I’m back in the saddle – my home office chair – after 3 days in Key West.  It was a nice break from the routine, but I’m always glad to be back in my own bed, running the familiar route, and writing at my desk. We spent yesterday wandering the Key West side streets and waiting patiently for breakfast at Blue Heaven. The town is all about Ernest Hemmingway and the places he frequented. There is the annual Papa look-alike contest every year at Sloppy Joe’s where he spent much of his leisure time, a whiskey named after his boat, Pilar, his polydactyly cats, and Blue Heaven where he refereed boxing matches. 

We never got to Better Than Sex after too much rich food, key lime pie, and alcohol.  We enjoyed Twos-day 2/22/22 and smiled at men in tutus celebrating tutu Tuesday. It was every bit as weird as Austin and Portland on any given day of the week. The sunsets were beautiful especially when you sat on a floating tiki hut. Music filled the air, in the vicinity of Jimmy Buffet’s recording studio where he once sang about Caroline Street and Margaritaville. It was also National Margarita Day, adding to the festivities on Duval Street, where his original restaurant sits. In three short days, we saw a manatee, lots of plastic sharks, parrots, pirates, six-toed cats, tarpons feeding, roosters, chickens, seagulls, flamingos, pelicans, dogs, jugglers, acrobats, and street musicians. My wife was attacked by a hungry gypsy chicken that jumped on her back out of nowhere. 

I had my last margarita at the Boat House on the marina boardwalk just before our ferry back to Ft. Myers departed. The terminal was near Alonzo’s where we had dinner our first night. Most of the fellow passengers were still in full  party mode on the way back, as we caught our last sunset from the deck. Once it was dark, I watched bits and pieces of the movie Ford vs. Ferrari, hoping for a nap that never happened. The hour-and-a-half drive into Venice got us home before midnight and back in the saddle again.