apparently.....: Down off Florida Keys

Having seen what Miami had to offer we decided, with two days to kill, to head down to the Florida Keys. (What were we thinking? Two days for the Keys? It was the beginning of Spring break - I think even we had Spring Fever)

So we jumped on the Turnpike (which we assumed was a big road, turns out Turnpike is just another word for Toll road - and there were plenty of tolls, a 'turnpike' is the bar that goes up and down once you've paid the toll) and off we went.

Unfortunately we didn't have our Lonely Planet book to tell us what to look and what we were looking as we drove past, so we sort of 'assumed' a lot of it - or looked it up later.

As we came out of Miami and headed on down these fences started to appear around the mangrove covered area. Interestingly they had signs saying to beware of dear... we're not sure how they got over the fences which seemed to be about 10 foot high in areas.
We also passed a sign warning of crocodiles - which seemed a little odd, but we did find out later there is a population of American crocodiles that live round this area, they are smaller in physical size than an Aussie croc. We didn't see any, and no dear, but we did come within about 2 inches of a BMW bumper bar as we were tearing down this road - it was all so sudden and I think shear willpower from both me and Dan made the car stop short. Scary.

The first part of the drive is quite mundane... then we start to hit the watery part, which is a bit more like what you'd expect to see.
The roads aren't wide.

The further down you get the bluer the water gets... it's starting to feel more enticing - although the drive is still pretty mundane.

By now we've crossed several minor bridges... her comes a nice big one.
I think one of the bridges - possibly seven mile bridge, is a modern wonder of the world, and if not we've seen something about it on 'Mega structures' on the Discovery channel.

So here's Plantation Key - we've whipped through a few Keys by now.
And yes, we went through Key Largo. I was expecting... well I don't know what I was expecting, seaside town perhaps? It was a strip of a road with very dated and salt water battered shops. We did stop on the way back at a shell shop and bought some shells for Georgie (most of the shells are imported from the Philippines as they aren't allowed to take the conchs from around the Keys any more) but really if you blinked, you missed Key Largo!

The view was getting better. When we drove past houses (imagine living there) you could see that on the whole land mass there was the double lane road, the house and it's backyard and you could see right through to the water. One house either side of the road.

There were little nooks and crannies away from the road where mansions were - nice if you can afford. It was here we could see the credit crunch pinching. Quite a few houses had foreclosure signs out the front, or were simply for sale.
Lots of them seemed to be second houses, or weekend houses and not of the small variety either!

Things have to be hurricane proof down in the Keys. Although after asking round a lot of the hurricanes miss them and head on up the coast. Still, it seems like it would get more than a little windy. And if the wind didn't get you the rust would!

Blackouts are quite common along the keys and lots of the advertising on the radio (mental note, take iPod for car next time we travel) mentioned that they had backup generators (especially in the bars) so that things (ie drinking) could continue till power was back up.

We stopped at this little point for a look.
Just love these rocks, they had quite a 'crunchiness' as you walked over them too.

And check out the fossils in this rock.

Scuba diving and water activities big round here... can't imagine why.

We think they have their water pumped in as well. Not sure where else they'd get it from and we think we kept passing pumping stations.

Here's the car we were in. What is it?
According to Dan a GM (General Motors) Shitbox.
Not far from the truth.

Nice bridge.

Brown pelicans.

Now that's where you want to be right now isn't it?

The remnants of an old bridge that has a story behind it.
Stretching my memory (Dan will probably remember more) I believe when the war was over the economy was in recession so the Government employed the returned Veterans to build a bridge in the Keys. Unfortunately a hurricane came in and wiped out both the bridge and the camp the workers were staying in. The pillars were left as a tribute.