The Florida Keys

When we started planning this trip 10 years ago we let our imaginations run wild and thought up all the places in the world we’d like to see. One of Michael’s desires was to go down to the Florida Keys and drive on the 7 mile bridge where the bridge goes to the horizon and beyond. Today, we did that.

The Keys are a chain of coral islands which are off the end of Florida. They have been connected with bridges all the way to Key West (which is closer to Cuba than mainland USA!) We drove down about 2/3 of the way, through Key Largo and Islamonda and dozens of tiny Keys and over lots of bridges. Often the water was on both sides of the road, only a few metres from the edge of the road, the Gulf of Mexico on one side and the Atlantic Ocean on the other. After lunch at a park by the ocean at Key Largo and a few hours driving, we came to our bridge.

As far as the eye could see, it was bridge. It went for ages. A truly amazing thing, and we’re so thankful we were able to do it.

Tonight we’re camped just south of the bridge in an RV park on Long Pine Key. Our 30 ft RV is dwarfed by the other vans here. Most people have their van, also a sports car, a jetski, a full outdoor furniture setting, a golf cart and a boat. Not us! We have lines full of wet swimmers outside our van and not much else. But, we reckon we’re some of the most content people here – we paddled in the crystal clear, blue Gulf of Mexico today, we finally drove over our bridge, and we are so thankful to God who has made all we are seeing.

Karen