Touring Tuesday - Southernmost Century

Mile 0 of U.S. Highway 1 in Key West

The southernmost century in the continental United States runs from Key Largo all the way down to Key West  At the end of the ride, you will be less than a century away from the island of Cuba. Lori Rackl, columnist for the Chicago Tribune, rode this this route and wrote about it for a newspaper article in the Chicago Tribune early last year. Key Largo Bike Tours offers supported bike tours, but Lori and her husband decided to go on their own after purchasing the company's $5, 54-page guide.

Originally, they planned to do the route in one day, but circumstances forced them to do it in two days instead. Lori said that was probably a good thing, otherwise they might have missed things like:

• Hand feeding big tarpon at Robbie's Marina
• Seeing rare and endangered key deer
• No Name Pub, a former brothel with a ceiling covered by dollar bills
• A homemade boat at Memorial Park that carried 17 Cubans to freedom in 2013

If you prefer to spend a little longer riding the keys, Pedal Across Wisconsin (yes, you read that right) has their annual Florida Keys Bike Ride scheduled for December 3-8 in 2018.

The ceiling at No Name Pub