Mile 0 on Highway U.S.1

We are staying in Key West this evening, at a Fairfield Inn (thank you, Marlene), and tomorrow morning we are taking the Yankee Freedom III ferry to visit the Dry Tortugas National Park. It is something that we wanted to do while we are in the southeast corner of Florida, and when I researched the availability of the ferry to DTNP, the best day for us when there was space available was Thursday, April 10. We didn't want to tow the Airstream to Key West so we decided to come down this morning. We arrived just about noon, explored Key West this afternoon and go to the Dry Tortugas National Park tomorrow. We'll get back to Key West about 5:30pm tomorrow afternoon and then drive back to Miami and the Airstream.

The drive down the Florida Keys was fascinating! It was windy again today so, considering the route, I'm glad we weren't towing. (Those of you who know Florida may say that it is often windy here, but I think this is a little unusual. I noticed a headline in today's Key West newspaper that said something like "High Winds Causing Distress to the Pelicans". )

Seven mile bridge linking the keys.

Since we only had this afternoon to explore Key West we decided to take the trolly tour and I'm glad we did. I don't think we could have learned as much as we did on our own. Before we left on the tour we had a sandwich and a slice of Key Lime Pie. Yum!

Key Lime Pie.

Waiting for our trolly tour. Notice the Key West beads that were given to us when we arrived. (This my be my first picture on the blog. See, I am on this adventure!)

After the official tour we got the car a went back to a few of the sites. One that was particularly appealing was the spot that claims to be the southernmost point in the U.S. (Of course tomorrow we'll go to the real southernmost point!) We had to wait in line to have the opportunity to take a picture at the site and we had a nice chat with some folks from Saginaw, Michigan. And yes, the man held up his hand and pointed to a spot midway up his thumb.

The man from Michigan took the picture.

Next we walked back to Hemingway's house which was closed for the day. I did manage to get a glimpse of one of the 60 polydactyl (many-toed) cats that still remain on the property.

There is a high brick wall around most of the property that Hemingway had built because he was tired of people looking in.

Tomorrow is another early start. We have to be at the ferry at 7am.