Key Largo to Marathon FL 53 miles - Cum 2,356 miles

Dean, Bob and I got up to another bright sunny day. We had breakfast at the Holiday Inn next door, loaded up our bikes and headed down south. We didn’t make very good progress for the first hour because the bike trail was in pretty bad shape. After an hour or so we stopped at a McDonalds for coffee. After that, the pace picked up a bit. Biking through the Keys is just watching one beautiful vista after the other. The Atlantic Ocean is on one side of you and the Gulf of Mexico is on the other. Sometimes you can see both waters at the same time. Fishermen of all ages line the old bridges and shorelines. I haven’t actually seen anyone catch a fish but I am sure they might catch them once in a while or they wouldn ‘t keep doing it. I saw someone who had pitched a fairly large tent on a bridge. It was probably to keep kids out of the sun while Mom and Pop fished.We decided to have lunch at Tom’s restaurant at Duck Key. It was a bit of a push to get there and we would only be 10 miles or so from Marathon but I had lunch there before and it was very good, We finally arrived only to find out that it was only open now for dinner. A girl at the store told us about a restaurant called the Wreck was only a few miles down the road and it was good. We headed down the road with Bob and I thinking it was going to be over 5 miles and Dean thinking it would be under 5 miles. It turned out to be about 4 miles. We went in and got an outside table and we all ordered fish. It was super fresh and very good. Inside we heard a football fan cheering very loudly and thought that he was pretty rude. Then he got up and walked by me and I saw that he had on a Hines Ward Steeler Jersey. Of course I then thought what a sportsman he was to cheer his team on in Florida! We arrived in Marathon about 3:30 and found a very nice motel. It had everything we wanted including a pool and a guest laundry. We put our swim suits on and went to relax by the pool while our laundry was getting done. It was a very nice couple of hours. We got dressed and decided to walk to dinner. The place we chose was about 2 miles away and Dean said why don’t we get a cab? We saw a cab in the shopping center and talked to the driver. He said the restaurant closed three weeks ago. We were very glad that we didn’t walk there only to find that out. The cab driver recommended a restaurant down by the seven mile bridge which we will cross tomorrow so we asked how much? He said 5 dollars. What a deal, 5 dollars for three of us to go about 6 miles. We had a drink and watched the sunset and then had an excellent dinner. We called our cabbie and he showed up in 5 minutes and rode us back for another 5 dollars.Tomorrow is the last day of my ride. It will be like the final day of the Tour de France. No pressure, just a beautiful ride into a beautiful city. I am having mixed feelings about my last day. On one hand, I am losing track of time. The days have started running together so that I don’t know what day of the week it is or how many days we have been riding together or what! It all feels like one big long day. That probably means it is time to stop riding and go home to reality again, but first, On to Key West!!