I just finished eating my "take out" dinner on the deck outside my room at the Key West Bed & Breakfast on Williams Street in the old town section of Key West. This beats drinking hot wine in a Snuggie huddled in the living room of my Westchester condominium! I got to spend two days with my brother and his wife in Coral Springs, Florida. It was a great visit for us. I am not used to a home with four pets and kept counting them to make certain none were hidden in the room where I was sleeping. I hear that cats can sit on your face and suck the breath of life from you. Their dog on the other hand was looking at my leg with a very wanton look, and this is a female dog! Ahh, how great are the joys of "petdom"?
Except for the fact that 40% of the trip downward on the Florida Keys was in construction zones, it was a pleasant drive. The view for the most part was not as spectacular as I imagined. Mangroves on the side of the road blocked the view for too much of the trip. My first stop along the way was at the Brass Monkey Lounge in a strip mall near a Kmart in Marathon at mile post 50. This is the site of a couple of the racier chapters of my novel, The Briefcase. The bar is a bit seedier than I imagined, but will do fine as the setting I need in my novel. I have some pictures of the Brass Monkey below. I was a little shy about taking photographs since many of the early afternoon patrons appeared to be candidates for the witness protection program.
My next stop was about twenty miles further southwest at Bahia Honda Key. There is a state park on the key that is the sight of the discovery of the briefcase the novel is based upon. After visiting the park, I will have to do some editing to get my protagonist, Chet Harte, to the site of the discovery of the briefcase. The site is even more remote than I imagined. I also stopped at Sugarloaf Key where Chet and Anna Harte have their home. The sun was trying to come out today, but it did not quite make it. The temperature did reach a respectable 68 degrees on my arrival to downtown Key West. The B&B I am staying at is in the Old Town on Williams Street, very close to Duval Street. My next posting will focus on some of my Key West experiences.
No day of golf in southern Florida can start without a stop at Pollo Tropical for chicken wqith rice and black beans for breakfast.
1 comment:
I've only been to Florida's east coast once. It was great. That's cool you're visiting those places in your book to get a better picture of what you are writing about.
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