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| Southern most point of the USA |
The rain began to fall just as I reached Key West. It was refreshing and short lived and cooled me off after a rather warm ride down. I parked my bike in an overnight parking lot and proceeded to walk to the pick up point. I had previously made arrangements on Airbnb to sleep on the deck of a sailboat which was moored off the coast of Key West. Ryan, my host for the evening, soon arrived in a motored dingy and took me out to the boat. There would be five of us on the boat tonight, I was the first to arrive. First order of business was to go for a swim. The water was warm, clear and welcoming. There was a hammock on the forward deck and that was my next stop. I slept for a couple hours in the hammock just soaking up the sun. By nightfall, there were five of us sharing the deck of the boat, two girls from France, two from Miami and myself. Ryan lit the oil lamps he had stationed around the deck of the boat, and a campfire on deck, and we all sat around sipping wine and getting to know each other. It was great conversation and an overall enjoyable evening. As the campfire died down we all found a place on deck to lay out the sleeping mats provided by Ryan and settled in for a great nights sleep under the stars. Early the next morning the two girls from Miami went to shore on business. There had been a nice breeze blowing across the deck of the boat all night and I slept until 8:30 a.m. After a quick morning swim, Ryan showed up and ferried Alex, Marie and myself, back to the mainland. We walked around Key West for hours taking pictures and sampling the local food. After lunch, Alex and Marie decided to go swimming while I searched for the parking lot where I had left my bike overnight. Searched, turned out to be an understatement. Much to my surprise, I was on the opposite side of the island from the parking lot. I walked in circles for two hours before stopping at a hot dog stand to ask for directions. Lucky for me, the hot dog vendor knew the location of the parking lot from my description and steered me in the right direction. The whole reason for searching for the parking lot at this time was to buy another overnight parking pass before I got a parking ticket. Too late! Not only did I have a ticket but it had been issued the night before. This was crazy! My parking pass was in plain sight. I spent another 45 minuets looking for a policeman to find out what I should do about this ticket that I should not have gotten. The policeman smiled as if this was not an uncommon situation and explained how to clear the ticket. By this time my feet were killing me so I text host Ryan and headed back to the pickup point. Ryan soon arrived and off we went back to the boat. I would be the only guest on the boat tonight so after a quick swim I crawled into the hammock and fell asleep for the night.
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| Life is good! |
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| Pick Up Point |
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| Local Views |
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| Rooster & Chickens Everywhere |
