After our visit in the Everglades, we made our way to the Southernest point of the United States, Key West.

The main industry in Key West nowadays is tourism, but the island has a rich history and once had very close ties with Cuba, the cigar industry was thriving. After all, Key West is closer to Cuba (90 miles) than it is to Florida’s main land (120 miles).

Conch fishing also used to be important, but over-fishing brought this industry to and end. They also dived for sponges, but a red tide destroyed the sponge beds, and the industry moved to Tarpon Springs. Salvaging wrecks made a lot of people rich, sometimes as many as 5 boats a week would sink while trying to navigate the treacherous waters surrounding the island. Once sunk, the cargo was fair game, whoever could get it off the boat and bring it to land became the owner of the goods in their own right.

The distance from the main land prompted some people to declare Key West a separate republic and they began issuing their own passports.

Island natives call themselves “Conchs” and if you move there, after 7 years they will adopt you and you will become a “Fresh water Conch”

Famous for its sunsets, Key West puts on a show every night. You can go sit at a bar and sip a beer while you watch the sun slowly go down over the water. Street performers animate the event.

Very famous people made Key West their home, Jimmy Buffet and Hernest Hemingway come to mind.

Jimmy Buffet is know to come here and give free concerts. His fans are called Parrot Heads.

We stayed close enough to town that we didn’t have to drive the car, we were able to ride our bike to town, which saved a lot of parking fees. On base though, we had to wear helmets, so here we are, with our brand new helmets.

We walked all the way to the Southermost point of the Continental USA

And while doing so, we passed by US 1 mile 0, the beginning and then end of US1, which goes from the Keys all the way to Canada.

The beginning and the end

At Debi’s request, we went shopping for shoes at the famous Kino shoe factory. In the spirit of Key West, it looks more like a bar than a shoe factory/store. You be the judge….

Chicken are allowed to roam freely in Key West, they eat bugs and clean the streets.

Key West is a party town, and home to a lot of weird, special and always interesting and funny characters….

This guy goes around with his pet bird on his head while he is riding, and then he takes a nap in the parking lot of a famous bar, while the bird keeps a watchful eye.

This one plays the flute while his dog sings.

Elvis, shopping…..

and finally but not least, these two characters, after a visit at Hogs Breath Saloon….

Doug keeps commenting about the fact that it took me 10 years to take him to Québec City, well well! It took him over 11 years to take me to the Everglades, where I’ve been wanting to go since I moved to Florida!

We left the Tampa area and drove to our campground in Naples. Space is at a premium in Naples, the proof is in the pudding, look at the pictures!

We had to back up the coach between the cement slab and the power post, and the total clearance was 3″! Doug did it like a pro! Incredibly enough, people do spend the winter in this campground, as cramped as it is. I guess we are spoiled.

It was now time to go visit the Everglades, finally!

The Everglades are a vast territory watered by tropical summer rains, which floods the prairies and Cypress strands before flowing slowly to the south. The drainage is slow and creatures great and small have learned to depend on it. The land slopes only two inches per mile to the Gulf of Mexico, causing a delayed drainage of the wet season’s watery bounty. The gradual drainage extends the wet season by two or three months after the rains taper off in October. It provides a steady mix of fresh and salt water in the estuaries along the coast of the Everglades National Park. This nutrient rich mix supports marine animals such as pink shrimp, snook and snapper, all important to Florida’s fishing industry.

Although the importance of this ecosystem was always clear to it’s inhabitants, mankind (as always) was slow to realize it, and tried to exploit the land for its resources. Grand schemes sought to drain vast regions, meandering rivers were gutted to straight canals and saw grass prairies became sugar cane and citrus plantations. Loggers came and cut the giant cypress trees almost to extinction. Oil rigs came, land speculators descended. Then came roads and drainage canals that parched extensive tracts. The threat posed by this over-exploitation finally resulted in the establishment of the Big Cypress National Park in 1970, which encompasses 2400 square miles of subtropical swamp, surrounded by the Everglades National Park. Now Florida is very active in the preservation of the natural habitats of the Everglades.

The Seminoles Indians were pushed into the Everglades during the war against them, and learned to survive in this environment. They are the only tribe who never signed a peace treaty with the United States. They have their own government and are sovereign in their territory.

We went to Billie’s Swamp Safari, right in the middle of Seminole territory for our tour of the Everglades.

We took an air-boat tour and spotted a lot of wildlife.