As the days turn into weeks, I thought Gee, I wonder if anything will happen that I haven’t written about before. Key West is living up to its Lei’d Back reputation. The cruise ships and airlines keep arriving bringing more and more tourists. I’ve heard more languages spoken that aren’t English, than the English I’ve heard! My favorite HH spot, Alonzo’s, still has ½$ appetizers and ACBs from 4-6pm.
My overnight parking spot for my nest (slide-in camper on a pick’em up truck) behind the county court house has worked with no problem. I did notice some large pieces of cardboard in the unpaved corner of the lot beside my spot. Yesterday I found out why. I had neighbors! Two people were sleeping there during the day! That’s normality, street people in Key West, but they are usually scared of and stay away from the Court House. Tomorrow is a county work day, so I’ll see if the county fuzznics allow the day sleepers to do their thing. I’ll move long before the business day begins, but I’ll walk through the lot and see if they’re here or if they got rousted.
One thing I want to do this year is go into the neighborhood corner grocery stores. Most have sandwiches, soup, and other homemade food. I think I’ve been missing some good stuff! As for the street people, I’ll just park in a different spot away from them. The county gives them a building to sleep in on Stock Island, the churches and charities feed them, and the police chase them around and out of the tourist areas. Yea, they’re generally tolerated, so I’ll do nothing about them too.
As most of the country experienced record high temperatures for December and Christmas, Key West was flat hot. I brought a red sweater and a Christmas tie along; there was no way I’d be comfortable wearing them. It was shorts, T-shirt, and sandals! The local paper said, 2015 has been the hottest year on record here. Good weather is the big deal for me; but the humidity, which has been 90+% every day since I got here Christmas Eve ‘til New Year’s week, is a little much. I usually enjoy heat, but this time my T-shirt is too much! Key West celebrates Christmas like nowhere else. They decorate Manatee Statues, their bicycles, and themselves!
Today will be a beach day. If the wind wasn’t gusting at a sustained 10-15mph, I’d have the kayak in the water. I’ll get there one of these days. One of my big events is paddling around the perimeter of the island. I’ll be avoiding the ocean liners, though. An encounter with the “wake” of one was a blood curdling event a couple years ago. Never again! The wind is out of the south, which means I’d be right into it for the first leg of my paddling. Once I turn the southernmost corner off Zachary Taylor State Park, it’ll give me a boost up the Oceanside coast. I’ll do it in several short segments of a couple hours or miles at a time. I know several spots where I can beach and lock the kayak to a palm tree or something. I’ll leave it near the bridge to Stock Island for a while, paddle around the back bays there, and watch the fish and bottom critters. I may even catch a fish this year. I saw so many schools of them in the shallow water last January. All I’ll need is a hand line, a hook, and maybe some kind of bait, which I’ll find under a rock or somewhere, but bait may not be needed. The food is so good at HH @ Alzonso’s, I’ll clean and freeze the fish to eat when I’m back in the wilds later.
The weather guessers are predicting our country’s weather will be dominated by El Niño. I expected warmer and wetter weather than usual in south Florida; so far that’s what I’ve gotten. This is my 22nd day in the Keys (01/12) and I’ve gotten my kayak in the water only three times. The wind and rain are just too much and too frequent. The good life, summer in the winter, goes on. There’s lots of good music here, especially at the Green Parrot. They have a direct connection to the New Orleans music scene and with top-notch road bands from all over the country and Caribbean; their Sound Check at 5:30pm fits into my day nicely. The band, usually the 10pm show, is expected to play about 30 minutes, but many are still playing at 7:30 and love doing it. Ocean City’s Kevin Poole and John LaMere play nightly here in Key West, too. John was gearing up learning French for a wedding gig in Paris! Plus, there’s so many restaurants including El Sibone’s Cuban food, the Hog Fish Grill, and Willie Ts serving scrumptious food at reasonable prices. The rain doesn’t dampen my parade!
Bob R o.c.FotoGuy
& facebook.com/OCfotoguy
articles @ coconuttimes.com
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