The following was taken from Bob's Journal:

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January 1994

The next day we were off to Key West, we left around 11:00 after finishing breakfast at a place called the Hollywood Diner, which was right next to our hotel on Route 192. We made it down to the Keys by around 3:00, then we began our long scenic journey down Route 1. We arrived in Key West about an hour before sunset, and went to work looking for a hotel. After checking out the whole island we decided on the Hampton Inn, which was right on Route 1, and right on the water. After unpacking, we both went our separate ways in search of food, Bri finding Taco Bell, and I found Wendy's. That night we didn't do much else, watching a little boxing in our hotel, and then falling to sleep...

Sunday we planned on doing nothing but watch the football playoffs on TV down at 'The Only Bar' which was right in our hotel, down by the pool which overlooked the water. This was truly heaven, we drank beer, watching football,
at around 78 degrees, while up north it was around 15 degrees... That was nice, after realizing that the Buffalo Bills were going to beat the Kansas City Chiefs, we took off across the street to eat Chinese food. After filling up on that, we went back to the bar to watch the second game. After a while we realized that the Dallas Cowboys were easy winners over the San Francisco 49'ers. Again we found ourselves in bed quite early that night, resting for
the next day, in which we planned to go downtown.

Monday we woke up early enough to take advantage of the hotel's free continental breakfast, and although it was simple, it was good. We soon took off to Sear's where we rented two mopeds. This was my first time riding one, and I was a little bit nervous. After riding around the parking lot, I realized that there was nothing to it. We drove around the entire island. First we stopped downtown. Downtown we went to Jimmy Buffet's restaurant,
Margaretaville, but not to eat, just to get a matchbook and buy a t-shirt for Dan Waris. After leaving there we went to another restaurant/bar called Sloppy Joe's. This is the place that Earnest Hemmingway used to goto alot when he was
alive. This was the place of the original Sloppy Joe, one of which I ordered, and found really good. After that we were off again, this time to Hagen Dahz Ice Cream, where Bri ordered a good sized sundae. While we were in there I saw two girls probably about 18 or 19 with a stack of job applications in hand, and looking for another. After being there a few days I got a feel that there was nobody down there who originally lived there, but rather, everyone was from somewhere else. Both of the bartenders back at 'The Only Bar' were from the northeast, one of them, by the name of Judy, was from Worcester. We then took off from downtown toward the other places on the island. We stopped next at the Southernmost Point of the Continental U.S., took pictures, trying to avoid a couple of rather annoying homeless guys, and then took off again. Next we stopped at a beach a few blocks away to take a few more pictures, then we went back to the hotel. Again we went to eat at the Chinese restaurant across the street, and then again to 'The Only Bar' to watch some college basketball. We
watched basketball until around 10:30, and then hopped into the hottub next to the pool. Again I thought to myself - Heaven. I sat out under the stars with the temperature right around 68 degrees, while back home it was probably right around 0. After that it was bedtime once again.

The next day was quite an adventure. Knowing that we only had two hours left with our mopeds we decided to drive around some more on them, journeying down Route 1 searching for a road sign I had seen the last time I had been there,
which I really wanted to get a picture of. Unfortunately I didn't see the sign. We then returned our moped's and then to the hotel. We quickly booked ourselves onto a snorkeling trip. The trip was fun until we got into the
water. The boat had a glass bottom so thats where I saw the best view from. When we got in the water I found myself struggling to stay stable, my goggles kept fogging up, and I was constantly spitting up salt water. I didn't stay
out long, instead I went back to the boat and just laid out hoping to get a little color. After we got back on shore, Bri and I went looking for someplace to eat. I was hoping to find someplace that had lots of seafood on their menu,
and this wasn't hard. We found lots of places, but eventually passed them all up for Kentucky Fried Chicken, which wasn't what I had in mind, but it was a cheap option. We then went back to the hotel and took pictures of the sunset from the upper deck, which sat above 'The Only Bar.' Then a few minutes later, we journeyed down to the Only Bar to watch some more college basketball. After a few minutes there the bartender, Lance told us we should really go somewhere else, explaining that there were lots of other bars that young guys like us would enjoy. He suggested a place called the 'Stick and Stein' which was a
sports bar in part of a shopping plaza. After debating it, we were off.

We arrived at the 'Stick and Stein' around 9:30...

-b
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