FIFTY STATES AWAYAfter a fabulous day at the Kennedy Space Centre we decided to head on down to Miami. We had only planned to drive through and stay outside the city as we had a mighty long drive after this down to Key West.
As we got to Miami and then drove through, stopping for dinner we could not for the life of us find any accommodation! A bit of a crisis when we’d had such a busy day. There were still rooms available closer to Key West so we decided to carry on driving hoping to find somewhere, even though it would be late. We’d anticipated that this might happen at some point, as part of a road trip but poor old Ben! We drove on stopping at every motel and becoming more worried as the no vacancy signs were out in force! We had no choice but to carry on driving through the night.
After stopping for coffee to keep us going it was now dawn, we took a break and stopped at an Ihop for a pancake breakfast, delicious chocolate pancakes! We finally found somewhere in Key West that had a room left, although this meant another mammoth drive it suited things well as we couldn’t check in until around 3pm and we didn’t have anything else to do with ourselves except drive.
Despite our tiredness and the one very long road the drive was quite spectacular!
After the day that has felt like an eternity we finally arrived at our rather glamorous but expensive hotel. We decided to stay awake until bedtime fearing that a nap would ruin any semblance of a normal sleep pattern. The hotel had a novelty ice cream type truck on the grounds that served food so we got ourselves ready and dressed up, we popped over and got some grub before heading over the the bar for a few drinks. No matter how little energy we have we try to seize every moment.
Several cocktails later and a good night’s sleep we were ready to hit the road once again, for the long but scenic drive back up to Florida. We had planned to take an epic seaplane flight out to Dry Tortuga to do some snorkeling however there is only one company doing the flights and unfortunately for us they were fully booked. The only downside at times to the travelling is not knowing when you’ll be somewhere and therefore not being able to book things ahead. They did offer us a date a few days later but we decided that we needed to head off.
On the drive back we decided to stop for none other than the famous key lime pie! We found a rather bright and funky look shop, also named after the aforementioned famous desert and pulled off the road. Inside was a lovely older lady who greeted us warmly. Upon asking for the pie she opened the massive freezer behind her and handed us a boxed up slice each. We were both a bit stunned at the space inside this thing and the amount of pie! The lady suggested that we sit outside in her garden, not expecting much and glad to be out of the car we went through. We totally did not expect what laid before us. It was like some kind of meditation garden. There was a ginormous tree, little fountains and pots full of orchids, even better we had the place to ourselves. We sat quietly taking it all in and stuffing ourselves full of delicious pie! The pie was sort of like a cheesecake ice-cream really, with a lovely lime hint. It was filling but not overwhelming.
Finishing up the pie we decided to head off, we made a quick stop and an interesting place to see about swimming and interacting with dolphins. Getting out of the car we noticed a couple of massive lizards just sitting in the road! By god did they leg it when we went in for a closer photo opportunity! Inside the place they had numerous baskets, some full with sleeping cats some empty, where the kitty had gone for a wander, we both commented on how Linda would have loved it! The kitties had been rescued and being well cared for despite numerous health issues.
Ultimately at this point we decided not to dip in with the dolphins. I am still struggling somewhat with the idea, I know it would be wonderful but there’s a piece of my conscience not quite ok with the fact that these are trained animals in captivity. I have learned to a lot from my sister about aquatic animals and dolphins are her favourite animals, I couldn’t help but wonder what she would think of the idea. After an exceedingly long drive (about 4 hours) we made it back to the mainland.
