Don't Stop - the Florida road trip section UPDATED 3/16 - Page 36 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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Friday 18 December – part five: the worst driving weather... ever...
We headed further south and I was still snapping away, taking photos as best I could in between the rain showers.
You do occasionally see some odd signs down here!
By the time we got to the Seven Mile Bridge, which was the real highlight for me, the weather really worsened and the rain was coming down hard. It was a pain to get photos, but I did get some, especially of the old bridge. It was weird to see that in place, but with a few sections missing along the way. This bridge is a real engineering masterpiece and it was lovely to be able to go along it, despite the awful weather.
If we thought that this was bad, we had seen nothing yet. : The rain got worse and heavier and heavier and then the lightning and the thunder started as well. It really was no fun to be out on the roads in this and you literally could not see a single thing in front of you at all. Mark decided to stop when he got to civilisation, as he put it, but a couple of minutes later, changed his mind on that and pulled in by a restaurant for about 10 minutes. I wouldn’t say it was much better when we set off on the road again, but we figured it couldn’t be much more to come. There was only about another 10 minutes of it and during that time, we drove about seven miles and those were some of the worse miles that I’ve been in a car for. I don’t know how Mark managed to keep going, as I couldn’t see a thing in front of us. It really was zero visibility during it. Mark has been driving for more than 25 years and he told me afterwards that he had never seen weather like it in all that time.
I can tell you that I was very relieved when it finally did start to ease up. We ran into some other people,, as we were checking into our hotel at Key West and they were also commenting on how awful the weather had been. The news report said that something like 14 inches of rain had fallen in the last 24 hours down here and that’s the sort of rain that they’d expect in a hurricane. That’s the closest I want to get to a hurricane, thank you.
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Those parts missing from the seven mile bridge were done to keep the locals from trying to drive across it. And, it was done when they filmed the movie True Lies (Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jamie Lee Curtis) and incorporated into the movie. The old bridges were very narrow, and most were built on or over the original railroad tracks after the 1935 hurricane wiped it out.
Just got caught up with the report, loving it!!! Key Largo was disappointing for us too. I've done that drive to Key West a few times and it's a loooong ride for sure Rain in Florida is unlike anything I've ever seen It's more like driving through a waterfall and when it's over it's like your driving down a river
Pah, call that rain? You should try living in Wales!! (only kidding... )
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Those parts missing from the seven mile bridge were done to keep the locals from trying to drive across it. And, it was done when they filmed the movie True Lies (Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jamie Lee Curtis) and incorporated into the movie. The old bridges were very narrow, and most were built on or over the original railroad tracks after the 1935 hurricane wiped it out.
the report and pics!!!
Cool - thanks for that Bill, that's really interesting.
Just got caught up with the report, loving it!!! Key Largo was disappointing for us too. I've done that drive to Key West a few times and it's a loooong ride for sure Rain in Florida is unlike anything I've ever seen It's more like driving through a waterfall and when it's over it's like your driving down a river
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Your next installment sounds quite ominous.
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Pixie Dust
PassPorter Guide Author
: The rain got worse and heavier and heavier and then the lightning and the thunder started as well. It really was no fun to be out on the roads in this and you literally could not see a single thing in front of you at all. Mark decided to stop when he got to civilisation, as he put it, but a couple of minutes later, changed his mind on that and pulled in by a restaurant for about 10 minutes. I wouldn’t say it was much better when we set off on the road again, but we figured it couldn’t be much more to come. There was only about another 10 minutes of it and during that time, we drove about seven miles and those were some of the worse miles that I’ve been in a car for. I don’t know how Mark managed to keep going, as I couldn’t see a thing in front of us. It really was zero visibility during it. Mark has been driving for more than 25 years and he told me afterwards that he had never seen weather like it in all that time. 
the report and pics!!!
It's more like driving through a waterfall and when it's over it's like your driving down a river 
Claytrgtshooter (Minnie Lor's Hubbie)
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