Driving to Key West

One of the things that Lori and I were really looking forward to during our time in Florida, was the drive to Key West through the Florida Keys. Island hopping through the Gulf of Mexico along a chain of bridges just sounded like a neat experience, and the fact that we'd seen the bridges on countless TV shows and movies was definitely an extra incentive. When we hit the turn off to start our drive along the Overseas Highway, we were pretty darn excited....

For the first five minutes. After that we managed to hit a traffic jam that meant what should have taken two hours to drive actually ended up taking almost four. Average speed for the first half of the trip....5 miles per hour. It did give us lots of time to look around and enjoy the views though.

Hey Lori...We're doing 5 MPH. How do you take a blurry picture?

Fortunately, traffic lightened up before we hit the main stretches of bridge, so we were able to enjoy driving the larger bridges at a decent pace. 

It was actually a very peaceful drive, until you consider the damage that hurricanes had done to the older bridges in the past.

Finally, after four hours and a couple of stops at the Blue Hole and the No Name Pub on Big Pine Key, we made it to the Doubletree Resort in Key West.

If you can avoid traffic, the drive out to Key West is beautiful. Keeping your eyes on the road can be hard at times as there's so much beautiful scenery to take in as you make your way through the Keys. Of course, that's just for those of you in the front seat. Shortly after we arrived at the Doubletree, my kids looked around and noticed all the water. "Are we on an island or something? How did we get on an island?". Apparently the view is very different from the back seat.

Written by Steve Pratt

Key West on Dwellable