Day 9 Thusday Oct 20, Key West, FL sighseeing

Today is our ninth day of travel since leaving Ohio on Oct 12 and the fifth day of our GatorMog tour of Florida.  It is a much needed sightseeing day with no driving.  The cars will remain in the hotel parking lot while we make other arrangements to go into downtown Key West and behave like tourists. 

Sleeping Morgans

Of course, we began the day with the usual hotel provided continental breakfast.

Our tour guides and leaders, Mark and Andrea Braunstein

We were pleased to see that our encounter with the local newspaper reporter resulted in a large front page photograph.  Now we are famous... well, perhaps for 15 seconds.

Many of us decided to take a "hop on, hop off" 13-stop tour trolley to town.  The driver took us past the "southernmost spot in the USA, marked by this unique monument.

Once downtown we hopped off and started walking down Duval street again.  Lots of interesting shops and eateries, but most unique was the old Strand Theatre, now converted into a Walgreens drug store.

There are a many significant historical sights on the island,  We chose to tour the Truman Little White House, a home on what at one time was a Navy Base here.  It was build in 1890 as quarters for Navy Officers,  but later used by American presidents Taft, Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Carter and Clinton.   Truman used the facility more than the other presidents as a vacation home and functioning White House between 1946 and 1952, spending a total of 175 days there including 11 working vacations.  President Eisenhower used the house while recuperating from a heart attack in 1956.  In 1961 a summit between President Kennedy and British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan during the Bay of Pigs incident, and Kennedy came back after the Cuban Missile Crisis.

After the tour we walked, and walked and finally ended up at the waterfront marina area looking for and finding a late lunch.  While we enjoyed lunch we could watch a chap cleaning fresh caught fish on the dock next door.

 When the fish scraps were tossed into the water near the dock a group of large Tarpon swarmed and fought over the pieces.  Meanwhile this Ibis or Egret watched carefully for a scrap too.

There were many locations where musicians would be playing for tips in the Mallory Park area.
This steel drummer was quite good.

Now, a chicken story....

The trolley driver explained the presence of so many chickens wandering around the streets all over Key West.  Seems years ago the government started to tax farmers for each chicken they owned.  The farmers retaliated by releasing all of their chickens into the wild.  Many generations of chickens later they still roam the city.  One side benefit, said the trolley man, they eat mosquitos, so there are very few of around.  We were never bothered by the flying insects at all. The chickens, however, have become clever beggars if encouraged.


The scheduled evening event and finale for our Key West visit was a dinner cruise on a 65 foot catamaran in the Gulf of Mexico north of the Keys.  A couple of hours of food, music, dancing and another spectacular sunset.  What a nice way to end our stay in Key West.

On the road again tomorrow, as we head north to West Palm Beach. 

Day 8 Wednesday Oct 19 Key Largo to Key West FL

The road to Key West from Key Largo is basic.... two lanes, one in each direction most of the way.   Some of the highway is four lane, but not much.  Speed limits are 45 mostly, some 55 mph so traffic is reasonable and not frenetic.  We cruised with our convertible tops down and window side-curtains removed.  Very nice way to travel. 

The highway was modernized some years ago, sorry I don't know when, but remnants of an old railroad bridge are still evident at a place called the 7-mile bridge.  Some of the old bridge still stands, though is not used except as a fishing spot. 

We arrived in Key West, a hundred miles from Key Largo, too early to check into our hotel, so we drove down into town despite being warned about traffic congestion there.  We wanted to find a photo opportunity to document our three cars... the Buckleys, Leos, and Kneisleys. 

A famous spot in town is the "Southernmost spot in the USA" at the end of Duval Street and South Street.  Alas, there was no place to park and a huge crowd there.   Therefore we drove back through town recalling the sea wall along the Straits of Florida (part of the Atlantic Ocean) and found a place to park for pictures.

A young chap rolling along on a bicycle offered to help take some photos.  We staged some pics with each of us standing by our cars and he deftly crossed traffic to take this nice picture:

As he was finishing up, along came this energetic lady, camera and notebook in hand explaining that she was Gena Parsons, a reporter from the Key West Citizen newspaper. Could she take our picture she asked.  Sure we said. 

And she took many.

She said, with editors approval, her story may be in tomorrows paper... if not then maybe next Monday. 

By this time it was getting quite hot out... perhaps 95 degrees and we needed to check in to the hotel and get some lunch.  After the check in process and moving our stuff into the rooms we went to the Tiki Bar, or as they call them in Florida, the Cheekie Bar.

Lunch was good, but more entertaining was the Iguana that waltzed through the pool area looking for handouts.

Considering the traffic congestion we opted to take a taxi to downtown Key West to do some touristy stuff and find out about this interesting place.

Duval Street.... the main street of Key West

\

Hemmingway's hangout

After some shopping we decided it was time to go back to Sloppy Joes for some

light refreshment.

We almost by accident we tripped on the Key West Historic Memorial Sculpture Garden tucked in a corner on a downtown side street.

"The Wreckers"  sculpture depicting the spirit of Key West as a bold, boisterous and bustling sea town out on the frontier of a young America.   The early wreckers are depicted engaging in their work of saving lives and cargo from vessels who came into peril on the reefs.  Wrecking was the islands first economy and the reason for their early existence making it the richest city per capita in the U.S. during the mid-1800's due to salvage fees received by the wrecking crews and captains."

The garden featured sculptures and biographies of those people who,

by their actions, developed and prospered in Key West.

 Along about sunset people begin to gather at Mallory Square on the south western tip of Key West.  The purpose is to watch the sunset, reported to be the best sunsets anywhere. 

Even on this relatively off season night there were several hundred people gathered

along the rail watching the receding sun.

And like the sun, after sunset most were gone, off to hear the many musicians in the area.

But the suns beauty remained for several more minutes.

And our dinner on the patio of the Westin Hotel, right there at Mallory Park was outstanding.

Tomorrow, more fun at Key West.

Day 7 Tuesday Oct 18, 2016 Naples, FL to Key Largo, FL --Revs Museum plus.

A rather leisurely start this morning.  We are headed to the Revs Institute which houses the Collier Car Collection.  They open at 10 so we don't need to turn the keys in the cars until about 9:30.  They were impressed when a dozen shiny Morgans pulled into their parking lot, even though they were expecting us.  These are car people and get excited with any special type of cars...and Morgans are truly special.

First order of business was a group photo. 

Then into the collection, lead by a very good docent.  Fitst was a display of three sporty red cars, all historical, a Fiat Abarth,  and early Porsche and Alfa Romeo.

My all time favorite car is the 1938 BMW Type 328

The docent tour guide was extremely knowledgeable and entertaining as he let our group through the museum

I thought this pretty French car had an interesting color -- French blue?

A pre-war Mercedes Benz race car with cut away hood to reveal the workings.  This car's racing career lasted just one race when  its racing career was cut short due to the war.

The Revs is a fascinating facility if you enjoy cars.... unfortunately there were no Morgans there, except ours. 

Andy and Anne Leo at Revs Institute

While the majority of the Gator Mog group went to a local place for lunch, the three troubadours, Leos, Buckleys and Knesleys went off on our own to find the Smallwood Store, an old historical hardware store in Chokoloskee, FL, deep in the everglades. 

The Smalllwood Store

Huge selection of old stuff.

The Smallwood Store back porch overlooking the Chokoloskee Bay

Back on the Tamiami Trail, searching for lunch we passed the The USA's smallest Post Office

Ochopee, Fl Post Office

Then we found Joanies Blue Crab -- renound for their lunches here in the middle of the Tamiami trail and rural Florida.  We were so hungry I forgot to take a picture of the building, but we did take this photo of an alligator in the swamp right behind the restaurant.

Cruising along the Tamiami Trail.... US 41. 

We caught up with the rest of the group at The Big Cypress Gallery, Clyde Butchers gallery and HQ.  He is an Ansel Adams of the current day working with black and white photography selling large format photos in frames for many dollars. 

An almost casualty of the day, Chuck and Karen Bernath's lovely yellow 67 Plus 4 four place car came limping into the gallery parking lot with a steering issue.  The GatorMog crew broke out the jack they brought along and Chuck and Andy Leo  made a temporary remedy, so they could continue. 

While they worked on the car Sally Kneisley and Anne Leo looked over the swamp nearby to see if there were any alligators lurking there.

We drove on to Key Largo in heavy traffic once we got near Homestead and arrived about 7pm. 

Tomorrow off to Key West for a two day stay.