Johnson On Sugarloaf

It happens form time to time that life serves up little disappointments and one has to be brave and take what one is given. North Johnson Road was a nothing place it turned out.It sits on the north side of the Overseas Highway just south (or west of you are going to be pedantic) of the restaurant known as Mangrove Mama's on Sugarloaf Key. I'd noticed it for years as I trudged between the restaurant and Sugarloaf School on this straight stretch of Highway One, but I never stopped to check it out.That's the thing about yielding to temptation. Sometimes the result doesn't live up to billing! I saw a winding, mysterious little lane leading off into the mangroves. What I found after 100 yards (90 meters) was a double barrelled No Trespassing sign. And a pretty little flower by way of compensation.

I did discover one thing though and this compound turns out to be......the nature Conservancy. That and three bucks will buy me a large con leche, but I never knew this was where these good people hung out. Now I do, and so do you.And in the back there was a tall house, possibly the residence protected by all the No Trespassing signs.Somebody got it into their heads that North Johnson is a real street and needed a real (and very restrictive) speed limit. I wonder what awful traffic violation was committed on this runt of a street that merited the installation of an actual speed limit?Casting around for something to photograph I saw this yellow International Jeep-like thing sitting under a palm tree all ready to go, everyone's idea of ideal Keys wheels.

And this, rather less evocative view is the maintenance yard of some utility or another, possibly the phone company I think.

And that, in summary is North Johnson Road.Not much to it really, so from now on I'll ride by and know that I'm not missing anything.