Driving the Overseas Highway is an experience unto itself. The majority of the road is two lanes with the Florida Bay on one side in the Upper Keys which then becomes the Gulf of Mexico in the Lower Keys.   On the opposite side of the road is the Atlantic Ocean.  Funky, tacky, electic are words that describe the drive.  It's like going back to the 50's and entering a whole new world.

Outside of Marathon you come to the 7-mile bridge which connects Marathon to Bahia Hondo Key.  In the photo on the left, the highway is on the left but on the right is the remains of Henry Flagler's extension of the Florida East Coast Railway which opened up the Keys to the world.   The railroad was wiped out on September 2, 1935, when a hurricaine pushed an 18-foot tidal wave across the Upper Keys, washing out the tracks and killing 800 people.   Within three years, the Overseas Highway was born and now the driving public could make the 150-mile trip from Miami to Key West.

In the Lower Keys is the Key Deer National Wildlife Refuge.  Here live several hundred minature deer. 

Before long you are giggling at the funky mailboxes that seem to be in everyone's driveway.   Click on Mailboxes to see more.

Funky signs are something else you start watching for on your drive.  Click on Signs and Sculptures to see more.  

  Top