Simonton Street

I really have been enjoying black and white shadows and light.

And some color slipped in among the flowers in front of Sarabeth's Restaurant.

I was strolling down Eaton Street allowing my glance to fall where it may. 1976  was a banner year apparently:

I titled this picture below as a walk on the wild side on my Instagram among the foliage surrounding the Methodist Church at Eaton and Simonton Streets.

Feet dragging scooter riders, a good way to limp the rest of your life if you damage any small bone in your foot:

This cyclist caught my attention when he was riding down the street with an arm held out rigidly at right angles to his body signifying an imminent left turn. It's the exact right thing to do but no one does it in Key West. Ducking and weaving is the cyclist way. His arm made him unusual:

Shadows and light everywhere!

Me, reflected:

The Federal Building whence will come my Social Security check one day!

Good riding weather on Simonton Street:

Good telephoning weather too:

Somehow I caught his blue shorts the blue door etc...etc...in one picture.

A shady rooster on Rose Lane:

Scooter In The Sticks

After I finished my 32 hour, 1500 mile Iron Butt ride I was in no way impaired to keep on riding. I attribute that to my rather fierce exercise regimen at home so when I was faced with a  five hour ride across New York and Pennsylvania from Niagara to State College I was actually looking forward to the ride. Mountains! Curves! No need to log every damned thing! Freedom! Yay!

Besides all that I was going to meet a long time correspondent and I was a bit nervous. Among scooter riders Steve Williams is the author of a photo blog by a man who is a professional photographer,a  gentle soul who wouldn't say boo to a goose. My instructions were to meet at an historic watering hole in his village.

I was nothing loathe as I was curious to see if the local brew tasted the same at home as it does in Florida. No difference that I could tell.  

I was  wind burned and pleased with myself. And I was in Duffy;s Tavern which was a place I had been looking forward to seeing, even if I had misplaced my ears.

Steve showed up and we circled each other drinking beer and talking until eventually he took me to my quarters across the street. Boalsburg reminds me of the little New England town (filmed in California!) which is the setting for the Hitchcock movie "The Trouble with Harry." Steve remarked rather tartly there were no spare bodies floating around Boalsburg. I think they would have found such a thing to be in very poor taste in this delightful small town. 

We drove and that was a thoughtful gesture getting the truck out,  as he probably figured my backside could use the break. Plus we could talk.  I was nervous I was going to piss him off with my odd sense of humor and eccentric view of life. I annoy some people all the time by my inability to take things seriously but luckily unlike those humorless souls Steve has a wicked sense of humor, he sees the droll in daily life and he sees absurdity all around him, including doubtless in me and my ridiculous Iron Butt ride... But he is still the thoughtful, polite easy going guy who writes his page, Scooter in the Sticks. It's funny really how different and how alike we are.

To me Steve represents the quiet steady voice of a man who has found his trade and his place in life without hesitation. He is a Pennsylvania native from Pittsburgh who came to State College for the education and stayed for the job. 44 years on campus as their photographer, a well liked presence at the university over the decades, followed by a secure retirement in the place he never wants to leave and doubtless never will. Shown here outside the exhibit I specifically came to see of his photographs:

You can check his pictures properly on his website and they are worth checking out. Steve got quite a lot of attention from the show and he said civilians wanted the ones without the Vespa which is interesting to me as in my head and other scooterists' he is the Vespa! I unashamedly wanted to crib his technique because his photos are compelling and I couldn't figure out why.

 And there you have it: he is a professional photographer from the era of paper and  and chemicals, he is established and settled, and I am a brash amateur and and as rootless as it's possible to be. But I do have one thing over Steve. Not photography for sure:

I am a traveler and inside this man, who saw his picture and described himself as grizzled, and liked this one because it made him look tall (he is tall from my perspective), Steve wants to travel. He has obligations, his wife needs him near home and he has never had the get up and go to be gone. But he idles his time pondering riding a motorcycle or hitting the horizon. Stuff I've done and would love to accompany him on a trip.

I did get a few photography tips and they are in my head all the time but I have to break my own bad habits which is what I've been working on now I'm home. 

We cruised State College and his alma mater. It turns out the University founder put in a clause requiring that dogs have free rein on campus. Really. I need to bring Rusty to get an education. It turns out nowadays they have to be on leash but that was not always the case. I like this place. Plus they were dancing in front of the main building. 

Steve in his world, a city filled with young people bars, shops and a welcoming downtown. He like me likes to come out ion the middle of the night and walk his dog here. Before he got fed up with me I think we could have a grand time together. 

This is the store front of the worlds largest educational toy shop that sells stuff by mail order. Something like that. A local success story. It looks pretty modest which is I gather the point.

 If you read his blog the Saints Cafe features so we did the obligatory photo but it was closed so I couldn't have the iconic tea and bagel.  But I've been there! 

 My bed and breakfast (dog friendly please note) was super luxurious and I slept like a log after meeting Kim at Steve's house. But I awoke to a crappy wet day. I mentioned to Steve he didn't have to get on the road but he replied over the phone that wet foggy days are best for photography. Lunatic.

We rode off and all I did was follow him. We stopped at a fogged in overlook me feeling like I should be cold but wasn'ty, he looking like a martian: 

Scooters in the fog...I had it all this trip. Steve is very shy about his riding style which is slow and requires much stopping but this was our first time riding together so he gave me the conventional treatment and we wandered up hills and down dales winding and twisting through forests. He pulls over for cars and lets them by which I found quite relaxing as the roads were not terribly crowded and people don't drive like jacked up Floridians with much aggression and low skill.

I guess not yet having met God I must have more road to ride. Steve had wanted to get the picture of the barn for a while so I was glad to be the catalyst for the encounter.

I have ridden eastern Pennsylvania before to visit Jack Riepe and it is a state with crappy road surfaces and superb riding

 Those rolling fields...

 Twists and turns...

 Bucolic countryside...

Hagerstown Maryland was quite industrial once I believe. We stopped here for lunch,   disrobing like monks, layers coming off one after the other and then we tried stretching out the lunch as long as we could. 

 I don't think either of us wanted to part. It was a sensation that was to repeat itself as the ride south continued. I wish I didn't live so far away. Steve felt like an elder brother with so much to teach me, about cameras and thoughtful riding and life itself.

I cannot wait to go back and dither around Mt Nittany until even Steve gets bored.

Invest 90 - Sub Tropical Storm Alberto

The  tropical disturbance over Belize and the Yucatan has been declared to be an Invest, Investment 90L to be precise which means not that it will became a hurricane though there is a 70 percent chance, but simply that the National Hurricane Center in Mia mi is interested in the formation's progress. Aren't we all if we live remotely close to its projected landfall?

Hurricane season starts June 1st officially and runs through November 30th in the Atlantic Basin so all this activity is a little early and coming on the heels of last year's Hurricane irma fiasco it is setting nerves to jangling in the Florida Keys. I was shopping in Publix yesterday and I overheard a (loud) conversation between two women discussing their hurricane preparations. They were lamenting their lack of preparedness for Hurricane Irma last September and are determined not to be caught out this season. And already with a previous tropical depression flooding the Keys with rain we have seen a  wet start to the summer.

The thing about the Western Caribbean is that it is a heat catchment area, the waters are shallower and the heat is intense early on in that area so hurricanes which need hot water to fuel their spiralling winds. 

So  hurricanes tend to form off the Central American coast early in hurricane season and late while the waters of the Atlantic spawn mid-season storms when the ocean is warmest.

Even though forecasters try to warn us of what's ahead they can only guesstimate numbers of storms not direction of travel or landfall, so even if there are an average number of storms, as they point out it only takes one to ruin your day. Hurricane Irma with its 140 mph winds has left a trail of damage that is taking a while to repair. there are hundreds of tarps still on roofs in the Lower Keys, not so much Key West but the islands between Sugarloaf and Big Pine. Reconstruction is still underway and insurance companies aren't helping when they contest every single claim.

A  lot of people lost their homes in Irma and many left the Keys. There is a shortage of labor already in the islands though rental prices keep rising and wages don't match the increased costs so there are more people leaving for that reason.Suddenly hurricane season has become real again and the prospect of more damage, more unpaid evacuations, more chaos is causing yet more people to rethink their idea of life in paradise and you can hardly blame them. 

It may be that all we get is a ruined Memorial Day with massive rain storms, and if that is all so much the better. And if one has to be laid flat by a disaster frankly I prefer hurricanes to fires, mudslides, lava flows and earthquakes. However hurricane season is an annual event and it is relentless. I would prefer not having to sit out another catastrophe, but this is the reality of life in the Keys from time to time.