Four Corners Motorcycle Tour: Key West, The Fourth Corner!

I knew better than to attempt riding down to Key West on Friday thru Sunday, so I completed all my Everglades area adventures throughout the weekend and enjoyed a leisurely Monday morning departure.  What a great call that was!  I encountered none of the parking lot traffic on US-1 that I had been hearing about in Florida City.  Other than a little stop-and-go traffic light congestion in a couple of beach towns in the Keys along the way, it was smooth sailing for the whole 107-mile Florida Keys Scenic Highway.

I rolled into Key West mid-morning, so I made a pass by the southernmost point and buoy just to see how long the line to get a photo with it would be.  The combination of spring break students, family vacationers, post Daytona Bike week riders, and cruise ship passengers resulted in a line at least 5 blocks long.  I smiled as I rode on by, thankful that I am a morning person and decided to come back the next day at sunrise.  I checked into the Navy Gateway Inn on NAS Key West (oh, the perks of military retirement!) and parked my bike for the day.  I called Eaton Bikes and had a bicycle delivered for $18 per 24 hours, with free drop-off and pick-up!  I spent the rest of my time in Key West sightseeing on a different kind of two wheels.

After a good night’s sleep, I lived up to my solar-powered Navy callsign/ biker road name of Sunshine and hit the road in time to greet the rising sun.

It took almost two years, and two bikes, but I finally completed my ride to the four farthest reaching cities in the contiguous U.S.! Madawaska, Maine (northeast) in Jun 2022; Blaine, Washington (northwest) in Aug 2022; San Ysidro, California (southwest) in Sep 2022; and Key West, Florida (south east) in Mar 2024.

It was still early morning and not many locals around to ask, so I consulted the Ride to Eat (RTE-X-USA) map for a breakfast suggestion.  RTE-X-USA is a list of local eating establishments submitted by long distance motorcycle riders.  Established in 1984 adjacent to a laundromat , Sandy’s Café, is a bit of a legend in Key West, so off I went!

OK, this is the part of the post where I remind y’all that my travels are not all rainbows and unicorns.  I had ordered a refill of my pain meds from the VA several weeks before I left on this trip, but unfortunately, they did not arrive before my departure, so I ran out a couple of days before arriving in Key West.  I didn’t think it would be too bad, but my shoulder and hip were almost unbearable without pharmaceutical intervention.  Coupled with my now discontented gut, I knew I needed to end the trip and beeline it for home.

I made an exception to my “no interstates” philosophy and took the most direct route home.  The two-day trip from Key West to home in North Carolina included a 650-mile day, all on I-95.  It was a good reminder of why I don’t choose that mode of travel very often.  It was so hard to stay focused, and not complacent, on the monotonous interstate, that I had to listen to music the whole way – something else I almost never do.  I saw primarily vehicles and pavement and learned nothing about the areas through which I traveled.  I have lots of friends who love to chew up as many miles in a day as possible, but this solidified that I am not one of them.  There is no Iron Butt run (1,000 miles in 24 hours) in this girl’s future!

Excluding those last few days of physical discomfort, this trip was a blast overall.  I visited lots of sites I’ve wanted to experience for quite some time, plus several I didn’t even know I needed to!  I arrived home to North Carolina just in time for peak pollen season, so it took more than a week to recover from my GI and allergy issues.  In spite of the challenges, this was yet another successful adventure of collecting experiences, one mile at a time 😊