Day 9: Sugarloaf Key to Knights Key

February 11, 2015

For the first time in this visit to Florida, we were quite reasonably chilly last evening. By chilly we mean needing a long sleeved shirt and windbreaker. This is the same definition of chilly that our daughter Joni uses, down in Belize.

Where we are at: crawling our way back up the keys. When we get back to Florida City in a few days, we will drop down into the Everglades

Along US 1, there is technically no camping. However the County will have to stay on their toes to keep their punative fines ahead of the punative rates of places like KOA.

A particularly nice piece of the bikeway beside US 1. Also, there were lots of wild camp possibilities back in here.

At Bahia Honda State Park they would have charged us to stop and eat our lunch.

Part of the slightly strange weather has been a breeze that pushed us down into the Keys and that has now turned around and is gently pushing us out. But the main development today helping us move along was a visit to the CVS pharmacy. Marilyn Swett, a veteran of many rides, mentioned in the Guestbook that she uses a knee support called Futuro Comfort Lift Knee Support, and available at CVS. It turns out that CVS, and Walgreens too, have a bewildering array of knee supports. These range in price from very cheap to quite pricey. We looked at a few, and finally determined that the exact one Marilyn mentioned would actually be the best. The price was about $13, and 50% off the second one of you buy two. Dodie bought one, tried it out outside for 5 minutes and went back in for another one (for the other, slightly stronger knee.)

Dodie spent the remainder of the afternoon demonstrating how she could now balance on just one foot, and showing that she could drive her bike forward at 2 or even 3 kph faster than otherwise. Mostly, the news is that she says the pain is almost gone. Whether this holds up or not will remain to be seen, but even a half day of relative freeedom was worth the price.

Maybe will have to abandon the cycling turtle as her emblem. Ot maybe not!

People have written in the Guestbook that the Publix supermarket is the best bet for Key Lime Pie of good quality and reasonable price. So given Dodie's luck with the knees we beetled on past the Knights Key campground for 5 km, to reach the Publix in Marathon. Just as we had been led to believe, the pie was creamy white and not jello like yellow, and there was no big meringue topping. As this is being written we have not tried it yet, but further down the page you surely will find the results of our taste test.

In America we generally despair of finding healthy food, but fresh fruits and vegetables are high quality and reasonably priced in Florida.

Since we were right at a supermarket, we went crazy and bought something for supper, meaning that we would save fuel, and ultimately avoid a detour into Miami for fuel in a week or so. There is even some talk about stopping at the IHOP in town for breakfast. How decadent is that!

On the way back to the campground, Dodie realized that there would be no end of whining if I had to eat pie without coffee. Since the idea for tonight was to use no fuel, we stopped at a convenience store to fill up the thermos with coffee. Ahead of me in line was a classical little old lady. Blue hair, sneakers, cateye glasses. She was buying lottery tickets. I asked her what she would do if she won. She replied that at 85 there was nothing she could do. Clearly the fun was just in blowing her $10 today. The girl behind the counter clearly knew Spanish, because she had served a previous customer in Spanish. So I took the opprtunity to ask her "Since you clearly know Spanish, can you tell me what Guarapo is?". I had seen this advertised on the signs of cuban restaurants that we passed. We spent a while with me saying "Guarapo" in every form of pronunciation I could think of, and explaining that it was some form of Cuban food. Finally she seemed to figure out what I was saying, and replied "I don't know nothing about Cuban food, I'm Dominican. The lady at the Subway is Cuban - she will know." I gave up, and determined to just ask Google. You can do that too, but here's a hint - it's not Cuban, it's Columbian, and it is a drink from some form of sugar, with lime juice. There are bars and restaurants all over the place with Guarapo in their names.

Back outside, I had to explain to Dodie what had taken so long in there. Of course, she didn't appreciate my story. But we set off, dodging the 85 year old lady in her huge car, and heading back to our campsite for a pie feast.

Pie Update

Just as we had hoped, the pie had no hint of Jello pie filling like yellow stuff. Rather it was a creamy, pale green, with very distinct but still subtle lime flavour, and not too sweet, on a graham crumb base. It was dreamy, and I would think we are hooked. We are ok, though, because an "entire" 1/2 pie was just $4.29. On the other hand, $4.29 of pie lasted only 20 minutes.

We bounced our half pie a bit on the bikes to tenderize it.

Bonus: More shades of Blue

Double Bonus: Amelia, we already found your street in Key West, have a look--->

Amelia, click here

Today's ride: 56 km (35 miles)
Total: 403 km (250 miles)

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