No Boat Travel
Bus Travel - Marathon to Key West
Depart: 8:10 Marathon Bus Stop
Return: 5:30 Marathon Bus Stop
Distance: ~ 100 statute miles
Other boaters told us about the Keys Seafood Festival in Key West scheduled for yesterday and today. Several loopers from Faro Blanco planned to make the journey today, so we decided to join in on the fun. AC and Jim from Hour Plan stopped by to collect us on their way to the bus stop just before 8:00. Others planned on leaving Marathon on the 10:30 bus.
Since we arrived in Key West just before 10:00 and the festival opened at 11:00, Clark and I decided to trek back to Camille's and grab a bite for breakfast to kill some time. (AC and Jim had alternate plans.) Boy oh boy did we kill some time. A lot of stores and restaurants down here are under-staffed. We felt that pain as it took forever for our simple eggs and toast meal to arrive at the table.
While reading the menu, I found a Jersey special treat listed under "Eat Like the Locals". It made me think of my son Chris who learned to love pork roll as a scout in Boy Scout Troop 201. As I waited and waited for the food to arrive, I decided to have Clark take a picture of the menu to capture the moment.
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| New Jersey Boardwalker Sandwich Pork Roll and Cheese! |
The Seafood Festival opened at 11:00. Since it was already after 11:00 by the time we payed the check, we headed straight to the event.
Key West is always an interesting place to walk around. Today we saw a mural that Clark said showed all the things not to do in a boat. The artist named the picture "Crossing the 7 Mile Bridge". It's a beautiful mural, but "What's wrong with this picture?"
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| "Crossing the 7 Mile Bridge" 2017 Mural in Key West, FL Too many people in boat for size No Life Jackets Man with legs hanging over the bow! |
Somewhere between the restaurant and the seafood festival we spied Mr and Mrs Piggy.
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| Mr Piggy ready to go out on the town. Mrs Piggy hiding in the tree. Besides displaying pink pigs, the house was also pink! |
At the Seafood Festival itself, we spied a mobile oddity. This "Art to Go -- One Van Show" included a working kaleidoscope on the front hood and a centipede "shouting" Come Together on the roof. I tried out the kaleidoscope and appreciated the artistry used to create it.
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| "One Van Show" - Art to Go display |
Having just finished our breakfast, we decided to look around a bit before trying the seafood.
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| Here we are advertising the Seafood Festival |
One of the educational booths had a challenge showing a number of items like newspaper, fishing line, water bottle, tin can, aluminum can, paper towel, ... The person playing the game had to put the items in the order of how long it took for each to biodegrade from 2 weeks to 600 years. We watched as a woman attempted to solve the puzzle. She did amazingly well with a little help from her husband as well as input from Clark.
We also saw some displays at the National Weather Service booth on the impact of Hurricane Irma on the Lower Florida Keys.
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| Peak Wind Gusts Highest Measured Wind Gust -- Big Pine Key @ 120 mph |
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| High Water Marks Maximum Reached -- Little Turtle Key @ 5.45" |
One of the craft vendors sold cards composed of pictures of the local area. I found an old picture of Faro Blanco Marina, where we are currently docked, showing how it looked before renovation circa 2008. The card showed the original lighthouse and the dilapidated fixed wooden docks. I wanted to take a picture of the picture to keep but that's just not "cool".
After arriving in Key West, AC and Jim from Hour Plan, who we had ridden with on the bus, went to a Southern restaurant for breakfast while we went for something more traditional for us. Although we expected to see them later at the Seafood Festival, we never managed to reconnect. We did, however, meet up with Dave and Amy - the proud new owners of our old boat Sea Moss. They joined us for lunch at the festival.
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| Clark and Ev and Dave and Amy at the Key's Seafood Festival - Key West Dave said we looked like tourists holding the brochure. |
Clark and I made an excellent choice to share a seafood sample for lunch thus allowing us to try a variety of things to see what we liked. The sampler included fried grouper, conch fritters, pink, peel-and-eat shrimp, stone claw crab, and french fries. For the price I thought the quantity a little skimpy, but everything tasted great. I tried conch fritters for the first time and found them yummy like the rest of the food.
Having seen all the booths and eaten our sampler of food, we decided to follow Hour Plan's plan and target catching the 3:00 bus back to Marathon. We arrived at the corner of United and Whitehead about 45 minutes before the next scheduled bus. We could have walked further, but Clark felt certain that this stop was on the route. When we arrived in town this morning, the bus did not follow the normal route and detoured down alternate streets. Consequently, Clark felt uncertain as to whether the bus would actually show up at some of the other stops in town.
We found some entertainment at this street corner while we waited for the bus.
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| A tiger swallowing a car (just kidding) |
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| Same tiger cracking a tooth on Clark's hard head |
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| Some very strange rock formation that someone thought looked like a puppy and turned into a monument Poodle Perhaps? |
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| NOAA - National Weather Service Weather Forecast Office |
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| NOAA Office Tours Available Maybe on our next visit to Key West?! |
Clark pointed out a Dairy Queen just across the street as well, but neither of us felt like eating ice cream today.
We had a bit of a scare as we watched the kwtransit.com website for the movement and arrival of the next bus. As we followed the progress of the bus, it suddenly turned around and went the opposite direction. I thought for sure that we had missed the bus and would have to wait another two hours for the next one. I blamed Clark for picking a bus stop different from the one Hour Plan told us they planned to use.
While I groused about his stupid decision, Clark continued to watch the website for progress of the bus. It stopped for quite a while. Given this, Clark decided that the driver had gone on break. After several minutes of being stationery, the bus once again started to move - this time back in the direction that would take the bus past our stop. I apologized to Clark for doubting him.
While waiting for the bus, Clark texted Hour Plan to let them know that we would be getting on at United / Whitehead. They planned to get on at Eaton / Whitehead - a stop ahead of ours. Fully expecting to see them when we got on the bus, we were surprised to find no loopers on the bus before us. We are not sure how it happened, but we found out later that the other loopers had missed the bus and would have a two-hour wait for the next one. I praised Clark for his smart decision on bus stops.
The ride to and from Key West took us through the areas of the Keys most ravaged by Hurricane Irma. Although we saw some evidence that a hurricane had passed this way, the clean-up crew has done an amazing job. Still, we saw a boat graveyard, a bunch of demolished campers (some still on the side of the road), lots of barren brush, stacks of palm tree branches piled high, and a couple of damaged boats still in the water. The saddest views perhaps were those of totally cleared land where once homes or campers stood.
Although Clark tried, most pictures taken from the rattling shuttle bus did not turn out as the scenes passed by in a blur at 45 mph.
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| Camper Graveyard - all severely and irreparably damaged |
Besides worrying about where to catch the bus, we also had to worry about where to signal the bus to stop for Faro Blanco. As we deliberated, and before we could pull the chain, someone else on the bus signaled the driver to stop at our stop. Success! We made it back to the right place before dark.
Once back on board Sunset Delight all I felt like doing was kicking back to relax for the rest of the night. Instead I pulled out the laptop and updated the blog!
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