Key West: In my end is my beginning and in my beginning is my end

Key West is great! It is the most southerly part of the United States and has a laid back, American/Caribbean fusion sort of atmosphere. Nothing seems a problem and pretty much anything goes. The skies are bright blue, there are palms and sandy beaches, the sun is pretty fierce during the day, despite it being Autumn and the sunsets are fantastic in the evenings. So too are the occasional tropical storms, which provide dramatic displays of sheet and forked lightening that temporarily tear the night sky into serrated pieces. Given that this is the end of America, it seems appropriate that this should be pretty much my final destination on this astonishing journey. I have decided to blow the budget a bit by staying in a really nice hotel, just a few minutes walk from the southernmost beach in the US and the main High Street, Duval, which is full of bars, restaurants and art galleries and loads more.

There are some notable bars here, with a fantastic selection of live music of every possible genre each evening, although I have gravitated towards jazz and blues for some reason and driving blues/rock of the George Thorogood and the Destroyers variety. Even the open mike sessions are fantastic, attracting amateur singers who could easily be professionals, they are so good. One singer, Deborah, who makes and sells donuts during the day and who started singing a little later in life, entranced the audience with just two songs one Sunday afternoon and rightly got a fantastic reaction when she finished. This was at my favourite bar so far, The Green Parrot, established in 1890, which is just up the road from where Hemingway used to live, so I'm sure he would have popped in (well, more than just popped in, given he was a big drinker). It has a good mix of locals and holiday visitors; people who are very friendly. It sells great local beer, puts on good live music and is a little walk away from the main streets, so prices are a bit cheaper (an important consideration now I’m on the last leg of my travels and running short of money). Perfect!

The days run easily together, in a mixture of clear azure skies, swimming in the sea and the hotel pool (listening to cool, ambient chill), walking, running in the hotel gym and eating and beer and music and chatting. Yesterday I spent most of the day at a national park, where there is an old fort (Fort Zachary-Taylor) and a beach and huge, bright green iguanas, basking in the sun! I watched the old men fishing for a few hours, which was interesting as both parties have time to chat and are going nowhere in a hurry. Today again I'm going to do not much at all. I'm reading Lake Wobegon Days, by Garrison Keiller, a tale about life in small town America, which is quietly funny, so I will read and swim and lightly grill beneath the Sun until golden brown! Now and again I go to Tony's Saloon,  where in the early evening they have a guy (Jack Wolf) who does sometimes crude and humourous acoustic songs, some taking the mick out of America. In one song he gets the audince to shout out after him things associated with the US: Starbucks, GAP etc., which the audience shouts out unthinkingly. Then mid-song he shouts out Slavery and the audience shouts out Slavery at the top of their voices and then they realise what they have said. Very funny and it works every time!

I am staying here for 13 nights in total. That may sound a long time in one place and in terms of my travelling it is, but I thought that an extended stay might make it seem more like a traditional holiday rather than travelling and therefore act as a period of transition before I fly home to the UK and start searching for a job and perhaps a course of study. When I started travelling, I felt like a young child at the start of the school summer holidays which seem to stretch out into infinity with no conception of them ever coming to an end. Suddenly, terribly, a stealthy surprise! It is the Sunday evening before the new term starts and somehow, inexplicably, all that time has gone! Where oh where has it all gone?  Whilst I’m looking forward to seeing family and friends again, I’m also going to miss the freedom I have experienced and the beautiful places and the fantastic people I have met along the way.

Miami Bus Station

Bus Views

My home for a while

Southernmost beach in the US

Motorbike Convention

My hotel balcony

Fort Taylor inhabitant. Big Bro!

Little Bro!

Duval Street

The Green Parrot

Just fantastic sunsets!

 

 

 

Goodness me, what an absolutely brilliant, fabulous, amazing 6 1/2 months  circumnavigating the world! And do you know what? I bloody well did it!! :-)

'We shall not cease from exploration

And the end of all our exploring

Will be to arrive where we started

And know the place for the first time’

T.S. Eliot, Four Quartets, Little Gidding, V