Key West-We missed the Tourists-YAY!!!

Key West

On our last day in Marathon our boating neighbours Pam & Doug invited us to drive down to Key West. They had been there before so who better to have a tour with. It's a 48 mile drive & is the southern most point on the Florida Keys. There are many little keys (islands) joined by a long continuous road originating in mainland Florida. The town, although a souvenir, trolley ride tourist trap has some lovely old buildings & quaint houses. You can see evidence of hurricane & strong wind damage on buildings, trees & bridges which link the keys the whole way down. We saw Hemmingway's house & had lunch at “The Blue Macaw. ” Apparently the tourist numbers there in the height of the season almost prevent one moving down the main street. We have been lucky during most of our trip to avoid the very busy times.

We detoured to see a small endangered deer called the the key deer that lives on one of the keys . It seems unafraid & wanders about eating grass on resident's lawns. They are usually around in numbers at dusk but we were fortunate to see at least 5 or 6.

Twenty-five years ago another endangered species in Florida was the manatee with numbers of only about 1250. Now they are classed as threatened with increased numbers to 6500. Unfortunately about 1 in 5 are killed or maimed by boat propellers; they are huge heavy creatures & although possess a huge paddle tail are too slow for inconsiderate boatees.

An interesting fact: On April23 1982 the USA Border Patrol set up a military style roadblock on main highway US 1 at Florida City. All northbound traffic was stopped at a place motorists know as The Last Chance Saloon to search for illegal aliens & drugs. The ensuing well publicised traffic jam stretched back for 19 miles & supposedly stymied the Key's tourism industry. This spurred a movement in which Key citizens elected to secede from the upper 48 and named themselves the Conch Republic. (A very large edible shellfish). With tongue in cheek (but with a serious gleam in their eyes) they designated the boundaries, selected a flag, proclaimed their independence, declared war then immediately surrendered & applied for foreign aid. The roadblock was discontinued after several days & the economy saved. They celebrate annually in April. Their flag reads “We seceded where others failed”. True grit you'd have to say.