Vacation Continues

I am home for a few nights of work before we leave for part two of summer vacaciones, on the road. We have had more financial setbacks and the Chief Financial Officer advised me we need to combine her need to go to California with my need to burn off accumulated leave from the Police Department. So Poof Tour 2010 has been shelved and I still don't get to see New England which is pissing me off. Nor will we greet the friendly poofs who we were hoping to see one more time on this cancelled trip. Not least we have to skip seeing riepe in his native element which I was looking forward to. However this does mean the wife doesn't have to spend money flying to California from the East Coast which would have been an additional expense. And I get to see the Motel 6 in Fort Stockton, Texas, one more time. I was hoping to take a ferry across Lake Champlain and shake the hand of a Vermont secessionist. Oh well, man proposes and God disposes.

Cheyenne slept for 48 hours straight after we got home and I am not sure how she will view a three days slingshot to Los Angeles in the back of the Fusion, but she is a cheerful soul and probably spending a few days closeted in the car with me and the wife is better than her previous life. I hope so at any rate. She will get lots of cool weather walks in my old haunts in Santa Cruz's redwood forests to make up for the inconvenience of getting there.

I am now hoping to see Bobskoot in Oregon before launching ourselves back across country to be back at work the last week of July. In the meantime I have a few more stories from the most excellent summer trip to North Carolina and a few photo essays in the can to carry us through the next three weeks. Then of course I will be home happily back in my daily routine and facing what they say is an elevated chance of getting hit by a hurricane. Or oily rain.

We hit the road Saturday morning at 6:30am sharp.

Green Turtle Sugarloaf

Sugarloaf Key has a large subdivision off Sugarloaf Boulevard, south of Sugarloaf Lodge, lots of palm trees, a wide sidewalk and homes on expansive lots. Just what Cheyenne likes to explore.We were on Green Turtle half way down the boulevard checking out whatever there might be to see. Not as much as some people apparently who are not satisfied with just one satellite dish.I never cease to be amazed by the complexity of television technology that manages to produce so much crap for broadcast. Cheyenne prefers the great outdoors.

A glimpse of saltwater there in the far distance under the tree:

You're never far from tidal waters in the Keys which makes the prospect of oil in the water very interesting. We do produce a great of trash, as a society and it's not all in the water.

With some natural beauty to make up for it.

Ocean glimpse anyone? Perhaps Rapunzel lives up there.

Scenes from Sugarloaf Key.

This is Sugarloaf Boulevard looking towards Highway One.

Looking south, and it's worth remembering the speed limit here is 30mph. It's a long straight wide road too which makes it hard to go so slowly but this is a heavily walked area, especially in winter.

Green Turtle Lane crosses the boulevard for another block.

A suitable mail box for the street.

These lots are larger than usual in the Lower Keys and much more wooded than you might expect.

And at the other end of the street another salt water glimpse. Not all the homes are of modest proportions. I liked the modest proportions of the mailbox by contrast.

To me these suburban homes represent the best of Florida Keys life these days, quiet neighborhoods, easy access to the water and lots of greenery. I would rather not have to trade my suburban home for a life in the crowded confines of Old Town Key West. I think it is hard for newcomers to the Keys to figure there is anywhere worth living quite so much as Key West itself. The pity of suburban living is the dependence on infernal combustion.