Destination: Key West

For a switch from other hotels, the Hampton Inn offers a complementary hot breakfast. That’s scrambled eggs, small pork (maybe) patties, and the usual continental offerings. I have one small pork (maybe) patty and some scrambled eggs, with orange juice. Protein filler mostly.

Around 8 I head south, back on to I-75 following the signs to Naples. I stop at a Mobil station about a half hour out of Tampa to fuel up and make a nature call. The fuel stop goes well. The zip code trick a colleague told me about before I left, works at some gas stations but not others, most notably Chevron. The nature call takes me to the most disgusting bathroom I have seen on my trip. Almost all have been clean and well serviced, but this is horrid. I go to the Shell station across the highway and use theirs. To reward their cleanliness I buy some ice for the bag, and eight tall cans of Land Shark Lager.

 South of Naples I-75 eventually heads due west across Alligator Alley (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alligator_Alley) to get to the outskirts of Miami. I pay the $3 toll. I have no real experience in paying tolls so I stopped at the booth, handed the woman three singles, she says “Thank you”, and I’m on my way across the northern Everglades. Painless, easy. I first learned of Alligator Alley while reading John D. MacDonald's Travis McGee series of mystery books all of which are set in Florida.

I pass through Big Cypress National Preserve. It’s huge area of Southern Florida and encompasses part of the Everglades.

There is fencing along almost the entire route to protect both man and beast from each other. The roadway is flat, arrow straight, and occasionally rises up over waterways so you can see the saw grass and swamp. Along the road there are signs that indicate Travel Advisories on 1660 AM. Out of curiosity I tune in and am delighted to find there is information on the areas of the Everglades you're passing through. Every so often you have to change frequencies as you get out of range, but the information is wonderful.

Along the way I see a very large snake at the side of the road. It was easily four feet long and as big around as my fist. It may have been alive, or it may have been road kill. I don’t care!!! I am not stopping anywhere along here even though there are pullouts, and viewing areas. 

After passing through the end of the Everglades I am in the western suburbs of Miami. Around noon a roadside service sign says there’s a Starbucks on the next exit. I’m in the mood for an Awake tea. Inside the Starbucks I am delighted to see a cheese and fruit plate. 

Finally! I have driven all the way across the country without being able to find one, and here are a dozen of them in the chiller case. There is a slight delay in the lineup as a woman is having problems paying with her phone. Her gentleman friend riffs on me about how sorry he is for the delay. I tell him I don’t mind I’m on vacation, and he asks where from. So I tell him. He and his girlfriend are amazed because they have been there, and he starts in about how much he and she enjoyed it, and starts naming all the places they visited.

I take my tea, and fruits and cheeses, and get back on the road towards Homestead, Florida City, and my ultimate destination Key West.

I hit US 1 South, and love the concrete no posts they have painted turquoise, 

and I'm in Key Largo by 1:45. I fuel up at a Tom Thumb gas bar, and keep going. Key Largo is much bigger than I thought, mostly local stores and eateries, with only a couple of chain places.

The Overseas Highway is truly spectacular as it jumps from one of the Keys to another.

The speed limit is strictly enforced as it jumps from 55 to 45 and even 35 in some spots. I have a Monroe County deputy come screaming up behind me so I pull over and he goes past to try and stop one of the three cars ahead of me. His target is a brown Tahoe, and the deputy is not happy. When the SUV stops the deputy jumps from his car, unsnaps his holster, and with his hand on his gun orders, actually yells very commandingly, for the SUV to pull out of traffic. I sit there, full stop in the middle of the road, with my 4-ways on watching carefully. I don’t want to get any closer to a ticked off cop with his hand on a gun than I have to. At least it wasn’t me that was speeding!

At 3:35 I am in Key West checking into my hotel. I have a one bedroom King suite. First things first. In the room I shuck off my KEEN walking shoes, and my Tilley No Hole socks, and put on my flip flops, and stare out from the balcony at my view for the next 4 days.

After settling down and sorting some stuff in the room (there's laundry to do but they have machines here), I make a very large and very strong gin martini. I take it out onto the balcony and sit for a while to think, and contemplate about being here, finally, after 34 years of wanting to come.

There is a certain fatigue unique to having accomplished a long held personal life goal. One that shares a lightness of being, with a joy of spirit, and a kind of intense self-pride. All that, and deep gratitude to the people who helped me be here, is what I feel as I sit, stare, and sip my martini

I sit with the Atlantic Ocean on my left, the Gulf of Mexico on my right, and Cuba about 100 miles in front of me. I have driven about 6800 kilometers to get here, but I have come much, much farther than a measured distance.

I drink a toast to my late parents, who I miss dearly, and who never gave up on me and my crazy ideas even though they often counseled me otherwise. And to my brothers who have always answered my OnStar calls (or called me right back) so I could bore them with road updates and useless trivia and location anecdotes. And who were some of the few people who didn’t look at me askance (as in I’m crazy) when I told them I was taking this trip. When you’re alone on the road knowing that family is still there makes a big difference for me.

I drink a big toast to my former friends in crime fighting and their spouses (who remain my good friends and know a lot about martini's), and to my oldest friend and his wonderful wife (after 32 years of knowing me and staying my friend, that’s saying something). And to my friend and mentor who recently lost is own father.

I drink for my friend in Uxbridge who I miss, and as I promised I would. And I drink a toast to another much loved friend, whose strong faith guides her, and helped me to know I had quiet spiritual company in my car the whole way down. And to my friends from Key Largo, for the love and support, and ideas.

As I touched down on Marathon Key my 80 GB i-Pod Classic (who I occasionally call Mr Shuffle) caught my mood. Ever wonder if your i-Pod is possessed? Mine is, and has been from the first time I turned it on. I learned how possessed on my Oregon trip four years ago. When I have it on shuffle it sees fit to give me the right music at the right time. Only usually though, because back in Alabama it gave me Michael Buble, which was strange, because I exorcised it of both Buble and St. Frank during a furious pique back in the spring. But in the here and now it suddenly starts to play the music that helped me through the last nine months.

I chose to abandon travel plans for Italy and Greece back in February. At the time a confluence of deep personal issues and disappointments, coincided with strong professional frustrations. This conjugation of events would lead me to find a more holistic approach to this year’s travel. In her book “Out of The Blue” writer Jan Wong refers to travel as the “Geographic Cure” as a potential treatment for depression. Through the months of February, March, April, and May a serendipitous exposure to new music and old, developed into a mantra soundtrack that kept me pointed towards the goal of getting here.

Suspiciously like a bad movie I get, Kenny Loggins “A Years’ Worth Of Distance” and “I Don’t Want To Hate You Anymore” from the recent “How About Now” album, “Breakthrough” and “More Than A Band” from Lemonade Mouth, along with Jim Morris and his “Laid Back And Key Wasted” and “Too Early For Drinking”. Dan Fogelberg with “Magic Every Moment”, Kristen Chenoweth's “Lessons Learned”, and the fabulous Kenny Chesney’s “To Get To You”. In June a good friend sent me a link to the inspirational Matt Harding and Garry Schyman video of “Trip The Light” (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pwe-pA6TaZk) and I downloaded the music from i-Tunes, like most of the music. 

This is the music in which I found solace, comfort, inspiration, and direction. The people, and music that helped me get to this point in time and space, on this tropical balcony, drinking an adult drink, being truly happy for the first time in years, and living this dream come true. This part of my life journey is ended.

The sun is going down so I take my room service steak dinner out onto the balcony. It has rained again, and overhead the clouds are beginning to dissipate so that I can see a few stars. Far off in the west flashes of lightning bring the night alive with stark strobe like definition of far off cloud bundles. I drink a couple of tall Land Sharks and think small quiet thoughts about new beginnings, and casting off old endings, and the coming quiet disentangling of my professional world. 

The thunder storms will carry on through the night, but I’ll sleep soundly.