10/16 More Bahia Honda SP and Old Bridge

I spent most of yesterday working on my online course and grading papers.  (I teach online college classes to help pay my travel expenses.  I have been teaching college classes part-time for 27 years now--13 years in a classroom and 14 years online.  I enjoy it, and it gives me something to do.  Hopefully, it will also help keep my brain alive!)

Anyway, today I decided to get out and do some more exploring on my bike.  The weather here in the Keys, actually all over Florida, has been hot, hot, and muggy.  This also means the mosquitos are out in force, especially in late afternoon, and I keep getting bitten, so I sprayed myself liberally, although I am not sure it really helps much.  Anyway, it was hard to leave my air conditioned motorhome, but out I went.

Bahia Honda Key is one of the few places where sections of the old bridge is still standing.  You can walk out on a small portion of it to get a higher view.  The original bridge that connected these narrow islands was a railroad bridge built in the early 1920s, but it got mostly blown down during the Hurricane of 1935.  (See http://www.keyshistory.org/osh.html for details)  The next bridge was the Overseas Highway built in the late 1930s and 1940s, but cars in those days were a lot more narrow, so much of this original bridge was rebuilt and made wider.  The modern bridge I can see from my front window was finished in 1972. Removing a chunk of the old bridge ensures that no one will try to walk or drive on it, to say the least!

There is a short path from the marina parking lot to the bridge overlook.

Don't know how well you can read these, but these signs give some of the history.

Can't do much of anything on this bridge but look.  That's OK with me.

Really nice view from the bridge trail.  The whitish areas are sand.  There are not too many sandy beaches on the Keys, so Bahia Honda is very popular, even with locals looking for a place to swim.

Great view!

This view is looking back toward the campground.

There are a lot of these spider lilies in bloom right now.

Back to the campground, and oops!  Who put my TV antenna up?? I never use this antenna as it is a sort of "rabbit ears" antenna and I have satellite.  Then I remembered driving under some low branches when I tried to shop at the grocery store the other day.  I heard scratching and thumping on the roof, but never bothered to check for damage.  Apparently, one of the branches scraped along the top and pushed the antenna up.  

Tried putting it down from inside, but no luck.  Will deal with it tomorrow, but I am concerned about trying to drive with it in this position.  Big oops.