Florida Keys, Day 4, really

Since Maria's friends left the night before, right after we had dinner, we really had no plan at all for the day. We had just figured there was bound to be something to do, and it seemed a waste to spend new year's eve driving home all day, so we went back to the guidebook.

Bahia Honda, for the win! We tried pretty aimlessly to find a place to eat breakfast, only to end up with McDonald's, since no breakfast places on Big Pine Key were open (3 had actually shut down recently, according to the crazy local guy who'd been living on his boat for 30 years).

So we tried to find some key deer since we were there. It was too hot, so we only saw one, hiding in the shade.





Then it was on to Bahia Honda State Park. If you read the earlier parts, I had said that we'd be standing on that section of bridge later. This is where that bridge was. This is a section of Flagler's railway that didn't need use for trains anymore, as they never rebuilt the railway after the 1935 hurricane. So they used it for the Overseas Highway. This bridge was so narrow, that passengers had to be told to keep their hands inside to avoid hitting the trusses. Not wide enough for 2 car lanes...so they built the road on top of the friggin' train trusses...the VERY TOP!









Now I'm sorry, but can I get a "HELL NO!!" to driving over the top of those rusty-ass steel train trusses put there almost a hundred years ago? THANK YOU for the new road!

Absolutely spectacular view from up here, though!







It's hard to see in the picture below, but there is a shark in the water, just above and parallel to the shadow of the bridge. The water here was a bit clouded today with some weather coming or something. Not only did we watch him swimming around for a bit, but about 30 feet to the left of that little breakwater wall sticking out to separate the lagoon from the channel, he TWICE jumped completely out of the water like those damn crazy Great Whites do in South Africa!?!?! We were like WTF?!?!? I know damn well it was no dolphin, and am 100% sure it was a shark, and that sumbitch breached the surface TWICE inside of 5 minutes. Not just poke his dorsal fin out of the water, but jumped, whole body out of the water about a foot, jumped!

It was amazing to see.



Then we saw a Spotted Ray swim toward us and out under the bridge. You see it real good when he was in the shadow.












So I decide to go snorkeling over in that lagoon down there. I went as far as the breakwater, but I still couldn't see too good in that water, and I knew there were sharks in the water, and the jellyfish were everywhere, too. So I didn't go out past the swim bouys or anything dumb(er) like that.









Then it was time to get gas and head back to the campground to clean up before going to Key West for New Year's Eve!



We had a Cheeseburger on the balcony overlooking Duvall Street as the sun was setting. The crowds were just starting to come out. Our waitress told us all the places to be, but it was still very early.





Since there was hardly anyone out yet, we decided to walk to the South end of Duvall, as we hadn't been there, yet. There was not much going on, so we walked over to the Southernmost marker again...just because I could see it a block away, so why not?!





They were practicing the lowering of the slipper (with a transvestite in it) with the CNN camera crew in front of the Bourbon Street Bar.



Walked back up to the North end of Duvall (hey, the island is only 2 miles x 4 miles LOL), saw where the original Sloppy Joe's was, a half a block from it's current location. Legend has it the owner told his customers to grab their stools one night, as they were moving, and they walked to the new place, over a rent increase dispute. Now it's Captain Tony's. According to Pirate John's guide (which I got the info about the barstools from!), Captain Tony is an interesting character in his own right! I must go back...too much to see!



Walked around a bit in the darker corners, and found a lot more cool stuff to check out. It was all closed, but even more reason to go back.





And on the back of the obelisk:



We went back over to the harbor to see the lit up boats. There were a LOT of VERY expensive yachts in town. By expensive, I mean multi-million dollar yachts that cost more than every house you've ever owned combined, expensive. They apparently lower a wench at this party.





We had more Key Lime pie to kill time until it was close to midnight, then we decided we'd be at Sloppy Joe's to watch the dropping of the Conch at midnight. Caught a few sets of beads for Maria, got a champagne overspray, but otherwise it was a good time to be able to say we'd done it. Neither of us likes crowds, and I don't even drink, but it was fun to say we'd done it once. And now I never have to do that crap again :-)













We had been finding good parking everywhere we went, and never paid for parking. This was no different, and we got out of town pretty quickly, despite the crowds.

The next day, we woke up to 2008 to break camp finally, and head out of town...The sky was beautiful as we got up early. We drove out of town, and off the keys, only stopping to gas up or go to the restroom. Weather was turning, as that cold front that had been threatening us down here finally decided to turn toward us. It rained on us as Maria took over the driving (first time she'd driven the truck), but we didn't care, as vacation was over...and we like the rain. When we saw the Skyway bridge, we knew we were close.

Just another beautiful day in paradise...