August 18.
It’s 85.9 miles from Homestead to Marathon, but just 16 miles in we crossed the bridge and got off the mainland headed toward Key Largo. It was much more enjoyable than all the Miami traffic, that’s for sure. The very first stretch, though, was a two lane highway on which at least some people seemed to think they were drag racing. Still, it was far better than the Miami traffic. And most of the traffic was going one-way, presumably because of the time of day (i.e. heading to work time or heading to the Keys for the weekend time).
The first rest stop was at Alabama Jack’s, near the bridge to Key Largo. Alabama Jack’s wasn’t open when we were there, and I truly don’t know if it is ever open. We’re about to enter the Florida Keys–over 100 miles of linked islands connected by bridges along Highway 1.
Key Largo is a pretty large island, so most of the time we traveled through forested land. Many of the Keys are tiny–just a few miles before hitting another bridge. The first thing that really caught my attention was the flowering trees.
I tried to count the bridges as we went. I think we crossed about 15 bridges on our first day in the Keys, traveling to Marathon. This photo is the first of the very long bridges we encountered. It is also one of the few that had a completely separate lane for cyclists and pedestrians. Most of the way was marked as a bike lane, but was basically the road shoulder.
I had never seen anything like this before–ocean on both sides of us as far as we could see. The first person to imagine the idea was Henry Flagler who built a railroad between the islands. There is a ton of stuff named after Henry Flagler in Florida, including some of the beaches we went past earlier in our time in Florida.
At Marathon, we stayed at the Church of God and showered at the aquarium. I arrived at the aquarium near closing time but could see some of the outdoor exhibits without paying any extra. The Church of God was a little different than most of the churches we stayed at. We slept in the sanctuary. The kitchen area was where we prepared food and kept our bicycles–only a handful of people could eat in the kitchen area. And then there were two bathrooms. Each area–sanctuary, kitchen, and bathrooms–had its own outside door and there was no way to get from one part of the building to the other without going outside. A spider on the bathroom wall was enough to convince all of us to use flashlights when it was time to go outside at night.