BPK Night

My wife was away, I had the evening to myself and I could have done anything I wanted. Instead of checking out the drunks at Irish Kevin's or the strippers at Teasers, I rolled the Bonneville out from under the house. This is what I found at the end of the street, one of Monroe County's finest and a bunch of what may have been motorcycle riders.There was another motorcycle parked further down Highway One and the demeanor of the Deputy suggested a wreck investigation rather than a citation but I have no idea what was going on and could see no damage. I took the picture and headed north to Big Pine Key.Which at night is the land of the 35 mile per hour limit. As discussed in a previous essay about the Big Pine Key Deer Bridge these signs show a limit of 45mph (70km/h) by day and 35mph (60km/h approx) by night. The black band is where the 45 shows up in daylight hours but is cleverly invisible by night:This was an unplanned wander and my first stop was at the most unlikely of Big Pine Key stores, the Good Food Conspiracy which covers a great deal of holistic ground:
I have met Marney on my trips to the store and though she wouldn't know me from Adam, I have found her to be quite a character. Not one of those "characters" found on Duval Street dressed in women's clothes to amuse tourists, though she does wear women's clothes as she is in fact a woman. She is a long time resident of Big Pine and has carved a life on her terms which I find admirable. Her shop shares a small strip with an unlikely mixture of stores:
A blind store, a bait shop,

and a store selling crystals, ...which between them cover all bases.

The heart of Big Pine Key is the traffic light in the middle of the island. It's called Big Pine because the island is the largest in the Lower Keys and the second largest among all the island, beaten in size only by Key Largo, which as it;s name suggests is a good deal bigger than most. Big Pine stretches about five miles north of the Overseas Highway at this point and about five more miles in an arc sweeping approximately Southeast through Long Beach Road, a street discussed in a previous essay. The island is covered in pine trees though they are not large by continental standards as soil is as sparse here as anywhere else in the island chain.

Big Pine has a reputation for harboring iconoclasts, people who want to live away from the crowds and want to do their own thing. Homes are scattered all over the island, in subdivisions like far flung Port Pine Heights, or in the populous avenues north of the Highway through town. The interior of the island is criss crossed with dirt streets and fenced off homes buried deep and privately among the pine trees. Not forgetting a large portion of the back country is part of the National Key Deer Refuge. Riding Big Pine at night is a delightful country stroll for a rider seeking a change from the incessant traffic of the Highway or well developed Key West, 30 miles to the south:No Name Pub, with no one sitting out on an 84 degree (29C) night. This area, Tropical Bay subdivision, deserves an essay of it's own, as it is a remarkable variation on the Big Pine theme. This is an area of canals and modern suburban homes on large lawn covered lots that you might expect to see anywhere in suburban mainland Florida. To live here means an hour long commute to Key West which puts it out of range of all but the most determined. My 40 minute commute seems long to people who live in city limits. A lobster trap substituting for the usual garden gnome:
I spotted this dolphin on a dark side street and I had to laugh when i saw this marine mammal clutching the usual mailbox in a sea of grass:
The other popular mailbox holder is a manatee in the same posture, clutching the box. Darkness is abundant on the back roads of Big Pine:

Back in the mainstream of unincorporated Big Pine we find the late night pharmacy just off the Highway. Big Pine has a shopping center across the street featuring a Winn Dixie grocery, a Bealls clothing store, a pet shop, a Chinese restaurant, a breakfast café, a bagel shop a library and pretty much all one needs if one doesn't want to drive to the big city of Key West.

CVS's rival Walgreens has been trying to get a foothold in Big Pine and some locals object loudly saying they don't want box stores on the island, even though CVS has made a bridgehead. Big Pine has several restaurants, mostly of the home cooking and American Grille school of food service but so far, happily, no fast food franchises. There is also at least one drive through liquor store to support the second favorite past time on the island (fishing being the first, I think). The third favorite is hanging loose, and lacking a public plaza in the Mexican style we find people hanging at CVS's friendly benches: And so homeward bound with a stop to admire the waterfront homes, all illuminated and covered with palms, reflecting on the still waters:

And back across the bridges and causeways connecting Big Pine to the Torch Keys, Little, Middle and Big:

And across the water one can see the welcoming lights of Parrotdise, source of fresh fish dinners and Smithwicks Irish beer on draught, of which I shall have to write something, some day:The lights on the water are hanging from the dock that stretches out to water deep enough to allow patrons to come by boat. Its also a fine boardwalk for an after dinner stroll to look at the channel and the stars and contemplate how happy one is that frost and snow and fog are hundreds, perhaps thousands of miles away.