Day 6: Marathon to Islamorada: Trouble in Paradise?

January 10, 2014

On the tourist map of Marathon, Publix (groceries), K-Mart, McDonalds, etc. look very accessible and close together. I guess it's true, since everything is within 5 miles. Like many towns in the US, there is no downtown and no walking area. In the Keys the phenomenon is more pronounced since everything is strung out along the same single street - U.S. 1

In fact, most businesses are designated by their mile marker number, with mile 0 of course being the spot in Key West where we took the photo. We realized today as well that street addresses along U.S. 1 give you the mile marker. So our motel at 82200 Overseas Highway (U.S. 1) is at mile 82.2. Better than a GPS, you can measure your progress (or lack of it) along the road to the thousandth of a mile.

We headed out in Marathon and tracked down K-Mart, to hammer the last nail in our case that "real" camp stove gaz (Primus, Jetboil, MSR, Campingaz, etc) is unknown throughout the Keys. However Publix supplied some great cold stuff, like yogurt with fredsh berries and granola and McDonald's chipped in their great $1 coffee.We will have to decide now if this is good enough for the long run, or if we will try a stopgap solution likes using Sterno limited cooking.

As we were cruising around with these errands, we met one more touring cyclist. "John" was a real touring cyclist, as defined by us by his Ortlieb bags, Surly bike, bright yellow wind shell, etc. However, he had left Oregon last May and had no particular plan to return anytime soon. John was not blogging and was only vaguely aware of CGOAB. But we think the moral support that comes from CGOAB would have been helpful to him. Some of his tales involved having to establish for people that he is a tourist and not a vagrant. Drivers, particularly professionals, that deliberately pass too close were also getting him down, as were local prices, and evidence of racism against the black and Hispanic populations.CGOAB can not fix all these, but a forum to share feelings about them can surely be helpful. I think anyway we provided that forum for a bit.

Today we ran into one or two other people who do not believe that Florida is Paradise. For example our motel manager cites high prices and low wages, and low social standing for workers as opposed to big spending tourists.

We can see the problems, particularly as it affects us in high camping and motel fees coupled with low quality. On the other hand, we are sort of part of the problem since we are having a swell time here notwithstanding!

Boats heading out on the Gulf of Mexico side. The water colour down here is so much more zippy than the ocean back home.

In many places the bike trail remains terrific, like here.

The Dolphin Research Center. We really could not afford this one, in $$ or time. Their cheapest activity was $65 for a chance to touch a dolphin. But you could swim with them for a mere $200 (each).

The bridge to Islamorada illustrates how you are sometimes almosty on a sea cruise on this cycle.

This brought home yesterday's session at the Turtle Hospital.

There are also seal and dolphin versions of this mailbox stand.

Temperature today peaked at 35 degrees, and ran at 30 most of the day. We are hot as we cycle, we know these conditions are close to normal for here.

By 4 p.m. we found ourselves too far from the RV parks in Key Largo, so again we looked for a motel. We stopped at interesting looking Bud 'N Mary's Marina at the south end of Islamorada. They could only offer us a 48' houseboat for $300. A normal spot in their motel, if available, costs $150.

Further up we found the Sunset Motel, and paid $75 for a sort of clean and majorly run down room. We are enjoying its likely former glory, in that the room is 25x15 (large) with very serviceable tile floors, and the back door opens onto a pool. The pool, too, was sort of clean - swimming with floating palm tree parts adds a sort of authenticity!I guess we didn't help, by swimming in our cycling gear. Smells better now!

The elegant lamp in our motel room is typical of the rest of it. It may be rusty but actually the light is good.

Trying to extract some "pastry power" from this local patisserie.

Today's ride: 58 km (36 miles)
Total: 158 km (98 miles)

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