The Keys

Last week I was on vacation to the Keys . . . to the South-Eastern tip of our country.

This was no ordinary drive down US-1 either: I got picked up by motorcycle, a Kawasaki KLR 650, driven by a most trustworthy fellow I met working trails in Colorado. We had a wonderful time vacationing on a shoestring budget. We stayed with relatives, who treated us well above the call of duty, with boats and snorkeling/fishing trips. Part of Wednesday and all of Thursday I was out in the ocean, floating around reefs and looking at fish and other sea creatures. Colorful fish, silvery fish, stonecrabs, barracudas, eels, lobster, corals, sharks, turtles, manatees, and flamingos are all included in my first-sighting-in-the-wild list. It was like visiting heaven . . . I couldn't understand what I had done in life to deserve such an experience. Not only were things lovely to look at, but the drama of prey and predator was played out before me, as Jay and Jeff were there to spearfish with Bohemian slings. You look at fish entirely differently when they are about to die by your hand. The boys shot a nice mess of Hogfish, which Jeff taught me how to fillet back at the house, and we ate the next day battered and fried in peanut oil. Yum.

Jeff and I also visited the Southernmost point (to complete the KLR's trip from Prudhoe Bay, Alaska), the Hemmingway House, Fort Zachary Taylor State Park, various Key West streets, Stock Island commercial fishing area, and the Audubon House. We floated around marinas and looked at boats, and we stopped to look at motorcycles on the street. On our way North we visited Bahia Honda and Long Key State Parks, and enjoyed blasting over the arching bridges from key to key with warm sun above, and bright blue ocean below.

We finished the vacation with a day hanging out at the farm and biking into the Everglades for a few sights. The alligators were large and active at Anhinga Trail. We watched a snake bird stab a large bass, which we don't know if he could have swallowed, since he lost it, and had to make himself scarce because of an approaching gator. Leaving Pa-Hay-Okay (Seminole for "River of Grass") Overlook, Jeff taught me the basics of driving the KLR. I think I'm hooked.