Key West, Fascinating History

 

Cudjoe Key, Florida (high 85, low 68)

 

We haven’t gotten the boat out yet. Al is trying to put a 2nd bilge pump in, the boat seat needed to be rebuilt,  plus our dive platform broke, so that’s another project.  Working on boats is very much like working on RV’s.  Nothing is ever easy or quick. 

It is starting to feel like summer here, so we try to plan our outdoor activities early.  Fortunately, we are morning people, so sunrise is something we frequently see!  To properly explore Key West, you really need to walk.  You can park in Key West for free before noon on Sundays, so that’s a great day to explore. 

Some days we head uptown and some days we head downtown (towards Key West).

The Old Town section in Key West is quite interesting. There is a lot of history in Key West and there seems to be a never ending list of things we want to see and do.  We’ve been coming to the Keys quite a few years now and still haven’t come close to seeing all that Key West has to offer.

The other morning, we stopped at McDonalds for a quick breakfast.  We noticed the car parked next to us and of course if there is a cat anywhere around, I will spot it.

Can you see it?  There is a yellow cat on the dash.  The window is cracked enough that the cat could have gotten out, which concerned me.

We waited for the young couple to come back to the car.  They were obviously living out of the car. They bragged that they came all the way to Key West from North Carolina.  I wanted to tell them, to turn around and go home.  Key West is not exactly cheap.

We gave them $11 for breakfast as they were obviously living out of their car.  It was all the cash we had on hand and I said I was sorry it wasn’t more.  He told me thanks, that was more than they had.  Oh brother!   Came to Key West with NO MONEY?   How could they be that stupid? 

As it turned out, they have two cats AND a puppy.   It was SO hot that day and we felt particularly bad for the animals.  The people had a choice as to their circumstances.  The animals did not.

We left and went to Publix, got some cash, water and pet food, but by the time we got back they were gone.  We haven’t seen them since, but are still carrying about the pet food.  Hopefully they wised up and went home. Dumb ass kids.

In Key West, every one wants to be the southernmost of whatever type of business they are.  The southernmost dive shop, bar, hotel, house, gift shop…  You name it.  Some one wants to claim the fame of being the southernmost.

This is the southernmost point in the United States.  The fence you see on the right is the barrier between the Naval Air Station and Key West.

Both of our fathers were military and Al and I both lived on Air Force bases.  Neither one of us ever had such a beautiful view out of our back yard.

Here is the base housing.  I’m shooting thru a fence, but you get the idea.

Here is their back yard view.  Yep, much better than we ever had.

 

There are a lot of old churches in Key West.  Most of them seem to be Catholic.  (warning….. if you get offended by anything to do with religion, you might want to quit reading now).

 

This particular church was right on Truman street, which is another place you can park for free.  Parking is between 3.50 and $4. an hour to park, so free parking is always good.

The church grounds were beautiful and inviting, so we took a walk around.

 

 

 

Notice all the rock with the coral?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Keep up the good work

 

 

 

 

 

The church was initially a Canadian order and had history back to 1868. The  Sisters offered their services to the Navy in the treatment of yellow fever during the Spanish American War.

 

 

Colonel Teddy Roosevelt fought in Key West with his Rough Riders.  This was the war where Cuba obtained their independence, the US obtained both Guam (where Al and I met) and the Philippine Islands.

 

Take a minute to read the signs if you can.

 

This church was turned into a hospital at the time and was the first place the x-ray was used to find bullets and shrapnel, saving patients from exploratory surgery. 

 

We strolled down Truman Ave and discovered a few restaurants to try at a later point.   Made to order burritos.  Sounds good to me!

 

This next building was an old cigar factory with it’s own history.

 

This is one of the first integrated workplaces in America and also where a lot of planning and fundraising was done in effort to free Cuba from Spain.  

 

 

You never know what you’ll find strolling down the streets in Old Town Key West.

 

gnarly trees

 

 

Tours

 

Flowering trees

 

 

Shady spots to sit. 

 

Weather Prediction help

 

This is a Kapok tree.  I had to take the picture from the car, but I will go back and try again.  Look at the bottom of the tree.  Isn’t is amazing?

 

 

Another “southernmost”

 

There are so many areas in Old Town to explore.  Next time, we’re planning on exploring the old cemetery and maybe even the Truman House.

Today, might get us to the “jumping bridge”.

 

Stay tuned.

WOW! An Exciting Drive to Key West with RV accident, Bat House, Sky Diving, and Fighter Jets

 

Cudjoe Key, Florida  (high 80, low 68)

 

We had to make yet another trip to Key West to go to Home Depot.  The trip on Wednesday brought a lot of excitement.

When we’re here in the Keys, I have learned to always bring my camera because you never know what you will see and that is particularly true in Key West.

We headed south towards Key West and the first unusual thing we saw was some kind of issue with 3 large motorhomes and cargo trailers parked on the side of US 1.  They were in the northbound lane, along with  tow trucks, police and various people standing around.  The Overseas Highway or US 1 varies from narrow strips of land, to bridges, to large pieces of land.  This happened to occur on a narrow strip of land where the ocean was only about 25-30 feet from the road.

 

 

 

One of the motorhomes was a large tag axel Travel Supreme.  There was a huge triple axel cargo trailer painted to match, that was sideways along the side of the road.  It appeared that the mangroves in the water may have been the only thing that kept it from going into the water.

 

This next picture was after it was hooked up to the tow truck.

 

 

You can see it’s a triple axel trailer.  It was very large and I’m sure very heavy.

The other two motorhomes also had trailers attached and appeared to be ok.

We surmised the trailer broke free from the motorhome.  We don’t know why.  We didn’t see any sign of a blow out on either vehicle, but there were cables hanging loose from the motorhome, as if it had pulled loose.  People load these cargo trailers with a lot of toys.

Could the hitch have come loose because the cargo trailer was too heavy?  The biggest hitch I’ve seen for our motorhome only had a 10,000 pound capacity.  Surely these carrying all these toys weigh more than that. I guess they probably can be beefed up, but we sure wondered if this was the cause.  What do you think?

 

That was the first excitement on the way to Key West.  The next was Key West Sky Dive. We had driven by this place for years and decided to check it out.

It was such a quaint little place and perfect for the Keys.   It’s located on Sugarloaf Key, which is about milemarker 18.  Everything on the Keys can be found by the mile marker.  Key Largo is around MM 100.  Key West ends at MM 0.  We are located on MM 23.

 

The Skydive center was located in a remote area with bad roads and lots of potholes to dodge.

These pretty motorcycles parked there must have had to really be careful on the road.

You can see the runway which runs right along the water (of course everything does here).

 

The runway looks  a little bumpy to me.

I wonder how many skydivers land in the water?  There were three planes on land (I hesitated to say tarmac)  and one in the air. 

We’ll have to go back and watch them skydive.  I don’t think we’ll be doing any skydiving this year. 

 

Our next interesting thing was found as we were leaving the airport.

Al saw this huge wooden building so we drove up to check it out.

It was obviously very old.  There was a huge nest on top but we didn’t see any nesting birds.

 

This picture gives you a better idea how tall it was.

 

There was nothing outside to tell what the tower was.  This was in the ground right beside the tower and I thought maybe it would give me a clue. Notice the word Perky?

 

Looking up, it looked very much like a huge bat house. This picture was taken from underneath looking up.  See the wood slats?  That is exactly like they have on bat houses, but we saw no guano so we nixed that idea.

 

It was such a cool tower so I knew I would be able to find out more info online.  Here is what I found.

“Tall pine wood structure is a failed experiment in enviro-bug-control. Mosquito problem, bats imported to solve, bats flew away. Richter Clyde Perky hired a guy to build it in 1929, using plans from Charles Campbell.”

Apparently the bats didn’t like it because they flew off, however it was a great idea for controlling mosquitos in the Florida Keys, don’t you think?  It’s amazing that it has withstood all the hurricanes since 1929, including the Labor Day hurricane of 1935 that mostly wiped out Flagler's Railroad.

It’s such a quirky place that it is listed on Roadside America.  Here is the link: 

http://www.roadsideamerica.com/tip/238

 

After we left that area, we continued to head towards Key West and about the time we passed by Boca Chica Key, we started seeing F/A 18 fighter jets blasting by and circling with their landing gear down. It is always a huge thrill to see them and they never fail to give me goose bumps.

Three jets circled right in front of us.  They were going pretty slow for them because I was able to take a photo. Usually, you hear them, look up and they are long gone. What a sound they make as they are taking off!  It’s thrilling.

 

 

 

 

They were obviously landing.  Al mentioned if we had been eating lunch at Geiger Key Fish camp, we would have had a birds eye view of them landing.   Geiger Key is home to world famous hogfish sandwiches and is one of our favorite places to eat in the Keys. 

We hadn’t considered Geiger Key for lunch, but as soon as we thought of it, we both started getting hungry. 

 

 

A minute or two after we saw the jets, we saw yet ANOTHER interesting site.  Along another narrow strip of land was a large old sailboat on the side of the road laying on it’s side.  Obviously it had been pulled out of the water.  There are a lot of derelict boats around these islands and they are trying to get them cleaned up.  Unfortunately, we had passed it before I could get a photo and I forgot when we went back by on the way home.  It was gone the next time we went to Key West (and Home Depot).

 

That was the end of our exciting things on our way to Key West.  We went to Home Depot and returned the freezer we had just picked up the day before (long story) and by that time we were really hungry and someone mentioned hogfish……  So you know what happened next. 

 

Geiger Key Fish Camp, Rv Park and Restaurant.  It’s a pretty nice little hidden RV park right on the water if anyone is interested.

 

 

We got 4 nice filets with a ton of fries and a tiny bit of coleslaw.  It was delicious and we had extra for dinner later.

 

Every time I mention eating hogfish, some asks about them.  They are also called hog snapper but are really a member of the wrasse family.  They change colors under water. They go from light to patchy orange color. The males turn black and white.

The meat it white, not fishy, and delicious!  Here is a picture of a rather large one.  Probably 18-19 pounds I would guess.  This is a male. 

 

 

We came home, took a rest after our big meal and then and worked around the house for a while.  We’re still settling in to our new home and there are still plenty of things to do. We had a few fun nights in Key West and ended up getting run off last night with an approaching storm.  More on that later.  Key West is always a fun place to go.