June 28 (R) – Key West
Well, we made it. The southernmost city in the US. Key West. Lots of damage still being repaired but the tourist areas have reopened and are in full swing. Been a long time coming. Sometimes it feels like it took too long. Wall-to-wall people as usual. As one billboard put it:
It’s vibrant history, funky bars, colorful characters, and laid-back vibe attract over two million visitors every year.
Good grief it was busy. Had Benny and I still lived here I would have been getting around on the bike but maybe not now that Benny has outgrown the carrier. First traffic light was at MM 3.9; i
f you go left it is State Road A1A. First comes Houseboat Row. All but gone today, the seawall and protected basin on the left was once home to a famously colorful houseboat community. The houseboats moved to Garrison Bight and Stock Island. The entrance to Key West International Airport is next. Small but busy, it could be insane at certain times of day/year. Especially during an evacuation or a convention or festival. After the airport is Smathers Beach, the longest beach in Key West. It is lined with palm trees and has restrooms, volleyball courts, and picnic areas and isn’t any less popular for walking. There is a long sidewalk along that side of the road that a lot of people take their daily constitutionals on. A1A eventually rejoins U.S. 1 at Whitehead Street.
If you go right at the stop light it is US 1 or Roosevelt after crossing the Salt Run Bridge (MM 2.3). There is a small but extremely busy supermarket complex at MM 1.9 and MM 1.7; both of the stores are Publix and yes people have their favorite even though they are so close together. Also at MM 1.7 is Palm Avenue, the entrance to the USCG Naval Station at Trumbo Point. Had I been alone I could have probably gotten us a campground at the Sigsbee RV Park that only serves military families.
Roosevelt Avenue becomes Truman Avenue and at Windsor Lane is the historic Key West Cemetery. The cemetery is a lot like the Key West: quirky, crowded, colorful and full of history. The cemetery was founded in 1847 after a terrible hurricane in October 1846 washed away the old cemetery, scattering the dead throughout a forest. As a result, the oldest gravestones in this cemetery — built on the highest point in Key West — are actually older than the cemetery itself. They date to 1829 and were moved there after the hurricane. Also on Windsor Lane is the historic Basilica of St. Mary Star of the Sea.
I turned right at Whitehead Street to make a stop at the Key West Lighthouse & Keeper’s Quarters. Not much further down the road was the Hemingway Home & Museum. The way it was told to me is that
Ernest Hemingway, the famous author, ended up in Key West like many others — by accident. He came for a day and ended up staying for a decade. That was more than a century ago, and the town has yet to recover from his presence. Papa, as he was known around town, left a spirit that continues to permeate the island, or so the ghost story tellers say. His former home, complete with a gaggle of six-toed cats, one of which had a liaison with one of Stella’s cats (obvious due to the resulting kittens), remains one of the most popular tourist attractions in the Keys. The Green Parrot Bar isn’t far from there either.
We finally made it to MM 0. Everything was looking familiar yet eerily not. Lev insisted on a group photo of all four of us at the mile marker afterwards I gave my memorized spiel from when I helped out at the local joints.
U.S. 1 begins at the Monroe County Courthouse, 500 Whitehead Street, Key West, and continues north for 2,369 miles to Fort Kent, Maine, on the Canadian border. Segments are variously known as “Boston Post Road” (New England) or “Atlantic Highway.” The first 113-mile segment, built on the trackbed of Henry Flagler’s railroad, is known as the Overseas Highway.
Rick went to go sign in at Fort Zachary Taylor Historic State Park to make sure there were no snafus here at the very end and to meet with one of his supervisors that had flown down. I wasn’t sure what they wanted us to do from this point forward, but I had a few ideas and started talking them out with Lev.
We’d been walking around for about an hour, just giving Lev a chance to get more film when he got a text not to eat, that tonight we were invited to Sloppy Joe’s
[1] and tomorrow we would be eating at Captain Tony’s (the original Sloppy Joe). I really hate those last-minute changes that Rick springs on us but it is a lesson in flexibility I am trying to learn. But yeah, ugh. There goes my menu. We were instructed to check into Fort Zachary Taylor and we tried to get in a few things before heading to Sloppy Joe’s.
I’ve bussed tables for tips at Sloppy Joe’s. I thought I knew everyone, but I didn’t recognize a single person there. The band had even changed and they’d been around a long time. Place was still loud, crowded, busy, with all the same memorabilia on the walls, but it wasn’t the same place I remembered. Or maybe I wasn’t the same person. It is crazy what a year can do.
I think I’m done. Done with the assignment, the grant, and The Keys. I might even be done with traveling though that doesn’t feel quite right. I still have a little of that left to do, at least enough that it will get us to the River House, at least for a while. I have no idea what comes after that.
[1] Home - Sloppy Joe's