PART SIX: Wednesday, May 28. Heading south of Sarasota on highway 41. Finally broke out of traffic. Day was hot and dry. Roadster pipes were doing their thing as the old mill purred along. Roadsters.... a great way to travel. Heading to the Everglades. If I pick up the I-75 toll road, I'm on the alligator alley road. If I go about 19 miles further south on highway 41, I'll be on the north edge of the Everglades National Park. I've talked to people who know the area and they've said to take highway 41. It's basically a two lane road with less traffic. Then just west of Miami I'll turn south to Homestead for the night. Good afternoon drive and beautiful scenery. Road is rough in spots, but not bad. Cruising along about 55 mph and enjoying things. Watching the edges for alligators. I probably saw some sunning themselves, but was going a little fast to be certain. However, I did see several snakes and unusual birds along the way. Clouds gathered and things cooled down to about 85 or so. Naturally the top was down on the roadster when the rain came up quickly. And rain it was. Very intense. Rain pouring inside the open roadster. I was soaked, as was the inside of the car, almost at once. Kept going. No need in stopping..... no place to get out of the rain anyway. Ah, the fun of driving a roadster! The downpour intensified. I started watching for passing arks. Then the squall got so bad I had to slow to 40 mph. Of course the single stock wiper was on..... for all the good it did. The inside of the windshield was wetter than the outside I think. I was soaked through and through. Lots of fun I thought to myself. The other cars passing me probably died laughing at this old fool and his antique hot rod. Oh well. After about 20 minutes, it stopped as suddenly as it started. The sun came out and I was dry in about 20 minutes. Too bad the roadster wasn't. Got into Homestead which is north of the Keys and is the last large city before the Keys. Got a motel and emptied the roadster at the car wash. The rumble seat floor had about 2-1/2" of good old rainwater standing in the floor depression. The rain must come in through the top well since everything else is pretty water proof. The rain comes in through the openings in the door and is funneled directly into this well. The well is not sealed to the back of the seat and water pours through this opening into the rumble seat area. Result is a flooded rumble seat. Oh well..... we all knew rumble seat was all wet! Vacuumed up the water and finished washing the roadster. This proved to be a complete waste of time. The luggage was soaked, so I spread it around the motel room to dry. Then I drove across the street and ate at a restaurant. Drove back to the motel and put on the tonneau. I have a tonneau cover for the front seat. It snaps across the dash cowl and on the doors and at the rear of the well for the top. It basically seals the entire front part of the roadster from rain. It has a zippered section around the driver's side which I can remove to drive it and still leave the passenger side covered. It's pretty neat. I use the tonneau every night on the road since it keeps the interior a lot drier than a car cover. And it's a lot easier to put on and remove. So the roadster was tucked in for the night. I was anxious to drive down the Keys the next day.
I woke up early Thursday to hear the unmistakable sound of heavy rain! It was barely daylight and raining like I've never seen. Caught the local weather forecast. Supposed to continue into the night and clear up early Friday. Great. Got dressed and made a dash for the restaurant across the street. Made it without drowning in the almost flooded street. Had a very leisurely breakfast. It let up a little and I made it back to the motel. Stopped at the desk and told them I'd be staying another day. No problem.
Spent the day drying things in the motel dryer. Did personal laundry and dried it. Sure seems like I always have a lot of dirty laundry when I'm on the road. Went through about $10 worth of quarters in their washer and dryer. Ever wonder what the economy would do if we ran out of quarters? Purchased some trash bags at the motel desk. These would be used to put my luggage in and keep things dry. Spent the afternoon clicking the TV and dozing.... and looking out the window at the rain. The tube said we'd gotten 5" of rain since early Thursday morning. Oakland Park, which is about 40 miles north of Homestead, had an official reading of 7"!
Next morning I woke up to cloudy skies and no rain. Got things packed and in the plastic trash bags. Went out to the roadster. It looked like a drowned ski-boat. Dried it off and folded up the drivers side of the tonneau. Loaded my luggage in the rumble seat area and headed south to the Keys on highway 1.
Super day. It cleared off and got fairly hot. A nice change from the day before. The road down the Keys is basically a two lane road. Most is posted 45 mph. Yeah, on a good day. Mostly the heavy traffic keeps the speeds down to about 35 mph or so. And lots of traffic signals along the entire length. Both sides of the road are commercialized. It's about 120 miles from Homestead to Key West. I had thought it would be a series of really long bridges, but it wasn't. Got a couple of pretty good pictures along the way. Took a pic at Key Largo. Made it to the tip of Keys at Key West. There is a concrete cone there. It says it's the southern most tip of the US. There were about 65 people or so taking pictures of it. I walked back to my heap and pulled it directly in front of it. I got out and said a little loudly. "I hope you'll pardon me. But I want to get a picture of my car in front of it. I'll hurry as fast as I can."
I took two pic's and headed back to the car to move it out of the other people's way. A guy standing there asked if I minded him taking a picture of it. I said no and also said I didn't mind if he or his wife sat in it and had their picture taken. You guessed it. Before I left, about 40 people had their picture taken in the old boat! Made me feel like the car was pretty special. They were all very nice about it and were super careful getting in and out.
Then I headed back up the Keys to Homestead. At Homestead I elected to stay on highway 1 until I got through Ft. Lauderdale. Dumb decision. In Miami I got in the biggest traffic jam I'd ever seen. Highway 1 goes through the main part of town. It was Friday afternoon which made it worse. I was stuck in city traffic which crept along in low gear for the better part of 3 hours! Air temperature was 90 degrees according to the banks I crept past. I was burning up. And the hopped-up flathead didn't like it either. The temp got clear up to 205+. Pulled into a gas station and got gas as well as making a much needed pit stop. Had two cold drinks while the engine cooled down. The attendant said the traffic jam always cleared up about two miles north of where I was. At the speed I had been moving, it would be Christmas before I got that far. After about a half hour break, I got back in the snail race. Sure enough, I eventually made the two miles and traffic started moving. The flathead temp had crept back up to 195 degrees, but it cooled down to a nice 175- 180 degrees before long. And then I ran into rain again. Stopped and put the top up in a car wash. The rain didn't amount to much and I was probably overly-cautious when I put it up.
Made camp in a motel for the night. Called Aron in Palm Bay, FL that night. He had to work 8-5 the next day (Saturday). I was sorry I couldn't wait around to see him. Apologized and left heading north to my next stop.... Roanoke, VA. I didn't have anyone to stop and see in GA, SC, or NC. A change for sure. I wanted to get to Roanoke in a day or so.
There's a lot of race tracks etc. along the way and I decided to make detours to see as many as possible. Most were closed, but a few had their memorabilia shops open. Picked up a few goodies for the guys back home. Stopped by; Darlington in NC, Rockingham in SC, and Greensboro in SC. Lots of history in these places. Pulled into Roanoke, VA on Memorial Day which was Sunday, June 1. Called FRDTRK and set up meet for the following morning. James lives in the suburb of Roanoke..... rumble seat