Key
Largo, Florida
May 4, 2003, late
afternoon, we arrived in Key Largo and checked into the world
famous Holiday Inn. What's it famous for? Why, that's
where the original boat "African Queen," used in the
movie of the same name, is located, and it's available for
personal cruises if you have sufficient funds and a need for such
a boat ride.
In the movie it got
blown up in the end. Also, in the movie, Bogart cut a couple
of holes in the front to hold his homemade torpedoes, and they
aren't in this boat either, so maybe they used another boat to cut
the holes in and blow up...or maybe this boat is really a fake.
You can click on
the website below to find out more about the African Queen and the
tour of the coral reef in a glass bottom boat:
Key
Largo Attractions & Information
Glass Bottom Boat Tour. The
old folks took this boat tour, and since there was a glass bottom
in that boat, everybuddy got searched to make sure they weren't
carrying any glass cutters. The boat took us on a
seven-mile voyage to Molasses Reef in an air-conditioned cabin
while me (Sparky) and Scruffy guzzled root beer and had a bite
from the snack bar.
Key Largo coral reef tour sign |
Key Largo glass bottom tour boat |
View of glass bottom |
Waterway to Florida Straits |
Everybuddy watched the waters of
the Atlantic turn from blue green to the brilliant royal blue of
the Gulf Stream, then we went down into the basement of the boat,
to the viewing area. With 280 square feet of glass, it's the
largest viewing well of any glass bottom boat in North America.
The windows are located in the flat part of the hull, so there's
no distortion to affect your view as the narrator describes the
remarkable undersea world of John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park
and the Key Largo National Marine Sanctuary.
There was even some reel cool junk
in the bottom of the water, like a winch off of a boat that
crashed there, and a pile of train tracks where a boat full of
tracks sunk during the construction of the Flagler Railroad about
a hundred years ago!
Oh, yeah, the fish were also reel
cool. Click on the link above for more information, or click
below for information about the John Pennekamp Coral Reef State
Park:
John
Pennecamp Coral Reef State Park Information
Some of you might be interested in
what Dexter did while the old folks was away doing that boat
tour. The pitchers below tell the story
Dexter got
hungry for a reel good mattress tag, and jest couldn't
resist. Then he decided to play "King of the
pillow pile." Nothing got hurt but the mattress
tag. |
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Long Key State
Park
We arrived at Long
Key State Park on the morning of May 5, 2003, and everybuddy got
out to stretch their legs and paws. (The old folks don't have
paws, so they jest stretched their legs).
We walked along the
wooden bridge over some swampy like area and got to a place where
they had reel cool picnic areas, with a table and a roof over
it. Near the end of the walkway there was a great view of
the Straits of Florida, which is another different kind of ocean,
or something. They also had a big coconut tree with coconuts
growing all over it. None of us guys wanted to learn how to
climb up that tree and get us a coconut fer lunch, so we didn't
get one.
Long Key entry bridge |
Long Key picnic areas |
Long Key view of Florida Straits |
Long Key coconut tree |
They also had some
mosquitoes, and the old folks each got another mosquito bite, and
they smacked another 2 mosquitoes each, so that helped the
scorecard a little. For more information about Long Key
State Park, click below:
Long
Key State Park Information
You ken click below to find out a
bunch more about the Florida Keys:
Florida
Keys Information
Seven Mile Bridge was seven
miles long, and was built for Henry Flagler's Overseas Railroad in
the early part of the 20th century, but they cut it to let boats
go under it, so now it is only about 2.5 miles long, and allows
access to Pigeon Key. That's too short to bother taking the
bikes off of the bike rack, so the old folks didn't take a ride
there.
Bahia Honda State Park is on
the north end of another interesting bridge. Built
originally for the Flagler Overseas Railroad, it was comprised of
a series of steel truss bridge segments anchored to concrete
bases. When the railroad was abandoned, the State of Florida
decided to use it for the highway, but being a railroad bridge, it
wasn't wide enough to handle 2 lanes of traffic. An
enterprising engineer decided how to add a 2-lane highway to the
top of the trusses.
Motorists who drove over that
bridge reported that it was a scary ride, since the roadway hung
over both sides, and the entire structure was reported to creak
and groan under the weight of traffic. Today it has been cut
at both ends to prevent access to the dangerous structure, and to
provide access for boat traffic.
Bahia
Honda State Park Information
Side view of bridge middle |
View of cutout at west end |
Side view of west end |
Crumbling concrete |
The website below shows some
interesting construction details of several of the bridges in the
area. If the link below doesn't work, search for
"Flagler Railroad Bridges" to find another website:
Old
Flagler Railroad Bridge Information
Big Pine Key is where the
tiny "Key Deer" live. They are only 26 to 30
inches tall, and are on the endangered list. You can find
out more about them on this very good website:
Key
Deer Information
Key West
This is the
southernmost point of the Continental United States. We
arrived there on the 5th in the afternoon, and checked into
another motel. The next morning, May 6, 2003, the old folks
took a tour on a bus, and the driver took them all over the
place. They got off in the downtown area and found out that
You ken buy more kinds of T-shirts and other stuff you don't need
there than anywhere else in the area. And in case you're
having trubble finding enough flamingos fer your front yard or in
your house, you ken jest go there to a flamingo store they saw.
Key West cement thingy |
Southernmost
U. S. house |
Key West Flamingo Store |
Key West Downtown |
After the bus tour,
we took off fer Key Largo again, and you ken read all about it on
the next page. We didn't go back there to take that glass
bottom boat tour again, we jest stopped at a motel again cuz it
was getting late in the day, and those mosquitoes come out jest
before dark.
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