Boca Chica Bridge

Men in high visibility clothing have been seen for more than a year shuffling around on Highway One between the Keys called  Big Coppitt and Stock Island and they have finally completed a bunch of paving so the roadway is smooth and flat and black, with all new striping and reflectors. Very nice it is too.

They have also created a walkway under the four lane bridge to allow anglers access to the waters on both sides of the Overseas Highway. It's been here for a while but it was only on a recent lunch break that I made the time to ride the Bonneville to the bridge and take a walk.

The walkway is lined with stout aluminum railing to make it difficult if not impossible to topple into the water whether you are on foot or on a bicycle.

I passed a bicycle underneath the bridge parked next to a supine body on a blanket. I wonder at the boredom and misery and loneliness of homeless-ness. I don't think I would survive on the streets. 

Other than the sleeper and a couple of small boats anchored while fishing I was alone with my camera.

I have downloaded a two dollar application for my iPhone to clean up pictures and I used it to removed glare and background lights for the picture below. It was simple enough yet an interesting process. I may use it again, and again. The false promise of photography: it looks like an accurate reproduction of a scene but the photograph is easily manipulated.

The lights in the background in the picture below are from the Boca Chica Navy Base across the water:

The road is well traveled and the four lanes help move traffic into and out of the city. Most drivers have very little skill passing on two lane roads so the drive from Big Coppitt to Bahia Honda offers no easy passing. As a result this stretch is an important place for people get to past the slow pokes. 

Underneath the bridge the rumble of cars was unbearably loud. How the homeless guy slept I don't know. perhaps her didn't but it was too dark to tell.

I'm glad I finally got out here and took a walk. I'll come back during daylight before too long. Perhaps there won't be people sleeping then. Under bridges...in the richest country in the world...and the most religious. Humanity is paradox.

Frita's

I've wanted to try this place for a while and the word is that it's good. For some time I have been enjoying the cheaper end of the dining scene in Key West and I think it's better value, often than the all-frills-included eateries. In short: I had high hopes.

Complete lack of pretension on Southard Street between Duval and Whitehead. Frita's Cuban Burgers Note the menu page I've linked to is rather oddly laid out but continuous scrolling will get you to the good stuff at the bottom of the page.

I met my main man JW, a former dispatcher now working elsewhere for the city in some amorphous department that gives him evenings and weekends off. When he worked with me on nights in dispatch we used to joke about how night shift was Sparta! but now the joke's on him as he is some day shift bugger. 

When we decided to have lunch we both suggested Frita's as the place. JW is a Conch so he had his Frita Burger traditional style while I pursued my goal of eating eggs with my burgers while trying not to make a mess. I did pretty well. These things are absurd. They are a patty of pork and beef mixed and there is chorizo in there with additional spices, so they may be Cuban burgers but they are far from bland. I like Cuban food but generally its very Caribbean and not at all Mexican, which is to say food is served at face value with no sauces or much spiciness. These things are very different. If I call them burgers you won't get the right idea at all. Inaddition to the spices and tangy  sauce they come with shoe string fries made  in the shop and they taste remarkably good. 

I should have ordered some fried yucca which I love or plantains or something but there was a lot of food to digest here while we talked about stuff. Catching up with JW was fun as there is always something going on in his life beyond keeping up with his daughters and coaching and all that other Conch stuff that he loves. He has a funny story or two in his back pocket and not always do they show people up to best advantage. 

I forgot to ask the cheerful lady her name but judging by some web sleuthing I did this should be the owner of this splendid establishment Marcia. She also brought me lemonade to drink which I was told was good and it was. JW pronounced it done properly. 

There is a ton of tat on the walls giving the place a lively colorful air, including the rather absurd police calendar which sold out in a  hurry (for a good cause) proving once again I have no taste as there is a pent up demand apparently for pictures of shirtless cops in assorted poses.

Frita's, worth a visit.

Waterfront Night

I wanted to wander Key West Bight on a lunch break recently.

So I did. 

It was a lovely breezy night, just a few people on the docks,boats rocking in their berths, and me.

Art In The Wilderness

It was a rather hot day but Rusty has been quite resilient to the heat so far. He actually enjoys laying out on the deck in my chaise longue ignoring the temptations of conditioned air. So we went up Niles Road and explored the back country of Summerland Key.

I came here with Cheyenne around 2010 but she lost interest in exploring the mangroves wth me so Rusty is an opportunity to re-visit these spots. Cheyenne suffered the heat much more than Rusty does.

I guess Rusty is lucky Cheyenne chose to die when she did because here he is, young and active with lots to see.

Some driven soul has obviously been busy on these old cement pipes that have been lying around here forever. I rather like the effect:

There are still blank canvases for graffiti master to splurge on:

Rusty finally admitted that the sun was burning down quite hard:

The artist feels no compunction to clean up after self as evidenced by this abandoned tool of the trade. Mind you, considering the state of the place in general one can hardly blame them If there is no actual physical trash can it is obviously too much to expect them to pack it out...

We took refuge inside a pipe and rested a while.

It is time for rainy season to kick back in. Soon, but not on this 90 degree day.

Lovely.

Posted with Blogsy

A Sunrise From 2010

West Summerland Sunrise

I have been attracted back to this spot quite a bit lately. I enjoy standing at the top of a thirty foot "hill" and looking out over the water. Cheyenne likes wandering at her own pace smelling the smells so we are both happy.On returning home from work several days ago I got it into my head to drive the fifteen minutes from house to enjoy what promised to be a spectacular sunrise. I missed the arrival of the orb above the horizon but I got some lovely colors reflected off the water.
Pelicans are back for the winter.
It was a lovely still morning of low humidity, abundant dew and temperatures hovering around a perfect 70 degrees (20 C).

I photographed anything that moved and a few things that didn't.

The morning glow gave everything a particular brilliance. The stop sign marks the edge of the Overseas Highway atop the embankment.

Cheyenne was busy in the dawn's early light.

The old Bahia Honda ("deep bay" in Spanish) bridge looked sepia tinted in the light.Then an exceedingly odd thing happened when Cheyenne started nuzzling my legs. I stepped away from her and she followed insistently nuzzling my legs. I looked down and found my Labrador patiently picking sand spurs off my uniform trousers. She pulled one, spat it out and went back for the next of these nasty spiky little buggers. She was taking care of me the same way I take care of her when she starts limping from getting one of these things up in her pads. I have never had a dog take care of me like that.I am very fond of my Labrador.I quite like living in the Keys too. I wonder what the attraction of snow and gray skies are.

We enjoy the bright colors of winter down here.

The state of Florida manifests the most wicked sense of humor unexpectedly. Who would think to park an RV overnight on this vegetated slope?

See your blizzard and raise you another sunny day in Paradise.

This was Ramrod Key from the Overseas Highway as we arrived home.

There are no mountains or deciduous forests or winding twisty roads, but that's okay. We have sun sea and enough sand to make it all worthwhile.