Our last week has been a whirlwind of activity. For the most part, this trip has been just the two of us doing things together without other people,
especially after we left Sarasota in December.
However, this week we caught up with friends from Texas and another
set of RVing friends from British Columbia.
So we have been busy, busy, busy.
Prior to the whirlwind, we ventured up to Big Pine Key on
Friday a week ago to see if we could spot any of the infamous Key Deer. These diminutive critters, found only in the lower Keys, were almost
completely wiped out by mankind, but they are now protected and have their very
own preserve on Big Pine Key where they are making a satisfactory recovery. We did manage to spot a few deer during our
outing. They look like any other deer
you have seen except they aren’t much bigger than a golden retriever. Hiking on some of the trails in the refuge,
we came across an occupied osprey nest.
We could only see his/her head, but it was pretty neat. We had a pretty good lunch at Mangrove Mama’s
to cap off the field trip.
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| Alligator at Key Deer Refuge |
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| Key Deer |
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| Key Deer |
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| Mangrove Mama's |
On Monday we took our bikes down to Duval ostensibly to have lunch out (which we did), but shopping was also on the agenda. Susan met a new friend next to one of the ubiquitous cigar stores, and we spotted a guy painting his bicycle...fascinating.
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| Susan and Smokin' Joe |
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| Street Vendor Painting His Bike |
We mentioned friends Tom and Lore in our last post. On
the same evening of our Key Deer adventure, we met up with them at Sears and
were escorted onto the Navy base where they were staying in their RV. On Tuesday, we had lunch with them down in the
historic harbor. At Schooner’s Wharf Bar, we had an excellent meal and
enjoyed the view of the yachts. It was
our third choice of restaurant. Our first choice was closed; our
second choice turned out to be just a street vendor with an aluminum trailer,
and, alas, no place to sit. Tom and Lore have
subsequently left the Keys and are working their way up the east coast seeking
new adventures.
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| Historic Harbor with Tom & Lore |
Our BC buddies arrived on Wednesday. They are going to take a cruise from Fort
Lauderdale on Sunday that will be 15 days in length, will pass through the
Panama Canal (the whole object of the cruise), and will disembark in Los
Angeles. Bill and Ali are fun-loving folks. We manage to engage in conversation upon meeting just as though we were
together yesterday, even if it’s been many months. Over their three-day visit, we drank too
much, ate too much, crawled Duval too much, and wound up their stay with a
visit to La Te Da to see drag queen extraordinaire Christopher Peterson. It was their first (well, it was the first
that they admit to) and only our second time seeing a female impersonator’s
show. Our first experience was also here
in KW, but that was eight years ago.
It’s more expensive now, but the quality of the talent is still very
high. They left on Saturday morning so
they could catch their ship tomorrow.
They only thing they missed was a KW sunset; it was
cloudy the whole time they were here. Bummer.
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| Hog Fish Bar & Grill with Bill & Ali |
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| Southern most point in US with Bill & Ali |
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| La Te Da Drag Queen Chris Peterson |
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| For Bill & Ali |
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| Duval Street Scene |
In an earlier blog, we mentioned the Navy’s jet fighters tearing up the blue skies here in KW. The local paper ran a story this week shedding some light on the matter. It turns out that a Virginia-based squadron, the Gladiators, trains Navy and Marine Corps pilots at NAS Key West to fly the F/A 18 Super Hornet, one of the Navy’s carrier-based super jets, in preparation for war. These multi-million dollar machines require pilots who are finely tuned to fly them effectively. FYI.
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| F/A 18 Super Hornet |
Have we mentioned the chooks? They are everywhere, these feral chooks in
KW. You find them all over the streets,
in restaurants & bars, subjects of art work of every kind. The darn
roosters wake us each morning when they greet the rising sun, sometimes long before
sunrise. Usually not a problem, but it
can be painful when you’ve partied too much the night before. Of course, they will crow any old darn time
they feel like it, so KW often sounds like a barnyard with tourist scooters
running amok.
Quote of the week:
“I refuse to accept the view that mankind is tragically bound to the
starless midnight of racism and war….
The billions being spent on war overseas would be better spent on
overcoming poverty in America.”
--Martin
Luther King, Jr.
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