Wednesday February 11th, 2015 – W5 mooring ball
We aboard FRACAS have a new rule…don’t ride on buses. We had a NASCAResque ride on a bus in Mexico many years ago. Yesterdays excursion to Key West started out OK. We had a bus load of boaters, cruisers, liveaboards, locals and scoundrels. One particular customer I am fairly certain is on a sex offenders list somewhere. The regulars on the bus just took it in stride…OK then. It took all of 90 minutes to travel the 40 odd miles to Key West. I did manage to ride the bus at the senior rate…I saved $2.50. I proudly boarded the bus with my driver’s license out and my birth certificate in my shirt pocket for back up…I was not challenged. In fact he said “You don’t need that.” WTF, I guess I look old. Perhaps like Rick I am old as dirt.
To say that Key West is interesting is like saying that a fireworks factory blowing up is boring. I saw extravagances, oddities, weirdness, the bizarre and the downright strange. The highlights include; Darth Vader playing blue grass on the banjo (glowing blue), Spider Man playing the Zither for tips and the biggest Playboy bunny I have ever seen (Jack Rabbit).
We had lunch at the original sloppy Joe’s. They had entertainment ****. We had drinks at Flying Monkeys bar. We walked to the southernmost tip of the United States and bumped into Mary Lynn’s brother, wife and friends. We knew they were in the keys yesterday but the odds of meeting them there… We stopped, shopped and sipped our way through Key West. We walked to Mallory square to catch the last of the sunset…they offer that once per day, only $5, usually around sunset. We saw an acrobat balance on a 10 foot unicycle in high wind, a flaming woman with hula hoops and stuff and a dog that collected the tips for a busker who reminded me of Uncle Joe from Petticoat Junction. I think I could train Ozy to collect money but she would likely end up just taking money from everyone, she loves her treats.
At the end of the day we had issues with the bus schedules posted on line and ended up an hour early for a bus that was never coming and two hours early for the bus that eventually came along. We had the same representatives on board for the ride back, that is until Joe Cocker got on board. He had a guitar and he was loaded. He ‘entertained’ until the bus driver mercifully shut down the lights. There was an enjoyable silence for 30 seconds then ‘Joe’ said “Nice seeing y’all”. The 90 minute bus ride to KW took 2 hours on the way back???
Here are a few pics from our day:
