Marathon

The Old Bahia Honda Railroad Bridge

My first visit to the Keys was when I was just 4 1/2 years old. My family was crossing the country with my father's job, living on military bases or in our family's tiny house trailer. When we got to South Florida, my mother took one look at base housing and drove the trailer to Marathon. Dad, she said, could commute to work. She and her children were living on the water's edge in Marathon. So I spent part of a glorious year exploring shallow aqua waters, discovering sea urchins, conchs, sea cucumbers, and a wondrous multitude of tiny tropical fish.

Marathon is just a 110 miles to the south of our current home in Miami, the perfect distance for a spur of the moment trip. Which is what we decided we needed a couple days ago. So here we are in Marathon.

Today we rode our bikes south, crossing the 7-Mile Bridge. We rode through Bahia Honda State Park, our favorite state park in all of Florida. Pedaling back to the East Coast Greenways bike path, we continued south to Big Pine Key. We criss-crossed the back roads of Big Pine Key, stopping at a grocery store for cold sodas. We rode over to No Name Key, headed back to Big Pine Key, then turned back toward Marathon, taking a detour down Long Beach Drive, a lovely ride which gave us our one and only sighting of a tiny Key deer.

The first half of the ride we had the tail wind so common this time of year when you are heading south. It was glorious. We flew down the road. The second half? Headwind, of course. We were dripping with sweat when we got back to our motel.

Needless to say, the post ride swim in the motel's pool was awesome.
(Today's miles: 63)

Bahia Honda State Park