Road Trip

Curious about some of the outer cays, we borrowed a truck and headed for Marathon, which turned out to be a longer version of Key West...The drive was pretty with bridge ruins and glacier-colored water.

Even a turtle popped up.

And I've found my dream house that I now need moved onto my dream island.



We still like our place. Sure wish we could stay!



But we can't. And that means that we can't prove we're locals, which we've recently discovered is a rather huge deal here. I'll explain in a minute.

We also decided to engage in another Keys' pastime - bicycling. I've learned something else about myself. I don't like bicycling. It's right up there with swimming. I'll do it if I have to but am not exactly going to volunteer for it unless circumstances really warrant such an activity. Walking. That's my thang. Anywho, The real purpose of our outing was to find a pair of sandals for Michael. His year-old island pair went kapoot. If we were flip-flop people or even Crocs (egads!), this task would be much easier. But we're not.

Now we knew Duval St. was for tourists, but we'd already tried the whole 3 big-box stores on the island (tired old Kmart, Sears, and Ross) so didn't have any other options. We wanted to look at the stores anyway. So we got sticker shock over and over again, before finding a place that had a pair that looked almost just like the ones that fell apart. Better yet, they were about the same price (under $40). When we mentioned that we had just moved here to the salesperson, we learned the secret to living here. If you're a local, you must say so. We're having an issue with the fact that we don't have id yet (still waiting on a semi-permanent address), but our conversation about how hard it is to find housing here always makes us legit. Everyone knows how hard it is to find affordable and decent housing...So...we got the shoes at a discount.

That was nice. We then talked to a woman who ran one of the Conch Tour train kiosks. How much was it? What was the difference between the train and trolley? etc. Again, when we mentioned that we had just moved here and were trying to get to know the area, we were told that we could board either option for free every first Sunday of the month. Oh. Well, we'll wait then.

Then I spent Sunday populating my Key West activities calendar (you'll remember I had one for Island Babble as well, now being overseen by Liz Pereira), while Michael went to a bar he can't remember the name of to watch football (no we don't have tv). Yes, I should be getting out and about, but I've been wanting to get some of this bigger design/set-up stuff done so I can market it. This can't be like in St. Kitts where I worked my butt off for free. I need to bring home some mula, so am hoping I can do that with all these various tools. So...while I was adding all the absolute insanity that is Fantasy Fest to the calendar, and shaking my head at all the other weird things that bars do during the season, I ran across this:

Hemingway and one of his 6-toed kitties

LOCALS DAY AT LOCAL MUSEUMS: Every first Sunday of the month locals are admitted free to the Aquarium, the Truman Little White House, the Wreckers Museum. The Hemingway Museum is also always free for locals.

That makes up a bit for the fact that everything else is so expensive. Like everywhere, you have to know where to go; and here, know what to say ("We're locals!"). I'm guessing we won't be able to give our sob story to everyone, so will actually need to get an id that shows our Keys' address. But that, of course, would mean we have one. Which we don't...

BTW, some events aren't really worth putting on the calendar, so I've tried to have them represented on The Babbling Conch Facebook Page. Now eventually we're going to have to get out and actually experience some of these events. Tonight I think we're going to attempt to run with the Hash House Harriers. I'm scared.

Oh - and one more thing. Is it me or are the businesses in Key West obsessed with costumes? I would say that over 80% of the events require some kind of dress up. Even a spelling bee for charity suggests the participants wear costumes for prizes. I find this ironic that living here requires an entire closet of outrageous (or at least unique) apparel in a place made up of ancient homes that don't even have closets (or at least only have tiny ones) for normal clothes.