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Key West, Florida - 2000 |
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Key West, Florida - 2000 |
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This page contains pictures of Tigger (and his human companions) during his recent trip to the Florida Keys! He had never strayed very far from the 100 acre wood, however, this year he made an historic decision and took off in his new Ford F150 Pickup. The first night was spent in the Travel Lodge in Florida City (just outside Homestead Florida).
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While relaxing in his hotel room (with his human escorts), his attention was grabbed by the news on the Weather Channel! Tropical Depression "Gordon" was picking up steam, although, it looked as though it would head toward the Gulf of Mexico. |
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Tigger was very nervous, since the 100 acre wood did not have many storms and none as powerful as this! He was also concerned about being trapped on the Overseas Highway during a Hurricane. |
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After all, there are not many places to hide along the 160 miles of Overseas Highway to Key West. But, this was his first adventure and he was not going to let a little wind, slow him down! Tigger departed Florida City on Saturday, Sept 16th. His first stop was at the Visitor Center in Key Largo. |
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While heading down the Overseas Highway, Tigger noticed that there were a whole bunch of motorcycles. This does not mean 4 or 5 motorcycles. There were hundreds of them. They were everywhere! Then he read a sign that said this was the Key West Biker Weekend! Well, Tigger is game for just about anything. So as "Gordon" was becoming a Hurricane, Tigger headed as far south as you can get, in the continental United States. Along with about 100,000 newfound biker friends!
Once he arrived in Key West, he drove down to Duval Street, just to see what was going on. He quickly realized that his new truck was a bit large for some of these old narrow Key West streets. Especially with motorcycles parked at every gas station, store, bar and along every road. Duval was shut down to traffic.
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Tigger decided to find a hotel on the opposite side of the island. He booked two nights at the Best Western on the North West end of the island so he would have a quiet place to chill with his human companions. |
While checking in, Tigger found out that the Island has this really neat shuttle service and the bus has a stop at the Key Ambassador, where he has his room. It makes a stop every 30 minutes. This would be much easier than driving the truck in downtown Key West. So he booked some tickets and took off for Mallory Square.
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The first stop was at the Ship Wreck Museum. Wow! What a neat place. He even got the nerve to climb up the Wreckers Lookout tower on top of the building. Imagine, climbing up 4 stories, on a wood deck, during a storm! Just to look for ships that might run aground.... |
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After visiting the Shipwreck Museum and a history lesson about the Wrecking industry in Key West, headed by Mr. Asa Tift, he went for a walk on the Mallory Square Pier. It sure was gloomy and the ocean was all churned up. By this time, "Gordon" was now "Hurricane Gordon" and has a bead on (or near) Tampa, Florida. There was a ship from NOAA docked there. |
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Next stop was the Mel Fisher Maritime Museum. Tigger wanted to know what $400,000,000 worth of Spanish artifacts looked like. He actually picked up a gold bar worth $15,000. There were Pieces-of-Eight, Doubloons and Emeralds in the collection found at the bottom of the ocean! |
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By this time, the darn humans were complaining about food, or something. So we all walked 5 blocks down to the A&B Lobster House for a wonderful Lobster dinner for a wonderful Key West price! But it sure was good. |
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The next day, Sept 17th, was chock full of sight seeing, walking and walking and more walking. Boy, it sure got hot, all of a sudden! Tigger visited Ripley's Believe It Or Not, Hemingway's House, Audubon's House, The Little White House (aka Truman's Annex) and the Bahamas Market. We were dead on our feet, by that time.
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Monday, Sept 18th, was very sunny and jammed packed with adventure. The first stop was at the Key West light house. This began the demise of the Wrecking Industry in Key West. From there, we walked to the Southernmost Point in the United States. On the way back, we stopped to pay tribute to Chicken Little. |
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Then we boarded the bus for a slow trip around the island and to cool off. We disembarked at Flagler Station and learned about the $30 million dollar Overseas Railroad project that Mr. Flagler started.
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He finished it in 1912 with the first train arriving in Key West on January 22nd. The Labor Day Hurricane of 1935 brought the railroad to its end. |
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After our visit at Flagler Station, we had a photo opportunity with the sponge monster and walked down to have a cool drink at Sloppy Joe's and the Hog's Breath Inn. |
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Then we went back to the hotel, packed it up and headed back to Florida City. Our next day would be spent at the Miami-Dade Zoo! |
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After a good night sleep, we made our way to the Miami Zoo. We found out that it is really not in Miami, at all. It is closer to Homestead than Miami. Once inside, we made our way to the Lions. Tigger was very happy to see some of his buddies! |
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Next came the cousins! He even saw a very large, white Bengal Tiger. The wind was blowing and he almost fell over backward, off the sign! See where my stupid human put me! Way up on the top of the sign. Very scary!! |
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The only reason we went to the zoo was cause my female companion (aka mom), wanted to see the dumb looking Komodo Dragons! I tell you what, These Meerkats were much more fun and interesting than those lazy old Komodo Dragons! |
Well, That is about all the fun Tigger (and crew) could stand. He was very glad to be back in the 100 acre wood, with all his friends. Traveling can be fun, but there is no place like home! Wait a minute, that's a different story....
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