21 July 2017
It doesn't cool off much in Key West, it was 84 when I poked my head out for breakfast (the high was going to be 91--but it's a wet heat)! Nice breakfast at the BW Hibiscus, and they offer outdoor seating around the pool--not for me, I'll soak up all the A/C I can get, thanks.
Because once I did get out on the road, heading back north through the hell that is US1 along the Keys I knew I was going to be hot 'n' miserable. Still, probably better to be doing this relatively fresh--except it didn't seem so. Traffic was not well behaved, and I was constantly frustrated by being in a line that just-could-not-do-the-speed-limit. And with limited opportunities to pass, not to mention catching up with another such grouping... I have to say, I was glad to get back up to the Turnpike.
Except by now it was raining. Not sprinkling, or misting, but coming down strong, can-barely-see-the-car-ahead nasty. It was a battle trying to stay on (what I thought was) the right road. Except somehow I'd gotten onto another 'turnpike,' still going north, but about two miles east of the one I wanted (and had come south on). Eventually it dumped me onto US27, the rain let up, and I started to dry out.
The Key West gas got me up to Lake Okeechobee and the start of the hell that is US27 through central Florida. I should have remembered, although I'm not sure there are a lot of options--it started to feel familiar, except in the opposite direction--I complained about the same things ten years ago: stoplights every couple of miles, all red; cars waiting to dart out into traffic...one positive upgrade: they've added a lane, it's three lanes wide in each direction instead of two.
And it rained again. Where did all that water come from? I'd consulted my two oracles: Accuweather's "Driving Directions" hadn't show any, and although "Weather on Wheels" showed a 20% chance in one place, it was for 'light showers,' not the deluges I was sporadically experiencing.
One positive note was that the temperature had dropped, dramatically, to the mid-70s. Were I not so wet, it would almost be comfortable.
The last hour was pretty much rain-free, so I had a bit of a chance to dry out; at least I wasn't dripping when the GPSs guided me to a Quality Inn in Leesburg.
The somewhat goofy clerk managed to hook me up with a 'handicapped' room, one of the last available, at a semi-reasonable price, once we factored in AAA. There's a Publix market a half-mile away, and the walk down and back feels good after sitting all day.
Motel: $70.98
Groceries: $11.46
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