The bets way I have found to get over a set back is to spend some money. No sooner did I get my Bonneville back to the house than I was figuring out to to get the damage repaired as soon as possible after my 45 mile-per-hour fall. I took a few thumps myself but my Tourmaster Intake mesh jacket ($160) did it's job nicely and paid the price:
I got a few grazes on my elbow through the jacket and on my fingers, through the leather gloves I was also wearing, but my back was saved by the armor in the jacket which showed a few scuff marks there:
My boots saved my feet though i got a nice bruise and an ache on one ankle, though no broken skin there happily. It was my legs that took the worst blows and I have a few scabs and gouges on my knees, which had I been wearing these pants would probably have been avoided:
Tourmaster's Flex pants ($170) had been on my mind for a while but the Fort Lauderdale shop didn't have them in stock so I hit the ground without them...Tough I guess but there it is. I am quite fond of Tourmaster products, reasonably priced and apparently effective. These are the first dedicated motorcycle pants I have ever owned (in 39 years of riding!) and though they are hardly fashionable they look like they will do a nice job. For the climate prevalent in the Keys they are mesh with armor but have leg covers that simply zip on for added wind protection:
Just like the Intake jacket...
...the Flex pants come with a set of padded liners that keep you warm, warmer than I will likely ever need if I only ride in South Florida in winter:
But they also come with what is for me, much more useful: waterproof liners:
And both layers can be added together or separately inside the mesh pants and jacket. But, not content, I have added an extra layer to the pants, and this one came out of an aerosol can:
As an experiment I added a whole bunch of silicon spray to the outer pant legs, the ones that come unzipped from the mesh base.
My thinking is that if I get caught in some rain waterproofing the outer shell will help keep me dry enough to get home on my commute, but if I face heavy rain I can retrieve the waterproof liners from my saddlebags to keep me dry. To that end i also carry expensive Aerostich boot and gloves covers, at $50 each they keep my extremities warm and dry, and because I've had them a while they got some silicon spray too:
Add to this my spare summer riding gloves to replace my torn ones, a new face shield for my flip up full face helmet (I was wearing my half face at the time of the accident though my head never touched anything) and then an added coat of silicon spray for my Triumph boots and I am ready to ride, should I ever get the Triumph back! It's a lot of stuff to be dealing with which is why from time to time I just jump on the bike and ride. For people who make the motorcycle a weekend activity, an occasional thing, it must be hard to understand how someone like me just gets on and goes to the store, or visits a friend as casually as though I were driving the car. That is the profound pleasure of the motorcycle as my daily machine, it is atrue car substitute for me. People wouldn't drive if they felt they had to wear all this paraphenalia every single time. And that goes for motorcycles too I guess.
Seen from the ferry the low brick structure surrounding the fort is barely visible. But seen close up it is clearly an engineering feat on it's own terms:
Seen at sunset, above and the moat seen from the bridge at the entrance to the fort, below: 
In the picture above the moat is at it's widest, separating the walls of the fort from what the Park Service is pleased to call the "Day Use Area" and, closer to the trees, the "Overflow Camp Sites" if the main camp sites are all full. 
The moat was originally designed to keep attacking boats away from the walls themselves because those tricky enemies might load them up with explosives and drive them into the fort walls to blow them up. The moat would prevent that sort of dastardly attack. 
As seen from the top of the fort the moat wall has, on certain sides of the building, collected dunes of sand that have washed up against the outer wall. Thus the moat also keeps the motion of the ocean itself away from the fragile base of the brick fort.
The same spot seen from below shows how substantial the land accumulation has become on this, the eastern side of Fort Jefferson. Further to the north the moat itself has become filled with sand creating a rather pleasant, protected beach, not that swimming is allowed here or in the moat itself, but I don't see how one could be prevented from enjoying the sandy expanse...
Of course walking the moat is one of the pleasures of visiting Fort Jefferson, which at 70 miles (110kms) east of key west is the most isolated National park in the United States. All visitors should walk the moat, and those lucky enough to be camping or visiting on their own boats can take the time to circumnavigate the fort after the crowds who came by ferry have departed. They leave at 2:45pm so there is plenty of time to enjoy the moat. 
I took the time to swim out along the moat wall on the outside but I have to say I didn't find it that interesting, certainly not as interesting as the coral heads further to the west. I guess it depends on your expectations. 
But I think, in the final analysis, moats themselves are objects of a certain fascination in a country too new to ever have been involved in medieval European siege warfare, so the moat at Fort Jefferson, still fully functional has the merit of being unique in most visitor's experience:
Taken like that it could be a crusader castle in the Levant. Not a National Park in Florida.
I imagine there are a fair number of people on Big Pine Key who aren't too fond of J.C. Watson, a man credited with reviving the expiring breed of deer known as Key Deer, which currently thrive on Big Pine and the Torch Keys. Key Deer are known to their critics as "small white deer," where biologists tell us the little deer are actually a sub species of the white deer genus. In any event Key Deer are one of those species that take precedence over development, and that includes construction on individual lots, which creates friction when people feel their needs are taking second place to an animal they'd rather eat than preserve.
And let me tell you they are not the dainty creatures you might imagine- I heard this little doe clumping around in the silver palms long before she appeared in the open, where she paused long enough for me to shoot her... with my pocket Nikon. J.C. Watson must have had his work cut out for him.
His legacy lives on in a splendidly well organized Nature Trail almost a mile long. I did as I was told though this might not have been the trunk the sign writers envisioned:
My clumping size eleven dinner plates sounded for all the world like a regiment of infantry on maneuvers, or a large child chowing down on an even larger bowl of cereal. I went crunch-crunch-crunch as I strolled through the silence of the pine forest.
It was a quite glorious evening and I was revelling in the silence (aside from my feet) and the incredible skies. I love the big sky of the Florida Keys and even though it isn't quite yet summer the heavens are starting to show signs of heavy dark clouds so typical of the rainy season here:
The trail wound its way through a variety of trees and shrubs that grow in the higher, drier ground of a tropical hammock. The buttonwood, very similar to a black mangrove, tortured and twisted as though in agony:
And on the drier ground the long straight trunks of the slash pines that are growing at the southern limit of their range:
There are other plants worth knowing, including the rather nasty poison wood tree, known across the Caribbean as the manchineel (man-chin-eel) which has some profoundly irritating sap. It's easily identified by the black splotches on the trunk: 
and the leaves:
There are stories of travelers in the tropics of taking refuge from sudden downpours under manchineel trees, and coming out from under the tree with their skin in a pitiably reddened state, such is the strength of the poison in the sap- it will react with the skin even when watered down by rain. I try to avoid it. Then of course there are other less noxious plants properly labelled:
This I think is Cat's Claw:
And this should be Blackbead: 
but I continue to insist I am no botanist, so I offer these up in hopes that I have it more or less right . Besides which I am not that terribly keen on labeling things all the time and birdwatchers and plant aficionados always seem to feel the need to stick a label on things and then record the sighting. I am more of a wanderer. Here's another one:
Much to my astonishment I peered into the "muddy area" in the low spot, and damned if there weren't tracks of some mysterious, and likely deadly predator:
On reflection I suspect they may have been the most un-ferocious Key Deer.
However I did actually find the edges of the trail, and irritatingly said trail showed signs of continuing on into the mysterious West, however managers of this natural resource have decided that the rest of us aren't fit to see the delights beyond the sign:
But I do have to give credit to the sanctuary managers; they provided a very nice map of their resources on Big Pine Key, which was a somewhat eccentric location as I was already where the map was guiding me to:
And all that remained was for me to get on the Bonneville and take off down Key Deer Boulevard, while keeping it down to a sedate 30-ish miles per hour. Sheriff's deputies are positively ferocious when it comes to enforcing the speed limit on this long (5 miles) straight road.
A cool southeasterly breeze, no mosquitoes and a sun that doesn't set till almost 8pm. A perfect time to explore beyond the boundaries of the city of Key West.