I never enjoy leaving Key West. It is certainly too crowded at times and people smoke cigars everywhere, but it has some life to it, and a sense of freedom that (though unreal) is invigorating. But we left, nonetheless.
I woke up sick. Somehow, I have finally caught the bug Tim has been nursing dutifully for two and a half weeks, so now it's my turn to be sick. I don't get sick too often, and this is my first illness in over a year, so it's inevitable. And, so far, it's not bad. After waking up, we moved quickly, showered, dressed, packed, ate, checked out (which we had to do in person--no rapid checkout), and were on the road in about 80 minutes. Not a record, but not bad.
Tim decided it would make sense to take a self-portrait of himself and a picture of Erin just before we left. Cute shots that remind me that my children are growing up and moving away.
It had rained on the keys and over much of south Florida last night, and this morning was overcast in Key West. This brought us a tiny bit of joy, because we realized that we had gone on our trip to the Dry Tortugas on probably the best day this week. The weather was idyllic (a term I'm borrowing from the National Park Service's website to describe that April day), we were warm but not hot, the water was perfect, the sea was gentle. I expected rain yesterday. The lack of it was a big bonus.
Our trip out of the keys (driving about 130 miles on roads that can't handle much traffic) was slow, but it worked. We made it out in good time. Along the way, we saw a number of Florida Key sights: roadways almost at sea level, a tracery of bridges, and key deer. Well, only Nancy saw a key deer, protected from automobiles by a fence that kept it away. She tried to tell us it wasn't very pretty, but it didn't work. The rest of us (well, mostly me, I suppose) were still disappointed.
We took a serious detour to Miami today to visit the Ruth and Marvin Sackner Archive of Concrete and Visual Poetry. For a good idea of the core event of the day (putting driving aside for the moment), see my description of our visit, which I describe in detail elsewhere. Even if you don't have the time or inclination to read the piece, be sure to look at the pictures. We ended up staying at the Sackners' for two hours, leaving just before rush hour really picked up in Miami.
Soon, we were driving across I-75, the new Alligator Alley, and it lived up to its name. We saw dozens of alligators behind restraining fences along this highway. And when we were detoured off the highway, we still saw plenty of gators. It was an amazing sight, one of those experiences never replicated in Schenectady.
After driving 412 miles (most of it by me), we were home in PV, where Nancy and I made a simple but effective dinner to end the day. The last few days have been tiring, but enjoyable. My only regret is that we couldn't've stayed for a little bit of the Robert Frost Poetry Festival, which includes a visual poetry event (I really wonder who set this up) and at least one haiku poet I know. I didn't know about this until we arrived, and it began tonight, so I was pretty much out of luck this time.
volveremos a las tortugas
No comments:
Post a Comment