Cape Coral to Key Largo - Day Nine - January 24, 2017

Sue & Steve's Place

Carol and I got packed up and and said our good-byes, this is always a tough moment, it is so good to meet up with your friends but hard to let go. Sue was on the balcony waving good-by as we pulled out of their complex. We were off to find a quick breakfast and head toward route 41, the old 'Alligator Alley'. Well getting out of Cape Coral turned into a comedy as I thought I understood Steve's directions but I fully buggered them up and we were in very heavy traffic with strange turn lanes and a lot of old people

We did it again!

driving (we do not include ourselves in this group, by the way). Finally we settles on a Bob Evan's Restaurant. Now I know what you are thinking, I said I would never stop at a chain restaurant again after the Waffle House debacle. Yet, here we were at a Bob Evans. It lived up to all expectations with cold food, small portions, overpriced and so so service. It seemed almost as though they didn't want us to have that second cup of coffee. While we ate we went through all the different places we might want to stop - smart phones are so good for this sort of thing and we did have a good signal in the Bob Evans, maybe that is the one positive thing I can say about them. So, back on the road we headed south and to Route 41, down past Marco Island

We have an actual paper map! It helps.

and and Everglades City and then east on Alligator Alley. This is one long straight two lane highway that crosses through the Everglades east to west, west to east. Our first stop was at a State Park, the Collier-Seminole State Park, where we walked around a bit hoping to catch a glimpse of an alligator or a Panther - yeah, there are Panthers down here, who knew. The highway had a lot

CAUTION!!!

of 'Panther Crossing ' signs, like we have deer crossing signs back home in Rhode Island. We did not see any panthers though, and no alligators either, but we did have a good time just hanging out and stretching for a while. Shortly we were back on the road heading east at 60 miles per hour trying to spot some 'gators along the roadside. Everyone told us we would see some. We did find a National Park Service area which I can't remember the name of but we did see alligators there and had another good

Saw several of these guys!

stretch. In the gift shop they had all sorts of good things that we didn't need. The next couple of hours brought on a lot of road construction, long lines and traffic, but then it opened up to the Keys. Over the bridge and onto Key Largo we went stopping at the Visitor Center where we got a recommendation for several places to spend the

The bridge to Key Largo

night. We chose the first one we came to, Sunset Cove on the bay side, and got an apartment on the beach with a balcony overlooking

First night sunset

Florida Bay. We arrived just at sunset and missed the show but spent the evening on the balcony eating and watching the activity down on the beach. The wind was still blowing and the water looked angry, this was the last time we say anything but dead calm water. We made it an early evening and got to bed by about 9:30, I think we were both just exhausted from all the excitement and the driving that the past few days had brought. We chose this place and elected to stay here for three nights just to recharge and hang out together.