Florida

Perhaps you remember that rather silly saying about a man “having to do what a man has to do…” Well here I am back in Key West about one year after we last crossed the border from Texas to Mexico. Then it was aboard GANNET2 and now it was me alone aboard a LATAM airliner from Lima to Miami. 

Six years ago, a long time ago in a very different place…I discovered I could renew my license online so instead of driving six miles to the DMV office in Big Pine Key I amused myself by doing just that. Oh foolish move!

There is a rule in Florida that you can’t renew twice in a row online. Oops. So I bought a thousand dollars worth of airline tickets from Arequipa to Lima and then Lima to Miami where I picked up a rental car and spent the night in a hotel. What had taken a year to drive going south took a day to fly back from Peru going north and of culture shock yes indeed there was a little…

Layne as always made it easy for me physically organizing the tickets and reservations so it all went smoothly enough but suddenly I was plucked out of the world of distant self reliant overlanding and instantly found myself at home in the familiar, a rainy season hot and humid night in Miami, with a quiet comfortable room, reliable electricity and a toilet that flushed perfectly. I sat on the bed and pondered how lucky I am to be able to switch my life so easily and smoothly. Passing through immigration was cheerful, a pleasant conversation between ex-dispatcher and immigration agent and here I am free in the US to wander at will, a place where thousands aspire to and few get to pass into and here I am at home. 

I slept badly of course, upended by my sudden change in circumstances and worried about managing my status as a Florida based nomad. For I had just discovered my plan to stop off in Big Pine Key to renew my license and van registration had sprung a leak. I had checked the tax collectors website on Saturday for some reason and this was the message I found online:

Well isn’t that peachy? Now what? I am technically a resident of Clay County far from Key West.  So began a search for a county that serves any Florida resident…to save me driving the length of the state to renew my documents where my mailing service is located just outside Jacksonville, nearly in Georgia. I found an office two hours north of Miami that proudly serves all Florida residents.

I got up at five and arrived at 8:30 and in an hour with a little wait I was done. I have to say the service I got in Indiantown reminded me of the old fashioned small town friendliness I used to get in the Florida Keys and there was a bit of sadness at how much things have changed, that this is the Florida I remember fondly found here and not where I remember it. They were lovely to deal with in the office and I was glad I found them. 

My business done, GANNET2 with a new two year registration and me with a new eight year license renewed with no difficulty at all, I turned south by way of Lake Okeechobee and Belle Glade and the quiet back roads through sugar cane country. 

The lake was full after a wet summer and I paused to remind myself of our early attempts at van life sleeping wild here in the van, learning how to live on the road in Florida’s back country. 

I got back to Miami around noon and stopped at our storage locker to deposit a bunch of fridge magnets and souvenirs we have collected. The idea was to make room in the van for a fresh collection as we travel through new countries. 

Layne has a desire  that when eventually we settle down we will have a few things to decorate a stationary life so we keep a small inexpensive air conditioned locker near the Miami airport. All was well there so I checked that inspection off the list. Oh and I had my other list:  a shopping list. 

I hate shopping at Trader Joe’s without Layne as I can’t figure where anything is but I felt a huge obligation to get her what she wanted for the kitchen in our mobile home so I struggled mightily and got it done hunting like a crazed shopper among the suave middle class crowds drifting aimlessly down the aisles, those lucky local residents who are used to having Trader Joe’s at their beck and call and don’t have to shop at PlazaVea in Arequipa or Super Maxi in Ecuador. 

It was all struggle as I adapted to orderly lines of cars and drivers obeying traffic lights and no roadside trash and no horns and no darting between opposing lines of cars. Easy peasy. 

And then it was Card Sound Road like I had never been gone. 

The familiar, the routine, the Overseas Highway like I remembered it mostly. 

But there were unwelcome signs of the Keys’ status as overly desirable and not terribly welcoming. 

This used to be a place you could escape to from Dade county urban strife and come and fish for cheap entertainment but not anymore. I guess there’s no money in it for anyone in Monroe County so the people in charge have tried to make it impossible to park for free and drop a line in the water.

There are still some rebels exercising their god given Florida right to fish…but laid back is now the Indiantown way not the Keys way in my mind. 

It was an easy September drive up the island chain and I was in no hurry so when I got stuck following cars that found 60mph too much for them I just sat behind them at a fixed 45 mph rejoicing in the pleasures of being retired with nowhere to be, a status I enjoy every day on the road.

Fred continues to flourish on the old Seven Mile Bridge, in my absence. I’m slightly surprised the tree hasn’t been cut down as it makes no one any money and it’s probably a hazard to traffic as people slow down to look at it.  

And then it was back to the prohibition signs of the Florida Keys. I had long since planned to stop in Pine Channel Park in Big Pine Key for a swim. We used to swim here when it was just a hole in the rock before it was developed and sign posted. 

It’s a nice park and I’d like to think GANNET2 is unobtrusive enough we could spend a couple of hours here swimming if we ever dare visit the Keys in future in our RV.  

There were a few people at the picnic tables but I had the huge salt water pool to myself. And the seawater is bath tub warm so not as refreshing as it might have been, but we don’t have any swimming in our immediate future as we set out to drive frigid Patagonia next month.  

I took advantage. 

Nice facilities here with a beach type freshwater shower and flushing toilets. 

And then Key West and a short walk on Duval Street before I landed with much gratitude at a place to stay for the next couple of nights. 

How you pay the Duval Street rent selling jerky I can’t imagine. 

I’m sorry I am missing live theater season, my favorite outing when we lived here. 

I still don’t think a spa is a suitable substitute for the bar at the top. I get a bit stuck in the past sometimes. 

There are still young people making a go of living in Key West for a part of their lives. A youthful adventure as they think of it. 

Chuck and Wayne have a brilliant room in the back I can stay in. We went to Oasis on White Street for dinner. 

Just like Peru we had boxes to go. I enjoyed the Key West stories from these two who have made a life for themselves in a town where making it work requires more grit and diplomacy and adaptability than I possess. 

I felt like I had never left.