Today's Miles: 262.4 Don's Total: 858.9 Sherry's Total: 1,079.2
First let me tell you this; I slept REALLY good. I hit the pillow with my normal prayer list with a few "great ride" additions. That is about the last thing I remember until a quick 3:00 AM bathroom run (and I went RIGHT back to sleep) and then I didn't wake up again until after 6:30. Wow.....I never sleep that late. Sherry says that it was basically the same for her. She read a little, watched about 15 minutes of TV and, BAM, she was asleep until morning.
I got all ready. When I emerged from my room Sherry was already wiping the dew, which was heavy, off the bike seats. I walked down to the office to ask about the Wifi connection. That is when I found out that the Guest Book had the correct password but they haven't gotten around to "telling" the rooms yet.
I gave Lisa a quick call. I didn't want to call too early because it is the weekend and she likes to get in a few extra minutes of sleep on weekend mornings. Of course, the dog usually has something to say about that. I gave her a rough itinerary, she wished us well, and we ended the call with a couple air kisses.
Sherry and I jumped on the bikes and our first stop was the convenience store so I could stuff a couple of bottles of water into my saddlebags. Sherry is the smart one and she carries bottles with her and refills them every night and puts them in the freezer so she has COLD water for the ride. While I went into the store a guy pulled up in a pick-up truck and struck up a conversation with Sherry. It is funny that guys come out of the woodwork to talk to her and they will hardly notice that I am there. Anyway, this guy was one of those typical Mr. Negativity people. He said that riding across the Keys was nice but if it rained or stormed it was miserable. He said, and I quote, "I don't want to deter you but it can be awful". I should mention that he is telling us this....well, not "US" but rather "Sherry"....there was hardly a cloud in the sky. Granted, we are in Florida and if you have heat + humidity + a little instability it will = rain and/or thunderstorms. I'm sure that if we gave him the opportunity he would have gotten to the story of his next door neighbor's cousin's high school sweetheart's ex-husband's boss having a bad motorcycle wreck. He ended it all with a "have a good ride" as we started our engines.
I know that there have been many times that I have talked about the speed of traffic. Don't get me wrong, I like to give my speedometer a workout if I can. I often joke that if you are going 85 on the interstate and drive into Atlanta's city limits you have to bump it up to 95 or get run over. Heck, if you are only going 85 the school buses will pass you...........BLOWING THIER HORNS! So we jump on the Causeway to the Keys. This is the same Causeway that we "tested out" last night. The speed limit is 55. So being good Americans Sherry and I are cruising at 65. The Causeway is two lanes with a concrete median so there is NO passing. There is, however, two or three Passing Lanes that pop up during the roughly 20 mile Causeway ride. We knew there were cars behind us but we had no idea that they urgent and immediate business (more commonly called boating and fishing) in the Keys because when we hit the Passing Lanes they went passed us like we were sitting still AND some of them were passing the people that were passing us like they were sitting still. It was crazy. I am sure that someone was awarded the Sprint Cup.
With this being our third day on the road it is amazing that we have had three gorgeous days of riding. If you listened to all the weather EXPERTS that can be found in most viewing areas you would have come to the conclusion that we were going to ride in the rain every single day. So far we have gotten VERY tan arms (our hands are pasty white because we wear gloves....but our arms are tan) and our rain jackets have cobwebs. I am NOT complaining. Although I have my hopes up that the remaining 5 days will continue with this Sun Fest....I am keeping my cobweb infested rain jacket close by. Still, it has been WONDERFUL.
On ALL my previous trips to the Keys whether in a car or on the bike I have stopped at a little restaurant in Tavernier. When my good friend, Glen, was getting married in Key West they spent their arrival day at the Key Motel in Tavernier and the motel manager sent them down the street to the Tropical Café. It was GREAT. A perfect candidate for Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives. I haven't been to the Keys in a few years and I looked and looked but I saw no Keys Motel or a Tropical Café. Well, fooey. I searched again as we traveled back in the afternoon and again didn't see hide nor hair of them. So I am either suffering from OLD AGE blindness or they are not there.......it could go either way!
The traffic along U.S. 1 across the Overseas Highway that crosses the Keys from Key Largo to Key West was heavy but it moved along well. Apparently the NASCAR drivers that populate the Causeway do not drive on the rest of the route to Key West.
Our first stopping point was the Southern Most Point buoy. If you have never been to Key West let me tell you that this is the...I mean THE...major photo op point on the whole island. That isn't entirely true. There are many other major photo op points during Key West's Fantasy Fest in the fall. My cardiologist will not permit me to attend. Back to the Southern Most Point. The line to take pictures was WAY long. So we illegally parked in a resident spot a half block away and took some quick selfies and nabbed a passer by to take a picture that had our bikes, us, and the SMP. That was cool...but he was to pop into our lives again.
We saddled up and got out of our illegal parking situation.....that we were only in for about 5 minutes..and moved on to our second point. We illegally parked in a NO PARKING spot so we could take our picture with the U.S. 1 Mile 0 sign. We each took a selfie and a picture of each other. Then we looked to see who we could grab to take our picture together......and who do you think we saw? Yep, it was the same guy that took our picture at the SMP. He gladly took our picture and then told us that the first time was free but now that he was "On Demand" his rate was $50 a picture. I told him to send us an invoice online. While I packed up the bikes Sherry took pictures for some other people.
We rode around two or three different blocks about 4 times each to find a place to park....LEGALLY. We wanted to have lunch so we had to stay on the right side of the law for this one. We finally went into a lot. When I went to pay "the guy" there was no guy to pay. Instead there was a sign that said to get the ParkMobile app, sign up, and pay that way....there was a Post Script saying that the lot was checked often. We downloaded the app and we both paid for our bikes. At the time, there was only one other car in the lot. It must be an acceptable way to do it because when we came back from lunch the lot was almost full.
For lunch we went to a place called Fogarty's. The very first time that Lisa and I went to Key West (that was 
a few days right after Christopher Columbus declared it the sovereign property of Ernest Hemmingway) we went to that restaurant every day for a week for lunch. It was a Hooters then but they had a crab leg special that was a killer deal and Lisa LOVES crab legs. It was a bit slow...they say that the computer spit our order AFTER everyone else's. Computers don't just do things like that on their own. Personally, I think it spit out the order and it got lost. Due to that we had to wait a bit longer. We made a comment and got a discount. The food was actually delicious and the discount made it taste a little sweet.
From there we started back across the Keys. We stopped about 10 miles out of Key West at a Circle K for Gas and a Pee.....well, we didn't buy a pee but we left them some. Oh whatever! The ride back was just as nice as the ride there. It was, however, pretty hot. After we had gone a little over 100 miles and we were pulling onto the Causeway for the last 20 miles or so traffic was moving nicely. Then all of a sudden it stopped. I could see across the water where the Causeway curved into view and I could tell that it was moving well. Still, I couldn't resist saying to Sherry that maybe we would be sitting there for 4 hours like yesterday. I wish that I could show you the look on her face. That alone would make reading this blog worthwhile.
Once back we did a run to the store for water, snacks, and beer. I came to my room to lounge and to catch up on emails, messages, and writing the journal. Sherry washed her clothes. Now I know that you are picturing her putting coins into a washing machine. That was not to be. She saw that a load to WASH was $6. Plus she would have to buy soap. Plus she would have to pay some more to dry. So she washed her clothes in the bathtub. I apologize that I do not have video of that to show you because I am sure that it was a fun thing to watch but I didn't know it was happening until she came outside and hung the clothes on her bike to dry. After that she headed off to the pool. When she came back she stuck her head in my door and said "I'm going to bed". And I think that is a good thing to tell you. I am going to bed.
I hope to be back with you tomorrow with Chapter Seven. Feel free to Like, Share, and/or comment. If you are a glutton for literary punishment check out the blog everyday. Good Night!
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