Bonus! Key West - January 8, 2008

The skies were blue and bright and the breezes delightful as we set out to take in the natural beauty of Key West. Our first stop was down the street to the Southernmost Point in the Continental United States, where we were photographed by two women, themselves seeking the perfect Facebook profile pic to make their friends at home just swim with envy.

And we couldn't help but notice this gem one-upping the buoy:

That's right-- the Southernmost menorah! Ha!

Then we spent a few leisurely hours soaking up some rays at the beach,

where each of us had our nerdy pursuits to keep us busy.

We ended the day at Mallory Square for its famed nightly Sunset Celebration, where street performers and artists come out to hawk their wares for the visitors waiting to watch the sunset.

Our very own Ian, or "Curly," as he was addressed, was plucked out of the audience to assist this tightrope walker. Here, he warms up for his big performance.

And there goes our star, ready for fame:

A few minutes later, right on schedule, the sun put on a show-stopper for us.

And as the last rays melted onto the water,

the crowds of spectators on the dock burst into applause.

No travel routes anymore, so here is a map on the island-- in fact, the very same map we carried around on our strenuous day.

More on our journey from Key West to Orlando coming soon!

Day 11: Lake Worth to Key West, FL - January 7, 2009

Hello all! We woke up on Friday morning feeling the seabreeze in our hair and ready to make our way to Key West. But first, we had to visit some Japanese gardens.

The Morikami Museum and Japanese Gardens of Delray Beach was founded by George Morikami, a farmer and landowner who was part of the first wave of Japanese settlers in Florida at the turn of the 20th century. Upon his death, he donated his land to Palm Beach County for the purposes of making it available for public enjoyment.

Indoor exhibits tell the story of the settlers (some of whom were later interred by the US government during World War II) and contain Japanese art. It's quite a beautiful place.

Our next stop was in Miami, where we admired the curves and spikes of an international metropolis (our first, really, since DC)

and headed to the beach.

This is the view of US 1 in Florida, near Miami. We invite you to compare it to the similar shot taken out of the window of the Mossmobile in US 1 in Connecticut, and feel a pang of jealousy for the tropical bounty that we are now enjoying.

Our next stop of the day was the wacky yet alluring Coral Castle in Homestead, FL, just before Route 1 took us off the mainland to the Keys. The Coral Castle, which is not actually a castle but more of a compound filled with coral furniture and Masonic and astrological symbols that all weigh in at 2.2 million tons, was allegedly singlehandedly built and sculpted by one man, Latvian immigrant Ed Leedsklanin.

The official story is that wee Ed, 5 feet tall and 100 pounds, built the place to impress the 16-year old woman who jilted him at the alter, and was notoriously secretive about how he did it, often working at night-- but our guide was (intentionally, we guessed) skeptical, citing the meticulous math, physics, and occult imagery that comprise Coral Castle as the real motivations. (Interestingly in the story behind how the castle made its transition from labor of love to tourist attraction, we asked our guide to identify the current proprietors. He would only identify him/her/them as "a private owner." Wikipedia says that it's a company called Coral Castle, Inc.)

We ran into some first-class royalty in the Throne Room,

and witnessed some well-deserved disciplining in the Repentance Corner,

both of which were built for the family Ed never had.

As the winds picked up and we arrived at the start of the Keys, we stopped by Jules Undersea Lodge in Key Largo, which unfortunately was closed for the night. However, the huge front door to the "only underwater hotel" was swinging noisily, so we crept onto the grounds and saw the body of water under which we assumed guests were peacefully slumbering after scuba diving to their rooms earlier in the day.

And finally we were on the home stretch as the Overseas Highway wound over water and land to Key West, Florida! After 11 days of driving, thrills, and merriment, we victoriously reached our destination.

Sweet success! Thank you for following on our journey with us! More pictures of Key West to follow in our next post.




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Day 10: St. Augustine to Lake Worth, FL - January 6, 2009

When we were originally planning this day on our trip, we called it the "just get through it" day, anticipating lots of traffic lights, malls, and soul-crushing suburbia down the central coast of Florida, with our final triumphant arrival in the strategically-located-yet-not-quite-tourist-mecca Lake Worth. We thought we had that feeling licked, because by the time we completed our itinerary, we had added a bunch of interesting-looking stops to our journey. Yet sure enough, a combination of bad directions, wrong turns, unanticipated delays, and too-high ticket prices foiled us one by one from seeing our preferred attractions: the life-size model of the first airplane, the ruins of Bongoland, the Kennedy Space Center, the Canaveral National Seashore, the McLarty Treasure Museum. Moreover, just as I was getting over my cold, I came down with excruciating back pain that not even the surprisingly-nice Anastasia Inn's jacuzzi bathtub could cure. (The pain has since dissipated, thankfully.)

Even so, we were still able to have some fun. We started out with AAA's walking tour of old St. Augustine. The first stop on our list was the Castillo de San Marcos, which I belatedly remembered visiting with the Yale Glee Club during our tour of the Southeast seven years ago.
Next, Debby got back to her roots in front of the Oldest Wooden Schoolhouse in the United States.

Then, we found Jesus at the beautiful Cathedral Basilica (he was right there in the middle):

The capstone of our St. Augustine experience, however, was undoubtedly the Fountain of Youth. Legend has it that when Ponce de Leon first landed here in 1513, he did so believing that the natural spring water from which the natives drank was a source of everlasting health (thus accounting for their long lives). Unfortunately, he never found the Fountain of Youth; what we saw was an elaborate tourist trap created by Luella Day "Diamond Lil" McConnell, who "fabricated stories to amuse and appall the city’s residents and tourists until her death in 1927" according to wikipedia. Here's Debby getting younger by the minute as a result of the elixir:

Here's another look at those life-like Indian figurines, who look just thrilled at Ponce's arrival:

The attraction also had a cheese-tastic presentation on the history of St. Augustine (which began with the theme from "2001 Space Odyssey" as the squeaky curtains pulled back to reveal a large globe with curious brown stains streaking the Atlantic ocean, followed by the narrative "in the beginning, the earth was a void" and ending with, "Florida, which became the United States... of America... devoted to PEACE"), a supposed pirate ship,

and, randomly, these peacocks:

The entrance to the Fountain of Youth park was pretty spectacular as well. Ah, Florida:

Next up was a stop in Daytona Beach, where Debby took the Mossmobile for a few torrid laps around the Daytona International Speedway:

Then we were on to possibly the most bizarre stop of the trip: the American Police Hall of Fame and Museum in Titusville, FL, where Officer Moss ripped crime a new one.

The museum, an odd assembly of police glorification, atrocious spelling, anti-media fury ("Once again, the newspapers heroized the criminals, while the police, who were the REAL heroes, were forgoten [sic]"...), and downright creepy hands-on displays-- you could have your photo taken in a gas chamber-- left us feeling a bit sick to our tummies. Here, justice is brought about in one of the milder displays:

A display warning about the dangers of realistic-looking toy guns was juxtaposed with T-shirts available in the gift shop showing the same "We don't call 9-1-1" message (with smoking gun) as displayed in yesterday's Waycross, GA gas station. Alas, we passed up the opportunity to hone our aim in the "air-conditioned public gun range" for an additional $35 each. We did, however, pick up some valuable life lessons in the shooting simulation game, "Lethal Enforcers" (which clearly is not aimed at kids in the slightest):

We finally rolled into Lake Worth just before 10pm, ready to take on the final leg of our journey to Key West.

Here is our route for the day:

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Until tomorrow,

Day 9: Augusta, GA to St. Augustine, FL - January 5, 2009

Greetings, devoted Route 1 followers. We begin today's post with a lovely sign in Waycross, GA, hanging in the gas station where the Mossmobile got its long overdue oil change. While we had a difficult time communicating with the locals verbally, we thought this hand-crafted beauty delivered the message of the heartland loud and clear. Please note how the "L" in DIAL is resourcefully Macgyvered from an upside-down 7.

Our balmy, blue-skied day began with a curious nagivational mix-up when we found ourselves further north than we expected-- that is, in Santa Claus, GA. With a population of around 200, dirt roads as red as poinsettia, and the most awesome City Hall this side of the north pole (yes, those decorations are up year-round),

Santa Claus is easily missed but oddly fascinating. Our thirty-second drive through the city "center" took us passed some crucial intersections.

As we zipped down Route 1 through Georgia, we had to do a double-take and pull over for a closer look at this unmarked but fascinating lawn art;

we also paused to appreciate the luxury, lake-view trailer park across the street.

And then it was on to the star of the day, Okefenokee Swamp Park in Waycross. (Unfortunately, the petrified dog we were hoping to see at the nearby Southern Forest World was tucked away in a locked museum.)

Okefenokee Swamp Park is part of the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge, made up of almost 402,000 acres of protected lands and critters. For just $16 each, we experienced a train ride around the park where the combination of a horrible speaker system and our guide's astoundingly thick Georgia accent made it virtually impossible to comprehend a word he said. However, language was not needed to convey the beauty of the many indigenous Christmas lawn ornaments in the swamp,

the majestic power of animals at home in nature,

or the moving story of the brave white pioneers who settled the land despite being made of stuffed pantyhose.

And in case you're wondering what corporate branding looks like in rural Georgia...

Our mysterious train tour was followed by a motor boat ride with a very chatty guide who waxed poetic about moonshine, the wife he picked up in his late teens when her family visited the park from the other side of the swamp, and the swamp's many gators, all of whom have been named by the swamp-humans. The gators were a remarkably lackadaisical bunch, looking more annoyed than anything else when TJ poked them with a metal rod to get them moving for us. Here is Crazy, who took 3 steps on our behalf before returning to his nap.

The gators like to hang around the parking lot or sit in the shade and grin.

Here's a particularly happy one:

After escaping the swamp, we drove across the state line into Florida, reaching Jacksonville shortly after sundown. Below is the Main Street Bridge, which crosses the St. Johns River in what is, according to our AAA book, the largest city (in area) in the United States.

We managed to reach St. Augustine in record time, and hubristically wandered around the historic center of town, thus causing a frantic search for restaurants open after 9 when we noticed that we were quite hungry. Fortunately we were saved by a delicious pub and grille. Here is the St. Augustine City Hall, which also doubles as a hotel.

More on St. Augustine tomorrow. Until then, we continue on our journey toward Key West.

Our map for today:

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