bike week - part 1

I know I'm late to the party on this one but, what the hell, here goes anyway. . .

Personally, I'm not a big on motorcycles although I have every respect for people who are. My issue with motorcycles is nothing personal; just an aspect of my issues with unnecessary loud sounds. Other stuff like mopeds, car alarms, overbearing loud mouth women (you know who you are), garbage trucks, sirens, boats with motors (I prefer sail) and navy jet fly overs make me crazy too.

All that said, I did get out and about last weekend for a few hours to the annual bike week festivities and being of the "visual artist" and "all for fun and fun for all" persuasions was again excited by the bike designs and generous energy of the bikers who dig them.

For folks out-of-town, the thing that brings bikers to Key West is the last stop of the Poker Run at the Schooner Wharf Bar. Now, I was told by one biker I spoke with that the Poker Run is a mostly unknown event for folks outside of South Florida.
So, in a nutshell (or a conch shell if you prefer). . .

Every year thousands of bikers register for the annual, for charity event up in Miami and begin the rumble down the 150 or so miles of the Overseas Highway to Key West.
Along the way there are 5 (sometimes 7) stops where the bikers each draw a playing card and the biker with the best poker hand at the end of the run is the winner.

I tried, but never did, catch up with this year's winner so I don't really know what the prize for winning is (and if anyone knows, I'd be happy to hear) but, when the bikers roll into town, they get treated to a weekend with a hog roast and bikini fashion show at Schooner's and the Biker Bash at Sloppy Joe's on Duval.

Prize or no prize the events around town seem like ample incentive to come rumbling down the Keys.
There's my "all for fun and fun for all" thing again.

Still, with my loud sounds thing going on, I'd personally pass on it. But if there's ever a Poker Run for smooth cruisin', quiet riding drop top Cadillacs, I'm there.

hemingway days, key west

Every year, as close to his birthday on July 21st as we can get it, Key West celebrates the life and times of the hard drinking author, adventurer and one time resident of Key West,
Ernest Hemingway.

The Annual Hemingway Days Festival is five days of events that include Marlin Fishing, KeyLime Pie Eating and Arm Wrestling contests, the Lorian Hemingway (his granddaughter) Short Story Competition, a Caribbean Street Fair, and a 5k Twilight Walk/Run.

And of course, there's the unique take on "The Running of the Bulls" and Sloppy's Joe's "Papa Look-A-Like Contest".

Sloppy Joe's is famous for having been Hemingway's favorite watering hole when he lived here in the 1920's and 30's. The "Keys quirky" element in the look-a-like thing is; the town fills with hundreds of white haired and bearded older guys but when Hemingway actually lived in Key West,
he looked more like this. .

than this. . .

Even so, we don't worry about that. We throw the party and enjoy the off-season reason to sell lots and lots of beer.
It's all good.


A handful of years ago I got a bug to do something really "Key Westie" and tried my hand at guiding walking tours of "haunted" Key West. I'd walk a prescribed route around town with a group of "visitors" telling ghost stories.
Somehow, part of the script was about the how and why of Hemingway in Key West.

If I remember it right, it goes something like this. . .


In 1928 Hemingway and his second wife, Pauline, came to Key West on their way to or from Cuba and for one reason or another decided they wanted to buy a car.

So he went to the Ford dealer on Simonton St. - now "Casa Antiqua" - and the vehicle was ordered for him.


Of course in the 20's Key West was really only accessible by sea and shipping a car from Detroit to the end of the earth was going to take a little time.

So the car dealer rented Ernest and Pauline an apartment above the dealership where they lived long enough to have a son and write "A Farewell To Arms".
Then, as the story goes, Hemingway really got into the secluded Key West lifestyle and culture and decided to stay.


After a few years he bought the house on Whitehead St, now the Hemingway Home Museum, shared it with the brood of now famous Polydactyl (6-toed) cats, continued to write some of his best work, fish for Marlin and spend a lot of time at Sloppy Joe's Bar.

toga • toga • toga • toga

Well it's Fantasy Fest week again. Key West's head start on the rest of the planet, toward the silly season.

Early in the week, most of the fantasy festivities are either private or paid admission and even though I've been to some of those events in years past, this year I've got more practical things to do with my money.

But that's the beauty of the Fantasy Fest experience, in terms of how one might celebrate it, it's really versatile. You can walk in the parade one year and ride on a float the next. Be a madness monitor, sell beer from a booth or, like I'm gonna do this year, just sit back and take it all in. The only real constant is, you've gotta have beads.
(hell, even Max has her own beads)

Last night I found my way to Duval and Greene for Sloppy Joe's Annual Toga Party. (I think I read somewhere this was their 26th annual)

Did you ever wonder where, otherwise "normal" people find a toga?
Well, a friend of mine works at Sloppy's merchandise store. (T-shirts and such) She says Sloppy's sells used hotel bed sheets, sashs and handfuls of safety pins at eight bucks a pop!
(only in Key West, aye?)

Anyway, here's a little of what last night's merry making looked like. But listen, you might want to screen this one before you share it with the kiddies.
Otherwise, enjoy. . .