Practical Key West

If you want to know which party to attend tonight you have to check the Fantasy Fest website  but if you are living the normal life in Key West you will notice a few wintery touches in the streets where people live (fully clothed). Halloween is much celebrated and decorated, though Rusty isn't sure what to think of that. We were on Olivia Street yesterday around lunch time, circling the cemetery:

I wanted to spin this skeleton round but I feared unintended consequences so I contented my ghoulish self with views of blood spattered nightgown: 

This one used a palm for a hammock. Where many outdoor displays elsewhere show off skeletons in Key West where nudity is the theme this week, unfortunately, dressing up skeletons is a form of alternative commentary on the tourist craze that has become Fantasy Fest.

 Pirates of the Caribbean you might say, even if a bit past their prime.

And if you look closely through the foliage you may see real people doing ordinary things in regular clothes:

 And through some other foliage there are actual homes:

This week the weather is forecast to be absolutely perfect with no humidity, fresh cool north winds and blue skies. Time to throw open the doors and live outdoors!

 This really is how Key West, Johnson Lane in this case, looks under the bright white winter sun. 

Two friends chatting: sometimes it's easy to forget what a small town Key West really is, even with the influx of winter visitors who like to claim residence in a town they know for a few months of the year.

Rusty likes prowling the city as he finds lots to see and smell. I believe variety is important for dogs as much as humans and I enjoy walking him in different places every day. He seems to like it too.

 AA regular conch cottage on Windsor Lane:

 A conch cottage dolled up rather effectively to look like it belongs in the desert southwest:

Traffic is heavy in parts of town as more and more people pile into Key West for this weird carnival week. Next week they will all be gone until it starts snowing Up North:

Everything will take longer than it takes this week, and cost more than it costs. It takes practice to remember how to be practical Fantasy Fest week.

Zombie Bike Ride

The Zombie Bike Ride had its first appearance in 2009 and organizers say 70 people participated. By now it is arguably the most popular event at Fantasy Fest, and organizers suggest possibly 8,000 or more people take the "leisurely ride" into Old Town Key West.

The event used to start on Stock Island at the bike shop called Recycle which invented the ride and still sponsors it. This year the start was moved to Pines Park and the East Martello Tower on South Roosevelt, shortening the "leisurely ride" and also avoiding a massive traffic snarl at the entrance to Key West. 

I made my way to the East Martello Tower area by approaching along South Roosevelt as traffic was a mess already in the other direction where the four lane street was closed.  Fred and Chelsea flagged me down so of course I took their picture:

It was a huge crowd enjoying the sunshine and cool fresh north wind - perfect conditions for a slow intoxicated ride with 8,000 of your favorite living dead neighbors.

The great thing about the Zombie Bike Ride is that it really is family friendly in that it's about zombies and costumes not about nudity. And yes, people are drinking alcohol, not an activity normally associated with the term "family friendly" but this as peaceable a gathering of people as you can imagine. The Zombie Bike Ride is about being silly and having fun which makes it enormously appealing in a week that is usually considered to be adult only in Key West.

It was an almost Druidical gathering in the Pines Park on South Roosevelt, followers of some obscure cult of the bicycle, or blood, or torn clothing:

There was one political sign I noticed though the the owner of the sign chose to step out of the picture.

 Some body paint got quite elaborate.

 The mood is totally festive and fun.

Some come to ride and some come to drink and ride and some come to wear a costume and ride. Your choice! Mix and match.

Costumes can be elaborate or not. I like silly animal heads:

 Some Zombies smile for the camera...

Some less so.

 Some Zombies even have the faculties to use their phones....

The ride in to town looked glorious, but I had to go to work so I got out while the going was good before the six o'clock start of the ride, which was coincidentally when I had to be ready to work in the dispatch center at the police department.

It has become a family spectacle too, everyone hanging out having a sunny picnic and enjoying the coconut palms on the Bridle Path. I really like this picture, small town Key West having innocent fun:

We got a 911 call later in the evening, a report of a cycling Zombie catapulting himself over the seawall into the ocean. My colleague got a breathless 911 call announcing: "We need help! There's a Zombie in the water!" and in the background Nick could hear someone shouting "Man overboard! Man overboard!" I sent an officer and Shannon sent an ambulance and a fire truck as the seawall is quite high above the water and a ladder could be useful. Happily no harm was done and the wet Zombie was safely reunited with his friends on dry land. We got to have a  laugh when we heard the outcome and were grateful to the Zombie Bike Ride for a moment of good cheer on what promised to be a busy and crowded night. I really do like this event.

Decorated Key West

When it  comes  to the last  week in October Halloween vies for attention against the noisy nudie crowd that comes to town for Fantasy Fest. Halloween comes across not as creepy and scary  but as wholesome family affair. 

 Unless that is you want to wear a tutu and not shave your beard for Halloween:

It's funny inasmuch as  Key West's landscape and architecture lend themselves perfectly to a celebration of the dead, and a display of the macabre.

And  then you see some muscular dude hauling clothing around and you assume its costumes. No, it's nothing that interesting. Just clothes, like anyone might carry around for any banal reason. No tutus to see here.

And then if Halloween and Fantasy Fest aren't enough there are hidden dangers in full sight on the sidewalk. Use this discarded stove and DIE! Wow. Hugs and kisses...

 You'd think these buildings could use some Halloween decorations, but no such luck:

 Oh and then there's the cemetery always good for Halloween imagery.

It's a place where people bury their dead family members, no more, no less.

West Summerland Sunrise

I cannot be sure how it happened but I was there as the sun came up in a burst of red and orange and yellow under  perfect dark blue dome.

Below we see the new Bahia Honda Bridge, two lanes in each direction that allow passing while on he right the old Bahia Honda Bridge which slipped into disuse in 1982. It was a converted railroad bridge and lacked room for wide traffic to meet safely on the bridge. It was not a great road bridge but it is a picturesque wreck.

This is not an area to swim as the currents are strong. "Bahia Honda" means "deep bay" in English and water spills in and out of the Gulf of Mexico through here. It is a good place to drown if you aren't careful.

The old approach road to the bridge was built on a  ramp of earth that rises fifty feet in the air and gives a walker on the path a rare view down across the water. Nowhere in the Keys is naturally as high as this above sea level:

Anglers stand on the seawall and fish by lantern light about where the engineers built the edge of the artificial ramp that leads up to the old bridge:

 Rusty was in the mood to run and he ran back and forth rolled in theluch grass and played hide-and-seek with me. I caught a flash of brown in the camera:

 The pause before the stroll back to the car:

 Cheyenne was rather more sedate on her visits here:

There is always the breeze...

 ...the dawn...

...the end.