Today is the last day of cycling on our Key West Tour.  We’re a little sad that it will soon be over, but we are looking forward to a great day of riding .  Are we are definitely looking forward to reaching The Hawks Cay Resort and getting in some quality relaxing time.

Parmers Resort on Little Torch Key offers a pretty good breakfast buffet.  Better than any of the other free breakfasts on the trip so far.    So we decide to spend a few minutes enjoying the view and dawdling over our meal before we get going.

It’s a beautiful day today.  All the rain from yesterday is long gone.  Today we have bright sunshine, warm temperatures and a stiff breeze.  As we get our trikes out on the road, we realize that the stiff breeze is blowing right in our faces.  On the trip down, we had the winds at our back, which made the daily rides go by pretty quick.  With the wind in our faces, our progress is a bit slower.  Still, we are in no particular hurry, so we pedal into the wind and enjoy the views.

One of the first things we see as we head north is a billboard advertising the place we got pizza the night before.  This gives us a good chuckle as we remember the awful meal.    And the sign is incorrect – the delivery is not free – they charged us a $5.00 delivery fee.  Humph!  We’re glad to leave it behind us.

We cycle out of Little Torch Key and through Big Pine Key.  No sign of the friendly key deer and we ride along the highway.  Next up is West Summerland Key and then we ride into Bahia Honda Key.  The state park here really looks amazing.  On another trip I want to come back and explore this place a bit.  It just seems an oasis of calm and undeveloped nature right in the middle of a very busy stretch of highway.  The beaches look really unspoiled and pretty as we ride by, and I spend some time day-dreaming about camping here some day.

No matter how inviting Bahia Honda State Parks looks, we continue riding north.  The wind has picked up a bit – – it a pretty strong headwind now, and our pace slows some more.

Bridges are frequent.  At least we don’t need to cross the highway going this direction!.

Then we are on Duck Key.  Ahead of us looms the seven mile bridge.    Just before the bridge we decide to take a bathroom break at a gas station.  We stop and take care of business and rest for a few minutes.    Our courage is steeled by chocolate milk, and we ride out to face the bridge.

Just as we are riding up the ramp to enter the bridge bike lane, I look around for Nancy.  She is nowhere to be seen.   What’s happened?  Just as I’m about to turn back to find her, I see her pedaling slowly up the ramp behind me.  “There’s something wrong with my bike!”  she exclaims.

It doesn’t take me long to realize her rear tire is flat.  Bummer.  I hate fixing flats.  I’ve equipped our trikes with incredibly durable Schwalbe Marathon Plus tires, specifically because they hardly ever get flats.  Naturally, it’s the rear tire – much more of a pain to fix than either front tire.  Oh well, there is nothing to do, but to stop and deal with it.  So we pull ourselves off to the side of the road, I pull apart her bike, and get to work.

I can see that Nancy isn’t happy.  All the worst possible scenarios run through her head as I fiddle with her rear wheel.  “We’ll be trapped here on the side of the highway for hours” she is thinking as I remove the wheel.  “We’ll be hit by a truck while standing on the side of the road”.  I remove the tire.  “Crazy Floridians with guns will shoot us for sport if we stay here too long”.  I replace her punctured tube.    The longer I take to fix the tire, the more anxious Nancy becomes.

Luckily I’m relatively good at fixing flats, and it does not take too long.  The cause of this flat was a little wire – like a bit from a steel belt in an automobile tire.  It had worked its way through both the tread and the Kevlar liner in Nancy’s tire.  I’ve seen these tires deflect big shards of glass, nails, even goat head thorns.  I am really amazed this tiny little wire wormed its way through.  But I find the shard, pull it out and re-inflate the tire.

With the tire fixed and all right with the trike again, Nancy calms down and we are back on the bridge.  As much of a pain as it was to fix this flat, we are incredibly lucky it didn’t happen even another mile further into the ride.  Fixing a flat in the middle of the bridge would not have been pleasant and Nancy would have gotten  even more stressed.

With the wind holding us back, it takes a while – the better part of an hour – to get across the bridge.  With the wind on our back going south we had sailed across the bridge at 15-17 MPH, but going north we are grinding away at maybe 8-9 MPH.  Its slow going, but still a pretty nice ride.

Eventually the bridge comes to an end and we are safely across.  We both are ready for a little break however.  We stop at a little bakery / cafe on the side of the road.  Nancy gets some coffee and we both have a little snack.

Now we are back in Marathon, and the kitsch returns to the view.    Plastic dolphins, giant fish skeletons and lobster traps.  Oh My!

We ride past The Turtle Hospital in Marathon.  It seems a little touristy at first, but the Turtle Hospital actually does some important work.    They are a charitable organization dedicated to healing, rehabilitating and releasing injured sea-turtles.  A variety of turtle ailments are treated at the Turtle Hospital including flipper amputations caused by fishing line and trap rope entanglements, shell damage caused by boat collisions, and intestinal impactions caused by ingestion of foreign materials such as plastic bags, balloons, fishing line and/or hooks. The most common surgery performed is the removal of debilitating viral tumors, called Fibropapilloma, that affect over 50% of the sea turtles in the Keys and around the world.  The Turtle Hospital has successfully treated and released over 1500 Sea Turtles since its founding in 1986.

Just a few miles past Marathon, we come to Duck Key.  A quick right hand turn off the highway and a short quarter of a mile takes us to Hawks Cay Resort and Spa.  For our last night of vacation, we are staying in a nice luxury resort with all the amenities.   We are both looking forward to a relaxing evening and a good dinner before heading home.

Happily, our car is where we left it a week before, and seems unmolested.  The first order of business is to get checked-in and have our bags delivered to the room, then we lock our bikes away in the car and head to our rooms for a nice hot relaxing  shower and a change of clothes.

Next we find the tiki bar and sample the local mojitos.  I am on a search for the best mojito in Florida.  I’ve had some good ones, some bad ones and some truly remarkable ones.  The mojito at Hawks Cay Resort seems pretty good.  As I’m trying to decide just how good it is, I realize my glass is empty.  Clearly I need another to properly evaluate!

Next we take a stroll around the beautiful property.  This place has every amenity you might want in a Keys Vacation.  6 swimming pools – including an adults only pool and an enclosed salt water lagoon.  There is a marina with 85 boat slips.  Also a spa and a fitness center.  10 different restaurants are on site (no take-out for us tonight!)

I am still unable to properly evaluate the quality of the mojito (better than a 7, but not a 10), so  we sit for a while next to the saltwater lagoon to really think it through.  As we sit, we watch people snorkel and play in the lagoon, boats come and go from the marina and birds soar in and our of the nearby mangroves.  It’s a lovely scene, and the perfect place to contemplate the fabulous bike ride we have just completed and all the sights we saw in the Keys.

The sun setting over the saltwater lagoon causes us to consider options for dinner.  With 10 different restaurants on-site, there is a lot to consider.  Fancy?  Casual?  Room Service?   Drinks and snacks at the bar?  So many choices, so little time.

Of course, anyone who knows us,  knows we ultimately decide on the fine-dining option – the Alma Restaurant.  The chef here has worked to create bold Latin dishes inspired and infused with the flavors of the Caribbean.     We had a remarkable experience at this restaurant – but I’ll let Nancy describe it for you in her review.

That’s about the end of our trip.  We slept long and hard after dinner,  then got up early in the morning.  We packed up the car, and headed for home.  I’ll do my usual ‘Reflections on the Tour’ post soon, but all-in-all this tour went remarkably well.  The Florida Keys is has been on our very long bucket list of bike tours for a long time.  Now we can check it off and start thinking about what to tackle next.  Do you have any ideas or suggestions?  If so, please register for the site and leave us some comments.   We would love to hear from you.