11 May 2011
I awoke to a beautiful sunrise over the ocean. It was so beautiful that I actually decided to crawl out of my wonderfully comfortable hammock to see it.
The trip back up the keys seemed to go by a lot quicker than the way down, which was a good thing since it was a repeat of the day prior. And then we headed back through southern Florida, but this time a bit more agricultural. And finally we stopped by a little BBQ/Cajun type place right before entering the Everglades on alligator alley. They had fried plantains on the menu, so we had to get those. And we also got some alligator burgers. I wanted just some alligator tail, but they didn’t have it on the menu. The burgers tasted good, but were basically spicy sausage patties. Because of this, I still have no idea what alligator actually tastes like. They had frog legs on the menu as well, but I didn’t want to get an order of them in addition to the gator burger just for myself.
Alligator alley was not at all what I thought it would be. I expected a fairly narrow road with everglade swamps on both sides and drop offs just on the edge of the road. Most of the way you couldn’t even see swamps. Frequently, the landscape looked more like it should be from the cretaceous period rather than the everglades.
Near the end of the everglades, we finally came to the Skunk Ape Research Center that we found as a random/quirky place to check out. For the general population, skunk apes are kind of like the yeti of the everglades. Well, the gift shop had quite a bit of Skunk Ape stuff to buy. Then, after we paid $5 to get in we discovered that the actual place had nothing at all to do with skunk apes. It was kind of a ghetto little zoo. It was fun, but I don’t know if it was worth $5.
Rolling out of the everglades, we decided to head through Naples FL and check it out. I must say that it is quite beautiful. The downtown area is quite ritzy with a Mediterranean feel, and the neighborhoods have some beautiful homes.
At a gas stop before along the way, I was at the pump and this crazy lady came up to me. She was very dirty, had frazzled hair and sweatpants that with mismatched lengths for the legs. She began to talk to me about motorcycles and helmet laws and then asked what I was doing. I mentioned the trip and she said that I must be a motorcyclist from hell to be doing these kinds of miles. I said pretty much but that I hope I’m not actually from hell. Luckily my pump wouldn’t start and was able to tell Mike that I needed to use his pump, which worked as a distraction to get away from her. To her credit though, she wished us good luck and told us to wear our helmets.
After Naples we blasted through some highway miles to get to Mike’s Aunt Jan and Uncle David’s new 55+ condo in Venice FL. I should mention that they are considerably younger than the average resident there and it was in fact their first day. They closed on the condo in the morning. Well, of course on their first day they are hosts to two grizzled and dirty young whipper snappers on loud motorcycles. I can only imagine the amount of gossip that went around about that. Jan and David are amazing and were unbelievable hosts. There was cookies, lemonade and beer waiting when we arrived. We were able to shower and throw some laundry in before they took us out to dinner. They even let us put our luggage on a diet and said that they would bring the things we took off back to Massachusetts when they go up in a few weeks. Thanks again for everything by the way! I feel kind of bad for going to bed when I did, but I was spent.
I awoke to a beautiful sunrise over the ocean. It was so beautiful that I actually decided to crawl out of my wonderfully comfortable hammock to see it.
The trip back up the keys seemed to go by a lot quicker than the way down, which was a good thing since it was a repeat of the day prior. And then we headed back through southern Florida, but this time a bit more agricultural. And finally we stopped by a little BBQ/Cajun type place right before entering the Everglades on alligator alley. They had fried plantains on the menu, so we had to get those. And we also got some alligator burgers. I wanted just some alligator tail, but they didn’t have it on the menu. The burgers tasted good, but were basically spicy sausage patties. Because of this, I still have no idea what alligator actually tastes like. They had frog legs on the menu as well, but I didn’t want to get an order of them in addition to the gator burger just for myself.
Alligator alley was not at all what I thought it would be. I expected a fairly narrow road with everglade swamps on both sides and drop offs just on the edge of the road. Most of the way you couldn’t even see swamps. Frequently, the landscape looked more like it should be from the cretaceous period rather than the everglades.
Near the end of the everglades, we finally came to the Skunk Ape Research Center that we found as a random/quirky place to check out. For the general population, skunk apes are kind of like the yeti of the everglades. Well, the gift shop had quite a bit of Skunk Ape stuff to buy. Then, after we paid $5 to get in we discovered that the actual place had nothing at all to do with skunk apes. It was kind of a ghetto little zoo. It was fun, but I don’t know if it was worth $5.
Rolling out of the everglades, we decided to head through Naples FL and check it out. I must say that it is quite beautiful. The downtown area is quite ritzy with a Mediterranean feel, and the neighborhoods have some beautiful homes.
At a gas stop before along the way, I was at the pump and this crazy lady came up to me. She was very dirty, had frazzled hair and sweatpants that with mismatched lengths for the legs. She began to talk to me about motorcycles and helmet laws and then asked what I was doing. I mentioned the trip and she said that I must be a motorcyclist from hell to be doing these kinds of miles. I said pretty much but that I hope I’m not actually from hell. Luckily my pump wouldn’t start and was able to tell Mike that I needed to use his pump, which worked as a distraction to get away from her. To her credit though, she wished us good luck and told us to wear our helmets.
After Naples we blasted through some highway miles to get to Mike’s Aunt Jan and Uncle David’s new 55+ condo in Venice FL. I should mention that they are considerably younger than the average resident there and it was in fact their first day. They closed on the condo in the morning. Well, of course on their first day they are hosts to two grizzled and dirty young whipper snappers on loud motorcycles. I can only imagine the amount of gossip that went around about that. Jan and David are amazing and were unbelievable hosts. There was cookies, lemonade and beer waiting when we arrived. We were able to shower and throw some laundry in before they took us out to dinner. They even let us put our luggage on a diet and said that they would bring the things we took off back to Massachusetts when they go up in a few weeks. Thanks again for everything by the way! I feel kind of bad for going to bed when I did, but I was spent.
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