There is a sign at Higgs Beach, the county park on Key West's southern shore, that used to allow RVs to park next to the beach. Nowadays the new sign says no RV parking:
Which sign posting doesn't stop people who live in their vehicles parking there:
It has always struck me as a miserable way to live, huddled in a vehicle parked on what is a public right of way with strangers and the curious passing by with every opportunity to peer in the windows. Some people drive to Key West in vehicles better adapted to the liveaboard lifestyle:
There used to be an absolute plague of French Canadians in VW vans who flocked to Higgs Beach and sat around doing the parlez vous and giving Key West a European air with a Gallic flavor, tres chic. This year either I missed them last week, or they are late or economically strapped and stayed home to ice skate the St Lawrence for a change. In any case there are vans still parking at Higgs Beach:
The rule is that if your vehicle is over 20 feet (6 and a bit meters) you cannot park anywhere in the city of Key West. Parking control comes out with tape measures and checks and tows vehicles that are rated as over sized and parked on city streets. This one looks a likely candidate:
There are other arrivals in town who leave nothing at home, if they have a home, not even the kitchen sink, as they trundle around town in grossly overloaded vehicles:
Others lurk at the picnic tables with their bicycles:
These rainbow kids, young hippy types, which I snapped at the Lime Tree Food Store on Flagler, hang around town with almost no visible possessions. They are on foot and thus at the bottom of the automotive food chain:
On the subject of things automotive, this local scooter rider is letting the side down in my opinion. I have no idea what she's thinking riding around with all four indicators dangling by their electrical wires:
Tut tut. Not homeless but that poor Zuma scooter might as well be!
Which sign posting doesn't stop people who live in their vehicles parking there:It has always struck me as a miserable way to live, huddled in a vehicle parked on what is a public right of way with strangers and the curious passing by with every opportunity to peer in the windows. Some people drive to Key West in vehicles better adapted to the liveaboard lifestyle:There used to be an absolute plague of French Canadians in VW vans who flocked to Higgs Beach and sat around doing the parlez vous and giving Key West a European air with a Gallic flavor, tres chic. This year either I missed them last week, or they are late or economically strapped and stayed home to ice skate the St Lawrence for a change. In any case there are vans still parking at Higgs Beach:The rule is that if your vehicle is over 20 feet (6 and a bit meters) you cannot park anywhere in the city of Key West. Parking control comes out with tape measures and checks and tows vehicles that are rated as over sized and parked on city streets. This one looks a likely candidate:There are other arrivals in town who leave nothing at home, if they have a home, not even the kitchen sink, as they trundle around town in grossly overloaded vehicles:Others lurk at the picnic tables with their bicycles:These rainbow kids, young hippy types, which I snapped at the Lime Tree Food Store on Flagler, hang around town with almost no visible possessions. They are on foot and thus at the bottom of the automotive food chain:On the subject of things automotive, this local scooter rider is letting the side down in my opinion. I have no idea what she's thinking riding around with all four indicators dangling by their electrical wires:Tut tut. Not homeless but that poor Zuma scooter might as well be!
8 comments:
Conch:
This posting reminded me of a time when, in my early twenties, I was most proud of the fact that I could fit everything I owned into the back of a jeep grand cherokee. It gave me a sense of freedom that is now quite a stranger to me. Now, the gear I need just to take the wife and kids to the beach for a day of fishing and relaxing takes that much space...
You might be surprised at the amount of people who choose to live in vehicles. The Yahoo Group VanDwellers has 3857 members right now, and that's just the ones who use/have computers and actually know about that list. Sitting in one corner of the earth for most of their lives, rarely going anywhere outside a 300-mile circle would be considered miserable by plenty of people. It's not always because people are "homeless" in the conventional sense of the word. It's a very well-considered choice.
Dear Sir:
Few communities have the multi-faceted identity that you have given Key West in your blog. Your work, and that of John McClane, Dom Chang, and Bob Scoot is inspiring me to make a stronger effort to define my riding environment through photography. The image you paint of Key West lends it an air of intrigue and interest to rival the city of Paris.
I enjoy your technique in peeling away the social strata of the place like an anthropoligist. But you always reassemble it without excuse nor apology.
I regret that my current work is more of an editorial nature, though I do try to maintain a heavy emphasis on moto content. I further regret that most of my stories are true. I have been hobbled of late by the fact that the weather has been bad enough to discourage any riding for the past three months. I hope this will change soon.
Fondest regards,
Jack
Twisted Roads
Maybe the parking restriction is because it's getting too hard to differentiate between big RV's and beached whales.
I've noticed that I've become a vehicle snob lately. I've been looking down on people who ride bicycles. At least those who look poor while doing so. Then you go and make a statement that those on foot are at the bottom of the vehicle food chain. Now I feel better about being a snob!
Do not turn away what is given you,
Nor reach out for what is given to others,
Lest you disturb your quietness.
"Do not turn away what is given you,
Nor reach out for what is given to others,
Lest you disturb your quietness."
Somebody translate please? And as for Irondad the snob, well I never!
Dear Sir:
I would have sent that note via other email if I could have figured it out. Your writing has purpose in its expression. I write for the same reason other people sniff glue.
By the way, in my Presbyterian white-bread neighborhood, the police will ring your doorbell if you leave a new Lexus on the street for more than one night. I stopped walking on the street as I got tired of explaining to the cops that I live in the last house on the left. The neighbors refuse to believe that a fat person with ratty jeans can possibly live around here.
(I just remembered why I don't write about my neighborhood.)
Fondest regards,
Jack
Twisted Roads
Liveaboards of the wheeled variety can be found in Seattle under I-5 on Ravenna Boulevard, under the Spokane Street Viaduct, and just about everywhere in Ballard.
What I don't understand is where all the old conversion vans came from...
__Orin
Scootin' Old Skool
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