Route 1, Day Eight: KEY WEST!

January 5th: we leave Banana Bay in Marathon around noon and head west on Route 1, aka the Overseas Highway. Just like rural South Carolina, with its rhythm of signs, DO NOT PASS, PASS WITH CARE, this highway develops its own rhythm of names: Big Pine Channel, Big Pine Key; Torch Channel, Torch Key.

Jim stops the car just beyond the green Key West sign

then I take the wheel for the final miles. The traffic into Key West crawls, but I’m content. I pass the end of Route 1 sign and search for parking. Just as our optimism flags, an on-the-street spot appears, with an eleven hour limit. We walk back to the highway signs: there is a constant stream of tourists taking pictures of the “End 1, Mile 0”, and “Begin 1 North, Mile 0” signs. I brag to the tourists who offer to swap phones to get group pictures: We started in Boston and drove Route 1 all the way here! It took a week. They seem suitably impressed, but of course they have no idea.

R’el emails me a photo of her and me at the same spot on the 4th of July, 2008, when she was doing a hospital rotation in Miami. We went scuba diving in Key Largo and then drove to Key West. We ate key lime pie and bought Stewart's Key Lime soda.

I buy postcards and a ‘Route 1, Mile 0’ T-shirt and we find a ‘hop on, hop off’ Cityview tour trolley. We ride the circuit twice. I find it disorienting to have water on three sides of such a small area.

We stroll down Duval Street and find a cute little bistro with an Argentinian waitress. I have shrimp and penne, Jim has chicken and scalloped potatoes. We again finish off with bread pudding with ice cream and key lime pie. The pie is different from the St. Augustine version. It’s not as creamy and tastes more like fresh key limes with a touch of rind. I like them both.
Jim signs up with Airbnb and finds a sailboat to sleep on. Our hosts, James and Roberta, are from Goshen, Indiana. Their boat is berthed at a marina on Stock Island, just east of Key West. We’re below deck, in a room slightly bigger than the double bed, which is tapered at the foot. We have a private powder room. It has a shower, but they use it for storage. The marina has showers and a washer and dryer; that’s where we’ll be tomorrow morning.

As I write this I feel a gentle sway. Ah, to be rocked to sleep in the Florida Keys.