A summery intersection in old town Key West, she's riding south on Simonton, he's waiting for a break in traffic at Amelia Street.
I like this stretch of Amelia Street, not least because it is an anomaly.
It looks normal enough, houses, cars, two wheeled traffic...
Even some elderly political graffiti, which isn't exactly common in Key West, surprisingly enough.
And there is of course a nice house or two,in the key west style. I put the Bonneville in front for effect.
And there was even a Silly Sing, which makes a refreshing change from the key West staple of "No Trespassing" or "Trespassers Will Be Devoured."
These modern town homes are across from the intersection of Calais Lane and Amelia, again more or less in the "Key West style." Very popular that is.
No the anomalous nature of this block of Amelia Street comes from the fact that there are still real businesses holding on here.By real, I mean places where people make things and might even get their hands dirty doing so:
Yes indeed this place is one block away from the fleshpots of Upper Duval Street:
It's right across the street from the former cigar factory called the Gato Building which is now used for county offices. The county wants to get rid of it and there had been a rumor that they might rent it to the city for a dollar a year,or sell it outright. Which could be good news because the main city offices on Angela Street are in an advanced state of disrepair. I'd hate to have to work in them, especially since they got moldy after Hurricane wilma flooded them out in 2005. Some people wondered if the city might not move it's people here. Instead the plan is to build an eighteen million dollar replacement building on Angela Street and the way the city communicates its plans this one has got lots of people riled up. Anyway the Gato Building ("cat" in Spanish named for the original owner) is sitting there all pretty and everything and possibly even for sale, though the county hasn't put a sign on it. I think it would make a magnificent City Hall but I expect it would take quite a bit of money to adapt it to the city's needs, assuming it's even big enough.
Meanwhile across the street is the other astonishing hands-on business, an ironworks and welder's shop:
It was Friday evening when I took these pictures and the workers were going home but this is an active yard during the day.
A few more random shots of this block of Amelia, the heart of Old Town's light industrial neighborhood! 
I like this stretch of Amelia Street, not least because it is an anomaly.It looks normal enough, houses, cars, two wheeled traffic...Even some elderly political graffiti, which isn't exactly common in Key West, surprisingly enough.And there is of course a nice house or two,in the key west style. I put the Bonneville in front for effect.And there was even a Silly Sing, which makes a refreshing change from the key West staple of "No Trespassing" or "Trespassers Will Be Devoured."These modern town homes are across from the intersection of Calais Lane and Amelia, again more or less in the "Key West style." Very popular that is.No the anomalous nature of this block of Amelia Street comes from the fact that there are still real businesses holding on here.By real, I mean places where people make things and might even get their hands dirty doing so:Yes indeed this place is one block away from the fleshpots of Upper Duval Street:It's right across the street from the former cigar factory called the Gato Building which is now used for county offices. The county wants to get rid of it and there had been a rumor that they might rent it to the city for a dollar a year,or sell it outright. Which could be good news because the main city offices on Angela Street are in an advanced state of disrepair. I'd hate to have to work in them, especially since they got moldy after Hurricane wilma flooded them out in 2005. Some people wondered if the city might not move it's people here. Instead the plan is to build an eighteen million dollar replacement building on Angela Street and the way the city communicates its plans this one has got lots of people riled up. Anyway the Gato Building ("cat" in Spanish named for the original owner) is sitting there all pretty and everything and possibly even for sale, though the county hasn't put a sign on it. I think it would make a magnificent City Hall but I expect it would take quite a bit of money to adapt it to the city's needs, assuming it's even big enough.Meanwhile across the street is the other astonishing hands-on business, an ironworks and welder's shop:It was Friday evening when I took these pictures and the workers were going home but this is an active yard during the day.A few more random shots of this block of Amelia, the heart of Old Town's light industrial neighborhood! 
I should have brought a chair and set up camp under this spreading canopy. 
Noah Lane lies closest to Truman Waterfront and this little sign hits you in the eye as you ride toward Fort Zachary:
Looking past the sign one can see the old Navy Guard hut on the Truman waterfront,waiting to get demolished when the city implements it's brave new waterfront plan. Whenever that will be approved.
Noah Lane is pretty much representative of Truman Annex, a gated community that has made headlines over the years, getting into more than it's fair share of disputes with the city commission. The last one involved the proposal to stick a gate across Southard Street which would be closed at ten at night. The city commission caved immediately and built an alternative entrance to the waterfront via Petronia Street, but the Navy said the gate was a bad idea because they want 24 hour access to their base around the corner and the Truman Annex Master Property Owners Association in turn dropped their pants with utmost respect and the gate has not yet materialized.
The architecture inside the Annex is pretty much uniform, roofs, gables and widows walks:
You'd think that this profusion of greenery and neat picket fences would induce utmost serenity in a town not celebrated for that quality. When I was there, a nasty yappy little dog was venting endlessly, perhaps it didn't much like Bonnevilles, even silent parked ones, and that didn't improve the ambiance for me.
Truman Annex's other big dispute with the City was over short term rentals. One has to have a license to rent a dwelling in Key West for any period less than 28 days at a time. The licenses had been rather hard to get but Truman Annex ignored the law until the City decided to crack down and lost the case. So, for people who bought homes in the Annex planning to rent them to make up the mortgage it's a good thing, for people looking for a quiet retreat behind the secure gates, it's not so good.
I never thought about it too much until a friend of mine years ago told me of his experiences living in a condo which attracted a great many short term renters. I don't think I would much like living next to party central even if I could afford an erection like this magnificence:
The story behind the construction of the Annex is quite surprising, and it went something like this. A young would-be developer who first came to Key West as a wandering lost soul conceived the notion that he would buy up the Navy property put up for sale. He got it for seventeen million, they say and then went bust. But on his second go round he got it sorted out, built it, sold it and went on to develop other properties in the "Key West style." Notably the Golf Course and Tranquility Bay in Marathon. I think the Annex looks much better for the presence of a Bonneville:
I was interested to note the outdoor ceilings were painted in the traditional Key West shade of blue, said to alienate insects, or more esoterically, evil spirits. I'm not much of an evil spirits kind of man, but I like the shade of blue. I have threatened to have my Nissan repainted this color when my wife isn't looking:
And here is an actual picture of me riding in a circle on Noah Lane:
I told you it looked better for the presence of a Bonneville.
Which at night is the land of the 35 mile per hour limit. As discussed in a previous essay about the Big Pine Key Deer Bridge these signs show a limit of 45mph (70km/h) by day and 35mph (60km/h approx) by night. The black band is where the 45 shows up in daylight hours but is cleverly invisible by night:
This was an unplanned wander and my first stop was at the most unlikely of Big Pine Key stores, the Good Food Conspiracy which covers a great deal of holistic ground:
I have met Marney on my trips to the store and though she wouldn't know me from Adam, I have found her to be quite a character. Not one of those "characters" found on Duval Street dressed in women's clothes to amuse tourists, though she does wear women's clothes as she is in fact a woman. She is a long time resident of Big Pine and has carved a life on her terms which I find admirable. Her shop shares a small strip with an unlikely mixture of stores:
A blind store, a bait shop,
and a store selling crystals, 
...which between them cover all bases.
No Name Pub, with no one sitting out on an 84 degree (29C) night. 
This area, Tropical Bay subdivision, deserves an essay of it's own, as it is a remarkable variation on the Big Pine theme. This is an area of canals and modern suburban homes on large lawn covered lots that you might expect to see anywhere in suburban mainland Florida. To live here means an hour long commute to Key West which puts it out of range of all but the most determined. My 40 minute commute seems long to people who live in city limits. A lobster trap substituting for the usual garden gnome:
I spotted this dolphin on a dark side street and I had to laugh when i saw this marine mammal clutching the usual mailbox in a sea of grass:
The other popular mailbox holder is a manatee in the same posture, clutching the box. Darkness is abundant on the back roads of Big Pine:
Back in the mainstream of unincorporated Big Pine we find the late night pharmacy just off the Highway. Big Pine has a shopping center across the street featuring a Winn Dixie grocery, a Bealls clothing store, a pet shop, a Chinese restaurant, a breakfast café, a bagel shop a library and pretty much all one needs if one doesn't want to drive to the big city of Key West.
And so homeward bound with a stop to admire the waterfront homes, all illuminated and covered with palms, reflecting on the still waters:
And back across the bridges and causeways connecting Big Pine to the Torch Keys, Little, Middle and Big:
And across the water one can see the welcoming lights of Parrotdise, source of fresh fish dinners and Smithwicks Irish beer on draught, of which I shall have to write something, some day:
The lights on the water are hanging from the dock that stretches out to water deep enough to allow patrons to come by boat. Its also a fine boardwalk for an after dinner stroll to look at the channel and the stars and contemplate how happy one is that frost and snow and fog are hundreds, perhaps thousands of miles away. 
...and Dennis Hopper are still alive and coherent and able to talk about it:
Hopper is seen here wearing his absurd broad brimmed hat which mysteriously stayed glued to his head throughout this motorcycle road movie. Aside from these two there was also, briefly, a short scene featuring Phil Spector as a drug dealer in an equally absurd hat. This would be the same Spector recently convicted of murdering his wife. Talk about strange trips, man.
In a documentary about the making of the movie, that was included in the rental DVD, Fonda pointed out that Spector got the role because he already had a Rolls Royce and a bodyguard (the man in the black fez seen above) and saved them the bother of hiring extra players and props. This movie may have "changed forever the way America looks at itself" but let's not forget it was made on a shoestring budget of $360,000.
It's enough to light a fire under the most sedentary among us. The thing about the movie is that it keeps moving, and though that seems like a cliché, too many films, especially road films get encumbered by too much plot. There isn't any exposition in Easy Rider, Billy always calls Fonda's character by his nickname "Captain America" and we know nothing about these guy's past, how they met or what they do for a living. The story, probably because the film went largely unscripted, is sparse and because of that it really works.
There's so much trivia surrounding the legend of the making of the film and there are websites in abundance to fill in the stories that it seems rather tedious of me to repeat them here. The story is just a road trip on motorcycles meeting hippies and disaffected bourgeois and mad rednecks as they ride. Along the way they end up in jail, as seen above, where they meet George Hanson, famously played by the third actor selected for the role, another young'un unmistakable as a Southern Good Ol' Boy in Texas:
The documentary comments of Fonda and Hopper about the café scene are very funny and very poignant at the same time. They recruited locals, they say, to film this confrontation between the freedom lovers and the bourgeois conformists and they insist the emotions played out here were real and again, unscripted. Indeed the famous acid tip in the cemetery in New Orleans apparently got far more attention in the planning and execution stages of the film:
