, I visited 3 different camp grounds from my Woodall's campground guide. One of the locations had no remaining camping sites. The other two accepted only RVs, no tents. So I kept driving north on I-95, looking for more camp grounds, until it got too late to pitch a tent, so I found a real nice motel in Brunswick, GA.
On the way through Florida, I really started to notice the billboards for some reason. For some reason, the billboards were more noticeable. I saw several graphic, vehement anti-abortion billboards. I saw a pro gun billboard that proclaimed the United Nations want to take away your gun!. I saw several billboards for an adult video-book store / club 60 miles down the road, offering free showers for truckers. And finally, I saw a lot of horse farms, and a billboard for a motel that proclaimed horses stay free! Speaking of horses, during one of the many thunderstorms during the drive, I saw a truck with a horse trailer in an accident on the side of the road. The horses seemed to be ok, but the trailer looked a little worse for wear.
The scariest part of the day happened early, I was driving in the left lane, passing a motorhome, and I was about on his seven o'clock. All of a sudden, I saw a lot of smoke coming from the back tires of the vehicle. Then, chunks of rubber started to burn off, flying in all directions, pelting my car and the road. It looked like a piece of junk or a meteorite burning up in the atmosphere, debris flying all over. Then a huge chunk of tire spun around and off the vehicle, and that was that. Luckily, the axle had 4 tires, so he was able to pull over.
On thursday, I took the day off from driving, because the motel I was in was really clean and had some nice amenities, and I wanted to work on the website. Today I am off, to Savannah, and then on to Atlanta.
On Wednesday, I drove all day to get out of Florida. I was sick of the rain everyday, the mosquitoes, and the humidity of the swamp, so I drove and drove all day. I left Naples and traveled North on I-75, until I got to Lake City, where I took I-10 East to Jacksonville, then I-95 North until I got to Georgia. Once in Georgia, I tried to find a place to camp for the night, I visited 3 different camp grounds from my Woodall's campground guide. One of the locations had no remaining camping sites. The other two accepted only RVs, no tents. So I kept driving north on I-95, looking for more camp grounds, until it got too late to pitch a tent, so I found a real nice motel in Brunswick, GA.
On the way through Florida, I really started to notice the billboards for some reason. For some reason, the billboards were more noticeable. I saw several graphic, vehement anti-abortion billboards. I saw a pro gun billboard that proclaimed the United Nations want to take away your gun!. I saw several billboards for an adult video-book store / club 60 miles down the road, offering free showers for truckers. And finally, I saw a lot of horse farms, and a billboard for a motel that proclaimed horses stay free! Speaking of horses, during one of the many thunderstorms during the drive, I saw a truck with a horse trailer in an accident on the side of the road. The horses seemed to be ok, but the trailer looked a little worse for wear.
The scariest part of the day happened early, I was driving in the left lane, passing a motorhome, and I was about on his seven o'clock. All of a sudden, I saw a lot of smoke coming from the back tires of the vehicle. Then, chunks of rubber started to burn off, flying in all directions, pelting my car and the road. It looked like a piece of junk or a meteorite burning up in the atmosphere, debris flying all over. Then a huge chunk of tire spun around and off the vehicle, and that was that. Luckily, the axle had 4 tires, so he was able to pull over.
On thursday, I took the day off from driving, because the motel I was in was really clean and had some nice amenities, and I wanted to work on the website. Today I am off, to Savannah, and then on to Atlanta.
Finally
The site design is finished enough to put up. Its still a bit under construction, as there is no content on the left yet. If you have a personal website or blog and would like me to link to it, let me know.
Also, please let me know if you find any problems with any browser.
Also, please let me know if you find any problems with any browser.
Wednesday, June 22, 2005
Sounds of the Everglades
Current Location: Naples, FL N 26 04.718', W 081 43.213' elev 22 ft.
On Tuesday, I checked out of my motel in Homestead, FL about 10 AM. I asked the desk manager of the motel which was the best way to get to the Everglades. She replied that she didn't think the Everglades were in that part of Florida. OK. So anyway, I quickly looked at my atlas and drove the five miles down to the Everglades area.
I spent a lot of time writing, so I arrived at my first stop at about 1:30 PM. First stop was Everglades Alligator Farm, which is technically not a part of Everglades National Park, it is a private site just outside the park. The signs promised jet boat rides and alligator shows all day, so I figured I had to do this. I walked into the place, and signed up for a boat ride and entrance to the park, total cost was $17, which I thought was not too rough.
My boat ride was at 2:25, so I had some time to walk around the park, and see some alligators and crocodiles.
The alligators were huge, but lazy and docile, and the just loved crawling around in the green goop in the breeding pen. The pen was huge, probably a half a mile walk around the perimeter. The farm was not particularly filled with people, so I was pretty much by myself when walking. Let me tell you, when you have alligators behind fences on both sides of you, any little noise behind you, even a mosquito, makes you jump.
I left the pen area and got over near the boat area, and I noticed this photo op I couldn't pass up:
Somehow, I don't think the sign is necessary.
The alligator on the left spent about 25 minutes sneaking up on that turtle, only to lose out to the alligator on the right, who spent less time sneaking up on the turtle, but was closer. The turtle didn't even know what happened before the alligator just up and swallowed it. It was an amazing site to behold.
After witnessing this, there was a short alligator show before the boat ride. The alligator show included a guide talking about alligators, their habitat, their habits, the farm, and then he wrestled a large alligator and showed us how we should do it if the need ever arose. Everyone in the audience could then hold a baby alligator.
After this show, I wandered over to the baby alligator breeding pens.
Alligators grow a foot a year for the first six to eight years of their life.
After this, it was finally time for the jet boat ride through the Everglades, what I had really paid for. We had an entertaining boat driver, he was very knowledgeable, and also upfront with the group that he was going to spin the boat out on the river. The Everglades, an area the size of Delaware is basically a huge, very slow moving, very shallow river. There is no other place on earth like the Everglades. Some parts of the river were less than 7 inches deep, but the boat only drafts about 3 inches of water when moving slow, and only about 1 inch when moving at full speed (at least according to the pilot). The first part of the boat ride was slow so we could take some photos.
Then the pilot started to open up the engines as we got away from the farm a bit, I'd say our top speed was about 50 mph. When we would reach a wider swath of water path, you just knew he was going to dump the boat and spin us at top speed. That was quite an enjoyable ride, and refreshingly cool, as water would wash over the sides of the boat onto our feet and spray into our faces. The boat ride lasted about 25 minutes and was very fun, definitely worth the price of admission.
Directly after the jet boat ride, there was a feeding demonstration back at the mating pen, so I got to sit and watch as the guide talked about alligators, and their feeding habits. He then proceeded to throw rats into the water and pen, so it was amazing to watch these huge beasts, some weighing as much as 300 pounds, fighting over a tiny rat. He explained that alligators only eat about 20% of their body weight a year, but would eat every day if they could, and so they have a big group feeding of thousands of pounds of meat about 4 times a year. The rat feedings were only for demonstrations.
I then left the alligator farm and went into the Everglades National Park itself. The roads leading up to the park were desolate, empty farm roads. The first thing you notice in the park is there a large yellow sign proclaiming a panther crossing for the next 3 miles. I walked up to the visitor's center, and I should have known from the start I was in for a bit of trouble. I was looking at a map of the park outside, and I was just overwhelmed by huge mosquitoes. I moved away from the map on the way into the visitor's center, and the mosquitoes followed me, a few feet back, tracking me like a private investigator. I looked down, and had several specks of dead mosquito all over my legs. I was momentarily safe inside the visitor's center, so I walked around looking for the park map and guide; I've started a collection of these. I bought some mosquito spray, briefly talked to a park ranger, and made my way back to my car.
I went to the Everglades hoping to see a lot of wildlife to photograph, but I didn't really see too many large animals. I did however get some good photos of tiny animals, some grasshoppers:
and some lizards:
The Everglades is a huge breeding ground for ugly, gross insects. I found dragonflies bigger than birds, and mosquitoes bigger than my thumb. One thing I noticed about the park was that it was pretty empty for the most part. I am guessing June is not the best time to visit a swamp in south Florida. However, the park was filled with foreigners and church youth groups. Meanwhile, when I would get in or out of my car to view an attraction, my car would fill with mosquitoes. No matter how much spray I used, the mosquitoes would get me, and they would always know where you didn't spray. For instance, if I sprayed my whole hand, they would land on the one knuckle I missed and feast. I was covered with deet, and covered with bites. My whole car smelled of bug spray, it was making me nauseous, but didn't seem to knock the bugs down any.
Despite all this, I did enjoy my time in the Everglades. Since there were few people, you could really enjoy the sounds of the swamp. The Everglades has clicking, clacking, croaking, cawing, chirping, etc. When getting out for an attraction, I took to taking my flip flops off to make less noise, so I could see and hear more wildlife. At the end of the park road, 50 miles from the visitor center, is a place called Flamingo (N 25 08.201', W 080 55.986', elev 5 ft.), which has a lot of cabins and campsites. I got out on a beach there, and had a good glimpse into the bay of some of the keys. I came across some vultures and took their photo:
A delicious meal of dead fish
See the rest of the day's good photos here.
I thought about getting out and getting a cabin in Flamingo, but I realized I just want to get out of Florida. I took an hour to drive out of the park, then drove north on Rt. 1 until I got to US 41. I drove west US 41, a road that circuits the national park. On the road, there were some great signs, that read speed limit 60 mph 45 mph night, but the way the signs were constructed, it was hard to see the 45 mph part of the sign during the day, and the 60 mph part of the sign at night. When I arrived in Naples, I stopped for the night.
On Tuesday, I checked out of my motel in Homestead, FL about 10 AM. I asked the desk manager of the motel which was the best way to get to the Everglades. She replied that she didn't think the Everglades were in that part of Florida. OK. So anyway, I quickly looked at my atlas and drove the five miles down to the Everglades area.
I spent a lot of time writing, so I arrived at my first stop at about 1:30 PM. First stop was Everglades Alligator Farm, which is technically not a part of Everglades National Park, it is a private site just outside the park. The signs promised jet boat rides and alligator shows all day, so I figured I had to do this. I walked into the place, and signed up for a boat ride and entrance to the park, total cost was $17, which I thought was not too rough.
My boat ride was at 2:25, so I had some time to walk around the park, and see some alligators and crocodiles.
The alligators were huge, but lazy and docile, and the just loved crawling around in the green goop in the breeding pen. The pen was huge, probably a half a mile walk around the perimeter. The farm was not particularly filled with people, so I was pretty much by myself when walking. Let me tell you, when you have alligators behind fences on both sides of you, any little noise behind you, even a mosquito, makes you jump.
I left the pen area and got over near the boat area, and I noticed this photo op I couldn't pass up:
Somehow, I don't think the sign is necessary.
The alligator on the left spent about 25 minutes sneaking up on that turtle, only to lose out to the alligator on the right, who spent less time sneaking up on the turtle, but was closer. The turtle didn't even know what happened before the alligator just up and swallowed it. It was an amazing site to behold.
After witnessing this, there was a short alligator show before the boat ride. The alligator show included a guide talking about alligators, their habitat, their habits, the farm, and then he wrestled a large alligator and showed us how we should do it if the need ever arose. Everyone in the audience could then hold a baby alligator.
After this show, I wandered over to the baby alligator breeding pens.
Alligators grow a foot a year for the first six to eight years of their life.
After this, it was finally time for the jet boat ride through the Everglades, what I had really paid for. We had an entertaining boat driver, he was very knowledgeable, and also upfront with the group that he was going to spin the boat out on the river. The Everglades, an area the size of Delaware is basically a huge, very slow moving, very shallow river. There is no other place on earth like the Everglades. Some parts of the river were less than 7 inches deep, but the boat only drafts about 3 inches of water when moving slow, and only about 1 inch when moving at full speed (at least according to the pilot). The first part of the boat ride was slow so we could take some photos.
Then the pilot started to open up the engines as we got away from the farm a bit, I'd say our top speed was about 50 mph. When we would reach a wider swath of water path, you just knew he was going to dump the boat and spin us at top speed. That was quite an enjoyable ride, and refreshingly cool, as water would wash over the sides of the boat onto our feet and spray into our faces. The boat ride lasted about 25 minutes and was very fun, definitely worth the price of admission.
Directly after the jet boat ride, there was a feeding demonstration back at the mating pen, so I got to sit and watch as the guide talked about alligators, and their feeding habits. He then proceeded to throw rats into the water and pen, so it was amazing to watch these huge beasts, some weighing as much as 300 pounds, fighting over a tiny rat. He explained that alligators only eat about 20% of their body weight a year, but would eat every day if they could, and so they have a big group feeding of thousands of pounds of meat about 4 times a year. The rat feedings were only for demonstrations.
I then left the alligator farm and went into the Everglades National Park itself. The roads leading up to the park were desolate, empty farm roads. The first thing you notice in the park is there a large yellow sign proclaiming a panther crossing for the next 3 miles. I walked up to the visitor's center, and I should have known from the start I was in for a bit of trouble. I was looking at a map of the park outside, and I was just overwhelmed by huge mosquitoes. I moved away from the map on the way into the visitor's center, and the mosquitoes followed me, a few feet back, tracking me like a private investigator. I looked down, and had several specks of dead mosquito all over my legs. I was momentarily safe inside the visitor's center, so I walked around looking for the park map and guide; I've started a collection of these. I bought some mosquito spray, briefly talked to a park ranger, and made my way back to my car.
I went to the Everglades hoping to see a lot of wildlife to photograph, but I didn't really see too many large animals. I did however get some good photos of tiny animals, some grasshoppers:
and some lizards:
The Everglades is a huge breeding ground for ugly, gross insects. I found dragonflies bigger than birds, and mosquitoes bigger than my thumb. One thing I noticed about the park was that it was pretty empty for the most part. I am guessing June is not the best time to visit a swamp in south Florida. However, the park was filled with foreigners and church youth groups. Meanwhile, when I would get in or out of my car to view an attraction, my car would fill with mosquitoes. No matter how much spray I used, the mosquitoes would get me, and they would always know where you didn't spray. For instance, if I sprayed my whole hand, they would land on the one knuckle I missed and feast. I was covered with deet, and covered with bites. My whole car smelled of bug spray, it was making me nauseous, but didn't seem to knock the bugs down any.
Despite all this, I did enjoy my time in the Everglades. Since there were few people, you could really enjoy the sounds of the swamp. The Everglades has clicking, clacking, croaking, cawing, chirping, etc. When getting out for an attraction, I took to taking my flip flops off to make less noise, so I could see and hear more wildlife. At the end of the park road, 50 miles from the visitor center, is a place called Flamingo (N 25 08.201', W 080 55.986', elev 5 ft.), which has a lot of cabins and campsites. I got out on a beach there, and had a good glimpse into the bay of some of the keys. I came across some vultures and took their photo:
A delicious meal of dead fish
See the rest of the day's good photos here.
I thought about getting out and getting a cabin in Flamingo, but I realized I just want to get out of Florida. I took an hour to drive out of the park, then drove north on Rt. 1 until I got to US 41. I drove west US 41, a road that circuits the national park. On the road, there were some great signs, that read speed limit 60 mph 45 mph night, but the way the signs were constructed, it was hard to see the 45 mph part of the sign during the day, and the 60 mph part of the sign at night. When I arrived in Naples, I stopped for the night.
Tuesday, June 21, 2005
Bearing the Marks of Unusual Fashion
posted by Jonathan at 10:44 AM
Current location: Homestead, FL N 25 28.084', W 080 28.334', elev 23 ft.
On friday, about noon, I picked up Zeke (my dad) at Ft. Lauderdale airport. I made a quick stop for gas; I paid at the pump and the gas pump asked for my zip code, which I thought was pretty neat, a nice security feature. After getting gas, we headed out, driving south on I-95 until its end in Miami. At the end of I-95, it turns into US Rt. 1, and immediately, we are in tons of traffic, and traffic lights. I think a lot of people had the same idea we had, to head down to the Keys for the weekend. Only about half the cars had Florida plates, we saw lots of other states, including my first glimpse of Hawaii. Eventually, in Homestead, FL, the traffic clears up a bit, and we get out onto the Keys, Key Largo first.
US 1 on the Keys is quite an amazing journey, a testament to human engineering and the quest for beauty. The road in is a fun drive, but you quickly notice there are tons of cops patrolling the road, pulling people over, their lights flashing, people slowing down, keeping to 55 MPH. You're not gonna get me this time, coppers.
Driving on the keys, you could tell when the road was getting closer to the water; the air outside would cool down from 90s and humid to 80s and humid, but it was definitely a windows down drive. Arriving at the bridges between keys, I would drive over and think to myself this is a beautiful river and afterwards remember that I was traveling over the ocean. Besides the road, there are two landmarks that travel with you through the keys, one is the electric service pilons, stretching 50 feet into the air next to the road, the other is the old rail road bridge, not in use since a big hurricane the in the 1930's crumbling and decrepit, deliciously creepy.
The south is the land of old men, wearing shorts, dock shoes, and black socks pulled up over their knees, and Florida is no exception. You would see these people bearing the marks of unusual fashion, fishing from the rail road bridge remains, teetering near the edge of the water, and never really bringing up a catch.
We arrived in Key West by 5:30, checked into the motel, got cleaned up, then grabbed a cab to the downtown area. The main drag in Key West is Duval St., along with Front St. and Mallory Square, this is where most of the action takes place. Key West has over 300 bars, which is not nearly enough for a land area of just under 8 square miles. Our first stop was Sloppy Joe's bar, a Key West staple.
Zeke and I had a few drinks and listened and watched the entertainment, Pete and Wayne, two crude but very enjoyable singers, who perform their own parody songs. The crowd really loves them! Zeke and I sort of convinced each other to forgo dinner in favor of drinking. (Probably not a good idea). Around 8 PM, Sloppy Joes lost power, but quickly regained due to a generator. We learned that all of Key West had lost power, and since we were having a great time, we decided to stick it out at Sloppy Joes, for better or worse. It got much more crowded, as people filtered in from other parts of Duval St. A highlight of Key West is the sunset, but we decided to stay at Sloppy Joes, because they had a live feed of the sunset from the waterfront, on monitors.
As the night progressed, I got drunker and drunker, and couldn't really keep up with my dad, despite my best efforts. Later on, he watched as I tried to shake my stuff on the dance floor. I was quite inebriated, but didn't find too many dance partners before calling it a night.
On saturday I slept in a bit, because I wasn't feeling too great. We drove into town, and I found the marker I was looking for:
Key West's Rt. 1 marker is not as cool as Fort Kent's, but it is more of a destination
About 10:30 AM, we got down into the main part of town, and walked around the dock area taking photos, before deciding to go on a glass bottom boat tour of the barrier reef.
Yes, there are random wild chickens running about, as well as feral cats, descended from Ernest Hemingway's pets.
The Florida Keys is all built on a barrier reef, the third longest in the world. The reef we went to see in the glass bottom boat was about 6 or 7 miles off shore. The water is clean and beautiful, a shade of green I have never seen before. The boat tour was excellent, we had a great naturalist on board who identified many species and talked about the reef eco system with us. We saw a nurse shark and some barracuda, as well as about 25 other fish species
Oooooh, barracuda!
It was about this time that I started to feel really motion sick, for only the second time in my life. I couldn't really take looking down into the bottom of the boat anymore, so I just sat in a seat and stared off into the horizon, as I have heard this alleviates the problem slightly. I usually have an excellent constitution, especially on boats, but not this day. It has been my experience that once you are motion sick, you can't really get rid of it, at least until you are back on stable, dry land, and have a chance to rest. We got back from the boat tour at about 1, and walked around town, deciding on a place to eat. By this time, I was feeling completely awful, but I didn't think I was hungover. I didn't feel quite hungover, no headache, just generally ill. Standing in the sun was especially awful, it made me feel like I needed to vomit. I would step in the shade and feel slightly better, but as soon as sunlight would hit me directly again, I would just feel worse. We finally found a little cafe/deli to eat at, and I got a gatorade with my lunch and as soon as I chugged it, I started sweating profusely. It was then that I realized I was massively dehydrated! This was obviously the cause of my sickness; I hadn't really drank any water since the day before, and had a lot of alcohol, how stupid of me. I drank a lot more fluids, including two more gatorades, and two waters, directly after that to rehydrate myself.
After that, we drove around the island, doing a complete circuit, taking photos and driving around looking at the manmade beaches. The beaches were pretty gross, most did not have direct water access, but rather a sea wall, and there was tons and tons of dried, dead seaweed washed up on the shores. The smell was horrific, probably some of the worst natural smells I have ever experienced.
We found the southernmost skating rink in the United States. It was out doors no less.
Southernmost Point - I have the longest, and southernmost, beard I've ever had.
We also found the southernmost point in the United States, 90 miles from Cuba, where I grabbed a GPS reading. Key West, FL N 24 32.790', W 081 47.849' elev 5 ft.
Driving around the island, we saw Ford Mustangs everywhere. Maybe 1 out of 15 or 1 out of 20 cars was a Mustang, and that is no Jon Sheldon exaggeration. Of the Mustangs, 9 out of 10 were the new, beautiful looking Mustangs.
We then went back to the motel to shower up before dinner, hoping we'd be done early enough to view the sunset. In restaurants and bars, standing around, you notice a ton of body odor, it is unmistakable and unavoidable. The stench permeates the air, making the smell of your delicious dinner a bit ambiguous and nausea inducing. It is as if everyone has been out all day, sweating in the Florida sun and humidity, hanging out at the beach, swimming out at the reef, but then decided not to shower or clean up before going out for the evening; this is a great way to meet people, I've heard.
Unfortunately it took forever for our dinner to arrive, so we didn't really have a chance to see the sunset. We didn't drink too much with dinner due to the debacle the night before. We did have a small bit of entertainment, however, due to the obnoxious family next to us. They had an older daughter about 22, with her boyfriend, and a younger daughter about 19. The older daughter made two separate scenes in the restaurant, she kept belittling her younger sister and sucking up to her father, while cursing out her mother. After her second scene, she disappeared for a while, and no doubt did some drugs; when she got back to the table, she was all loopy, a total mess. After dinner, we just went back to the motel and crashed from the tiring day.
On sunday, we had reservations to snorkel out on the reef. We had tried to make reservations to go to Dry Tortugas National Park, the most remote of the National Parks. It is on a Key 70 miles west of Key West. Many people think that Key West is the westernmost key, but that is not true, it is pretty close to the middle, it is just the end of the road. Unfortunately, there is only two boat tours out to the park, and they don't come back in the middle of the day, it is an all day event. Both boat tours were booked. There is also a sea plane tour you can take, but at $189 per person, that is more than I paid to fly Zeke down for Father's Day.
However, snorkeling was totally awesome, a major highlight of the trip so far. The water was so warm, high 80s. I had never snorkeled before, and there was unusually high waves at the reef, (4 or 5 feet), so it took me about 10 minutes to get used to snorkeling, but once I did, I really enjoyed myself. I had to fight against intuiont to breathe with my nose, and I eventually figured out that when a wave hit, I was better off with my face in the water staring at the sea floor than popped out of the water waiting for the wave hit.
I saw some really great stuff snorkeling, at least 12 species of fish. Even though I knew I had nothing to worry about, I got a little scared when a barracuda that was at least 4 feet, maybe even 5 feet, swam directly beneath me, close enough I could have kicked his face. A lot of other fish swam right up to me, and at point I must have had about 40 or 50 rainbow colored fish just swimming around checking me and the other snorkelers out.
It doesn't show up well here, but I'm the tannest I've been in at least 12 years
After snorkeling, we walked around Key West some more, looking at various tourist trap museums before deciding the price probably wouldn't be worth it. We did finally settle on Mel Fischer's Pirate museum, a museum where Mel Fischer's treasure is on display. Starting in the early 1970's he hauled in more than $200 million in sunken prate treasure from various wrecks off the keys over 17 years. My dad really had a great time at this museum.
At this point, we went back to the room, cleaned ourselves off from the ocean, then went out with the intention of having a quick dinner, visiting some gift shops to get souvenirs, and seeing the sunset. I am collecting post cards from my trip, it is a really inexpensive way to get a souvenir of the places I've been, plus I wanted to send out a few postcards to family and friends. We found a store specializing in Mile 0 merchandise, and I found this very appropriate for my trip, so I got a T-Shirt. Walking in and out of the giftshops, we found a lot of the shopkeepers to be working in an alternate reality, either drunk or just completely stoned out of this world.
We are in Florida, so it should come as no surprise that a huge thunderstorm hit ferociously and fiercely, the sky opening up and all the water pouring out in one big waterfall. After the storm the sky remained very cloudy. It was looking more and more likely we wouldn't get to see the sunset on this trip a real bummer. I'd have to wait until the west coast. We walked around Mallory Square anyway, everynight at sunset, they have a big party, and there are local entertainers, like live animal trick shows, sword swallowers, and people making animals out of balloons. We grabbed a slice of pizza for dinner, and just hoped and hoped the sun would poke out before it set. It was so precarious we were not too hopeful for it to happen.
And then all of a sudden, as we were starting to walk away, there was a murmur in the crowds. The clouds were starting to break over the west, near the sun. You could see it coming through. I got my camera ready and was able to take about 40 awesome shots of the sunset. Because of all the clouds near the sun, it turned out to be the best sunset of the weekend according to people in the clouds. For me, it was the second best sunset I have ever seen, next to the one I saw on day 1 of my Alaskan cruise last summer.
You can find all the good photos of the trip here, including a few more photos of the sunset.
Yesterday, we drove all day out of the Keys, and I dropped Zeke off in Ft. Lauderdale about 2 for his flight. I made my back south down Rt. 1 and A1A, along Miami Beach. Big surprise, more rain. The rain this time was some of the worst I've seen on the trip, instant flooding on the Miami Beach roads. Unfortunately, I did not get to see much of Miami as I was too busy making sure my car was fording the the flooded roads. Some of the flooding looked higher than my car door so I was in a precarious place. I then proceeded through traffic back to down to Homestead, where I got a motel early in the evening and worked on reconciling my bank accounts and bills. Today, I am off to Everglades National Park.
On friday, about noon, I picked up Zeke (my dad) at Ft. Lauderdale airport. I made a quick stop for gas; I paid at the pump and the gas pump asked for my zip code, which I thought was pretty neat, a nice security feature. After getting gas, we headed out, driving south on I-95 until its end in Miami. At the end of I-95, it turns into US Rt. 1, and immediately, we are in tons of traffic, and traffic lights. I think a lot of people had the same idea we had, to head down to the Keys for the weekend. Only about half the cars had Florida plates, we saw lots of other states, including my first glimpse of Hawaii. Eventually, in Homestead, FL, the traffic clears up a bit, and we get out onto the Keys, Key Largo first.
US 1 on the Keys is quite an amazing journey, a testament to human engineering and the quest for beauty. The road in is a fun drive, but you quickly notice there are tons of cops patrolling the road, pulling people over, their lights flashing, people slowing down, keeping to 55 MPH. You're not gonna get me this time, coppers.
Driving on the keys, you could tell when the road was getting closer to the water; the air outside would cool down from 90s and humid to 80s and humid, but it was definitely a windows down drive. Arriving at the bridges between keys, I would drive over and think to myself this is a beautiful river and afterwards remember that I was traveling over the ocean. Besides the road, there are two landmarks that travel with you through the keys, one is the electric service pilons, stretching 50 feet into the air next to the road, the other is the old rail road bridge, not in use since a big hurricane the in the 1930's crumbling and decrepit, deliciously creepy.
The south is the land of old men, wearing shorts, dock shoes, and black socks pulled up over their knees, and Florida is no exception. You would see these people bearing the marks of unusual fashion, fishing from the rail road bridge remains, teetering near the edge of the water, and never really bringing up a catch.
We arrived in Key West by 5:30, checked into the motel, got cleaned up, then grabbed a cab to the downtown area. The main drag in Key West is Duval St., along with Front St. and Mallory Square, this is where most of the action takes place. Key West has over 300 bars, which is not nearly enough for a land area of just under 8 square miles. Our first stop was Sloppy Joe's bar, a Key West staple.
Zeke and I had a few drinks and listened and watched the entertainment, Pete and Wayne, two crude but very enjoyable singers, who perform their own parody songs. The crowd really loves them! Zeke and I sort of convinced each other to forgo dinner in favor of drinking. (Probably not a good idea). Around 8 PM, Sloppy Joes lost power, but quickly regained due to a generator. We learned that all of Key West had lost power, and since we were having a great time, we decided to stick it out at Sloppy Joes, for better or worse. It got much more crowded, as people filtered in from other parts of Duval St. A highlight of Key West is the sunset, but we decided to stay at Sloppy Joes, because they had a live feed of the sunset from the waterfront, on monitors.
As the night progressed, I got drunker and drunker, and couldn't really keep up with my dad, despite my best efforts. Later on, he watched as I tried to shake my stuff on the dance floor. I was quite inebriated, but didn't find too many dance partners before calling it a night.
On saturday I slept in a bit, because I wasn't feeling too great. We drove into town, and I found the marker I was looking for:
Key West's Rt. 1 marker is not as cool as Fort Kent's, but it is more of a destination
About 10:30 AM, we got down into the main part of town, and walked around the dock area taking photos, before deciding to go on a glass bottom boat tour of the barrier reef.
Yes, there are random wild chickens running about, as well as feral cats, descended from Ernest Hemingway's pets.
The Florida Keys is all built on a barrier reef, the third longest in the world. The reef we went to see in the glass bottom boat was about 6 or 7 miles off shore. The water is clean and beautiful, a shade of green I have never seen before. The boat tour was excellent, we had a great naturalist on board who identified many species and talked about the reef eco system with us. We saw a nurse shark and some barracuda, as well as about 25 other fish species
Oooooh, barracuda!
It was about this time that I started to feel really motion sick, for only the second time in my life. I couldn't really take looking down into the bottom of the boat anymore, so I just sat in a seat and stared off into the horizon, as I have heard this alleviates the problem slightly. I usually have an excellent constitution, especially on boats, but not this day. It has been my experience that once you are motion sick, you can't really get rid of it, at least until you are back on stable, dry land, and have a chance to rest. We got back from the boat tour at about 1, and walked around town, deciding on a place to eat. By this time, I was feeling completely awful, but I didn't think I was hungover. I didn't feel quite hungover, no headache, just generally ill. Standing in the sun was especially awful, it made me feel like I needed to vomit. I would step in the shade and feel slightly better, but as soon as sunlight would hit me directly again, I would just feel worse. We finally found a little cafe/deli to eat at, and I got a gatorade with my lunch and as soon as I chugged it, I started sweating profusely. It was then that I realized I was massively dehydrated! This was obviously the cause of my sickness; I hadn't really drank any water since the day before, and had a lot of alcohol, how stupid of me. I drank a lot more fluids, including two more gatorades, and two waters, directly after that to rehydrate myself.
After that, we drove around the island, doing a complete circuit, taking photos and driving around looking at the manmade beaches. The beaches were pretty gross, most did not have direct water access, but rather a sea wall, and there was tons and tons of dried, dead seaweed washed up on the shores. The smell was horrific, probably some of the worst natural smells I have ever experienced.
We found the southernmost skating rink in the United States. It was out doors no less.
Southernmost Point - I have the longest, and southernmost, beard I've ever had.
We also found the southernmost point in the United States, 90 miles from Cuba, where I grabbed a GPS reading. Key West, FL N 24 32.790', W 081 47.849' elev 5 ft.
Driving around the island, we saw Ford Mustangs everywhere. Maybe 1 out of 15 or 1 out of 20 cars was a Mustang, and that is no Jon Sheldon exaggeration. Of the Mustangs, 9 out of 10 were the new, beautiful looking Mustangs.
We then went back to the motel to shower up before dinner, hoping we'd be done early enough to view the sunset. In restaurants and bars, standing around, you notice a ton of body odor, it is unmistakable and unavoidable. The stench permeates the air, making the smell of your delicious dinner a bit ambiguous and nausea inducing. It is as if everyone has been out all day, sweating in the Florida sun and humidity, hanging out at the beach, swimming out at the reef, but then decided not to shower or clean up before going out for the evening; this is a great way to meet people, I've heard.
Unfortunately it took forever for our dinner to arrive, so we didn't really have a chance to see the sunset. We didn't drink too much with dinner due to the debacle the night before. We did have a small bit of entertainment, however, due to the obnoxious family next to us. They had an older daughter about 22, with her boyfriend, and a younger daughter about 19. The older daughter made two separate scenes in the restaurant, she kept belittling her younger sister and sucking up to her father, while cursing out her mother. After her second scene, she disappeared for a while, and no doubt did some drugs; when she got back to the table, she was all loopy, a total mess. After dinner, we just went back to the motel and crashed from the tiring day.
On sunday, we had reservations to snorkel out on the reef. We had tried to make reservations to go to Dry Tortugas National Park, the most remote of the National Parks. It is on a Key 70 miles west of Key West. Many people think that Key West is the westernmost key, but that is not true, it is pretty close to the middle, it is just the end of the road. Unfortunately, there is only two boat tours out to the park, and they don't come back in the middle of the day, it is an all day event. Both boat tours were booked. There is also a sea plane tour you can take, but at $189 per person, that is more than I paid to fly Zeke down for Father's Day.
However, snorkeling was totally awesome, a major highlight of the trip so far. The water was so warm, high 80s. I had never snorkeled before, and there was unusually high waves at the reef, (4 or 5 feet), so it took me about 10 minutes to get used to snorkeling, but once I did, I really enjoyed myself. I had to fight against intuiont to breathe with my nose, and I eventually figured out that when a wave hit, I was better off with my face in the water staring at the sea floor than popped out of the water waiting for the wave hit.
I saw some really great stuff snorkeling, at least 12 species of fish. Even though I knew I had nothing to worry about, I got a little scared when a barracuda that was at least 4 feet, maybe even 5 feet, swam directly beneath me, close enough I could have kicked his face. A lot of other fish swam right up to me, and at point I must have had about 40 or 50 rainbow colored fish just swimming around checking me and the other snorkelers out.
It doesn't show up well here, but I'm the tannest I've been in at least 12 years
After snorkeling, we walked around Key West some more, looking at various tourist trap museums before deciding the price probably wouldn't be worth it. We did finally settle on Mel Fischer's Pirate museum, a museum where Mel Fischer's treasure is on display. Starting in the early 1970's he hauled in more than $200 million in sunken prate treasure from various wrecks off the keys over 17 years. My dad really had a great time at this museum.
At this point, we went back to the room, cleaned ourselves off from the ocean, then went out with the intention of having a quick dinner, visiting some gift shops to get souvenirs, and seeing the sunset. I am collecting post cards from my trip, it is a really inexpensive way to get a souvenir of the places I've been, plus I wanted to send out a few postcards to family and friends. We found a store specializing in Mile 0 merchandise, and I found this very appropriate for my trip, so I got a T-Shirt. Walking in and out of the giftshops, we found a lot of the shopkeepers to be working in an alternate reality, either drunk or just completely stoned out of this world.
We are in Florida, so it should come as no surprise that a huge thunderstorm hit ferociously and fiercely, the sky opening up and all the water pouring out in one big waterfall. After the storm the sky remained very cloudy. It was looking more and more likely we wouldn't get to see the sunset on this trip a real bummer. I'd have to wait until the west coast. We walked around Mallory Square anyway, everynight at sunset, they have a big party, and there are local entertainers, like live animal trick shows, sword swallowers, and people making animals out of balloons. We grabbed a slice of pizza for dinner, and just hoped and hoped the sun would poke out before it set. It was so precarious we were not too hopeful for it to happen.
And then all of a sudden, as we were starting to walk away, there was a murmur in the crowds. The clouds were starting to break over the west, near the sun. You could see it coming through. I got my camera ready and was able to take about 40 awesome shots of the sunset. Because of all the clouds near the sun, it turned out to be the best sunset of the weekend according to people in the clouds. For me, it was the second best sunset I have ever seen, next to the one I saw on day 1 of my Alaskan cruise last summer.
You can find all the good photos of the trip here, including a few more photos of the sunset.
Yesterday, we drove all day out of the Keys, and I dropped Zeke off in Ft. Lauderdale about 2 for his flight. I made my back south down Rt. 1 and A1A, along Miami Beach. Big surprise, more rain. The rain this time was some of the worst I've seen on the trip, instant flooding on the Miami Beach roads. Unfortunately, I did not get to see much of Miami as I was too busy making sure my car was fording the the flooded roads. Some of the flooding looked higher than my car door so I was in a precarious place. I then proceeded through traffic back to down to Homestead, where I got a motel early in the evening and worked on reconciling my bank accounts and bills. Today, I am off to Everglades National Park.