Our Day in Key West....

Yesterday we took the trike to Key West to spend the day. What an awesome ride it was. It took us 90 minutes each way and I had to keep reminding myself that it's January because we were riding in shorts and a t-shirt. We followed another Damon Outlaw for a while then he pulled off on one of the many parking areas along the coast. We pulled up alongside of him and chatted for a bit. He has a 2005 Outlaw and had been to the bowl game in Florida. Like so many of us, he loves his Outlaw. I was hoping that he was one of the guys from the irv2 forum, where fellow Outlaw owners talk about their rigs but he wasn't. He carries two motorcycles in the garage but his model only has the front entry door...no door into the garage.

When we got to Key West, we bought tickets for one of the trolley companies and took the hour long cruise around town. It was informative and a great way to get a feel for the layout of town.

Here's one of the old buildings near the trolley starting point.

Real estate is very expensive, as you'd imagine for this area. We drove by a beat up "fixer upper" that recently sold for 1.8 million. It looked like some of the abandoned, boarded up houses you see along the highway. Oprah has a house on an island, across from Key West (I forget what the guide said it was called). Here's the famous "southern most point" in the U.S. It's where you're 90 miles from Cuba and 150 miles from the closest Wal-Mart. A cruise ship was in port so the line for a picture with this marker, was way down the block.

Home with an "eyebrow" roofline (covers the second floor windows)

The island of Key West is actually bigger than I thought it would be. I think the tour guide said that they enlarged the size of the island by  using landfill to widen it. The beach area (and other businesses) occupies the area where the cemetery used to be (the caskets of the original occupants got washed out to sea in one of the hurricanes). Due to the coral reefs offshore, there are no waves on their beach. A bummer for folks with boogie boards...

NOAA has a hurricane center here. The average temperature here is 77 degrees and that was just about what yesterday's temp was. It felt sort of humid but in a weird way. Perfect for the ride down and back...even after the sun went down.

Saw the Hemingway house, the lighthouse and Mallory Square, where the street performers come out and do their thing. We loved the wild chickens that run around all over the place. Several had baby chicks in tow. Can say that we've "been there - done that" in regards to Key West. For me, the three hour ride to and from was the best part. Amazing ride along the water and over the many bridges to get there. Loved the tranquility and turquoise water !

Today we sat outside the rig and read, enjoyed the breeze and warm temps. Tomorrow I think we're going out on the bike again. Can't get enough of those water views...