Two Lane Adventures: Day 6 Traveling to the Southernmost Point on a Two Lane Adventure

Day 3 of the Yankee RV Key West Fiesta was scheduled as a free day to explore Key West and use some of the tickets to the major attractions that are included in the rally package. Our rally package included a 2-day pass for the hop-on hop-off trolley, tickets to Truman’s Little White House, Ernest Hemingway Home & Museum, Fisher’s Maritime Museum and the Butterfly House.

Several of us decided to drive the cars to the Trolley’s Roosevelt Station. It is the closest station to the entrance to the island and Stock Island. It also offers free parking and then we can ride the trolley around the island. This area is called Rooster Row, it is a unique complex of 4 chic hotels, 6 bars, 5 dining options, meeting spaces and event venues. It is stop number 7, which means that we can enjoy about half of the narration again, as we head to Mallory Square. Each driver has their own spin on the narration, so it is never the same!

Cristie say this sign, as we were stopped at a light in the Trolley. I can understand, because some of these streets are so narrow. But, I can honestly say that I have never thought about bringing an RV onto the island!

What once was Fort East Martello, is now a museum. While Key West remained a Union controlled island during the Civil War, the majority of Key West citizens supported the Confederacy. At that time the fort was used to quarantine barracks for soldiers dying from yellow fever. Having no use for the fort once the war was drawing to a close, Fort East Martello was abandoned in its unfinished state by the Army.

In 1950, the Key West Art & Historical Society cleared away years of debris and dust to open Fort East Martello as its first museum. The society restored this national landmark in accordance with its original 1860s design. Today, you can explore the preserved battlement’s collection of relics from the Civil War; learn about the wrecking and cigar-manufacturing industries which shaped the Florida Keys; view the unique folk art of Mario Sanchez and the imaginative metal sculptures of Stanley Papio; as well as meet the Ghosts of East Martello, including the infamous Robert the Doll.

This picture is for our grandson, Connor, the hockey player. Here is the southernmost hockey rink. Because it is in the only frost free city in the US, it is not ice! They play hockey with all the rest of the gear, except they use in-line skates!

This house was made by coral rock.

At the Key West Butterfly and Nature Conservatory, you can feel your stress fade away as you enter the magical world of butterflies. Stroll through a magical and inviting environment filled with hundreds of the most beautiful winged creatures in nature. During your journey you can experience an impressive collection of flowering plants, colorful birds, cascading waterfalls and trees that set the stage for the "flowers of the sky."

Your adventure begins in the Learning Center, with an exciting introduction to the world of butterflies. If features exhibits on all aspects of the butterfly world with a wall size mural map, depicting butterfly identification by country of origin, as well as illustrated information on butterfly anatomy, physiology and a look at the incredible Monarch migration. Also, get a rare close-up view at a variety of live caterpillars feeding and developing on their host plants.

Enter the Butterfly house and walk among hundreds of living butterflies and colorful birds. It is like taking a stroll through a tropical paradise. Walking through an exotic and inviting environment filled with hundreds of the most beautiful winged creatures in nature, butterflies.

During your breathtaking journey you will experience an impressive collection of flowering plants, cascading waterfalls and trees that set the stage for the butterflies to land and live.

They say there are some 50 to 60 different species from around the world, as well as varieties of colorful birds, all under a climate-controlled, glass-enclosed habitat.

The butterflies are not collected from the wild. They come from butterfly farming operations. The captive breeding of butterflies is well suited to tropical regions and can be an environmentally beneficial endeavor through the release of excess production into the wild and the culture of native shrubs, flowers and trees as host and nectar plants.

You will have a unique opportunity to observe butterflies and birds in a tropical setting. The diversity of size, shape, color, patterns and behavior make these delicate winged creatures a delight to see.

We passed the Southernmost House Mansion which was constructed in 1896 as a family home for Dr J Vining Harris and his wife Florida, the Southernmost House was built with the utmost attention to detail and the strength to withstand violent storms. This magnificent structure is a prime example of American Queen Ann Victorian Architecture of the 19^th century.

Everyone that comes to Key West has to capture a picture at the Southernmost Point. The larger than life concrete buoy marks the Southernmost Point in the continental US, only 90 miles from Cuba. The now famous monument was erected by the city in 1983 and is the most visited and photographed attraction in Key West. However, it is not the southernmost point … that is located on restricted space on a portion of the Naval Base.

While our friends went to Truman’s Little White House, we visited First Flight Micro Brewery. Located on the corner of Whitehead and Caroline, is one of Key West’s most impressive and historic buildings. Well known for being the birthplace of Pan American World Airways, Pan-Am’s first tickets were sold out of this very building in 1927. Pan Am was the principal and largest international air carriers in the United States from 1927 until its collapse on December 4, 1991.

Founded in 1927 as a scheduled air mail and passenger service operating between Key West and Havana, Cuba, the airline became a major company credited with many innovations that shaped the international airline industry, including the widespread use of jet aircraft, jumbo jets and computerized reservation systems.

Walking the residential streets between First Flight and meeting our friends outside the Truman Little White House we saw some very Florida feeling homes. They are beautiful, but too much house for us! Charlie loved the blue painted porch ceiling, I loved the landscaping!

Yankee RV Tours provided us tickets to the Mel Fisher Maritime Museum. “Today’s the day” was Mel Fisher’s mantra. Fortunately, his lifelong hunt for ancient buried treasure was realized before he died so his mantra held true. The day was July 20, 1985, when, after 17 years of searching, Mel Fisher and his crew recovered $450 million worth of buried treasure from ocean floor just offshore from Key West.

The Nuestra Senora de Atocha and the Santa Margarita, two Spanish galleon ships that sunk in 1622, carried 40 tons of gold and silver, Pieces of Eight gold coins, Columbian emeralds, over 1,000 bars of silver and other gold artifacts.

The recovery of the ships’ bounty astounded the world, making Fisher an instant celebrity and Key West hero. Today, his spirit lives on at the Mel Fisher Maritime Museum and his generosity allows all of us to share in the glory of that momentous discovery. At this nationally recognized research and archaeology institution, visitors can explore and touch some of the breathtaking artifacts that defined the famed treasure hunter’s life.