Breaking Key West

Consensus in my neck of the woods is that Spring Break is busy this year. Which is surprising considering you'll be hard pressed to find a room for less than $400 in town. But students are resourceful of course and they tend to pack the over priced rooms the way previous generations packed Volkswagens for a stunt.

 Everywhere you go in and around Key West are packs of young people, and the local bums spot them coming. This guy got a cup of coffee and a cigarette from the kind or fearful young woman he cornered in the passenger seat of the car:

Friday was St Patrick's Day which combined with Florida itself being on break meant Key West was extra busy. I am not a great fan of this weird New England holiday but there agian Hallmark holidays as a whole tend to leave me cold. Especially as I was answering 911 calls Friday night.

Like I said Spring Breakers are everywhere, where you least expect them. At least this one knew how to ride her bike and avoided killing me or my dog.

Daily life plugs on, boaters included, seen here at the dinghy docks getting ready for the chilly ride out to their boat in the windswept anchorage:

Locals have been wearing jackets boots and scarves this past week thanks to strong north winds and temperatures near 60 degrees. Visitors remark on the pleasant weather and show off their short sleeves, not otherwise put to use since Thanksgiving in the unforgiving climates they inhabit.

Schooner Wharf Bar only looked desolate as it was breakfast time and not yet fully populated by people not used to eating breakfast in a bar. The temperatures left me slightly surprised the vegetation hadn't withered.

 Local subject in jacket:

 And another one.

 Visitors in shirt sleeves:

 Cool it may have been but the rain was long gone and the sun was shining on Lazy Way Lane:

 Breakfast al fresco for the future leaders of America:

 And they have another generation already breathing down their necks:

 Rusty is learning to read. I think:

He is a very smart dog. I know because he didn't put his butt in the hammock.

Vespa Tag

After I traded the old 1979 Vespa away a sense of relief came over me. Because with that deal I also took the time and money to get my wife's ET4 Vespa 150 fixed up.

It's 13 years old and has about 30,000 miles on it and the exhaust and suspension were worn out, the speedometer needed a new cable (hence the approximate mileage) and after all that and a tune up it is purring like an almost new Vespa again.

 Unlike the 200cc 1979 Vespa the 2004 ET4 150cc Vespa runs fast and reliably. It'll do 60 miles an hour on level ground, a little more with the wind behind us a little less with a headwind.  

It is unmodified except for a lower seat to make it easier for my wfe to reach the ground. 

The nice thing about having a scooter agin is that I can run around town with the excuse that I am playing scooter tag on the Advenure Rider website.

I grabbed a government building with the Monroe County Courthouse and I set a tag of an ethnic grocery using the Polish Deli on White Street.

It's possible anyone anywhere in the world could join in because Adventure Rider, based in Canada is a world wide motorcycle traveler site, but in point of fact most people who post on the scooter tag are in North America. Actually I think all of them are.

 This time of year those of us in the South dominate, simply because it's not freezing and icy here.

 A library (above) a church and so forth...

Sometimes I check the tag game before I leave home and I'll take a picture (below "Your scooter next to a body of water") during my break or after my overtime shift ends in the middle of the night.

There is no requirement to make a tag ("Your scooter by a ball field") in daylight. The one below is at Horace O'Bryant middle school at two in the morning.

 You just have to have a scooter ("Your scooter at a burger joint") or a small motorcycle. There is one guy with a Honda 125cc Grom minibike that particpates occasonally.

An excuse to ride. Much better with a reliable modern Vespa even if it is thirteen years old. And now the old P200 has given way to a rather brightly colored 2009 S150:

Traded for the 1979 with only 326 miles and it starts runs and stops very nicely- so far!

Sugarloaf Walk

I've got to be honest...really I do....but Spring Break this year is making Key West unbearable. It's like the bad old days with people clogging the streets mostly drunk, driving badlym, stumbling when they walk, being rowdy and young and cheerful. Me? I am sticking to the backwoods with my dog for the moment. Especially this weekm as Florida universities are on break and that puts Key West within range of their badly driven cars. Heaven help us.

 We hadn't been tp Sugarloaf Key in a whil;e and it was  lovely morning. Rusty had a grand time and I trailed long behind him checking out awhatever there was to see.

I've photogrpahed these places before but each time I see things in a slightly different light thanks to the camera's all seeing eye.

In the distance typical Keys stilt houses. 

W stood on the shore of the lagoon in the middle of the island and Rusty wasn't much impressed. 

He was even less impressed when a stornger gust of wind than usual picked up a piece of briny foam and slapped him in the face with it:

 I took a quick picture in black and white to check the effect...

...by which time my dog had ducked back into the safety of the undergrowth:

 A seagrpae throwing up some new growth which comes out in this Fall style of color, highlighted by the early morning sun:

And yes a couple of spring breakers made their way here on bicycles with a radio strapped to the handlebars making loud noises to shatter the peace of the morning in the woods. Sigh, nice kids but noisy.

Vaca Cut

I had time to burn while the car's tires were replaced and I spotted a likely walk along the waterway that divides the city of Marathon in two. It yielded scenes of canalside life to my camera:

It was busy too for a Friday and I had some frustations trying to get decent pictures from the overgrown path I was walking: 

There's an island located just off Sombrero Beach area south of Marathon. As you can see in this picture below taken at full digital zoom it is a rock wioth ahouse on it, not even room to walk the dog.

 The boats came and went on the turquoise waters:

Apparently it's pretty shallow around here as the boats even the smallest stuck to the clearly marked channels:

 Cklearly marked around the end of the land as you can see here:

 Rusty the land dog was busy checking stuff out:

The land is for sale so I suppose it will become something useful at some point. For now there are trees, shade and mangroves arching artictically:

 It is actually a scenic waterway, as short as it is:

 Drifting along ignoring the constant traffic on the Overseas Highway rumbling over the bridge:

Looking North, what they call Gulfside in Marathon: 

 The open water!