They ask me if I miss the Keys and the question provokes some thought! It’s not a “yes” or “no” answer for me.
Once you have lived in the Keys you have a before and after split in your life. Some people leave resenting the fact they couldn’t hold on anymore while others are glad to be gone. I was glad to leave when my time came because much planning when into our departure but I am glad to come back as a visitor as that seems to be the best way to enjoy the good and ignore the bad.
I was finishing up a delightful lunch visit at the Key West sailing club when I saw a former colleague backing up to the city fuel pumps. “How’s retirement?” Officer Hainey asked when he realized who had blocked him in. “Brilliant,” I said before asking the inevitable. “How long have you got?” Seventeen years he said and my heart sank for him. It’s not so long to retirement he said brightly and he told me his dream is Hawaii, a comfortable climate with mountains, how he remembered the place from his time in the military. It’s good to nurture that hope of a better place in later life even if not necessarily in the Keys.
I last saw Jonathan in Sedgwick Maine on our way south from our visit to the northern tip of Highway One. His retirement plan is winters in Key West and he likes it. He bought a house in Old Town and fell in love with a local woman who happened to be a colleague of my wife the former teacher.
He keeps a Stonehorse 23 at the Key West Sailing Club where we ate sandwiches and he reminisced about his sailing life and talked about how the club has been restored and is busy teaching youngsters about boats.
I used to be a member here for a while when I lived in Key West. I sailed the motley crew of small boats around Garrison Bight for fun and to escape the city. It was a refuge for winter street people and car dwellers (the clubhouse has a toilet) and I didn’t make any friendships among the denizens of the club back then. But I did get to sail. I got a twinge of nostalgia seeing the place again. I was too busy working, walking Rusty and living on Cudjoe Key to spend time here lately.
Rusty as usual ignored the two old men talking. Seeing Key West through the idle gaze of a man with time on his hands makes for an interesting view. We spent the night at Cracker Barrel in Florida City…
…so I could get up at three in the morning and leave the impromptu campsite that is the parking lot and drive unimpeded down the Keys. I usually drive Card Sound Road but at that hour The Stretch was empty:
By five thirty I was ready to stop so we pulled off at our favorite beach stop at West Summerland Key just past Bahia Honda where I used to come on my days off to sit by the water. That was before hurricanes Irma and Ian which have ravaged the place.
As Layne pointed out it’s nice to know these spots that aren’t obvious. I in turn issued a challenge which she accepted. When we get back from our drive to Argentina I want to see if we can spend a week stealth camping on the streets of Key West without getting busted. I think I have a few spots in mind where I could pull that off! 
On Sunday we leave for more island life this time a ten day house rental on Ocracoke in North Carolina’s Outer Banks.
We haven’t been there in a while (Cheyenne liked it on our first visit) but we always thought a winter stay in a house with heat might be interesting. We have ten days booked so it had better be.
I don’t think I will live on an island again but visiting can be entirely delightful.
