Florida Trip Part #7...Islamorada in the Keys...

Leaving the Everglades, I continue on Highway 41, the Tamiami Trail, and east I headed towards the outskirts of Miami, and then south towards Highway 1 and the Florida Keys...

I jumped off 41 at Florida 997 to avoid the traffic on US 1...a move I should have made on Friday's return trip....997 had plenty of major construction but was still a better route to pick up US 1 south of Homestead.


I still arrived at Islamorada before 3 pulled into a bar parking lot and begin to search for last minute

deals on places to stay via the phone...I finally found one, just down the road...a place call the "Drop Anchor".  This was a motel being refurbished … from it's 1950s styling.  I ended up taking the Internet deal for about $90 and heading down a back beach road, found the place...the guys at the desk announced they had "Upgraded" my reservations and gave me a lower floor room with access to the beach and pool through the sliding glass doors.  My only complaints about the place, were that the bathroom was small, and if I was any bigger than my 5' 10" 185 pounds, I would never have fit into the toilet area if having to take a #2...also the Beach was nice, but really had no access to the Atlantic...the water was there, but the beach ended and you would have had to climb down into the water...not a problem for me, I wasn't there to swim anyway, pool or ocean.  I was there to take some photos, drink some beers, and smoke a good cigar...Mission Accomplished!

I first visited Islamorada in 1997 or 98 while the family was returning from Key West on our first or second visit in those years.  It had attracted me, due to the movie "Key Largo" with Bogart, Bacall,

Hurricane 1935 Florida Keys
and Eddie G. Robinson, which had mentioned the 1935 devastating Hurricane, which destroyed much of the Middle Keys, including Islamorada, and left hundreds dead....the total will never known for sure, due to the train of veterans being knocked off the tracks and many bodies never recovered.  We had stopped at the Hurricane Memorial {top photo} and read about the story:  This Link covers it pretty well:

After Checking in at the Drop Anchor...nice but not what I would call a "Resort"...but hey the price was right and location was great.  I drove to the nearest Public Market and got some beer and groceries for the evening and breakfast next morning.  Returning to the motel I grabbed a glass, some beer, a cigar, and cameras, and went about the task of enjoying all of those …

Drop Anchor "Resort"

The seasonal sunset and sunrise were a bit off from where I would have liked them to be...but hey,

you have to work with what you are given, and many of the photos reflected what I had to work with...not perfect, but some came out pretty nice, IMO.

Part # 8 I will leave the Keys, head into some miserable traffic on Highway 1 into Miami, and then back through the Glades and finally on to I-75 and head north for the final portions of my trip.

back later>>>

Photos-{top} the 1935 Hurricane Memorial  {2} View from my Room...{3} View from the Beach...{4} There was a nice hammock, but Hell, I ever have felt safe in one of those, so it went unused by me...the rest of the photos{below} are from the various sunset {October 24} and sunrise {25th} from the room and beach, along with some room views.