{"id":2367,"date":"2011-04-23T19:23:44","date_gmt":"2011-04-24T00:23:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/?p=2367"},"modified":"2011-12-06T16:02:42","modified_gmt":"2011-12-06T21:02:42","slug":"northbound","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/?p=2367","title":{"rendered":"Northbound Driving Day"},"content":{"rendered":"

Saturday – April 23, 2011<\/span><\/p>\n

Key West was a lot of fun and we decided that we would like to return during the winter when the weather is cooler and NOT during a holiday weekend.\u00a0 We didn’t have a reservation for tonight and didn’t want to pay an exorbitant rate for a room to sleep in, so we decided to leave The Keys.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>View From the Overseas Highway<\/span><\/p>\n

We checked out and drove north along the dual lane Overseas Highway.\u00a0 Traffic was heavy in both directions.\u00a0 Southbound traffic was heavier with people driving to Key West for the Easter Weekend.\u00a0 The speed-limit drops to 35 MPH frequently and many people sight-see along the highway and drive slowly.\u00a0 Again it took almost three hours to drive off The Keys.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Traffic Going Onto The Keys<\/span><\/p>\n

We were planning to drive north on the western side of Florida and eventually reach home.\u00a0 It was about 12:30 (lunchtime) when we reached Florida City\/Homestead.\u00a0 We stopped at the same Cracker Barrel that we had stopped at when we arrived at The Keys.\u00a0 After lunch we found Route 997, but it was so slow that we abandoned it and drove north on the toll-road Route 75, which runs along western Miami.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The Everglades Parkway<\/span><\/p>\n

After a short time, we turned west onto Routes 41\/90 and crossed the famous swamp known as the Everglades.\u00a0 Further north Route 75 also runs east and west across the Everglades.\u00a0 Rt. 75 is the most popular road with an assortment of colorful names such as: Tamiami Trail, the Everglades Parkway, and Alligator Alley.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

We wanted to cross the Everglades on the lesser-known road, Route 41, also called The East Tamiami Trail.\u00a0 In the beginning of the road, we wondered if we had made the right choice, because it was narrow and followed a deep canal.\u00a0 This road was built in 1928 is about 264 miles long.\u00a0 On the left there were commercial air-boat companies selling rides in the Everglades.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Flat Part of the Everglades<\/span><\/p>\n

Most of this part of this huge wetlands was flat and uninteresting.\u00a0 Later there were larger trees and plants along the two-lane road.\u00a0 We also passed several Indian villages on both sides of the road.\u00a0 The most fun was seeing signs warning drivers of “Panther Crossing” and “Alligator Crossing”.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Native American Village<\/span><\/p>\n

It took us almost two hours to cross the Everglades and drive into the beautiful city of Naples, Florida.\u00a0 It was early evening, the sun was setting, and the broad streets were empty because it was the day before Easter.\u00a0 While I drove through the Everglades, Jeff consulted his iPhone to look for a hotel in town.\u00a0 We have had such good luck with the Hampton Inns that we decided to continue to use them.\u00a0 He found a Hampton Inn directly on Route 41 in Naples.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The Gulf of Mexico<\/span><\/p>\n

We had been driving in the car all day and were were “car-tired”, but our goal today was to see the Gulf of Mexico and the west coast of Florida. \u00a0We drove to the beach and found a beautiful calm coast. \u00a0Then to take a break! \u00a0Again the Hampton Inn came through for us: very clean, modern, free internet, free parking, free breakfast, nice people, large room with sitting area, and all for $89.00 per night.\u00a0 We were happy!<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Houses Along the Gulf<\/span><\/p>\n

We rested for a while then we drove out into Naples, Florida to have dinner.\u00a0 The iPhones are ideal to find a hotel or a restaurant.\u00a0 All we do is open the Maps App to the place that we’re going and type in what we want, for example: “restaurants”.\u00a0 Then the map lists all the local restaurants in one click!<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Looking South Along the Gulf<\/span><\/p>\n

Jeff found a well established restaurant named Kelly’s Fish House Dining Room down by the harbor.\u00a0 Their card advertises, “Serving Sealicious Seafood Since 1952 – Stone Crabs: October 15 thru May 15”. \u00a0The Fish House was located right on the water with commercial fishing boats down a row of old wooden buildings.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Fish House Restaurant<\/span><\/p>\n

I had never eaten stone crabs, but I love Maryland crabs, and the stone crabs were in season. \u00a0They are thick crabs with black points on the ends of their claws. \u00a0I couldn’t miss the opportunity, so I had “sealicious” stone crabs, as they were listed on the menu.\u00a0 They were very fresh and delicious!\u00a0 Jeff had yummy fresh fried shrimp.\u00a0 You can’t beat fresh seafood!<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Saturday – April 23, 2011 Key West was a lot of fun and we decided that we would like to return during the winter when the weather is cooler and NOT during a holiday weekend.\u00a0 We didn’t have a reservation for tonight and didn’t want to pay an exorbitant rate for a room to sleep […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,18,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2367","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-eastern-united-states","category-florida","category-travel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2367","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2367"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2367\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3672,"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2367\/revisions\/3672"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2367"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2367"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2367"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}