300 Block Duval

Evening on Duval Street though not yet late enough for the drinkers to be swarming.


I am astounded by these trinket stores that pay rent in the tens of thousands of dollars each month and sell "unique" crap to bored visitors shuffling by seeking a unique purchase to remember this unique island.


Really a strange name for an unlikely concept. Unique should be added to the list of unnecessary words in vogue.


"Personal" is my current unique favorite bugaboo. Take "personal" out of any sentence and nothing changes. My personal motorcycle. My motorcycle.


I have never been much of a shopper, though many heterosexual men make that claim. Women shop, men stand around feeling useless. In my case my wife has always made more money than me so the other stereotype about signing checks for her doesn't stand either.


Here's another "unique" store a few doors up from the last one. I cannot begin to imagine what Chinese sweatshop workers must think of us.


Somehow in the midst of this shopping frenzy an honest-to-goodness attraction showed up. The island's Oldest House. However the gate is not so terribly welcoming!


Only in Key West does a visitor attraction carry No Trespassing signs at the entrance. "No Trespassing. Use other gate." Naturally the other gate also has a No Trespassing sign. Catch-22. Personally I have no idea what it all means.


Kelly McGillis starred in Witness and Top Gun playing desirable women on the silver screen and she traded those 15 minutes into a life on this island for years and years. Though she no longer lives here her name lives on, also shouted out periodically by passing Tour Guide drivers. Fame rubs off apparently. Personally I couldn't care less.


I wonder if this sidewalk wallah is selling unique stuff. Personally...


When I see people checking the menu I wonder what they expect to find in a restaurant on the main tourist drag with a focus on one time diners?


You get food with a view where you can be seen. Personally...


This lot sell lottery tickets to win vehicles using the proceeds to help victims of drunk driving. Which wouldn't be necessary were medical bills not the issue they are. I wonder how they cover the rent on this premium spot.


Linen and a view.


Not a violation but a parking permit. Ride a scooter and treat it as though it were a car. There is in fact ample free scooter parking a short walk from everything.


Umm...


After six pm loading zones are free for two wheelers along Duval. Motorcycles rule!



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Southernmost Everything

Visitors ask where the Southernmost Point is and one is forced to reply that it is at the end of South Street of course.


The Southernmost Point of the Continental United States has spawned a whole bunch of side industries busy making money off the spot. The southernmost southernmost everything. Check it out:


This confection claims to be the Southernmost house and it belongs to a family of long time residents, noblesse oblige doesn't come into it and they fight like squires of old to maintain their southernmost birthright.


Perhaps this modest dwelling across the street, kitty corner to The Point is the southernmost southernmost southernmost?


Ah, probably not. There's The Point and there's the southernmost southernmost house.


These people don't seem to care who lives closest to The Point. They want their picture for their vacation album.


Trash is integral to the common experience. There are city trash cans nearby but the common sense of doing the right thing falls away in the face of the Southernmost. It makes you wonder why anyone would scramble to live next to this monument to bad taste.


Feast your eyes men.


This is actually more interesting, it's the place where the old Western Union telegraph wire came ashore from Cuba, decades ago.


But The Point is just one more notch in the tourist belt.


Funnily enough the actual point is on the Navy base behind the fence. The dish array spies on Cuba and having a daily trek of trash toting visitors would interfere with this last remnant of the Cold War. I listen to Cuba on my car radio, 950am Radio Reloj, Cuban news twenty four hours a day clearly audible here 90 miles away.


Southernmost rental scooters:


Southernmost Point Guesthouse and the southernmost angry parking sign.


It's a big place this guesthouse, stretching all the way back to Duval Street. The Gato name goes back to the cigar industry in Cuba that came to Key West. Gato long since left and took his business to the cheaper streets of Ybor City in Tampa. But the name connects the house to this city's well known past.


That's the southernmost game, sell the word and sell the thrill of being South. Hawaii has the actual US southernmost point and all they have according to pictures I've checked online is a marker on a dirt point on a spectacular cliff overlooking the Pacific. Key West is rather more crass.


Take a pretty fountain and fill it with a ticket seller. Like I said noblesse oblige doesn't come into it.


Take a private home and stick the world's southernmost nude statue in front of it. Or something.


And here is the southernmost Triumph Bonneville in the US. The entire Point is blotted out by the mirror!


Normally resident at Mile Marker 27 it's still quite a long way south, thank you. Kiss my ass.



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Harley And Triumph

My wife and I went to classic night Monday at the Tropic cinema, she on her yellow Vespa me on my green Bonneville and there next to the Triumph was a black Harley Sportster.


The Harley line of Sportsters has been revamped to introduce youngsters to the brand and they say the chrome free, blacked out look is working. I liked this one. Except the side lights and side tag make it impossible to hang saddlebags off the back of the bike.


The handlebar has a nice curve to it and the single instrument can be supplemented with a tach from the Harley accessory catalogue...


...just as it can for the cheap model Bonneville. Unlike the Harley the Triumph doesn't have a big fat air filter blocking the rider's right knee.


But the Harley does have some pretty interesting black exhausts curling around the engine.


The Bonneville appeals to me more just because it's what I grew up with, symmetry and straight lines and a level seat remind me of the bikes of my youth.


No valve adjustments and a maintenance free belt drive on the Harley make it appealing to a high mileage rider like me. But after 61,000 trouble free miles the Bonneville has proved it's worth as well as it's beauty to me.


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Catherine And Georgia

Afternoon light, shining up Catherine convinced me to stop and walk and take a few pictures.


Catherine Street at White Street is marked by Island Gym, a pale yellow building that used to sell fancy bagels, years ago. They were pricey but of greater interest to me than this.


There is a row of apartments just around the corner, low buildings with a long porch ideal for street and people watching.


And a utility pole can be ideal in this environment for whimsical decoration.


Conch cottage.


Hairy palm trunk:


This cement wall intrigues me every time I ride by.


I don't see many walls like this in Key West though sometimes I think the poet's ironic reflection that strong fences make good neighbors applies for real on a small island.


When welcoming guests is the trade then a cheerful painted face is a much better fence than a severe cement wall.


And easy ample covered access for rented scooters is also desirable. Parking is a big concern for visitors who worry.


My bougainvillea is blooming though it's not as big and as busy as this.


These lovely louvered windows should have been closed tight to allow the air conditioning to do it's job. I am not sold on a future that might involve no air. I like cold air. I am a lesser mortal.


Big trees for shade make perfect sense in this torrid clime.


Shade and air conditioning for me. Catherine Street is a fine alternative street when Truman Avenue is clogged and everyone is lined up and bored waiting to get to Duval. There's lots to enjoy rolling down Catherine on the way to the fleshpots.


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