Practical Cycling

From October 2010 (so long ago already?) I really like this essay on bikes in Key West.

I start this essay on cycling in Key West with a picture of a man taking his ease in Bayview Park.

His bicycle laden with belongings was just out of the frame. Bicycles in Key West are basic transportation, for workers, professionals, tourists and even the unemployed homeless.I like to photograph the cyclists around town from time to time as a reminder that this town is the eco-delight that promoters of cyclists envision when they stand before city councils and commissions across the land to promote urban cycling. Not as recreation, but as daily transportation. High cost brand name cycles are the rarity rather than the norm around here.Willie Ward Park has some rather pleasant shelters to hang out under as you while away your day waiting for the soup kitchen to open on Flagler Avenue.Tourists use bicycles as a fun break from their daily reality at home. Too bad they can't imagine getting used to cycling when they do get back to their daily grind.I have noticed a different kind of pedi cab rider lately in Key West. It used to be the preserve of East European young men pedaling energetically. Now I am hearing more Americans talking to their passengers as they pedal. Perhaps the world of pedicabs could be promoted as part of the political agenda currently sweeping the land to get Americans into jobs held by immigrants?A bicycle, a basket and Old Town is your oyster.I noticed these three vans (how could I not?) jamming Southard Street at Whitehead. The minivan as billboard. It takes a bicycle to get past these heffalumps blocking the road.When I was between dogs I used to bring my bicycle into town on a bike rack on the car, park the car at work and take off around town on two wheels. A bike rack is a great thing. Now all we have to do is persuade the nutters who run the Lower Keys Bus Shuttle to put bike racks back on the buses. They took them off when they were too successful.A gentle pedal on Georgia Street is a fine way to spend a morning.Cruising the Southernmost Point.

Backwards and forward at Whitehead and South Streets.There is a city commission looking into improving cycling conditions in Key West. Some people want more dedicated bike paths but it seems to me that in Old Town you'd need to make streets one way to accommodate a bike path and I can't see motorists agreeing to that.Riding and not texting. What a concept!

Tricycle, bicycle and shopping cart. Key West's basic means of hauling your crap around.Not riding side by side. These must be well mannered visitors.Hotels and guest houses frequently have bikes for guests to use. The size of the collection at Eden House on Fleming Street always boggles my mind.This deocratif motif left by a former resident:I watched this woman cycling in front of my car southbound on White Street, here seen imperturbable as two other laden cyclists pull out abruptly from Olivia Street in front of her.She stops appropriately at White Street at the red light.Traffic eases and off she goes risking a ticket if police were around to see her.I'll bet she'd have been pissed if she got a ticket for that stunt. Tourists here on Truman checking their directions. Riding on sidewalks is permitted in Florida as long as you a) yield to pedestrians and b) have an audible means of approach (not specified).

For $9 a day one of these beauties could be yours to cruise around town.

Like I said, practical transportation.

Unhappily my forward motion in the car messed up the focus but you get the idea. Helmets (rare in Key West) and swimsuits. Whatever works.Me? I wouldn't mind a Genuine Buddy from the Yamaha shop to get around town. I find a bicycle less useful than a scooter for fast movement across town.Seen on College Road, quite a likely a student pedaling to the...College with the typical backpack.The Florida Keys Community College on Stock Island my be five miles from Duval Street but considering how flat the terrain Key West and Stock Island are ideal cycling territory.

Fort Zachary Taylor

I figured the state park on the beach in Key West was overdue a visit from Rusty and I. No dice.

For pictures inside the fort check This Link.

There is a little nature trail around the moat. It's a five minute stroll through the trees on a raised piece of ground which means the vegetation is something other than mangroves...known as hardwoods.

I like to come by here from time to time to remind myself of tree names because I can never retain the labels. Besides at $4:50 a visit its a bit pricey as a pure botany lesson.

 Rusty saw  possibilities in the trees but trhere's that leash thing going on here.

 And then one pops out into what looks like a real meadow.

 Lovely. They used to exhibit Sculpture Key West art here. LINK

Except there are signs scattered on the outer fringes.

And then as we approached the pines for a look out at the Straits of Florida I ran into my buddy Curt who was taking a break in the shade.

We met when we were living on boats in St Petersburg at the Vinoy Basin in 1989. Curt sailed to Key West and I joined him for a while before I took my first tour of the Bahamas. We lived alongside at anchor in Key West for a while and Curt taught me the ropes of living cheap afloat. It was a rather more wild west lifestyle than I fancied even then when I was in my early 30s but it suited Curt just fine. He lived at anchor and knew where to park his dinghy for free and where to get drinking water and where to dump trash.  Me? I wanted a regular situation paying  dollar a day for those services no sneaking around. I was a party pooper but we both enjoyed the high life at the Winn Dixie food buffet. Years later Curt is still living on a boat in Key West working a couple of jobs and making this strange town work for him in ways many people have never managed to figure out. He had to go tie up a cruise ship and serve conch fritters to tourists, a job he's held for twenty years. A record.

 Not everyone is as industrious:

My conversation with Curt meant I had no time left to explore the Australian pines at the fort, such as Cheyenne and I had done in years previously:

I saw this old pedestrian walkway which used to connect parts of the park across  military land. I figure this bridge could be deployed usefully on North Roosevelt Boulevard to replace one of the much disputed pedestrian crossings which some consider to be dangerous to vehicles and pedestrians.

I regret the thought but I may have to come back sometime without Rusty. I hope he doesn't hear me express that thought. It has become such that we go nowhere alone, it seems like.

Suncrest Drive, Stock Island

I don't have  a lot of tolerance for endless post card pictures of Key West as though life is all margaritas and sunsets without the need for places like Stock Island to keep the facade functioning. The other half of this street I didn't walk as we ran out of time, but Suncrest in both directions is one block long each side of Cross Street and it's pretty gritty.

It just happens to be in neighborhoods like this that business gets done. South of Highway One as you approach Key West...

They call it light industrial if it is being classified, but it's where cars get repaired and where electricians and plumbers keep their supplies. 

For someone like me strolling by the greenery and bright sunshine make it look nicer than leafless gray streets Up North in the clutch of winter but working on a car outdoors in 90 degree sunshine can't be easy.

There is room to park stuff and unload stuff and store stuff out here.

And to accumulate projects, or spare parts.

I called this "an actual shade tree mechanic" on my Instagram picture. Rusty was intrigued.

No matter how tatty the exterior there is a liveable space in there and I'll be it's being used. You have no choice in a housing market like this one.

There are always palm fronds to remind you where you are, even if your surroundings don't remind you of Mallory Square.

And no matter where you are, parking issues rear their heads.

Duval Street this ain't. But without the services of Stock Island Duval Street couldn't exist.

Heading back towards our appointment to pick up the Ford with the repaired door handle - a Stock Island specialty is repairing cars! - Rusty startled this parrot. My little brown dog has no interest in birds, be they chickens or sparrows, but the squawking parrot shook him up and got his rapt attention:

The towering art in front of the ReCycle Bike Shop makes a suitable monument I think to the hands on work that takes place in these parts. 

And soon enough the Fusion's door handle was replaced and all was well with the world. Rusty found some grassy shade and we both got to watch Stock Island at work for a while.

Patterson And Eighth, Pocket Park

I drove past this pocket park a few weeks ago, quite by accident and I determined to come back to check it out.

The utility company used to keep electrical transformers dotted around the city and I guess the advances in technology made them redundant. 

So, rather cleverly they have been transformed with some mild landscaping, some art and a few benches, into places to hang out.

I wouldn't mind if they parked a porty potty in this spots. Te irony of walking the dog is that he gets to pee and I don't. After a while having to hold it interferes with the pleasure of the walk. But you do get a shady spot in which to sit.

Properly fenced it can be an off leash moment as well.

Except ny nuisance hound was on a mission and and let me know he wanted to get going again.

So we did. Been there done that and sniffed the artwork. Ready to keep moving. Sigh.