Main Page > 2007 Havin' Fun on US 1
Waking early at 6:30 AM and excited the Boys had two things (about all they can have) on their little minds... They were gonna make it !! and They wanted to get through Miami before rush hour, so packing and running they grabbed some free hotel coffee and boogied on down the road with a great purpose.
The early morning Miami sky had its usual dense Cumulous thunderheads foretelling another hot, humid day down in the City, racing quickly through the city, the Boys started to relax around 9:00 when they hit SW 112 Street realizing they were now only miles from Florida City and the start of the Everglades !!!
Any Keys adventure always begins with a tour through the US-1 drive through the sawgrass and mangrove swamps of the Everglades. It is the first indication that you are going somewhere very different. As you drive along the bodies of water become larger and more frequent until you are driving along the shore line with the turquoise blue Caribbean water shimmering and beckoning !!
Once the Boys crossed the drawbridge over Jewfish Creek the Boys let out a whoop, they were in the Keys !!!
Slurping Cuban Coffee at Denny Latino Cafe in Key Largo
Once in Key Largo the Boys made a mandatory stop at one of Bone's favorite little Cuban Stands, Denny's, Latino Cafe, which is about 10 minutes into Key Largo, and a perfect place for a stop for the hot, thick, and sweet cafe cubano, and some wonderful pork empanada's !!
Two Yahoos @ Wahoo's !!!
By 10:00 in the morning Mike and Bone passed through Key Largo and through Tavernier into the middle keys starting with Upper Matecumbe Key and the start of the Village of Islamorada, where one of Bone's favorite fishing bars can be found, the always dangerous Wahoo's !!!!
Mauling Muddled Margie's !!!
Stumbling up the stairs the Boys sat down and Bone introduced Mike to the most lovely, luscious liquid gold, ever poured. It is so good that the Jews would have rejected God's manna from heaven for just a drop of this pure evil and goodness, known locally as Muddled Margie's !!
What is a Muddled Margie ?!? It is simply amazing that something so good can be created so simply. The "secret" if there is one to a muddled Margie is to crush a slice of orange, lemon, and pineapple in a glass, then use the pulp, juice, and fruit rind in mixing the Tequila and Triple Sec. After the first taste, they immediately ordered another round and began to dicker with a Wahoo's server who was at the Bar on her day off, who shared with the Boys here interesting story her bout of Cancer and how Stem Cell Therapy had supposedly saved her.
By 10;30 the Boys had had 4 rounds of Muddled Margie's, with their 5th, they "snuck" them out of the Bar and headed on down the road to both Journey's and Land's End, Mile Marker 0 in Key West !!!
They Shoot !! They SCOOORREEE !!!
The trip down US-1 through the Keys was the typical, glorious trip that always sits in your memory (when not addled by booze!), the bright sun-lite, the incredible, teal-blue waters of the Caribbean, and the omni-present heat shimmering off of the road. The boys sucked in the sea air, the ambiance and the remainder of their Wahoo's Muddled Margie's as they winded their way from Islamorada, over the Seven-Mile Bridge to Marathon, through the lower Keys to the Saddlebunches, where they spotted with growing excitement the Key West Weather Station which is a sure sign that you are only a half-a-mile to Key West !!!
Over the bridge they raced onto Key West, turning left by the Denny's, up along the coast to the Naval Base, up the hill past Simonton Ave, and for the first time past Duval to the FINAL right turn of the trip (sort of !) when they spotted that most wonderful sign right next to The Green Parrot Bar.......................
Mile Marker 0 !!!
Mile and Bone sprinted out of the car and "tagged up" the sign with a little dance to celebrate a "flawless execution" of their utter lack of planning. They had travelled over 2,000 miles from Saturday to Thursday, with stops at Rutt's (Crummy) Hutt, Revolutionary and Civil Wars battlefields, major southern cultural centers, the Fountain of Youth, and made it to Key West the very afternoon they originally intended too !!
It was time to celebrate, relax, and party ! which of course Key West is one of the best places to do just that !!
Celebrating the Mile Zero Milestone with Margie's at the Green Parrot Lounge
The first place to celebrate was one of Key West's first place to celebrate, the oldest bar in Key West the Green Parrot ! With the entrance simply feet from the Mile Marker Zero, the Boys went from tagging the Mile Marker 0 sign to slurping two icy cold refreshing Margie's in point-two minutes !! It was a blazingly hot day in Key West and with no air conditioning in the Green Parrot the Boys "fortified" themselves with one more Margie before deciding it was time for lunch, and with a hankerin' for a sloppy joe sandwich, there really no better place to go than Sloppy Joes !!
Checking Out The Red Rooster heading towards Duval Street !
On the way back to the car, the Boys captured one of the many roosters that run through the streets of Key West.
More Margie's and Sloppy Joes 2 Sloppy Joes !!!
Driving over to the legendary Sloppy Joes, Mike and Bone chowed on the awesome sloppy joes and slurped another set of Margie's. They stay for about an hour enjoying the ambiance, the music, the drinks, and the growing margie daze !!! By 2:00 it was time to check in to the Hotel and check out !!
Diving at Duval House !!
The Boys stayed strategically at the Duval House B&B, which has great air conditioned rooms. cool pool, a beer store next door, and most importantly, it is strategically located on,,,, Duvall Street !! Which meant the Boys could party like it's 1999 and not have to drive nor stumble very far later in the evening !!
Mike grabbed a twelve pack of Coruna's, the Boys donned their swimming suits and boogied to the pool to cool off from the long, hot drive !
Making a Baaston Friend. Hanging out by the pool, Mike and Bone took it upon themselves to be the "hosts" of the pool by introducing themselves to whomever would listen and met a lovely young lady named Kirsten from Boston (or as they say in Southie, Baaaston !) who was a State Government worker and fascinated Mike and Bone for the remainder of the afternoon on stories of Government corruption and Mitt Romney. As the afternoon wore on the evening, Mike, Bone and their new friend dickered by the pool until the sun began it slow descent which meant they needed to head down to Mallory Square for the daily Sunset Ritual !!
Celebrating Sunset at Mallory Square with a friend !
Mallory Square is the western most edge of the Keys and is the last and best spot to watch the sunset. Every night performers from jugglers, mimes, artists, and musicians gather on the dock to peddler their wares as tourist (a few locals !) gather with drink it hand and toast the setting sun. Mike, Bone, and friend Kirsten stopped at Fat Tuesdays for a round of frozen Margie's and made it just in time to watch the nightly magic of the rapid descent of the sun into the sea !! As they toasted Helios departing, thoughts of sustenance nibbles at all three.
Key West Afterglow !
Wanting to continue to enjoy the outdoors and wanting to go someplace close it was fortune smiling on the three that it just so happened that the Hogs Breadth Tavern was only four buildings away!! Sitting outside by the gigantic Mulberry tree where they enjoyed blackened grouper and icy-cold Margie's, the Boys watched the Thursday Night Football game while they munched their dinner with Kirsten. By 9:00 PM it was time to move on an into high-party gear. Bone suggested the place where Jenny put Bone under the table on their Honeymoon, Irish Kevin's !!
Many, many, many, many Margie's at Irish Kevin's !!!
Irish Kevin's a Sing-a-long Bar right next to Sloppy Joe's where the singers make fun of red necks, people in the street, and directly target the customers at the Bar !! Which was exactly where Mike and Bone positioned themselves and began the dangerous game of switching between Guinness, Margarita's and shots of Tequila !!
Making more friends at Irish Kevin's !!!
It was on this spot the Boys had the nerve to make fun of the singers and began the Drink challenge, emboldened by a day-long binge, they Boy locked arms and with the whole Bar chanting at them they SLAMMED to completely full guineys to quiet the amateurs on stage which made absolute strangers want to be photographed with the Boys !!!!
The festivities continued until 2:30 AM where the Boys began to wander unsteadily back to the Duval House while Kirsten went off with some other friend she met on a Duval. The 10:30 AM to 2:30 AM bender was an absolute Mike and Bone seminal event, which most appropriately topped off the momentous day. Finally staggering into their rooms at 3:00 Mike and Bone simply collapsed on their beds to a deep and sound sleep !