On U.S. Hwy 1 heading down into the Florida Keys the concrete barriers are turquoise. They become plain concrete later on, though. Probably because the turquoise barriers would not show up as well against the turquoise water of the ocean and bays.
Also, as we approached the Keys the warning sign said crocodiles instead of the alligators we’ve become used to seeing. Your guess is probably better than mine as to why that should be so.
As we entered Key Largo one of the first things I saw was a sign identifying a building as a hurricane shelter. Sure glad it’s not that season now but just in cast there is a rogue one we’ll know where to go.
The next sign I noticed was a place advertising, “tie downs, roof overs, storm shutters.”
And the schools team is the hurricanes.
Do you think they are proud of living in the path of hurricanes?
Pop’s motel had a sign saying, “Wish you were here.” I bet they do. It’s what I call shoulder season now–most of the snowbirds have left and the summer vacationers aren’t due for a few months yet. That makes it a good time for us. The mobs are gone but the weather is nice.
This bridge is called seven mile bridge. If you look closely at the horizon to the left of the bridge you can see land.
The keys have their own deer. The Key Deer we slowed for as it crossed the road ahead of us was very small. I don’t know if they only get that large because we only saw the one.
We drove over a boat. It’s OK. We were on a bridge over a causeway it was transiting.
Dave got a kick out of the billboard that said, “Prevent scurvy. Eat Key Lime Pie.”
Whoever is in charge of bridge construction here has been hard at it. We drove on lots of bridges that had old ones still standing along side. Instead of spending money to tear them down they take out a section at each end to keep people off them.
Or, if the bridge is not too unsafe they leave parts of them as fishing piers or walking paths. Or, in this case it is closed to all vehicles except, apparently, ones for this island. They still have their access ramp and I saw one very small truck near their end of the bridge.
We camped two nights at Long Key State Park in an attempt to catch up with ourselves. We had the ocean right behind us, Hwy 1 not far in front of us, and Florida Bay on the other side of the highway. We had really good breezes here which made me not mind the heat of the day so much. Here’s how close the ocean is to our campsite:
And here’s a little fellow that came to visit. You can see he’s shy; he ran away when Dave went out. So it’s good we got his picture through our window before he did.
I saw a billboard advertising Rapala fishing lures. It said, “More hits than Google.” I doubt that’s true but it’s a good line.
There were lots of people along U.S. Hwy 1 waiting for the bus to come. I wondered how long they would have to wait since the clerk at Boyd’s, when we asked about taking the bus to Mallory Square, said something along the lines of, “You’re in the Keys. The bus will come when the driver is ready to bring it.”
We saw some kids about middle school age walking home from school. I looked at their backpacks and found myself thinking, “The girls have their whole lives in those packs. The boys have today’s assignment.”
As we were crossing a bridge I saw a floating billboard telling boaters they are coming near a tiki bar. And that, my friends, is a fine example of the Florida Keys.
TTYL,
Linda