The End of the Road

A dream is what makes people love life even when it is painful.

--Theodore Zeldin

Today marks a turning point in my journey.  I’ve traveled as far south as possible and I’ve literally reached the end of the road, so I have no choice but to turn around.   I got up this morning and drove to Key West—the last island on the Overseas Highway, Highway 1.  The Keys are like a string of pearls that dangle off the southern tip of Florida and drift out to the southwest, and Highway 1 is the thin silver chain that connects them.  Key West is a small island, only about 4 miles across the long way.  It is about the same distance from the edge of Florida as it is from Cuba and it feels like it is its own little island country.  The streets are narrow and filled with bars, cafes, and lots of shops selling Key Lime Pie, coconuts, rum, conch fritters, and other tropical goodies.  Its shores are crowded with boats of all sizes—from fancy personal yachts and commercial fishing boats to small rowboats and tons of jet skis waiting to be rented. 

Can't go any farther south than here!

I figured that with it being right after Memorial Day it wouldn’t be too crowded, but I was wrong.  There was a large Carnival cruise boat parked at the terminal and scores of tourists in brightly colored shirts and sandals strolling about.  People on scooters and in small golf carts raced down the streets along with trolleys and little open-air trams that had tour guides squawking on speakers about the history of various buildings and landmarks.  I drove through the tiny streets several times before finally finding a parking spot large enough for my van.  I got out, paid my parking fee at a small machine in the center of the block, and set out to explore.

Not far from where I parked was a large colorful buoy on the street marking the southernmost point in the US.  From that point it is only 90 miles across the warm waters to Cuba.  It literally was at the end of the road: beyond the buoy there was just open sea.  A long line of people wavered several hundred yards up to the buoy. They were all waiting their turn to take pictures next to the marker.  Since I didn’t really care about standing next to it, I walked past all of them and snapped a few pictures from the corner across the street.  From there, I made my way a few blocks up Whitehead Street to the Hemmingway Home and Museum. 

Hemmingway's House

It was the actual house where Earnest Hemmingway lived from 1931 to 1939.  Perhaps the most interesting aspect of the house, outside of its architecture and unique history, is that it is populated by about 50 cats, many of them which have 6 toes.  Ernest Hemming loved cats and believed that 6-toed cats brought good luck.  The cats at the house are said to be direct descendants of a 6-toed cat that Hemmingway himself had owned.  As the tour progressed, the tour guide described various features of the house and told little stories about Hemmingway’s life and tragic suicide, and also introduced every single cat that wandered into the tour.  After the tour of the Hemmingway house, I wandered around the streets of Key West and found an ice cream store.  It was the first ice cream I’ve had on this trip, and after 7 weeks it was fantastic! I indulged in a double scoop of chocolate and Dulce de Leche before going back to my van and driving back to my campsite in Bahia Honda.

As I was driving back I thought a bit about this journey I’ve been on.  When I started I had no real idea of where I wanted to go or what I wanted to do;  I just knew that I wanted to get out and explore.  It’s been a dream that has been in the back of my head for several years, and there have been countless times that I’ve gotten on the road to drive to work or to drive to the store when I’ve thought to myself “What if I don’t stop at the store, but I just keep on going?  How far would I get?”  Now, after nearly 7100 miles and 50 days, I’ve found myself literally at the end of the road.  Unless I get on a boat, I can go no further in this direction. 

See his 6 toes?

But there still is a lot more to explore in other directions.  It was a dream that led me here and it is dreaming which keeps my spirit for adventure alive.  People frequently say, “Follow your dreams,” but I think that is not quite right.  What I’ve found on this trip is that you should chase your dreams, pursue them with a passion.  They should be flying wildly far out ahead of you, and you should feel like you have to strain to reach with outstretched fingers to grasp them and let them pull you along where they may.  And when you do reach them and achieve your dreams, they might not turn out to be what you initially expected.  That’s ok.  When they turn out to be something other than you first imagined, the fantastic thing is that you have the power to come up with new a new dream and follow it down a whole new path.  Other than a couple of markers along the way, I had no distinct direction that I wanted to head on this trip and I let myself be pulled along each day to what seemed interesting and exciting at the time.  Some destinations so far have been fantastic:  the unique landscapes at Yellowstone, the sun setting outside of Mackerricher Park, the striking colors at the Badlands.  And, yes, some were underwhelming: the run-down park in the redwoods, the fog at Mt. Rushmore, the biting cold in Minnesota.   But the great part was that each point along the way was not a final destination, it was just a temporary pause after which I could always pick a new direction to go and look forward to something better.  And it has been the combined experience of all of those stops put together that has built the overall character of this fantastic journey I’ve had so far.  There isn’t a single one that I could pick out which I could say has really defined this trip.

Mile 0 - Literally the End of the Road

As I was thinking about this, I realized it’s been the same with my life up until this point.  I’ve had my ups and downs—successes and disappointments.  But each one along the way has come and gone and always opened up a route to some new adventure in my life:  I graduated high school in San Jose and moved to San Luis Obispo for college; in college I struggled through seven years of classes but it worked out that they led me to the exact time and place to get a fantastic first job at Cisco;  that job paid well and allowed me to build my house in Avila, but eventually the declining stock market and more stressful work led to frustration and disappointment that drove me to another company;  that new company paid me a higher salary but was a much less fulfilling job and it eventually encouraged me to leave the tech industry and get back into coaching swimming;  my divorce also came at about the same time I quit my job which put me in a position where I had to sell my house, but becoming free of the burden of a house eventually is what gave me the freedom to take this journey.  Overall, while I wouldn’t want to endure some of the struggles again, I know that they were all necessary to lead me to where I am now. 

So now, as I find myself turning around at the literal and physical end of the road, I know there are other adventures ahead.  Tomorrow I’m heading north along the eastern coast of Florida.  There is a little hang gliding company up in Fernandina Beach that has a reservation with my name on it for Saturday, and beyond that, well, I really don’t know what is beyond that.    But what ever it is, I know it will be the right thing and the right place to be for wherever I’m headed.

Fishing at the end of the day