On the Road Again!

I had a look on booking.com after I had planned a few trips out from when we are in Weston FL.  We do like to have a trip down to the Keys, but to go to Key West needs more time and also hotels are in the "sell a kidney" bracket.  Last time we went they weren't too bad. So I had a look along the Keys and booked at Marathon Key. Reasonable price and 8/10 star review, plus it has free cancellation and nothing to pay upfront.   So the plan is we can call in at the  Dolphin Research Centre  or  Theater of the Seas  on the way down as they are nearer the mainland.  We can decide that later. I stopped at the  Theater of the Seas  way back in 1991 when I was "doing" Florida on a Kawasaki Z750 factory custom twin.  I have a picture that I can look out where I was sadly cuddling a sealion!   So another bit of planning coming together as hotels starts to release their dates and room rates to the booking sites.

Already? Time flies.  After the lamesville day yesterday and an evening watching John Boy Walton get married and three back to back episodes of The Middle, today is Keys Day. I dialled TomTom to take us to the Blue Marlin Motel in Key West and to avoid toll roads. So we left Mizner and headed south on 997. Over thirty miles of dead straight 55mph road. Boring. The main section between US41 and US1 seems to be Latino garden centre heaven. Miles and miles of nurseries. I used $25 of the timeshare visa on fuel. The Mustang seems happy on 87 Regular unleaded. And then we were on the Overseas Highway. In places you cannot imagine the view, made photographically impossible by the three foot high concrete side walls to the road, but is almost fantastic. I was  looking for the place I stopped in 1991 on the borrowed Kawasaki. I didn't see anything remotely like the dirt/sand pull off after one of the bridges. We pulled off at the Dolphin Research Centre on Marathon Key. It's $23 each ...