Bridle Path At Night

A lunch break on a night I felt well rested so I took the time to visit South Roosevelt Boulevard.

 It was windy and noisy and fresh and not quite cool. 

 For just about an hour I left the cacophony of 911 calls behind.

 I hadn't even brought my Lumix camera to work so all I had was my iPhone 6 in my pocket. 

 I walked on the path where once upon a time Key Westers exercised their horses.

 I brought one of my Vespas on my trailer to Jiri on Stock Island for a service.
 I dropped the Vespa off on my way to work and drove the car on my lunch break.

 There was no traffic at all so I stopped and took a picture, mid flight on the road:

And so to work. Happy Memorial Day weekend everyone!

The Bridle Path

It was hot and sticky and I was pretty sure Rusty would be too tired from walking downtown to spend too much time here. I was wrong.

An hour later...we half finished exploring the Bridle Path and i could see he was ready to keep going despite his tongue hanging down to his knees.

 A Busy Dog.

 The Bridle Path used to be where horses were exercised, though these days you are much more likely to see humans and dogs here traveling parallel to South Roosevelt Boulevard.

The ocean view across the street attracts lots of walkers and riders to the wide sidewalk on the other side of the street.

 It's the route I use when I have to spare coming into town.

 Bicycle anyone?

 This area is known as  the "swale" as we shall  see.

 The salt ponds were supposed  to produce salt but now they are just swamp.

 Very pretty but swamp nonetheless, occasionally kayaked.

 No camping on the swale... defined as a marshy depression.

 Rusty wasn't camping technically, he was just resting.

I like the Bridle Path and now I can trust Rusty not to run out into the four lane street we might come back here more often.

 A successful morning. He ignored me, ignored food and passed out.

Rusty Does The Bridal Path

Cheyenne died about 6 weeks ago and I have been trying to move ahead but I miss her still and taking Rusty to the places we used to visit together has been wrenching. The thing is he seems to enjoy these spots as much as she did when she was younger and more active.

Six years is a long time and it is no fault of Rusty's that I miss her. He is becoming an ideal dog, easy to live with, obedient and very loving, qualities sometimes that you had to look for hard in Cheyenne as stubborn and undemonstrative as she was. Rusty is like a puppy compared to her steady easy self confident walks and as much as I want him in my life I am reluctant to let go of Cheyenne completely. I keep expecting to see her one more time.

 

Life goes on and Rusty is full of it, even in the heat of the last few days. 

The Bridle Path parallels South Roosevelt Boulevard, twin sandy tracks underneath the palms, the place where supposedly Key West could exercise horses. Sometimes it's misspelled "Bridal" which makes me laugh.

It has a fair bit more to see than we explored on this, Rusty's first visit to the wooded section away from the road: 

Above you see the modern view and below with a little manipulation I made the place look old, with my Labrador looking at me wondering why so many pictures...

...and Rusty doing his thing:

All manner of traffic rushes by on the nominally 30 mile-per-hour South Roosevelt Boulevard.

With a frisky young dog like Rusty the leash is a bit of a requirement as he could be in the roadway in two bounds.

 New arrivals at the airport miles from downtown and not looking for a cab surprisingly.

 All that traffic and a time for a short pause to look at the ocean and contemplate.

 Unless you have a dog to walk.

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Cheyenne On The Bridle Path

In this look back to August 2010, my first summer together with Cheyenne, she was excited to get out on her daily, sometimes twice daily walks. She was always a joy to walk, and I look back and am grateful I took took the time to be out and about with her, for myself as much as for her. I hope now that she is old and tired she remembers these walks with as much fondness as I do. 

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Bridle Coconuts

I wonder if I have overdone the scenes of blue skies, blue water and sunshine this week. In case I haven't here's one more.A cyclist riding the bike path along the southern shore of Key West would do well to stop and admire the scenery. You can't see Cuba from here, 90 miles to the south, but you can see fishing boats.The oil spilled (and some say still spilling) in the Gulf of Mexico has not reached these waters. Cheyenne is a land dog. She has learned to enjoy streams and puddles but grass and shrubs are more her speed and swimming is out of the question as she has never been trained to enjoy the water properly.The sandy bridle path alongside South Roosevelt Boulevard gives her lots of opportunity to root around.
As usual wildlife can wander unmolested in the presence of my pacific dog.The salt ponds are not suitable drinking water.The plans for the renovation and refurbishment of North Roosevelt call for the elimination of non-native coconut palms, not least because falling coconuts harm people and vehicles and coconut palms take a lot of maintenance to keep tidy. In the spirit of being good stewards of the public monies the city is asking the state to replace them with less labor intensive trees...Well, this attempt to be parsimonious with the public treasury has got the critics' panties all in a wad because they say, tourists expect to see coconut palms in the city, and damn the public expense...Tourists can come to South Roosevelt to see some coconut palms looking suitably tropical.

On the beach side there are mounds of dried seaweed that need to be ignored to enjoy the view properly.There was a time when someone figured out that you could pitch a tent on the Bridle Path and no one would bother you. No one did until a whole long line of bums in tents sprang up and the city promptly declared an emergency, designated the salt ponds an environmentally sensitive wetland and banned parking, camping, and hanging out in the bushes of the Bridle Path. The No Parking thing is rather annoying because you have to park in the street and walk your dog across four lanes of supposedly 30 mph traffic to get to the path. But that perhaps limits the attraction for everyone and makes it more peaceful than it used to be.It is waterfront property with exceptional views.There used to be a few homeless guys who made a quiet home for themselves in the bushes and trails of the Bridle Path but they got swept away in the general clean up. It is a good spot to hang out, criss crossed with trails and shady nooks.

The salt ponds that lie behind the bushes stretch out to the airport and they are a home to wildlife of a more...natural sort.There is an old pier structure that used to jut out over water but the area seems to be silting up and even though it's the rainy season it was dry enough for Cheyenne to explore.

They call it the Bridle Path because it's where Key Westers used to be able to exercise their horses. Some people misspell it and call it the Bridal Path which is a double entendre worth a smile.Looking east toward the airport.

Another picture of a dog resting in the summer heat.One more summer dog walk in the bag.