19 July 2010

The breakfast at this particular Super 8 was a bit strange: OJ from a mix, two choices of "O" cereal, one colored, one not, both sweetened, pretty much everything else was wrapped: the pastries pre-packaged, both sides of the sliced bagel plastic-wrapped individually, even the apples! And a tray of pancakes, that you could reheat in the microwave.

One nice (?) thing about lodging near the interstate, it doesn't take long to get up to speed in the morning, we were clipping along at 75 before we knew it.

We planned to take the Florida turnpike for at least the southern end of the state, before the Keys, but weren't sure exactly where best to get on it. We took a break just before Ft Pierce, and decided to stay on I-95 a bit longer; at Jupiter we got off for fuel, and found there was an entrance to the turnpike there.

Not sure how it worked, we'd decided ahead of time I'd pay for both of us; when I pulled up to the toll booth, the attendant handed me a ticket, and a minimal amount of questioning seemed to imply that we'd ride the whole thing, and pay at the end. Should have known that made too much sense; some miles later, at another toll booth we pulled up together and I handed the taker the ticket. "Where's his?" "He didn't get one, he was waved through." "$13.70 for him, $3 for you." Guess he wasn't waved through. The total for the 113 mile run was $8; remembering how miserable the surface traffic was between Florida City and I-95 in '07 it was worth it.

But now we had to endure US 1; fortunately we weren't detoured onto Card Sound Road, as I was in '07, but construction had that first 20 miles one lane each way, with a 45 speed limit--get used to it.

The few places on 1 where the speed limit was 55, most traffic was loathe to do even that, except where it opened up to two lanes. Then they'd do 65, so you couldn't pass; as soon as it went back to one lane, they'd slow back down to 54. Grrr! At least it was hot and muggy.

Eventually, though, even that came to an end. We had waypoints set for everything; first was the gas stop, where we scored the gas receipt and the phone number, next the post office where we took the pictures and mailed the 3rd envelope, then over to the motel and blessed air conditioning.

 

It was still fairly early, so after we'd cooled down a bit, we walked down to the "Southernmost Point" monument, mobbed by tourists standing in line to take their pictures. (When I did the Four Corners Tour in 1987, we were able to park the bike close enough to the monument to use it as the 'proof' picture--some still do, but we didn't want to wait in line to do it.)

 

Boyd wanted to see Hemingway's house, so we walked over to it and took a couple more pictures, then found a restaurant and had an excellent meal, with obligatory Key Lime Pie for dessert. Then back to the motel for an early bedtime and a good night's sleep.

State: Florida

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