The road ends in Key West; the fun ends when you leave

KEY WEST, Fla. - Imagine that Hieronymus Bosch and Federico Fellini got together with the express purpose of creating an island. The artist and the filmmaker - both known for their bizarre flights of fantasy - would probably have come up with something resembling Key West. The southernmost of the Florida Keys - closer to Cuba (90 miles away) than to Miami (158 miles) and often referred to as "the end of the road" - in more ways than the obvious, revels in its own oddness. The island has its own anthem ("Cheeseburger in Paradise," written by island icon Jimmy Buffett) and its own flag (the blue banner of the Conch Republic.) The island dubbed itself the Conch Republic when it briefly "seceded" from the United States on April 23, 1982, in protest of a U.S. Border Patrol blockade of cars entering and leaving Key West after the... [read full story]