Ohio Key comes in two parts, the nature park to the south of the highway and the trailer park to the north. As far as I know the trailer park is living on borrowed time, because there was an agreement some time ago to hand the southern portion of the island to the park service in return for condo-isation of the northern half. So far, so good:
This is primarily a snowbird community and a weekend community for hard core Keys fans who will drive down from the urban mainland, two hours north, for a couple of days of rest and recreation. And boy, do they have themselves a slice of paradise!
This is the 1912 Flagler railroad bridge converted to road use in 1938 by the State of Florida when the original rails were welded into hand rails. It's open to anglers, golf carts and bicycles alongside the main road which is where traffic runs between Marathon and the Southernmost City and the main water pipe to Key West hangs off the side:
The Key to the north of Ohio is Missouri, so named by the railroad workers who laid the tracks on these islands at the beginning of the twentieth century. Before their work these islands had no names among the settlers on the populated Keys, but the railroad mapped and named everything and the homesick navvies had a habit of memorializing where they were from Up North:
For the youngsters in the park this is all a playground:
Though I did dissuade one excessively adventurous young Huckleberry Finn from leaping off the seawall into three inches of water. "Think this is deep enough?" "NO!" This is quite the paradise for adults too, with lots of boating and fishing and even sandy beaches, rara avis! to enjoy:
That last picture is a beach on the northern tip of Bahia Honda Key, the State Park that is the next key to the south of Ohio Key.
The dude in the blue shirt was waiting for a very happy back lab to come panting round the corner. This part of the island is desolate and wet, as this is rainy season and the salt ponds fill with water:
Back on the busy side of the Key, there is a gas station and inconvenience store. The gas was offered at $3.91 a gallon which is a very reasonable price in the Lower Keys, and I have my five-percent-off-Shell card so I might have to consider stopping here for fuel:
And there is small, well protected marina for residents to keep their boats in the water:
What more could they want? A Triumph Bonneville perhaps...
And you'd better believe that vinyl seat was hot to the touch after sitting in the 95 degree sunshine.
I got a request some time ago to 
The 
Their goals are not modest but as best as I could tell they were doing well, in raising the red ink as it were. Wesley House offers tons of services and recreational outlets 
And in order to keep on providing services and opportunities they have started an innovative fund raiser whereby people buy stakes in the picket fence around their brand new crisp clean facility at the Inez Martin Center:
The picket fence stakes carry a plaque with the name of the donor:
And as the person who asked me to take the photos was anonymous I felt I could do no better than highlight this one, for which profession I have a 
Online and in hard copy, as they say:
For a good local cause the money keeps rolling in, we hope.
Marathon is a city I have wanted to photograph but I have lost my nerve. I don't know it very well, I don't eat out there much or shop, I've been to the movies there a couple of times. I guess its greatest draw for me is the convenient layout of the Home Depot and the grappa I can buy, Italian brandy, from the super slick deli and liquor store wedged between the gym and the Post Office on Highway One. Because we work in Key West even though my wife and I live equidistant between the two cities, we shop mostly in Key West, not Marathon.
The fact is, Marathon lacks the cute factor, as you can see in the photo above. It's a city incorporated almost a decade ago on a wide spot along Highway One, a four lane strip mall with none of the Old Town, greenery, or big city pretensions of Key West. It is an excessively long strip mall and compressing an essay about it into 20 pictures is more than I can manage. So, I have decided, like the man faced with the problem of how to eat an elephant, to chew it off one piece at a time. First the beach, later the highway:
Older people, or perhaps just more restful people we might say:
Residentially challenged people:
And swimmers:
All of which is a tremendous encouragement to stay and linger awhile, which I may well come and do later when school is back in session. Instead, photos taken, water fountain drunk from and its back in the saddle again to the next self imposed assignment:
And there it was tied up snug next to the Western Union schooner, that small, mastless sailboat has fallen into the second life of boats around here, serving as accommodations. 
No one was on board this visit, perhaps I'll have better luck next time though I am usually in town in the afternoon and he is likely out on the water then...
The waterfront is a busy place in winter with flocks of people wandering back and forth, but in late July its too hot to attract drifting crowds. I heard a few Europeans talking, a common feature of summers in Key West, poor things they know no better than to come to the Keys in baking season:
Sailing is tricky this time of year as winds are down and thunderstorms are up, so going on the water means less sailing and more other stuff (motoring):
I've seen this trimaran around for some time and I rather like the elaborate cabin arrangement, its probably too heavy to sail well with a floating bar in the cabin but that isn't a consideration for most passengers in my experience as a charter captain:
Schooner Wharf uses their boat as an advertising prop pure and simple, and quite the eye catcher it is too:
On the subject of eye catching I wouldn't have the nerve to wander around in public looking like this but I guess they were sea scouts or some other worthy thing and it must make it easy for the scoutmaster to keep an eye on his flock. You can just see the heat pressing down on that splendid hat :
The short stretch of waterfront near Schooner Wharf is home to the key West symbol of seafaring which is the Western Union and a group of enthusiasts have taken on the task of refurbishing the boat as a floating museum ever since Historic Tours unceremoniously dumped it one day without notice.
Within living memory Western Union used this sailboat to lay telegraph cable to Havana, and if that sounds old fashioned bear in mind today there are something absurd like half a dozen phone lines to Cuba and good luck making a call. 
Its that time of year, even in a good year, when business slows down to a crawl in the Southernmost City, including in the cute little booths along Lazy Way Lane:
At least they are open for business again after a period when it seemed everything was going to stay shuttered on the lane over a rental dispute. It's said around town that Harbor House, the new development behind Schooner Wharf has gone bankrupt and construction has stopped for now on the old Jabour's Trailer Park property.
Fire the proverbial cannon down Greene Street and all you'd end up doing at the end of July is knocking a couple of mad dog visitors off their Honda Metropolitans:
Swivel the cannon ninety degrees to the left and if you missed the scooter riders before you'd get a second chance as they cruise the urban desert of downtown Key West:
I didn't find the Prodigal Son this time around but I had a nice excuse to check out the boardwalk one more time. This blog is a great excuse to just go for a ramble.