After a day of figuring out what we were gonna be doing the following next 3 weeks, my friend and I decided to leave to Key West. We both had the everglades on our lists too which is on the way down to the Keys.
Our first day of walking was mild on the level of distance. The 25 km walk took us to the coast in order for us go further down to Miami during the next few days. As we started my shoulders were killing me. The heavy backpack was not really helpful either. So I wanted a solution and there it was laying under a bench at a bus stop. We had a new shopping cart! :D we drove it all the way till the end thru the rain and without a host for that night. When we arrived at our destination we kept on sending requests. My friend made it clear he didn't want to sleep in a tent and I didn't want to pay for a hotel. So no other solution but to trust the CS community. After an hour or so finally someone accepted. He agreed on picking us up and taking us to his place 40 min back up north (meaning our walking distance didn't really have point but the beautiful views and the adventure). We stayed for 2 nights on the floor since he didn't have ANY furniture :p haha! But it was a carpet floor which made it just soft enough.
Since we lost some time due to this unexpected delay our only solution was to hichhiking. Our host dropped us of near a highway. It was our lucky day! We made our cardboard signs with direction and it took us less than 5 minutes to catch a first ride. And oh yes it was a hospitality guy :D Ooh yes he also worked for Marriott! Haha Ritz-Carlton en plus! So we ended up talking, he gave his card and I might be able to get an internship with him! Cuz of course he was not just an employee, he was a big ass manager :D hahah! When we got out of his car he gave us 10 dollars extra for our trip. Crazy!
The next ride was even more unbelievable. The man had 10 restaurants, a contraction company and a law firm. He took us all the way down and payed us lunch (FB). He dropped us of at around 18 km from our destination. Again a hospitality guy, I'm sensing a pattern here.. we needed 1 ride more to our destination. A good 10 min after lunch a Spanish guy stopped. He was a priest with a heart of gold. All these great people, my friend couldn't believe his eyes. "it's the power of the mind and law of attraction my friend". I'm glad I could show him how it worked. The priest dropped us right at the porch of our next host and gave another 20 dollars. This, I must admit, was a very interesting day. Again we had all the great people although Miami is really not the safest place on earth. People along the road told us we were crazy for doing this. I couldn't care less. I know I am anyways :D haha!
The new host, Andrea/Andy, felt pretty damn good! Both Simon and I had the best time with that girl. We went for Karaoke, played a few card games (cards against humanity), she took us to a shooting range and gave us a tour in the everglades! Fantastic! Her boyfriend wanted to drop us off at the beginning of the keys. After that the rides were pretty easy and fast to catch. So damn nice and awesome feeling that gave us. Our first ride (3 Polish guys) took us to a sort of port where you could feed huge fish by holding your hand above the water with same bait. The fish than grabs your hand and gets the fish. Haha! Pretty damn scary if you ask me! Hahaha I wanted one of those rediculous pictures where you pretend eating the fish yourself. Hmm the part I wasn't taking into account was that the seageals where hungry too.. so I held the fish in front of my mouth and ooooh yes. There it was. The huge monstrous bird, at least it felt like that, flew straight up my face and grabbed the fish! Hahahaha!! Man I'm very happy that action is not caught on camera! :D
Hop to our next ride! The pick up truck! :D he passed us and turned around, told us to jump in the back and bought us both a burger and beers. Oh man! So many great people, other human beings refuse to open their eyes and take note of them too :). When we got to Key West, about 200 miles from where we took off, we stayed with a girl again. After an hour or 2 she came up to me and said: "I have very bad news but you have to leave". Haha! Unbelievable! Her roommates weren't aware of us coming over and didn't want any strange people in the house. So at 11:30 PM she kicked us out. I felt pretty good actually. As the first reaction of my friend was:"where is the closest hotel", mine was: "oh yes a night on the beach!!". So we went to beach sleeping on the tent, since we preferred seeing the stars. It was a terrible night in the way of sleeping but the most beautiful one on any other level! Just wauw!!
I found a new host before coming here so we made contact and he agreed on hosting us. After a long walk we finally got to his place. He is a 38 year old man who drove us to the supermarket while we were talking about our trip. He knew about our budget and told we should rent bikes in order to really explore key west. He ended up paying for the bikes with a huge smile on his face just because he wanted us to have a great time! This trip has been with only ups and very few downs. All of which taught me various things and I'm very grateful I had the chance to experience all this, especially at my age. Thank you all for this and thank you mother for finding it in your heart to letting me :).
There's probably gonna be 1 more post when I'm back. My last week and god it went so fast! I have absolutely no regrets and my trip has been everything I had wished for! :) wishing you all luck with a smile! Have a great week!
Greets,
Lenn
