Everywhere in Key Largo there are remembrances of Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall’s fantastic film adventures and unforgettable saunter aboard the African Queen. Key Largo was their romantic port of call. Fans the world over still visit this one lane town hoping to glimpse that fiery, rustic, daring, and in its own way, innocent Largo. Alas, that Key Largo is no more!
For sure there are sleepy canals, run down fishing craft, and a cadre of semi-dropouts who have chosen a simpler, albeit not inexpensive, way of leaving America’s well known hustle and bustle. But, the non-stop heavy traffic, endless fast food joints, and well meaning, but demanding middle class tourists, have created a Largo which does not make you want to reminisce. “Here’s looking at you kid”.
Now we know why Bogart chose to uttered that famous line in Casablanca.

It had rained significantly over the last few days. This was somewhat unusual for this time in south, south Florida. Today the sun was up and sky clear. Oops! The humidity lingers making the walking slow.
After completing route 997 south for the Miccosukee Indian Casino the heavy traffic on route 1 makes me nauseous so I take a parallel side road known as Card Sound Road. But the shoulder less, two lane, highway still made the walking challenging. As cars and trucks sped past I jumped on to a narrow grass strip separating the road from the Everglades swamp.
Crocodiles or alligators of all sizes jumped from their nearby perches, apparently spooked by me, splashing violently into the murky swamp canal. Cowardly, I did not follow them for the dip despite the awful humidity!