Essentially a rest day for the cyclists, and a long driving day for us, started with breakfast at Pepe’s, a Key West institution since 1909, located on the waterfront on Carolina Street.
After breakfast, the cyclists explored the city until time for the ferry to Fort Myers, which loaded at 4:30pm for a 6:00pm departure. We made a few last passes through the city, driving by Earnest Hemingway’s house. We planned to check out the Eco Discovery Center, but it was in the middle of the staging for this weekend’s Cigarette Boat racing event, so we headed up US1.
We stopped at Big Pine Key to check out the Key Deer population. We were told at the visitor center (hard to find–it is hidden in a shopping center) where to look, and were rewarded with several sitings. The key deer are an endangered species. Though protected, cars are their most successful predator.
We also stopped at the Pigeon Key Visitor Center, next to the Knights Key Campground and bought a book on the building and demise of the overseas railway. We didn’t have time for three-hour tour of Pigeon Key, a small island just north of the seven-mile bridge and once home to the railway construction crews.
Moving north, we made a brief stop again at the Robert Is Here fruit stand in Florida City and headed across highway 41, which is the northern boundary of the Everglades National Park and the southern boundary of the Big Cypress National Preserve. We stopped at the Big Cypress Visitor Center, where we spotted a pair of big (2 meters long) ‘gators and a turtle in the Tsunami Canal in front of the building.
At sunset, we stopped at Zorba’s in Bonita Springs for hummus and greek pizza, then on to Fort Myers Beach. The rest of the tour arrived at 10:00pm from the ferry dock across the channel.
