I had business to take care of Up North which didn't really count as a recreational trip, and I wasn't even riding two wheels, but I took some pictures as I rolled the Nissan along I-75, known as Alligator Alley, to remind myself how much I enjoy these views. This two wheeler was why I was there:
My "business trip" was getting the wife's ET4 tuned up and owing to my recent contretemps with Vespa Miami/Ft Lauderdale she nixed having them work on her Vespa 150. So instead of a 6 hour round trip I had a 22 hour round trip to get to Vespa Sarasota and back. More on that in another essay, but these pictures, which have nothing to do with Key West are here to illustrate superficially a little of what one would see when crossing Florida on the Southernmost...Interstate. 
It's not technically a freeway, there are toll booths at each end and the charge is $2.50 for two axles and $5.00 for three. But you do get 100 miles of almost dead straight road in each direction for your money.
The perception of the Everglades, as I have mentioned elsewhere, is that the River of Grass is a swampy, gloomy forest of dripping cypress trees, Spanish moss and coiled snakes. Most of the Everglades is nothing like that, and the rest is mangroves and hammocks- stands of hardwoods. There are some weedy cypress trees along the road but they aren't exactly ominous and threatening.
Alligator Alley used to be State Road 84 and opened in 1969 according to the history books. Then the powers that be took it upon themselves to widen the road and finished that job in 1992, which I remember as a mess of mud and rocks. Nowadays its a short cut from Fort Lauderdale to Naples, and very efficient it is too, with a 70 mph speed limit and all. But I still prefer the slower pace of the old, two lane Tamiami (TAMpa-MIami) Trail, which gives a much more intimate and historical view of the Everglades. I took this picture on my trip last year:
And yes, the Tamiami Trail, Highway 41, is also straight as a die for much of its way. I guess for some two wheeled users the freeway makes sense, and I saw a fair number on the Interstate. These two were between Naples and the toll booth:
What interested me is the footwear on the dude nearest my car, blue crocs on the freeway...
But he is wearing a helmet. Which made him luckier than me because he was riding while I was snugged down behind the air conditioner of the Maxima. He didn't wave as he went by.
Alligator Alley has two exits along it's length and one road goes north from the Interstate across Indian reservations and cane fields towards Lake Okeechobee. The Other road, Highway 29 heads towards Immokalee one of South Florida's massively impoverished towns in the center of the peninsula. 
But the brown sign behind the exit sign beckons the traveler towards more bucolic delights, the parks south of the interstate:
Between Highway 29 and Fort Lauderdale these curiosities start popping up:
I've traveled a few miles of Interstate in my time and I've never seen a sign quite like this. Or to be more accurate I've seen the signs pointing to recreation areas off Interstates, but I've never seen just a recreation area right off a freeway, a recreation area as a freeway destination in itself as it were. It's actually a boat ramp too:
Drive the Alley, launch your boat, and they have floating docks to cope with the rising and dropping water levels (mostly dropping overall as the 'glades are rather distressed these days):
The Everglades are threaded by all sorts of waterways and canals, filled no doubt with alligators and fish because you will see people lining the canal banks with rods. Others launch their boats here and take off for a day's sport among the reeds. The recreation areas also have a few modern variations on the Miccosukee Indian chickee huts for people to come out to the Interstate and enjoy a roadside picnic:
And its not just people recreating in these areas:
I recreated by taking a thirty minute nap. It had been a long day and I was completely worn out, continuing the theme of my life lately. It was a perfect afternoon, a brisk cooling breeze was blowing out of the north and there wasn't any humidity in the air. I slept like a baby with the windows down, in the vastness of the Everglades, with the car parked under the sole scrap of shade:
Lots of people use the freeway as a quick drive across the southern end of the state but there are paths and trails that head off into the back country from some of these recreation areas, and I've only explored a few of them. With rainy season upon us I may have left it too late for a return visit this spring.
Oh well, at least I got to see the big skies of south Florida once this winter. Rest and recreation after a fashion.
