Monday March 1, 2010

Up at 9:00AM. I made coffee. Then cooked a ham and cheese scrambled omelet. I told Patricia that the best way to see Key West is by bike. Patricia and I decided to rent two bikes from Sunshine rental. Sunshine Rental is directly across the street from the Marina at Garrison Byte. The only bikes they had available were old yellow baloon tire bikes! The kind I used to ride to deliver newspapers in the 1960’s. Only one word could possibly describe these rental bikes and that one word is ugly. I am sure that Patricia was embarrassed to ride it but she went along for the ride. It turns out the only special feature of these bikes was the fact that they have two baskets. One in front of the handle bars and one in back behind the seat and above the rear fender. I only noticed this when two college girls passed us and one said, “look their bikes have two baskets and ours only has one“. The cost to rent a bike for a day here is Key West is $12 plus tax. Once the paperwork was complete and Patricia and I signed a waiver releasing the company of any liability for us not wearing helmets, we mounted up and headed back to the boat to provision our bikes for the forthcoming bike tour.

Provisions for this trip can be defined as 6 cold beers. I loaded the cooler with ice and the Corona’s plus lime slices. I placed the cooler in the rear basket of my bike and we headed toward the Historic Seaport section of Key West..

Our first stop was the public wharf. Site of the boat show the previous weekend. We stopped along the seawall and had our first Corona. Refreshed, we continued on to Fort Zachory Taylor. An old cival war era fort with crazy modern art sculptures along the beach.

We then peddled to the southern most spot in the USA for a photo opportunity. There is a marker that denotes the spot. It is painted with red and black stripes and has a sign that says Cuba 90 miles. We got in line behind a guy from Ireland and his wife from England. Their 4 year old daughter was born in Spain. There were about 15 folks ahead of us in the line. Everyone visiting he southern most spot in the USA must have a photo taken standing next to the marker. So when your turn arrives, your photo is taken by the persons standing in-line behind you. His causes conversation and is great fun.

Third stop included a Corona. Patricia sat on the sea wall and talked to her boyfriend Tim. I took her photo. She told Tim to smile as he was included in the photo. Some college guys from Georgia had stopped at the same spot. They had started drinking long before Patricia and me. They saw me photograph Patricia and asked me to take their photo. I said OK. However they were not content sitting on the sea wall for a photo like Patricia, they had to show off. They balanced their bikes on the sea wall. Once they had the bikes on the sea wall, they had a bit of trouble mounting them. But as luck would have it they were successful. Then they regained their confidence and started popping wheelies on the 12 inch ledge.

At 1:00PM after two beers our stomachs cried out for food. So we jumped on our yellow rental bikes and peddled the one block to Anna’s. Anna’s Cuban Deli of the mom and pop variety. Patricia and I shared a Cuban sandwich. After lunch the sky began clearing. Patricia wanted to go sunning and swimming. WE headed back to the boat for swim wear.

We peddled to the old water front section of Key West to a very nice place called Dante’s. Dante’s is a bar at Conch Harbor Marina that has a bar and a swimming pool. The pool is for boaters that use the Conch Harbor Marina and customers of the bar. A very nice place. You can sit around the pool and get sun tanned and drunk at the same time.