Leaving Key West

It wasn’t easy to leave Key West but I managed to tear myself away. Layne was in California with her girlfriends and I had almost two weeks to meet her in New Orleans to pick her up. I could have continued to sit in Ket West but I decided I had to move on up the road. So I did.

I left our last comfortable secure moochdock routine and took to the  Overseas Highway  at 4:30, passing familiar landmarks in the dark, pausing at the park in Tavernier to make tea and walk Rusty in the first golden light of day. I was sorry to leave, pushed by the inner voice telling me to explore. We will be back after Thanksgiving for a final round of friends before South America swallows us up. 

Homestead was illuminated by full sunlight when we stopped on the Main Street, an extension of Krome Avenue, and Rusty took his favorite walk; urban exploration. Homestead went through a period of expansion and bright commerce but downtown looks rather battered -aren’t we all?- by Covid I assume and uncertainty. 

iOverlander shows this levee as a spot to spend a free night alongside anglers and airboat tours. In the spirit of stopping to see everything I decided to check it out, a short distance west of Krome on Tamiami Trail. Turn off at the pump station and ride the gravel a quarter of a mile for splendid views of the river of grass. I made tea and Rusty sat around looking his usual princely self. 

Tamiami isn’t a special secret name. Barron Collier who paid to build the first road across the Everglades in the 1920s simply called it the Tampa to Miami road, numbered by the government as Highway 41. It passes through Miccosukee country and the tribal police are not fond of speeders as I found out to my chagrin twenty years ago at some ungodly hour of the night and wasn’t I surprised to get pulled over…

The first part of the 24 miles of Loop Road are in Dade county but they are also in the reservation and the homes above are standard Miccosukee style built up on flood proof (for now) mounds. After a few miles you enter Big Cypress Preserve part of Everglades National Park. You’ll notice the Feds have repaved  the road which is also in Monroe County though Key West has never bothered to put up County  markers here on the mainland. 

No alligators were molested  on this drive through their turf but the approach of the huge GANNET2 encouraged a few to spontaneously lurch off the grass into the water. Neither Rusty nor I dismounted in their presence. Just a respectful precaution you understand…

Loop Road is a series of smoothly traveled straight stretches joined by wide sweeping curves. Oncoming traffic can see each other from far enough away to figure out a passing spot. Patience is the name of the game on the 15 miles of gravel. 

I found I was not alone in enjoying the road through the woods. Personally I’m pretty sure you’d see as much sitting down in comfort in the air conditioning but an air of being on safari can bring it’s own pleasure. 

Some families have vacation homes on the cape or in Kennebunkport. Others share their inherited privacy with swamp critters…

Sweetwater Strand is the mother lode of alligator sightings. Enter Loop Road at the west end, at Monroe Station, for a much shorter drive to spot gators. 

And here they all are:

Alligators are dinosaurs and aside from being fearsome they don’t have much spare brain capacity to do anything that might be interesting to watch. They just sort of lie there immobile and unblinking. It’s worked for millions of years so why change the habits of eons past? 

The term “watching paint dry” comes to mind. They are much less dangerous than popular imagination  would have you believe. However if they should grab you or your dog it’s usually curtains so in my opinion the risk/reward assessment needs to be made very carefully. 

If you go to the shark valley observation trail you will see loads of them right at the edges of the paved trail and they are, or have been so far, entirely docile. 

I saw some youngsters swimming with masks in one of the strands next to the road. I waved and said nothing as I drove on by but better them than me. People tell me I am brave to travel to Latin America in a van. To me it is enjoyable and not at all scary where swimming with alligators seems neither sane nor pleasurable. 

Below you see an apartment sized pet. And yes some people do like to keep them as pets. And with so many stray dogs needing homes…

This sign post (looking south toward Sweetwater Strand) marks the boundary of Big Cypress Preserve and also the northernmost boundary of Monroe County, not that there is a sign to that effect. Collier County has inconsiderately abandoned the last four miles of the Loop Road to potholes and ruts, bad enough to cause a rental convertible to make a U-turn a short way in from Tamiami Trail.  

If larger vehicles like RVs lose their nerve there is a marked “last chance” turn out just past the toilets and picnic tables which are the only services to be found the length of  Loop Road, within sight of Highway 41. 

There once used to a gas station and restaurant in an old abandoned building called Monroe Station. I can’t find my pictures of the old structure so I found these on the web  with a link describing the  fascinating story of pioneer Florida motoring. An idiot with a camera and a desire to take night pictures accidentally burnt the building down in 2016 and now it’s a hunters’ parking lot. 

Check out the Abandoned Florida website for some great pictures and the full fascinating story of the Monroe Station so named as it was closest roadside service station to the northern tip of mainland Monroe County. 

https://www.abandonedfl.com/monroe-station/

Across the highway  is a typical Miccosukee village.  

Turn left to Naples and right to Miami. Rusty and I turned left heading for Dinner Island campground.