You learn so much when you travel. The Greeks taught that you were not really educated until you toured the world. I learned that Key West is beautiful but way crowded with tourists and traffic, at least on Fat Tuesday otherwise known as Mardi Gras. I've spotted the same kind of thing at Sun Valley in Idaho, and certain villages in Maine. It is a sort of pattern that wealthy easterners like to descend on quiet little towns and make them tourist destinations with too many beautiful people crowding the shops, the tours, and the streets in a crowded pedestrian/auto traffic jam. A lot of good looking girls and guys are showing off their gorgeous bodies in nothing but bikinis and bathing suits in Key West. There are also a few old guys like me who go without shirts and thus commit crimes against humanity. During his most productive period Earnest Hemingway lived here. That connects him with both Key West and Sun Valley Idaho. Maybe that is why the wealthy easterners like to crowd together in search of Hemingway in places like this. BJ always gets on edge in crowded places like this. I love to people watch, especially how the beautiful people live.BJ has always wanted a conch shell horn. In a tourist shop at the far end of Key West she bought one. This is particularly appropriate because the name for people living on the Florida Keys is conchs. And in 1982 they seceded from the United States, created the Conch Republic, declared war on the United States, broke a loaf of hard Cuban bread over a cooperative U.S. Naval officer' head, surrendered a few minutes later, and applied to the United Nations for a billion dollars to help rebuild their devastated nation. This was all because the U.S. border patrol put up a road block near the only bridge to the keys and searched everyone coming off the keys. This backed up traffic for miles and for weeks and got the mayor irritated. He said if the United States wouldn't treat conchs as equals they wanted out. Having a conch from the Conch Republic is way cool. She picked one the size, shape and color she preferred.
Somehow I'm not interested in collecting those kinds of "things." I figure I only have a few more years left in this mortal coil, and since I can only take the things I have learned, and the relationships I have formed, it is only the memories and my family that are precious to me. But BJ wanted to see some old shops at the marina and so did I. It makes me happy when she is happy. I showed her a bumper sticker that said, "We don't skinny dip, we chunky dunk," and BJ giggled about that one most of the way back to our camp.
In driving to mile marker 0 on Highway 1 you reach the west side of Key West. If you want to go farther west to the Dry Tortugas it will cost you a $160 ferry ride. On this drive we learned that there are only two or three smallish towns on this string of Florida Keys. They are all very low lying barrier islands (see image above). The weather is warm with a cooling sea breeze. I'm at the KOA on Sugarloaf Key. BJ is doing laundry, I'm typing this blog, and this evening we will probably go swimming in the Gulf of Mexico. The campground here is crowded with RVs for a KOA, but it is peaceful and relaxing with that wonderful sea breeze. Many of the shops in the Florida Keys are named "Southernmost" and sure enough, our KOA on Sugarloaf Key is called the "Southernmost KOA."
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