Ohio Key comes in two parts, the nature park to the south of the highway and the trailer park to the north. As far as I know the trailer park is living on borrowed time, because there was an agreement some time ago to hand the southern portion of the island to the park service in return for condo-isation of the northern half. So far, so good:
This is primarily a snowbird community and a weekend community for hard core Keys fans who will drive down from the urban mainland, two hours north, for a couple of days of rest and recreation. And boy, do they have themselves a slice of paradise!
This is the 1912 Flagler railroad bridge converted to road use in 1938 by the State of Florida when the original rails were welded into hand rails. It's open to anglers, golf carts and bicycles alongside the main road which is where traffic runs between Marathon and the Southernmost City and the main water pipe to Key West hangs off the side:
The Key to the north of Ohio is Missouri, so named by the railroad workers who laid the tracks on these islands at the beginning of the twentieth century. Before their work these islands had no names among the settlers on the populated Keys, but the railroad mapped and named everything and the homesick navvies had a habit of memorializing where they were from Up North:
For the youngsters in the park this is all a playground:
Though I did dissuade one excessively adventurous young Huckleberry Finn from leaping off the seawall into three inches of water. "Think this is deep enough?" "NO!" This is quite the paradise for adults too, with lots of boating and fishing and even sandy beaches, rara avis! to enjoy:
That last picture is a beach on the northern tip of Bahia Honda Key, the State Park that is the next key to the south of Ohio Key.
The dude in the blue shirt was waiting for a very happy back lab to come panting round the corner. This part of the island is desolate and wet, as this is rainy season and the salt ponds fill with water:
Back on the busy side of the Key, there is a gas station and inconvenience store. The gas was offered at $3.91 a gallon which is a very reasonable price in the Lower Keys, and I have my five-percent-off-Shell card so I might have to consider stopping here for fuel:
And there is small, well protected marina for residents to keep their boats in the water:
What more could they want? A Triumph Bonneville perhaps...
And you'd better believe that vinyl seat was hot to the touch after sitting in the 95 degree sunshine.
4 comments:
Conch:
I had to laugh at your comment regarding the seat! (echoing back to my comment in an earlier post about the baking scooter seats this time of year)... with a bike that pretty though, I could deal with a buttock the temperature of a crock pot roast... I think we'll bring our yellow lab down on our next visit... though the trick will be how to get him back into the car after running like a free range chicken through salt ponds and shallow mangroves!
My yellow Lab had a great time in the keys. I still miss her.
Coch: Fascinating post, as always. I was surprised that Key West has its water piped from somewhere else. I guess I assumed it tapped underground aquifers as on the mainland.
Florida Keys Aqueduct Authority has permission to tap a certain amount of water from the South Florida Aquifer. It adds four percent saltwater to the mixture to stretch the supply. The first pipe was built by the Navy to feed the bases in Key West and people lost the ability to catch their own rainwater ( as my house still does so I rarely use the aqueduct)and the state put in the bigger (of course) new pipe in 1982 with the new highway.
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