Tim, our host at the Barnacle Bed and Breakfast, prepares a fabulous breakfast. We gathered with the other guests on the upstairs patio to share breakfast, along with the gorgeous views of the Gulf. We gorge ourselves on vegetable fritatta, and chat with our fellow travelers about trikes,, the trip and our plans for the day.
It’s a leisurely morning for us. Our ride today is not far – only about 35 miles. The weather looks great, it’s overcast, but doesn’t look like rain, not too warm, and it seems we will have a small tail wind as we make our way to Key West. We take our time packing up, but soon enough we are back on the trikes and heading south along the trail!
The riding is much like yesterday. Bridges and islands(Keys). Big Pine Key – Ramrod Key – Summerland Key -Cudjoe Key – Sugarloaf Key – Park Key. Summarland Key has a lovely 2 miles off-highway section of trail that runs close to the water.
South of Park Key we ride through a group of small mangrove islands called the Sadlebunch Keys. The islands get so small and the bridges so frequent that they don’t even bother to give them individual names anymore. They just have numbers – Sadlebunch Key number 1 to Sadlebunch Key number 7.
We don’t get much further into our ride before we begin to notice the airplanes. Not commercial jets, but military fighter planes flying in formation. They sweep over our heads at low altitude. Groups of 2, 3 or 4 planes circle overhead continuously as we pedal along the trail. What’s going on here? Are we under attack?
Luckily no. But we are getting close to the home of the Key West Naval Air Station on Boca Chica Key. There has been a Navy base near Key West since 1823. It is now a state-
of-the-art training facility for air-to-air combat fighter aircraft of all military services.
These planes are LOUD. When they are nearby, it is difficult to talk with the person next to you. Between noise from the jets and noise from the highway traffic, it is impossible for Nancy and I to talk to each other while in single file on the trikes.
Luckily, right around here, the trail becomes almost
continuous, with lots of bridge crossing that use the old railroad trail bed. In fact, the last 16 or 17 miles of the trail into Key West, are completely off the highway.
As we enter Key West, the trail splits and we must choose to either along the north shore or the south shore of the island. Since our hotel is in the north west part of the island, we choose the north shore and turn right.
The last few miles in Key West are along a nice multi-use path built along the seawall. THe trail is a little busy – lots of folks out walking their dogs, or jogging or roller bladeing. But it is also pretty – nice views of the marina and the various businesses that make their money by selling trinkets and food the hoards of tourists that come to Key West each year.
Our destination in Key West is the Authors Guesthouse on White Street. This little Bed and Breakfast is in an out-of-the-way corner of the island. It’s not too loud or busy, yet it’s still close enough to the town. There are a half-dozen rooms arranged around a central courtyard. There is a small pool for relaxing.
This place was recommended to us by our old friend Cindy. Cindy used to be our next door neighbor when we lived in Raleigh NC, maybe 20 years ago. We’ve both gone our separate ways since then, but we’ve managed to stay in touch. She lives in Key West now, and her daughter used to work here at Authors. It’s a pretty place – and we are looking forward to a couple of relaxing days here checking out Key West.
After getting settled in, we head over to Duval Street to see what kind of trouble we could get into. Neither of us is much good at trouble, but we did manage to find the Terrace Bar at the La Te Da Hotel. We loved this bar. It is outside right in the middle of the main street though the commercial part of town (Duval Street). It got nice shade and comfortable bar stools. It’s a great place to people watch. On top of the that the bar tenders are friendly, and they make a mighty good mojito. Pretty much everything we required after a nice bike ride.
We enjoyed the main street for a while longer before finding our way to the Nine One Five Bistro just up the street. Enjoyed a great meal at this place. Nancy has written a more complete review. Loved it – but is was pretty expensive.
Tomorrow we have the entire day to play in Key West. The possibilities are endless. Who knows what we will do?