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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Oceanside Marina, Stock Island.

There was decidedly a plan to go large when Oceanside Marina was conceived.


The place is huge and solidly built with, as you can see, wide docks and berths for boats.


Even the parking lot is like an airfield with relatively new apartments built a few years ago on the south shore of the marina.


It was all part of the turn-of-the-century economic boom. Boat slips sold for hundreds of thousands of dollars to people who thought that living on a boat in this area could be as permanent and as sound an investment as buying a condo.


Of course living on a boat limits space and most people "need" more space than they have so life spills over onto the do k under the sun.


Not everyone lives here that has a boat here. Commercial and recreational fishing boats rent space.


And facilities intended to provide for aft boating recreation line the docks. The restaurant has not been open for as long as I can remember though the bath house fortunately has.


Not many people who live on their boats shower on them so living in a marina involves wandering around with a shower bag and towel. Not everyone's idea of condo living...


And the views in a marina built amidst the industrial life support system for the city of Key West can be rather...industrial.


Summer brings heat and humidity which involves running power lines, creating shade and living below decks to avoid the blanket of heat.


It's a big place is Oceanside, like an aircraft carrier or a tanker where bicycles are door-to-door transportation.


So many boats and so little movement under the torpid southern sun.


A sunset porch at the back of the boat.


There are services for boaters lining the marina, storage lockers, a self sufficient little community.


A gate to the rest of the world.


I went to talk to the outboard mechanic who was away on an apparently unscheduled lunch. I'll bring my business back later and try again. Thanks anyway, it was fun reminding myself why I no longer live on a boat.

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Cycle Shell

I've seen a few of these canvas erections around town.


This one was in the shade under an empty building at Oceanside Marina on Stock Island.


Cycle Shell Website


I like these contraptions and priced at between $400 & $500 delivered they come in three different sizes for bikes with or without windshields and saddlebags. They can also be pinned down though they will withstand a hurricane is a question! The cool thing is they can be folded flat and caries away easily...


In a town where covered parking is at a premium under the baking southern sun and corroding salt air...


...you'd think every motorcyclist would have one! I wish I'd bought one years ago to protect my hard working Bonneville.


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