Key West

I’m out in Key West for a couple of weeks of training, well my unit is training and I’m providing whatever medical coverage they need and perhaps fishing when I get a chance. This is my first time to the Keys and on first impression, it reminds me of Guam, white buildings, palm trees everywhere and the humidly. Medically, so far, all I’ve had to take care of are sunburns and some other minor ailments. It feels like I’ve fallen into some strange time warp were everyone is running around in flip flops and get off at 3. Not us but the rest of the island.

Downtown is sort of a cleaner mini Bourbon St, except there are a lot more string bikini’s and bikers both on bikes and motorcycles. Key West might be the best designed bicycle city I’ve ever been in, just about every rode has a bike path besides it, often abnormally huge bike paths so people can ride side by side. Sitting down on the side of Duval St. It was strange seeing mini parades of bikes with people in costume riding by playing music. Some odd ducks out here not that I mind, there are days when I’m sort of one. Everyone seemed laid back, it must be the heat telling the lizard part of the brain that it was alright to hang out and chill on that rock over there. Like Bourbon St, there were come clear lines where the gay and straight bars are, not that the customers were paying attention to such lines. Overall, I give this place top notches for places to people watch.

The military bases are scattered to the winds, one base is the airfield, another has the clinic, one the exchange and another, the billeting office, I couldn’t imagine trying to be stationed here without a car. Our unit has duty vans that run on a loose schedule with phone numbers posted of the drivers but it’s still not that easy getting around.

Much of my off work time has been taken up with fishing, something that I don’t get to do much in Lemoore since I spend much of my weekends hanging out with the wife and she’s definitely not the hunter/gather type. While she likes exploring, she likes to leave the wildlife where they’re supposed to be, in the wild. Myself, I grew up poor and my mom took us fishing every weekend and if I would have thought about it, would have realized that fishing was another source of food for the family. I just enjoyed doing it. Send me to a place with water and lots of fish, I’ll find a way to put a pole in the water.

Last weekend, I got myself and some of my fellow sailors on a liberty program. The military partially sponsors single sailors and geographical bachelors E-6 to go out have fun, for a nominal fee, if you meet those criteria, you can get out on a trip. I saw on a calendar that there was a deep sea fishing trip going out last weekend for 20 bucks, I passed the word, gathered the names, money and arranged transportation and off we went. At the end of the day, I was worn out. Good times.

After eating fish at least once a day for the past week and a half, I would have never thought it possible but I might be reaching the limit of how much fish I can handle. In closing, I’m looking forward to seeing my wife’s florescent locks and breathing dry air, I’m looking forward to showing this off to my wife someday soon.