Boca Chica Beach

I have no idea why but Rusty hasn't wanted to go to Boca Chica Beach in a  long time. I'd bring him and he'd sniff and two photographs later he was sitting by the car. Then last week all that changed and he was totally into it. Why? He wasn't saying...

To my surprise Monroe County has chosen to clear the old road and turned it back into a wide easy to use path. It used to be open t cars but a hurricane, Wilma as I recall in 2005 wiped out the roadway and it was reduced to a  footpath. It's a popular spot for dogs though why this sign (below) is necessary I don't know. Picking up seems obvious but perhaps I think too highly of my fellow humans.

On the other side of the path the US Navy has rebuilt the fence torn down by Hurricane Irma in 2017. Not much ambiguity here:

Boca Chica is a training base and squadrons visit from all over the US and Canada to practice dog fights and aircraft carrier landings and take offs. They make quite a bit of noise but we were spared.

Boca Chica manages to look good most times I visit and this was just another lovely morning.

More signage that in a perfect world would be too obvious to state. Rusty ignored it but I always carry a plastic bag. Happily they have taken away the rash cans that used to be posted here. I took this picture in 2016 shortly after Rusty came into my life:

 All they did was encourage people to pile their trash and it was very difficult to empty the barrel.  Now the message is backed up by no trash cans:

The fishing boat was slowly making tracks. I find the telephoto on the Panasonic FZ1000 quite effective. The FZ300 has a longer lense but it gets badly jagged in JPEG at extreme distances and I am too lazy to shoot in RAW photo mode to correct it. The FZ1000 has a bigger sensor and does a much cleaner job even if not at such huge distances. 

The  sign on the telephone pole has been wiped clean...

...on one side.  The warning used to be "get ready for what you may find" (gay men enjoying themselves) but that apparently is no longer acceptable. Just another sign of changing times I guess. 

I did some bird watching while Rusty rooted around as usual.

The pile of rocks is still there with more detritus dangling everywhere. 

And more irritating aphorisms:

This innocent piece of wood put me in mind of a green man staring angrily across he clearing:

I noticed the hammock swinging close by an old Cuban chug that washed ashore. There are far fewer refugees trying to cross from Cuba since the US ended the wet foot/dry foot policy which allowed Cubans who landed to stay. 

Still a few do risk their lives out there while we swing at our ease on the beach.

A  man named Raphael started piling rocks after the aforementioned Hurricane Wilma, just another person attracted to this beach in ways that defy explanation. Like this guy I saw there the year after Red died:

 The original builder of the bothy on the beach was known as Red and he has apparently gone to his reward, well remembered.

We walked to the end of the beach where you have to wade across a cut to get to the rest of the wilderness alongside the old State Road 4A  but the tide was high and I wasn't wearing my Crocs and I don't think Rusty was particularly interested, happily for my sneakers.

The old Navy fence rather the worse for wear:

Back at the car Rusty wasn't ready to go. So I got out my Kermit chair...

...and struggled to take a selfie with my security guard at my back:

Other essays I've photographed over the years at Boca Chica Beach:

2008:   https://conchscooter.blogspot.com/2008/04/boca-chica-beach.html

2009:   https://conchscooter.blogspot.com/2009/12/boca-chica-beach.html

2010:   https://conchscooter.blogspot.com/2010/11/boca-chica-beach.html

2013:  https://conchscooter.blogspot.com/2013/06/boca-chica-beach.html

2015:  https://conchscooter.blogspot.com/2015/05/boca-chica-beach.html

2016:   https://conchscooter.blogspot.com/2016/12/alone-at-boca-chica.html

The Easter Seals

As part of my test of the Jetson electric scooter from Costco I rode out to College Road on Stock Island where I haven't been recently. I cam across a construction site.

This open space used to house the Easter Seals and now is apparently schuelded to be rebuilt as housing.

They say there will be 104  affordable housing units on the land which sounds pretty good ina  town with a huge housing shortage. However no one ever seems to define what the term"affordable" really means. Usually it ends up looking like 250-300 thousand dollars to buy or $2200 a month to renta  two bedroom which is not always that affordable for many bar and hotel workers. 

When in doubt I turn to Wikipedia and as I have no idea who the Easter Seals are (or were in this case) this is what I found:

Easterseals (formerly known as Easter Seals founded in 1919 as the National Society for Crippled Children)^[2] is an American 501(c)3 nonprofit providing disability services, with additional support areas serving veterans and military families, seniors, and caregivers.

Easterseals addresses the needs of individuals and families throughout the lifespan – from inclusive child care to respite care – in order to help people "reach for their full potential."^[3]

Easterseals meets the standards of the National Health Council and the Better Business Bureau/Wise Giving Alliance.

The name "Easter Seals" derived from an earlier fundraising program: beginning in 1934, colorful adhesive seals, the size of postage stamps, were sold around Easter; purchasers stuck these on mailed envelopes to demonstrate their support for the organization. Because of the program’s success, the organization changed its name from "the National Society for Crippled Children" to "Easter Seals." They have since changed their name to "Easterseals."

I took the picture above of their building just over a year ago but nowadays they apparently have relocated o North Roosevelt Boulevard so the work continues even as construction takes place on College Road.

The northern half of Stock Island was annexed to the city of Key West and the arc of College Road is home to many services critical to the city's operation. The original impulse to annex the land was to build housing and a gold course here but College Road is home to the Florida Keys Community College soon to be renamed by the state legislature, also the hospital, Gerald Adams School, the SPCA and the city transit bus depot newly uilt where the old garbage transfer station and waste burning plant used to live.

There is the homeless shelter, a marina, condominiums and the Sheriff's headquarters and jails for adults and juveniles. So it is no surprise to see buses and ambulances traveling the street.

And soon between the botanical gardens and the gold course, next to the water pumping station we should see 104 units of housing.

Jetson Bolt Scooter

Next April the state of Florida will start overseeing repair work to the single bridge in and out of Key West. The traffic jams are  expected to be monumental, and the work may be finished only by November with luck and may last well into the winter next year when visitors swell the numbers of cars. Behold my solution to the problem, a Jetson Bolt electric scooter for $300 from Costco delivered to our house.

The appeal of the Bolt is its extreme simplicity and ease of use. The idea is to put it in the trunk of the

car, park the car as close to Key West as I can get and then take a two wheeled ride past the traffic jam at the Cow Key Bridge and so on to work. I had thought about buying  full on electric bicycle until my wife discovered this little thing. For the price it seemed like a no brainer but there are a few other reasons to consider the Jetson Bolt, aside from its delightful name!

 The 250 watt hub motor spins the rear wheel with no chain or belt drive, ad the rear disc brake is operated mechanically and the cable runs through the frame. Indeed the scooter has a lifting handle built into the extremely sturdy frame  so it's easy enough to lift its 35 pound weight. Easy to lift and clean to lift and simple to ride. No suspension no front brake no loose cables or wires.

You press a button to turn it on, you twist the right grip like a motorcycle and gently and silently you take off. I am at the outer limit of its 250 pound payload and by my phone GPS it will do a steady 10 mph on level ground. Beware steep hills where it will suffer and you can't pedal to help it along. Lack of pedals may also give you range anxiety as once it's done there is nothing more to do except push it.

The factory says it has a top speed of 15 mph and a range of 17 miles. Reviews suggest the range is closer to 12 miles at about that speed so you get an hour's run time on the 36 volt Lithium Ion battery contained in the black box in the frame. A full recharge takes five hours they say and after one hour and about four miles I was still showing two of four bars on the charge indicator. 

My plan is to take the charger in to work with me and it is so small and unobtrusive I will be able to put it in the elevator and get it to an inside plug while I work overnight. Well before morning I'll have a full charge to get me back to my car. The way I figure it I should be able to get back and forth between car parked outside the city and work inside the city even without any need for charging. But because I am anal I will be glad to keep it fully charged.

So is it a good thing this little electric scooter? Well, it depends. It seems well built and sturdy. It is fully equipped with a bell, lights front and back, a "fuel gauge" which shows four blue bars barely visible in bright sunlight. The brake works, the accelerator is smooth and it also comes with a cruise control button which locks the throttle and it usually works with a push or two. I anticipate many years of service from this ride.

On the other hand the seat is hard even with a  gel pad and an hour's ride will test your butt, that I promise. There is no provision for luggage so anything you carry will be on your back and ten miles per hour is not an inspiring speed. On the long straight streets of New Town ten miles per hour (according to my phone GPS) started to get pretty tedious but that's just me and my need for performance. You can't pedal to speed it up either.

Despite it's modest drawbacks this scooter at three hundred dollars is quite the deal. For urban use it will be excellent. It is going to be easy to carry on a  bus as the handlebar folds down if you need it to. You could keep it in your office during the day and it will get you home effort-free from a train station or a bus stop. It is essentially a skate board for adults and as much as I feel like a circus bear while riding it in a town setting it offers excellent personal transportation with none of the muss and fuss and grease of a chain driven bicycle. 

I wonder how it will cope with winter traffic in Key West when drivers exhibit impatience and street crossings become more perilous than usual. It has no discernible acceleration so when you open the gas it simply glides away from a  stop with no sense of urgency. I felt vulnerable on it. I am assuming that regular use will give a daily rider confidence.

And when I got back to the car I simply lifted it by the frame handle cut out on the battery and lowered it into the trunk of my car, no folding or chains or cables to worry about. Very simple, very swift:

At home I carried it up 17 stairs and my legs are still not quite 100%  but good enough to haul the Jetson. A coupe of hours later it was fully charged and ready to go from the security of the inside of my house where thieves and weather are kept at bay!

Buy one, you might like having it to zi around slowly on.

Lake McKillip

I have been a police dispatcher in Key West for 15 years and yet every year, even now a new place pops into my consciousness. Now I know Lake McKillip exists. I have also discovered the man it was named for died just about a month ago at the age of 84. All this because I was wandering at random through New Town.

The Citizen reported a year ago on the naming of  this stretch of what is technically the Salt Run Creek that runs across the middle of the city and Mandy Miles included an interview with the 60 year resident at a home across the street from the Lake. 

 "John McKillip can still remember that it was a Wednesday when he and his wife moved their 4-year-old son into the home he’d built at 10th and Fogarty in 1960.

“It was right after Hurricane Donna came through in 1960 and I was working six days a week in Marathon as a foreman on the construction jobs to rebuild Marathon after the storm,” McKillip recalled on Tuesday. “On Sundays, our only day off, my crew of up to 43 men would come over to my lot and work on my house.”

McKillip paid $3,250 for the vacant lot in the late 1950s.

“Now I wish I’d had the money to buy all four that were available, but I do think I picked the best one,” he said." 

According to the obituary in the Citizen McKillip fought to keep the lake view open in his neighborhood and was surprised when his work was rewarded by a  surprise announcement from the city commission naming the lake for him.

And now there is a boardwalk too from which spot you can stand and admire the waters and the view:

A good place to take a break while testing your new electric scooter.

Duval Street

Let's be honest this is not my usual habitat and furthermore allow me to point out I know several people who live in Key West and who actively avoid Duval Street. I don't go that far as I enjoy wandering the street from time to time but hanging in the famous bars downtown is not my bag.

 But I do understand these are the haunts that inspire many people to come to Key West. Sloppy Joe's and Ricks across from each other propel the dreams of many visitors.

The Bull and Whistle is close by with the clothing optional Garden of Eden on the roof. And apparently scofflaws skate boarding ion the street. Mind you there was no traffic in that moment so I think a skateboard was a pretty effective way to get around.

Shorty's Market is the phenomenon that astonishes me. Its just a  basic convenience store with some souvenir stuff for sale and survives and thrives in the midst of the wandering crowds and the bars. 

 I confess that seeing an electric powered delivery scooter surprised me.These electric Zapp scooters have been available for rent though the rental companies got up in arms when the newly arrived green electric tricycles started to get some business. I haven't seen so many Zapps around since then.

The Abbey is a new bar opened at the site of the former Porch in the Porter Building on Caroline. I liked the combination of the private property sign and the welcoming board behind it...Key West and its mixed messages!

 I believe the Abbey is part of the Fogarty's and Caroline's group.

 Always busy:

 Lucy's has migrated successfully from the old Finnegan's Wake location on James Street to tourist central on Duval:

 And Captain Tony's soldiers on just off Duval on Greene Street:

Greene Street named for Pardon Greene one of the four Americans who bought Key West from Juan Salas who got the land grant from the King of Spain.

John Whitehead, John Fleeming and John Simonton where the other three partners none of whom ever visited the island as far as is known. But they did get streets named for them. Salas tried to double sell Key West but his sale to John Strong was invalidated by the US courts later. All these johns must have been confusing even back then. Key West was chartered on November 18th 1828. And now anonymous bike riders use their phones while riding and put their own bones at risk.

I stopped on my way out of Old Town on Fleming Street ( the modern spelling of John Fleeming) to take a picture of the Southernmost Prayer and Faith Church for a scooter tag game I was playing on the Adventure Rider forum.  Such is how we pass the time online...

The Police Chief cornered me at work the other day, So Michael he said, I see you still ride a scooter. Yes I said brightly isn't great how well I have recovered. I'd better not crash again I thought to myself. They might not be so indulgent a second time.

Night Homes

A series of pictures I took as Rusty and I walked around Petronia, Simonton and Center streets.

Do not park in a residential spot if you aren't a resident. People call the police at all hours day and night to report this and they want to see a ticket issued. Just like this: