Labrador Love

Cheyenne has been moving around this summer with me, from her usual Florida Keys haunts...


...to parking lots and rest areas on the the long drives Up North, with meals snatched along the way...


...with hours spent doing what dogs do in the back of cars, uncomplaining and patient...


...to be rewarded with walks in woods and mountains at higher elevations and thus cooler than those she is used to.


Trains don't exist in the Keys anymore, not since the hurricane of 1935 wiped out the rail line through the Upper Keys. Cheyenne found museum piece trains to be to her taste harboring as they do unconsidered trifles of discarded food.


And when out visiting historic sights, seen here at Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, seducing a kindly young server who longs for a dog of her own, Cheyenne takes it as her due that she gets to participate in whatever is on offer.


She turned her back on magnificent views of the Chesapeake when touring General George Washington's home at Mount Vernon. She was waiting for me to complete my tour watching the house ready to spring to her aging feet as I came out of the historic home.


I got Cheyenne December 7th 2009 from the Key West SPCA where she was dumped that October by a family who thought her "too old" yet she continues to age gracefully, though she does from time to time show signs of slowing down perhaps just a little. She takes aspirin for morning stiffness and she sleeps a lot, especially after a long drive. But she also spends lots of her time watching my every move.


Putting on a little weight as she goes.


We have been together almost three years now and it's difficult for me to remember a time when she wasn't at my side. She's the main reason you'll find me driving a car, not riding my Bonneville.


She's got used to me leaving her in the evening on my way to work. She doesn't like it but she expects it.


In the mornings when I get home around 6:30 she's ready for the sound of my motorcycle arriving under the house, her signal for her early morning walk, she and I, alone, as she likes it.

Post Scriptum:

Happy Birthday America, my favorite national holiday, as today is the day I like to celebrate my own independence even though I actually moved across the Atlantic on October 22nd. This is also my 8th anniversary with the Key West Police Department. I had no idea to expect this when I applied to be a dispatcher eight long years ago but this is the most enjoyable fulfilling job I've ever had. Who knew I'd make a career as a dispatcher for the fuzz? Just as well, as we are short handed tonight, again and I've got some OT scheduled in the middle of the night. Happy Anniversary me.



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Mosquito Central, Key Largo

In the Keys it's no surprise to see boats buzzing about back and forth on the water. In a place where reefs and landmasses keep waves to a minimum you'd expect no less.


However one of the things I do like about Monroe County is how open the landmass is to visitors.


Pretty much the entire length of Highway One is a waterfront parking lot if you so choose.


This particular spot is on Card Sound Road just south of the county line at Alabama Jack's restaurant.


I forgot my repellent and was instantly covered in a blanket of little black bodies busily sucking my blood. I'm lucky in that mosquitoes don't give me welts and the itching goes away after a few minutes, nevertheless the attack was disconcerting.


I have no idea what this former billboard advertised.


Beyond the mosquitoes the views across the water were spectacular.


I love the look of a summer thunderstorm over unruffled tidal waters.


This being Monroe County the beaches are narrow and rocky and the dead seaweed is copious at the high tide line.


Ignore the rotting vegetarian and enjoy the light on the water, the weird twisted red mangroves and the silence.


There are no facilities in these roadside stops except for tons of trash cans.


And the highway has no signs pointing to these intimate little turn outs.


Chances are you'll have to back up, as I did, if there is mo traffic and duck off the road. In winter traffic is far more intense.


Many people come to the Keys to fish and they will stand all day at a buttress on a bridge dangling a line.


Rain was my portion further up the road and I passed a few bridges with abandoned fishing rods left to get wet as the storm blew overhead.


But eventually the rain fell behind ad sunshine tried to penetrate the clouds.


Small boats on large expanses of water.


Daily living in the Florida Keys.



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The New Houseboat Row

It used to be that people chose to live on their houseboats in Cow Key Channel barely attached to the Key West seawall.


I have recently discovered a whole new community of floating homes a hundred miles north.


Cheyenne and I were traveling the 18 miles stretch to Florida City and I decided to pull off and stretch our half dozen legs. Across from the Anchorage Resort seemed ideal and that was where, to my surprise I found a whole new community.


The new 18 mile stretch, the primary road that connects the Keys to the mainland, was recently raised over the mangroves by a mile and a half long bridge. This has the unfortunate effect of cutting off the formerly roadside businesses so planners were required to connect the resorts to the now overhead US Highway One.


And there some boaters found a place to tie up to the columns and drop an anchor and live alongside the access road to the resort.


Not all the boats, I dare say, are full time residential homes.


But many of them show signs of being just that, with their dinghies and barbecues and potted plants.


It seems a slightly odd place to choose to live when you have the ability to anchor pretty much anywhere near a potential dinghy landing site.


Under the bridge means no hot sunshine beating down but it also means no sunlight to power solar panels, no refreshing rain to wash the boat and fill your water tanks, and above all endless rushing and roaring from the cars and trucks rumbling overhead.


Cheyenne liked her walk a d indeed we briefly passed an angler with his young dog heading back to the car. I marveled at the houseboats and their choice of location but all he could mutter was that it was free, with envy in his voice.


It wasn't the envy of a man planning. To do the same thing but the envy of a man lacking the determination to choose the same lifestyle, resigned to a life filled with modern conveniences shoreside and mutely resenting those with the nuts to choose a different path. He seemed sad and defeated so I chose not to ask for his picture.


I had as per usual managed to forget the repellent and the mosquitoes thought I was manna showered upon them from heaven. Luckily I don't get welts but my legs were black with sucking insects. And quite a few dead ones.


We strolled the bank till I could stand it no more,


...even distracting myself with the camera the bugs intruded on my serenity.


I pondered the life afloat I left behind seven years ago and...


...still fail to be sorry for the change. Good fellowship yes, but a life aboard a small boat tends to limit one's horizons paradoxically and standing around a camp fire tends to bring out the parochial in boaters.


I have heard it said that some people know the cost of everything and know the value of nothing. Sometimes boaters can get lost in where to find the cheapest hardware or the location of the free water spigot. It tends to make the philosophical man cringe in dread when the call goes out for a gathering of neighbors to get together and chat.


Yet in a world where alienation by television is the norm the is something t be said for the companionship of the boating world, the fringe dwellers who have to go further failed than the nearest mall for their shopping.


It may be "free" in terms of mortgage payments, if the boat is paid for, but there are lots of other costs involved in living off the grid on the water.


I'd rather I've out there than underneath the arches, but I like the night sky and the sound of rain on the deck and the silence of no cars. And I like philosophy more than I like pondering the cheapest possible cost of a widget.


Cheyenne would find living on a boat tedious. She likes grass and urban walks and riding in the car especially when I'm there to attend to her every need.


On the road again.


Nice views from the top of the bridge.


I usually travel Card Sound Road for a quieter drive but anytime I'm on The Stretch I'll be thinking about the houseboat row downstairs and wondering how they like the sound of my tires rumbling overhead.



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