Today is the day! We
sail off from Marathon, but before we go, let me share one more story.
We took a day off from projects to hop the Lower Keys
Shuttle and ride 50 miles to Key West. I
had my bus schedule from the Marathon Library that I got when we first sailed
here and we had the $1.50 that it costs for >60 year olds. The schedule had 8 am pick up and 10 am pick
up. We decided 10 am to allow workers to get to their destinations and we would
not interfere. The closest pick up was 68th
Street, quite a ways from our mariner on 35th Street. We rode our folding bikes that the bus would
accommodate, passed several bus stops that indicated Lower Keys Shuttle, but
good little do-bees, we rode all the way to 68th. We got picked up, stowed our bikes and
settled into the open seats of the bus. It was cool and the view was
great! We then saw the bus stop a closer
stops but we didn’t know and it was ok.
We met a young man from Texas who came to the keys for
lobster season and works for one of the lobster fisherman who has about 2,000
tags and traps. He educated us on the
traps and the process for dropping them. The ones he uses weigh about 100
pounds, without the lobsters! They weight them with concrete! The boat
takes about 150 traps at a time, and he lifts them to the baiter and the baiter
hands off to the setter who drops it over board. Their company does not use surface floating
balls. They use GPS to locate their
traps and they string them about 25 in a row on the bottom in about 30-40 feet.
At the end of the season, about October, the traps release a floating
ball in case they move from their location or whatever, so no trap is lost or abandoned. Traps that are left after season are called ghost traps.
We talked with an old sailor who, like us, had a folding
bike, but his had miles on it, for sure.
He recounted stories of old keys and how adventurous and risky it was in
days of old, with drug runners and such.
He had one eye and a cat ketch boat with shallow draft and lived in the
keys for many years. He was going to Key
West to straighten out some Social Security issue. He received VA benefits too, but they were
ok.
Once in Key West the bus dropped us off on Eaton and
Whitefield. We lifted our bikes, opened them up and started cruising to find
Juan Loves Lucy for Cuban lunch that Corey, our friend on Thin Line in the
marina, recommended. We rode and rode,
and finally just stopped. It was right
on Duval, 125 Duval Street, and there it was!
Our GPS was running us in circles!
Sometimes you have to just use a map and your head. Lunch was good, Cuban sandwiches, and
delicious Cuban coffee in a colado, small china demitasse cup. It had the Cuban flag on it, very cool. Our server, Ethel, told us they fired Ricky
and Juan was out of town. She was
fun.
We headed to the Butterfly Conservatory and had a most
wonderful day. We toured the gift shop
and watched the orientation film and then into the garden. Daryl found an iron butterfly seat for two,
and we let the butterflies come to us. In addition to a variety of butterflies,
there were exotic birds – small and large.
Rhett and Scarlett were 2 flamingos on the beach by the pond, very sweet
and romantic. Small birds with long tail
feathers flew by, much like the quetzel Laura and I saw in MonteVerde Costa Rica. Birds walking on the
ground around bushes. We saw the
chrysalis of the butterfly and a nursery for the baby birds. We left feeling very good about the world.
We rode to Ft. Zachary Taylor, but it was closed, we checked
out sunset last time so we passed on that, and went to wait for the bus
home. EXCEPT when I checked the schedule
on line we found out that there was no bus at 6:30 pm, the next was 9:30
pm! Oh no. We went back to our original location to find
the schedule was wrong, and we caught a 7:30 bus to Marathon, all is well. The key here is to have current schedule,
don’t be afraid to ask others for help, and be flexible.
On the way back we were entertained by a sunset celebration
performer, Javier. He was a compact dark
man with long hair who carried huge bags and a oversized back pack on his bike. He off loaded his gear, sat down, and began
doing yoga on the bus. He heard me ask
the bus driver about a restaurant Laura recommended, the Square Grouper at mm
22.5. Javier spoke up and said it’s good
for a $100 per person meal, and used sauces to cover up any true taste. He then began to lecture us on the fears of
doomsday and how the govt tracks him and how he is a survivalist and carries
all his provisions everywhere he goes and will not make friends with anyone in
fear that they will be tracked also. You can hear his views at sunset at
Mallory Square in Key West where he sits on a pillow under a pyramid and
invites you to join him on other pillows set in a circle. Oh,my.
The bus stops at the marina and
we get off and walk our bikes to the boat.
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