Ohio Key

It was a stormy morning so I decided to take Rusty to a south facing beach to enjoy the force of nature. After some cogitation and discussion with Rusty, which was a bit one sided, w e settled on Ohio Key.

Before humans spread out amongst them and brought the railroad most of these islands were uninhabited and had no names. The railroad needed names and so the workers laying down tracks offered up some possibilities. Mostly they seemed to feel a nostalgia for home so the islands seemed to end up being named for various and assorted states. Next to Ohio we have Missouri.

Ohio Key is a mile or so south of the Seven Mile Bridge and you can see Marathon on the horizon. They named the City of Marathon (there is no "Marathon Key") because it was a Marathon job laying track across that particular piece of wilderness in 1910. 

 The islands here are small and there are lots of bridges connected small strips of land.

 It was windy enough to raise Rusty's ear flaps.

 The storms throw up tons of seaweed which dries and rots.

 And debris:

 Lots of textures:

 Spectacular spot:

In winter campers from the nearby RV park can often be seen down here. This time of year it's a lonely spot. Lovely.

Harriet Street

From April 2009 this look at New Town, Key West.


I have previously wandered Smurf Village with my camera but Harriet Street deserves a second look all on it's own.At first glance it's just another New Town Lane, hidden from Flagler Avenue, the main four lane street in this the eastern end of key West.Yet it's a street with a couple of little oddities that I like. So I took my wife's Vespa ET4 for an outing and enjoyed a meander on Harriet Street. The first odd thing about Harriet is that is a very out of place jog at one end. In New Town, an area built up heavily in the sixties when conformity and trigonometry seemed to rule Key West's urban planning, a street with a weird angle is out of place.The large two story house that forces the angle in Harriet's course, marks the end of the Smurf Village development. You won't find Smurf Village on a map, because it's a local nickname given to the collection of quad-plexes that in some people's minds resemble the homes of the cartoon characters known as Smurfs:You can see their point:The duplexes follow the same basic back-to-back layout but their owners have taken pains to decorate them to their tastes:According to a friend of mine who bought a home in Smurf Village, this is an area of key West that has been hard hit by foreclosures, and some of the less well maintained homes are on offer for lower prices than one might expect. I saw one for sale by owner asking $203,000. Which may seem a lot for half a duplex that needs some work, but these places were selling for up to half a million before the housing crash. The problem now is that those bought as investment properties and rented out, are shuttered and temporarily abandoned by the banks who now own them outright and don't want to deal with renters. Judging by the state of the pool this might be one such:Most of the homes are still occupied and treasured, and even in a neighborhood with a few empty homes Key West isn't the sort of town where feral urban decay takes over, happily:I spotted this well used Tomos moped, a true moped with functioning pedals, and as I stood there taking the picture the owner came out and growled at me rather suspiciously: "Can I help you?" in that tone of voice that means: "What the @#$%! are you doing?" So I showed him the picture and he agreed it was as pretty as a ...picture. "I'm going to have to take a photo of it like that," he said, though he declined to pose with his pride and joy.He waved a cheery good bye after admiring my wife's Vespa, "You can't pedal that," was his parting shot as he turned left on 16th Street. I was continuing straight across to my other favorite part of Harriet:

I'm not sure this is really part of Harriet at all, and on the maps it isn't but as an alley it makes a fine adjunct to the street:Until you skid along the gravel far enough to come out behind Poinciana Plaza which faces Duck Avenue. In the back it's all blank delivery doors and loading ramps:This is the front of the Plaza, the respectable facade wherein works my chiropractor:And just off to the end , which cannot by any stretch be called "part of" Harriet Street is the old Holsum Bread bakery. Long since shuttered, this store used to offer day-old bread at knock down prices which helped more than a few people stretch their dollars:Now the Spottswood Real Estate Empire is offering it for sale. Funny isn't it. how Key West, so cramped has all these useful open blocks of land available for sale?

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Returning to Duck Avenue I captured just another couple of images of the front of Poinciana Plaza and the wild terrible creature of the day:No, not a snotty nosed school child though that would be bad enough, but a dragon:This demented dinosaur (and noted garden pest) stuck it's head down as though no one would notice it, sunning itself on the hot asphalt. I figured the school bus driver wasn't going to make any bones about running it over, so for my good deed of this day, I rode the Vespa close enough that the startled lizard picked itself up and scuttled off the street. I shall probably rue this decision the next time one of these brutes decimates my ripe strawberries but I am weak, what can I say?

Rusty Meets Don Quixote

Elsewhere I write about my impressions of Ft Myers revitalized but this essay is about one aspect of that revitalization: public art. Not only was there an art show on the streets, but Rusty got turned on by it too.

It's a show strung out across Ft Myers' River District, the old town. Allure Your Senses LINK and it involves a lot of statuary. I liked it and found myself enjoying discovering the next piece. 

 

The funny part was Rusty's reaction. He seemed to be able to see the shapes of metal in the same way we do. A dog welded in metal looked like a dog to him. I was surprised.

 

However when we came to the snail, caracol in Spanish, we neither of us knew what to make of it until I read the description.

 

I mean, not to human or dog eyes does that look like a snail. Interesting though but not a literal rendering. Rusty sniffed and moved on.

 

Here's another dog but the dude surprised me. I am surprised the league of prudish women hadn't marched out to cover up the offending member. Ft Myers apparently has the capacity toi surprise us old stereotypers...

 

It was great fun spotting the statues and I know I didn't find them all.

 

This one nailed Rusty. He pulled back on the leash and wanted nothing to do with the horse. I walked up to it and banged it with my hand ut he wasn't convinced. He can definitely identify  three dimensional shapes.

 

No trust at all:

 

And the last picture I liked the most, it was the first statue I came across on or walk. Dominoes:

 

Short Lived Vespa

I rode my restored Vespa to get a haircut in Big Pine Key and the scooter ran better than I have ever seen it run. It was strong and full of acceleration. Exciting!

I rode into Key West later in the day and the motor went ping! and seized solid. I was doing fifty miles an hour at the time coming in to Stock Island. I coasted to a stop and called a cab to get me to my destination.

I walked the last part to my destination and passed a few things of interest.

I was already missing my 1979 scooter so this 100cc four speed Pagsta looked pretty good, even half undressed like that:

Some people like their women paid for an undressed and this form of mobile advertising for the strip club on Duval Street annoys some people in town. They used to park where the cruise ship tourists came ashore blocking parking for other businesses and they caused outrage. 

You can rent naked women to dance with you (no sex please we are a no prostitution state which surprises some tourists in this place) or ou could spent far less money and rent wheels to get around town. Brightly colored wheels too:

Walking Rusty at Truman Waterfront we saw increasingly frenzied signs of construction:

But some things never change, at least not yet:

I drove the broken Vespa back to the shop, a 17 hour round trip. The mechanic was apologetic and promised a repair better than ever and likely to last longer than 25 miles. I feel jinxed by this Vespa.

I am ever the optimist. This time it will work. Guaranteed.