Key West & Hurricane Rita: The Ride

Every year Peterson's Harley Davidson (http://www.miamiharley.com/) sponsors the annual Key West Poker Run to benefit juvenile diabetes. Many, many, many moons ago Sonya was injured returning from this poker run and has wanted to complete the ride on her own bike so this year we went for it. We left on Thursday, September 15th and headed south on the bikes. We made it about halfway and continued the journey to Peterson's on Friday.

Registration complete we headed south to Key West. What a ride! Rumors of about 10,000 bikes in the ride and we were among the masses of every assortment of bike you can imagine: trash bikes, shoppers, jap bikes, Harleys... you name it, it was there. We made five stops along the way and had four of the most awful poker hands anyone could have drawn!

Arriving in Key West was one of the best feelings in the world. We had done it!! Two chicks on their bikes riding from the most northern part of Florida to the southernmost point in the United States. How awesome is that!! Little did we know that the real fun was ahead of us.

With Saturday designated tequila day, we did the usual touristy things like the Key West Light House, overlooked the Hemingway House... then made the rounds at Sloppy Joe's, The Hog's Breath Saloon, Margaritaville and the Conch Republic but none of this happened BEFORE Sonya demoted me to "scooter status."

Oh and by the way... though the bartender at Margaritaville was the most entertaining the best 'ritas in our opinion were found at Sloppy Joe's. The "Sloppy Rita" wins hands down. We also discovered a couple of little restaurants on Simonton. A great Italian place called Abandonzza and an "exotic family restaurant" that served erotic and orgasmic potatoes called "Camille's."

I reckon that you can't participate in a huge poker run without seeing a TON of bikes... beautiful bikes. Here are a few shots.

Though the bikes were beautiful, nothing beat just being in Key West and enjoying the relaxed atmosphere that the island offers. Sunday morning we were up and taking our own bikes around to see the sights, to experience Key West without the mayhem of a zillion bikes. It was awesome! We left about 10 in the morning, heading back home after the best vacation. Little did we know that two hours later when we stopped for lunch that we had just beat the evacuation order for Hurricane Rita by two hours!! Just a note, folks... riding to Key West was a lot more fun than riding home... wonder why??