Sun Sets on Our Keys Stay

We ended our time in the Keys with another week of fun and sun. While the weather this year has been less than ideal - too cool and too much wind - it was still much better than most of the rest of the country. We did take in a couple movies, Darkest Hour and The Post. We recommend both with The Post being very interesting in light of our current government affairs. We took a drive south to Big Pine Key to survey the progress on the damage from Irma.

What is today the Overseas Highway was originally the Florida East Coast Railway that was built in the early 1900's from Miami to Key West. After a hurricane wiped out the railroad in 1935, the state purchased the right-of-way and built the road using the old bridges. The old bridges have been replaced over years but some where left in place to be used as fishing piers and in some places, as a bike trail. This is Pigeon Key which sustained a lot of damage from Irma and the old seven mile bridge.

The south end of the Seven Mile bridge was an arched bridge. The highway on the bridges was very narrow. The guardrails where made from the old railroad tracks. My grandparents used to go to the Keys every winter back in the 1960's and would have driven across these old bridges.

The bridge that has always fascinated me is the Bahia Honda Bridge. Unlike the other bridges it was a steel truss construction so the trains traveled "through" the trusses. This made it too narrow for the highway so the road was built on top of the trusses.  

The south end of the bridge was plate girder design and originally aligned with the tracks on the truss section. When the highway was built on top of that section they just jacked up the old girders to meet the road. A tricky bit of engineering that I'm sure would not be allowed today.

Standing here I can picture my grandparents coming across this high narrow bridge in the VW micro-bus camper. I'm sure she was saying Dena you need to slow down on this bridge.

Most of the debris from Irma has been removed from along the roads but there are still many signs of the damage. This was a three story house before the storm. 

This is all that remains of a big RV park on Sunshine Key. Part of it has been repaired and is open for business but there is a lot of work to do before this section will open.

The weather got better and many people hit the water. Dick mastered the stand up paddle board for the first time.

Lance took his dog for a ride in the yak. The dog also rides the paddle board with Shawna.

The water was so calm we could see many fish under the dock.

Here is a ray just off the dock. We saw a shark the same day but did not get a picture.

A few more sunsets.

It is so neat to be able to walk out our door and see these beautiful sunsets.

One last one before we hit the road.

A bunch of us went to Puerto Vallarta, a great local Mexican restaurant, for lunch. Great food, good friends and pitchers of margaritas.

Our niece Sherri and her husband Chuck came down to the Keys to escape the PA winter. They flew in on our last day so we only had time for a nice lunch on the beach at Lazy Days. We had not seen them since they came to the Keys on the last day of our stay two years ago. 

That evening we gathered in the Elks Sunset Lounge one last time to say good bye. 

The whole group gathered to give us a big send off. Wait a minute isn't Nanc supposed to be in Opus with me????? We had a great stay at the Elks and are planning to return next winter for an even longer stay. Since Mary Lou is selling her place, we are coming to the Elks for the holidays and staying through January.

After driving 1,100 miles in four long days, we are now settled in at Betty's RV Park in Abbeville, Louisiana for a couple of months. Our stay is off to a busy start with good music, good friends and fun times, including Mardi Gras parades.