Our trip from Key Largo to Key West was not as straightforward as we first hoped. We woke up to visit Mrs. Mac’s (our excellent local diner) for some breakfast and saw that our hire car had a flat tire. After some initial half-asleep panic, I got on the phone to the Avis recovery line. I spoke to one of those AI call handlers which is trying to trick you into it being a human. To be fair it did work pretty well, but, perhaps due to its inherent lack of charisma, it failed to sweet talk any of the local garages from coming to our aid. Instead, we had a tow truck from the mainland and take us all the way to Miami airport to exchange our car, an hour-and-a-half drive in the opposite direction.
We were delighted to receive a bit of an upgrade into a White Hyundai Tucson from our Black Mazda CX5 – silver linings and all that!
New car secured, we got back onto Route 11, and headed back through Key Largo to the end of the road in Key West.
This drive is a bit of a road trip bucket list item in the US, due to its scenic views of the Atlantic Ocean on both sides. The road connects the islands or ‘keys’ which make up the most southerly part of the US and it was amazing to see in person. We stopped a couple of times, first at a big lobster sculpture, because why not?
Second, at Robbie’s tarpon feeding, which we’d heard was an iconic place to see wildlife including fish, manatees and pelicans. It didn’t quite live up to the hype. It was basically a really busy roadside village with more tourist tat than we’d seen in the night market in Bangkok. This fish feeding looked like a scene from Hitchcock’s ‘The Birds’, with aggressive pelicans chasing children with buckets of fish food. We took a look but decided to give it a miss and head onto our next stop: The Seven Mile Bridge. An engineering feat and one of the longest bridges in existence when it was first constructed, this part of the road stretches as far as the eye can see.
We arrived at our Historic Inn on Key West just as the sun was beginning to set. To make the most of our time we pushed straight out to grab a couple of lobster rolls to go from DJ’s Clam Shack and walked over to the Fort Zachary Taylor State Park for a great view of the sunset. It was beautiful, and the lobster rolls delicious!
The next morning, we found a local laundromat and while we waited for our cycle to finish we popped to a nearby “French” bakery for some breakfast. I put the “French” in inverted commas because it wasn’t the most traditional boulangerie – their croissants were roughly the size of American footballs and they had quiche and key lime pie on the breakfast menu. We went for one of each! It was all delicious but the Key Lime Pie wasn’t the best we’d had on the Keys.
Our favourite was from previously mentioned Mrs. Mac’s diner in Key Largo (below on the left, on the right you see Iris with another slice of pie!)
Life admin done, we set out to explore Key West and quickly noticed the population of chickens roaming the streets, usually in full family units with a rooster, hen and several chicks in tow!
The historic part of town is beautiful – a hybrid between the laid back island feel of a Caribbean island and an American seaside town. The buildings were clapboard style and reminded me of New England.
After a brief stop at the official marker for the southernmost point of the continental US, we had a stop for our second lobster roll in 24 hours.
Next we headed to see the home of Ernest Hemingway, critically acclaimed 20th Century American writer, who was also infamous for womanising and alcoholism. The house was beautiful, and populated by a veritable throng of six-toed cats, which are descended from the ones which Hemingway kept.
The next morning, we left Key West, bound for Miami, our last stop on our US road trip of the south. We had one final stop to make before we left the keys – the John Pennekamp State Park, to go kayaking and perhaps spot the elusive manatee. We weren’t lucky with the wildlife, but picked our way through some shady mangroves, and at the very least it was a nice break from the drive!
After working up an appetite, we stopped at a nearby Cracker Barrel, another roadside American restaurant we’d wanted to try. We enjoyed an incredible value lunch meal which included buttermilk biscuits, meatloaf with mash, chicken ‘n’ dumplings, fried okra and boiled carrots, with a couple of refillable sodas for under $30. The food wasn’t mind blowing but solid, and worth a visit! If you’re in the market, you can also buy a rocking chair from them.
So here we are, nearly up to date! We’ve kept our 36 hour stop in Miami pretty relaxed. We dropped off our hire car, bought some reading material for the cruise, and walked along the Miami beach promenade enjoying it’s Art Deco architecture and the sea view. For anyone who spent time playing GTA: Vice City on the PS2, it feels very nostalgic, just (thankfully) without as much violence and debauchery.
We had some delicious Cuban food alongside some supersized margaritas and enjoyed watching some Jeopardy on the TV before we lose our access to the Hulu streaming service.
As we speak, it’s around lunchtime on a very hot Sunday, and we’re chilling in the air conditioned lobby of our hotel enjoying the last of our stash of Creamy Coconut Dr Pepper Zero – which I’d personally place in the elite tier of our world soft drinks rankings – before heading to the cruise port for our Atlantic crossing.
Iris
- This road is also known as the as the overseas highway when it’s on the keys, or for at least some of the drive the Jimmy Buffet Memorial Highway ↩︎
Two for the Road 
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