Flagler Dawn

Fire Station Three looks like the Alamo as the sun comes up around six in the morning. We are approaching the longest day and photo opportunities must be snagged now if they appear on the ride home. So I stopped my headlong flight home and took the time to get the picture I had seen in my head for the past week. In summer I usually use Flagler Avenue to get into and out of town. When traffic is lighter there are just a couple of traffic lights on this street as opposed to the crappy surface and numerous lights on North Roosevelt Boulevard. In winter Flagler seems to get as crowded as North Roosevelt and the advantage of long empty ride through town gets lost. Tourists take North or South Roosevelt when they come to town, to head either to Duval (North) or the beaches (South) but you can't hide a thoroughfare like Flagler from the snowbirds, so in winter it gets crowded...The back side of the fire station, facing Flagler is just another blank wall. Forget the Alamo comparison! Habana Plaza got an art deco type face light after Hurricane Wilma flooded the place from the ground up and through the roof and since then the owner has apparently gone bust according to the paper. I don't mind at all how this strip mall looks. My wife and I used to use the air conditioned laundromat here when we lived on our boat in Key West and we'd wander down to the end of the strip to get a con leche while we waited. The guy who operated the Riviera Café was a grump to beat the band and we used to amuse ourselves seeing how many grunts we could extract in one transaction. I need to go back with Chuck on Guam to break the ice, as he's the man for that. On the other hand perhaps we should leave one coffee outlet to the Conchs who need respite from outsiders.My imagination works overtime because when I ride past this place it looks North African or Middle eastern to me, the arched arcade, the rather cool outdoor seating arrangements and so forth. Rick's Café I'd call it if I wanted to get the title of world's grumpiest barista. I would make a terrible host.It's absurd isn't it? Here's my wife's scooter parked on a main thoroughfare through New Town......and I think it looks lovely. What a town.