Mid Florida Keys Trip Report

We had a short two day dive trip planned for the mid Florida keys to Key
Vaca, better known as Marathon. Ever wonder why it's not called Marathon
Key (as some may call it)? Marathon is the town located on Key Vaca, but
everyone refers to it as Marathon anyway. One can fly into Marathon if need
be, but we chose to drive from Orlando.

My last TR was to Key Largo for our twins OW check out dives some weeks
back, and this trip was to get them back in the water ASAP to work on
buoyancy control, get some shallow bottom time.....and just have fun.

This trip was not a non-stop from Orlando, which I did in four hours to Key
Largo via the Florida Turnpike. I was not traveling at MGS (Mike Grey
Speed, hell, I was only doing 85...most of the way). We made an overnight
stop at my mom's snowbird condo in Boynton Beach to drop stuff off, where we
were to return for a couple of days after the dive trip. The Orlando to
Boynton trip usually averages 2.5 hours, but almost an hour of that is the
getting on the turnpike, and getting off to where our final destination is;
it can take twenty minutes to get from the turnpike, down Boynton Blvd, to
Federal Hwy (US 1) south of Woolbright. For all of the people that go to
Orlando and Central Florida, looking for good open water diving, it's not
that much in time to get to the West Palm Beach - Ft. Lauderdale....or Key
Largo area by car. I would not recommend for a day excursion, but it's not
hard to do for a weekend.

We made the trip from Boynton Beach to Key Largo in about two hours?, making
our way through the Miami toll booth extravaganga on a Saturday with no
traffic (again no MGS speed...maybe 75 average). The Sunpass prepaid toll
payer....automatic take it out of your bank account wireless device..is a
real time saver. We hit Florida City at the end of the pike, and stopped to
get Mark some extra weight at the Divers Outlet. Nice shop. We have one
here in Orlando, and their prices are reasonable. Plus, anything over, I
think, $200 (with their customer ID card), we get a whole ten bucks
back...but its better than nothing...and with the kids diving..we'll
probably get more than ten bucks back real soon. There was a guy in the
shop that had a hat I wanted, that in plain lettering on the front of the
cap said, "Bank of Dad". We could use one that says, "Bank of Mom" more,
since Sheree does all of the karate, dance class, kids summer camp finances.

Key Largo: We always had our obligatory stop at The Shell Man, now called
Shell World, and found prices are a lot higher..........The Shell Man in
Marathon apparently is still just that....still the same. A couple of doors
down, the Divers Outlet store has closed. I could never figure out why they
had a store in Florida City, and one twenty miles down the road in Key
Largo. I'm just surprised they kept the one in Florida City vs Key Largo,
but I'm sure it has to do with taxes and such. We could stay in Florda City
at a Motel Six for $40, and if they had a motel six in Key Largo it would be
$120....of course they can get more for location in Key Largo, but I think
it's more than that. We prefer to pay the extra, and not worry about the
half hour drive to Key Largo, or beyound due to the draw bridge at Jew Fish
Creek at he southern end of the twenty mile "no man's land" between Florida
City and Key Largo.

Traffic backs up for miles; a few weeks back this happened - we were north
bound -thank God- close to the draw bridge. Traffic stopped. I can imagine
it could back up into Largo as well, were it would take some time to get to
the Card Sound Rd. South bound is always an accident waiting to happen in
these situations. As one passes these people in the opposite
direction...after a couple of miles, they are getting out of their cars
trying to figure out what is going on. Ever been in a traffic jam where
nothing moved closed to ten minutes? Actually, it's more like five, and
one will get out of the car to get a better look ahead. Actually, it's not
one, it's many people trying to figure out what's going on. These are the
people that have never been here before. I would call them tourists, but we
can all be tourists fifty miles outside of our home city
lilmits.........it's a matter of having been there before. I'm sure most of
the population of Miami would not have the slightest inkling about this
predicament getting from Florida City to Key Largo. Okay, I could make some
bad jokes here, but this crossing is not to be taken lightly. The Drive
Safely signs people now put up at memorials to loved ones that died on that
spot are getting very frequent, particularly along this twenty mile stretch.
I think they are at seven so far this year (they post it on a flashing sign
at Florida City before entering the crossing).

I think it boils down to two types of people: Those that don't give a
s**t, and those that are plain brain dead behind the wheel. They are both
equal to me has road hazard. Same old thing on our every day road trips to
and from our daily lives, only here it is magnified. As an example of "the
crossing" between Florida City US 1, overland highway magnifies this
greatly. This is everyday roadhazard magnified by 20 on this crossing. It
seems really benign at first, but magnifies greatly within the first five
files when people get impatient.
Someone doing 45 in a fifty five zone, a tourist doing 40, a boat in
tow(most of them do 55+)