We are experiencing some technical difficulties with the remains of our Keys Pictures so I won’t be posting any at this time but I will present some of my favorite things to do in the keys. If you ever find your self in Key West and its around happy hours the best happy hours are at Kelly’s (Kelly McGillis’s place) one block off of Duval Street, toward the south, at the corner where “The Bull” bar is. They have very good half price margaritas and their wings are also good and inexpensive. The Bull bar also has a clothing optional bar on their top floor that is a favorite of mine during spring break late on a hot night – mmmmm the view can be delicious! I also like to walk the schooner wharf looking at the great sailing ships and watching the tarpon cruise the dockside for treats. Jim said he saw a manatee there this St Patrick’s day too. Perhaps the best breakfast in Key West is to be had at Pepe’s. Arrive hungry and ready for a mimosa! The best cheese steak in Key West resides at Z’s just north of Duval at the corner of the Pegasus Hotel. They are about 7$ and one is enough for anyone but whenever I eat one I always want another and another until I get sick – they are that good! Another great attraction that is not on Key West is feeding the tarpons at the Hungry Tarpon. The Hungry Tarpon diner/restaurant is located at ~ mile marker 77 1/2 just south/west of the Lignum Vitae channel. The diner provides a very good breakfast at a good price but the high point is going to the small marina/dock area around back and paying a couple dollars for access to the dock and a couple more for some pilchards to feed the giant tarpon. This is the best spent $4 in the keys. Giant (6′+) tarpon lay on the surface right under the dock and will suck the pilchard right out of your hand if you have the guts to hand it too them. There is also a lot of pelicans trying to beat then to it. Sometimes a big crevelle jack will jet out of the depths and sneak a pilchard too. Meanwhile watch your bucket of pilchards as the pelican will sneak up behind you and steal them if you don’t watch closely! Another of my favorite places is Looe Key – even if you don’t have a boat you can book a snorkeling trip there from Bahia Honda or the Looe Key dive shop on Ramrod key.

This week CNN presented a bizarre story about a Spotted eagle ray “attack” near Marathon Key. It drove me crazy that they kept calling it an attack! It was a freak accident – spotted eagle rays are big and they jump out of the water at seemingly random times. Some biologists speculate its to remove parasites, communicate during breeding, laying eggs, etc. but no one knows definitively – I think they just enjoy it. Well the ray jumped near a moving boat struck a woman sunbather  in the chest who fell and fatally struck her head. Purely accidental. I was out fishing by myself, from our old bow rider, in the Little Palm Island channel in the early morn a few years back enjoying the quiet and had the shit scared out of me by a ray that jumped about 8 – 10 feet right in front of me!

I was also dismayed at the good Friday story of the lady who found the Miraculous  Three Crosses of Golgotha Fish-sticks! Holy Shit! (no I just shit a replica of Calgary Hill!) The devil is in the details but apparently god is in the fish sticks.

We are coming up on the anniversary of the battle of thermopylae and Discovery Channel was going over the governmental structure of ancient Sparta and they told me something I didn’t know – this doesn’t happen very often so it was a banner day! The two men who were elected to a single years term as the highest executive in their government were automatically investigated and tried for possible crimes committed during their tenure after their term was done! SWEET! I think we should institute that immediately! Furthermore I believe that the Executive Branch’s power to pardon should be confined only to people who are not associated with the administration! That way we could save millions in governmental pensions by just trying and incarcerating President Cheney and his lackey W after they leave office.

 Another thing from the news – less than one in one hundred flights have sky marshals on them! Airport security is a godamned joke and the only really effective way for keeping our planes safe in the air from misguided passengers/terrorists is not being funded well enough to insure that a majority of planes have sky marshals. What a fucking travesty. Homeland Security Car 54 Where Are You????

 I’ll post some more keys pictures as soon as we sort them out.

Baxter (TWD) and I just got back from the keys last night. Baxter is great co pilot and travelling companion. We stayed overnight in Savannah Georgia after the first 600 miles and made our way back north the next day. Janet, AKA Baxter’s mommy, came home a little earlier with Barb and Sled.

It is always culture shock to go south of the Mason Dixon but even more so to be in the keys. It seems to be becoming more a land of materialism and pretension every year for the property owners and wannabes. Thankfully Key West is still zany and chicken filled, and the ocean is still full of fish and a beautiful blue so out onto the ocean go.

This years keys trip was another fantastic time! The high points being the long drive down with my sister Joan and the nonstop hilarity of that, fishing and sailing with Ernie, fishing, sailing, searching for geocaches, drinking and reconnecting with old friends, playing games, watching Baxter’s exploits in a new environ, seeing the coconut palm I planted on little sand island grown to 4′, planting more coconuts there, seeing dolphins, sea turtles, alligators, tropical birds, iguanas, etc and driving home with Baxter. I was loathe to leave but I heard that the snow was gone so figured that I better get home before the next snow storm.

The ride home though melancholy is always fun – seeing the parade of blooms the incipient spring brings to the south ahead of us. The morning glories of northern Florida, the azaleas of Georgia, the redbuds of South Carolina, the daffodils in North Carolina and the maples blooming above the fall line in Virginia. Beautiful! In West Virginia I heard my favorite harbinger of spring – a raft of spring peepers calling in the wet area behind a rest stop where I was walking Baxter. I made it through the “bible belt” without listening to any country western or evangelical bullshit by scanning for national public radio stations and picking up a book on tape at JR tobacco – “Red White and Liberal” – How the left is right and the right is wrong by Alan Colmes. Great stuff.

I have presented some trip pictures below that I have culled from our one camera. I will put some on from the other camera after Janet downloads them.

The first weeks crew – Ernie took to sailing well and even caught a nice mackerel after a brief sail in rough conditions.

I think everyone was used by Baxter as a pillow on the couch so we have a lot of these pictures.

Baxter TWD invades little sand island where he will wreak havoc on its temporary residents – spreading sand, running around, swimming and digging holes.

Kacey and Marissa like sailing.

One of several nurse sharks caught one day. They are reputed to be fine eating but we don’t keep them cause they’re so nice and docile.

Baxter TWD ever vigilant to spring into action at the slightest hint of a shark bite!

It may not be a legal grouper, but its cute!

Sharks are still dangerous after being landed – even in the hands of a seasoned professional and they always seem to go after Slick.

Captain Wonder Dog ready to bark out orders to the lazy crew.

The next to the last day on the boat sunset (sigh).