Key West Feb. 2011

Sun., 20/2/11: Glad to leave w. just one bag plus computer. Should have left felt hat behind! Sweltering by the time I got to KW. From Miami, strings of sandbars, tiny islands, some inhabited most not, partly under water, partly out. Water usually so shallow you could probably walk between many of them. Near sundown a bright yellow spot glints off rail lines, then rivulets and streams. It is the sun bouncing off our plane onto the landscape below.

“Welcome to the Conch Republic”. Found out next day what that means.

Met by M-C and Claude who had virtually despaired of seeing me get off. Sweltering. Jacket and fanny-pack strapped to large orange backpack. Drove to Claude's, then out to supper on Duval. 
The 3 of us cycled there at dusk. Went by the cemetery: there is a grave there for a man who was considered a hypochondriac. On his tombstone it says, "I told you I was sick." Had great time chatting. Hit it off w. Claude (Belgian, lived all over Africa and elsewhere--very youthful 74, recently lost Norwegian Husband, Erik Eriksen who died of a heart-attack on a tennis court in Zaire 3 months ago...next week's their 50th wedding-anniversary.)

Mon., 21

Got up late. Had b'fast w. Coco...followed on bike to Casa Marina then found my back to 923 (side) Fleming, then off to for Sam Adams beer (“imported” from Boston) and potato skins at Harpoon Harry's Happy Hour. Did not stay for Meatloaf Monday but took tram tour. Everyone very friendly and relaxed. Hottest day so far...80 F. 1886-fire destroyed much of town—rebuilt. 
1937-Refusing to pay an extra dollar a month in rent, Sloppy Joe's moved across the street (patrons carried their drinks) during the night so as not to lose business.
Western end of Duval (Gulf side--sort of like The Main and Ste. Catherine St. in Montréal rolled into one) is largely known as "Margaritaville". No mystery there! Jimmy Buffett would never pull a stunt like Sloppy Joe...too laid-back.
Town built on “shipwrecking” (salvaging), then fruit imports, railways and Navy. 
Supper w. Coco and M-C at Casa Marino.

Tues. 22

The usual breakfast talk about Africa etc. w. Coco. Plan to finish Trolley tour + Hemingway house, then beach? Nope, met Jenna (Wash.) re-meet tomorrow at A & B Lobster House. 
Postcard from 801 Bourbon Bar w. Sushi and co. Then met M-C B at La Ti Da w. Terry (legal counsel) and co.
Cocks and chickens roam free and unmolested here, like cows in India. In the early days, apart from fish, this was all the meat they had,because they brought it with them. The cocks crow at all hours, a bit like the one on our street in Guinea—at 3:00 or 4:00 in the a.m.. I threatened to buy him a watch. Some have been know to fly up into palm branches during a hurricane...micro-evolution, I guess.

There's a statue of the 3-D version of Marylin's "fly-up skirt" pose over the grate outside the Tropic movie theatre. Gotta wait till the sun's right in the late afternoon. Didn't see anyone lying on their back looking up it, but this is a side-street, and it was early!

Weds. 23

Slept fitfully, then slept in. B'fast w. Coco., then revised Mai. Sunburn. Turkey Wednesday at Harpoon Harry's. Shopped. Booked dive for Fri.
Jenna stood me up.

To summarize a lifetime's experience of women...the more I learn, the less I understand them. (Still can't resist getting burned, dumb mutt!)


Thurs. 24

B'fast w. Coco. Put her Mamco Banana oil site on FB. A little revision on Mai so I can show it to Sushi (Yinn in the novel) on Fri..
Walked, shopped, met Michel Tremblay in tea/coffee/smoothie bar on eastern Duval. 
Supper with Coco, M-C and Rosalind Brackenbury/Miranda .

Fri., 25

Dive didn't work out bec. Diabetes requires a doc's cert. (unlike the Dom. Rep.), and I don't have one. Went to decent country bar, Macfadden's for lunch: good music—Tom Waits, Van Morrison, etc., conch fritters combined w. lobster and 2 Sam Adams'. Good. Tried to print up sample for M-C to give Sushi tonight, but didn't work at Coco's. I'll send it to M-C, then look for an internet café. To Higg's Beach just in time for sunset. Tomorrow another spot.

Pics and videos to come:

Portuguese Man-of-War on Higg's beach...sundown.

Pelican on the watch for fish.

Moving in for the kill.

The dive.

Did laundry, then off to 801 Bourbon to meet M-C for show: Sushi/”Yinn” and the others (Jeff/“Jason” doing tech.:ladder to DJ loft), little lady with the dog, Great show...men and women and a great sense of liberation and no-holds-barred fun.

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                                            Dealing With Désirée...a Dialogue.

Dés.: a drag-queen MC.

Cust.: a customer, male, white, hetero, middle-aged or older. Pretty sharp.

D.: Hey honey, where you from?

C.: Mumbles something, then repeats it loud and clear: Montreal.

D.: That's nice. Did you bring me any?

C.: Any what?

D.: I dunno honey, whatever it is they make there.

C.: You want snow?

D.: Oh Christ no! You got anything else for me (looking him up but mostly down).

C.: Umm.

D.: Did you say bummm?

C.: No (laughing a bit uneasily).

D.: O.K. Honey, don't worry, my Mom's here...really, she's sitting at the end of the bar with my boyfriend. Hey you, two break it up!

C.: Killjoy.

D.: Oh, a wise-ass, eh?

C.: Sometimes.

D. What...are you staring down my front? Oh, we've got a live one here! (Sits on his lap and fondles him.)

C. Great stuff, plastic.

D. Wait, oh that's good honey; for a minute I thought I was gonna to have to be the straight-man here.

C. Puts chest on your hair.
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So drunk (heat reduces your appetite, then there were the 2 or 3 Taliskers and a Pomegranite Martini) I could barely cycle wobbly for 2 blocks, so I stopped for early b'fast at 1:00 a.m.--Denny's waitresses all seem to be recent immigrants, and although it's a chain, they'll sit down and chat with you. 
Rode back to Coco's. As M-C said, definitely not her kind of show! (If she had shown up with her short, swept-across hair and waving her pink straw hat the way she signals on her bike, no one would have believed she was straight...her worst nightmare?)

Sat., Feb. 26:

Fort Zachary Taylor w. Coco. Lost papers in the sea. Saw “soldiers” of both sides for Civil War re-enactment: 150^th anniversary. Key West was with the North. Met Art Kara and Julie McCarron w. M-C for supper at Raw on the Half-Shell.

Sun., Feb. 27:
Cycled out under the bright sun along the eastern "corniche" (Atlantic side) to the airport. I was looking for a control-tower and completely missed it. That's how small the airport is. It's also the bus terminus. Bought a ticket for Miami Airport tomorrow morning--have to leave early and wait 8 hrs at Miami because there are only two buses and the other one would get there an hour late. Grrrrr. Did some shopping and packing.


Went to Mallory for the sunset...buskers, acrobats, a kilt-clad unicycling firebrand-juggler, and the quietest crowd you ever saw. Soft, polite applause when the sun went down.

Then met M-C, Art, Julie, young Marie-Claire and friend Melissa at Turtle Kraal.


Mon., Feb. 28:
Coco drove me to the airport with a case of banana syrup (my only checked "baggage"), and off we went. A longish (3 hrs.) slow drive along H'way 1 (it starts at the Southernmost Point in Key West--where it cuts through town as Truman Blvd.--and goes all the way to Portland, Maine). Single lane of traffic on either side means one camper and you twiddle your thumbs, or whatever. Chatted with the lady behind me.
Miami Airport at night is hot, crazy, crowded and a lot like an African airport, but cleaner and very new. No orange dust, of course. Line-ups so long at AA a young lady next to me found out about the "private option": pay a porter $5.oo and he checks your baggage. You have to pay $15.oo to get it wrapped in plastic either way.


Having learned my lesson, I switched from bermudas to winter-wear before leaving Miami. Got to MTL near midnight and took a taxi. Whacked, mostly from heat and the waiting around.


P.S.:  Next winter, I'm going back at my own expense to celebrate the new book with Marie-Claire. Mai at the Predators' Ball will be out, and she will probably have finished the sixth one too.


Next year, scuba-dive and flying lesson in biplane of the Conch Republic Air force.


Best of all, it looks as though I won't be going alone.


Possibly a 5-day cruise to Fla. and the Bahamas.
(pics and videos to be posted when I figure out how...I'm new at this!)