Sometimes A Fantasy

While walking last night, Billy Joel's song, "Sometimes A Fantasy!" popped into my head, and part of it (the only part I can remember) goes like this:

It's just a fantasy
It's not the real thing
It's just a fantasy
It's not the real thing
But sometimes a fantasy
Is all you need...

...And that pretty much sums up the idea behind the "virtual" walk doesn't it?

To show that I've not lost touch with reality, however, here is the real thing:



While I walk about a mile or two at lunch time, I do most of my walk during weekdays, after getting home from work and sometimes before dinner. So during December, while the Keys are enjoying 75-80F sunny days, I am "enjoying" being bundled up, wearing heavy gloves and wool hats, 25-30F and very dark, often icy sidewalks.

I try to walk in local neighborhoods with little vehicle traffic, well-maintained, shovelled sidewalks, and working streetlights.



The good news is for December and much of January, the outdoor Christmas lights help chase away the darkness and provide cheer for the walker. This homeowner, however, seems unaware of the global warming problem or the trend to being "green".

Also, in the real world, I cleaned up what I said on the blog about "O Holy Night" so I could read it on Sunday December 16, 2007 during the memorial service. I printed it out, put it in an envelope with a Christmas card and went and visited the young man whom I wrote about's Mom. She lives in an assisted-living "village" even though she is perhaps 55 years old (I did not ask, I have finally learned to never, never, never ask a woman her age along with some other seemly innocent questions.) Life has been rough on her physically as well as emotionally. After spending a few minutes with her, I hand delivered the Christmas card and quietly left. I hope she understands what I was trying to say, she still seems so very... lost.

Bahia Honda State Park

Mile 36.85 - Bahia Honda Key, Florida
- Friday, December 7, 2007

As of Dember 7, 2007 at 9:30 AM

Steps: 85143
Miles: 36.17

Firstly, I want to say something about the word "Key" as it is used in the "Florida Keys". A key is a small, low coastal island or emergent reef of sand or coral. The word key is a corruption of the Spanish word "cayo." And strangely enough, "cayo" is a Spanish word of Celtic origin. So my being part Irish might explain my affinity for the Keys and for this Key in particular.

Now for explaining the name of this key, "Bahia Honda." No, this is not an ad for a Japanese car, although you probably can't go too wrong if you "Buy a Honda." It is Spanish for "deep bay" and locally pronounced: BAY-ah HON-da.

Bahia Honda State Park occupies most of the land on tiny Bahia Honda Key, about 38 miles east of Key West. The park is 524 acres. The entire Key (island) is roughly 600 acres. It is known primarily for its scenery and beaches.

Judge for yourself. And don't blame me for not wanting to walk on....



This bridge is known as the Seven-Mile Bridge as it is 7 miles (a day's walk) long and the longest bridge in the Keys. Anyone see the movie "True Lies" (1994) starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jamie Lee Curtis? This is the bridge that gets "blown up" and was actually blown up for real (the old bridge, not the new one!) because it was unsafe and they wanted to sever it from the Key so people wouldn't walk on it (and soap opera stars wouldn't drive on it?)

The train, back in the day, used to go through the beams and rode at the lower level.

There is a 3 foot iguana that lives in the shrubs to the left in this picture. I came out of the water to the right (the Florida Bay) spread out my towel and nearly tripped over him (or her). My Dad and I, when we visit this Key, make a point of looking for the iguanas now.

The Everglades are about 50 miles north (to the right in the picure) across a bay that is mostly no deeper than 15 feet.



The railroad train used to go over a high bridge here because the Bahia Honda, true to its name is a deep bay (the deeper the water / channel, the higher the bridge to clear the effects of hurricanes and other bad weather.) When the railroad closed down after a hurricane that destroyed it, they built a road on top of the bridge (this is the old Route 1 bridge.)



Even a die-hard SpongeBob SquarePants fan like me, sees something like this when someone says "Bikini Bottom".

Official State Park Website has lots of great photos on the park's visitor's photos page

Someone did the virtual walk for *real*!!

Now you can color me green in envy :-)

Say hello to Heather!

Hey Heather... add a couple honks and drools from me.

Officially at December 6, 2007 at 10:26 AM

Steps: 67237
Miles: 28.54

To the Bat Tower Robin!!

Mile 16.8 - Sugarloaf Key (nee Perky Key)
- Tuesday, December 4, 2007

Sugarloaf Key was named for the Sugar Loaf pineapple grown there many years ago. In the late 1800s there was a sponger settlement on the Florida Bay side. In the 1920s, Richter Clyde Perky (after whom Sugarloaf was named at that time) developed the Key with a fishing and gambling lodge which was quite popular at that time. Mr. Perky also made an unsuccessful attempt to combat the horrendous mosquito problem using bats. He built a tall cypress tower with a louvered walls fashioned after similar structures in Texas. The hope was that bats would roost in this tower and prey on the mosquito population. Unfortunately, bats never showed up, the affair was deemed "Perky's Folly," and shortly thereafter, his business and his health declined, and he died. The bat tower is still standing.



My Mom and Dad came to Sugarloaf Key in 1966. I have a picture of them staying at the Sugarloaf Lodge watching a dolphin show in the lodge's lagoon. I'll have to see if I can find it. The dophin's name, is fittingly enough, "Sugar".



Mile 30.5 - Big Pine Key
- Thursday, December 6, 2007

The National Key Deer Refuge is home to the endangered tiny Key Deer. This deer, no larger than a mid-size dog, roams freely here. The shoulder height of Key Deer is between 24-32 inches. Does weigh 45 to 65 pounds while bucks weigh 55 to 80 pounds.





Also found on Long Key is "The Blue Hole", an old rock quarry, used for construction of Henry Flagler's Florida East Coast Railway, and now provides a freshwater habitat for alligators and wading birds like the Egret.



Henry Flagler is a huge name in Florida and in the Florida Keys.

Henry Morrison Flagler was born on January 2, 1830 in Hopewell, New York. He was a business partner with John D. Rockefeller and made tons of money (as did Mr. Rockefeller) owning part of Standard Oil which eventually became Exxon (Standard Oil -> Esso -> Exxon) and not Sunoco, *the offical fuel* of Nascar.

Flagler recognized Florida's potential to attract out-of-state visitors. Though Flagler remained on the Board of Directors of Standard Oil, he gave up his day-to-day involvement in the corporation in order to pursue his interests in Florida. In 1885, he constructed the 540-room Hotel Ponce de Leon in St. Augustine.

Realizing the need for a sound transportation system to support his hotel ventures, Flagler purchased the Jacksonville, St. Augustine & Halifax Railroad, the first railroad in what would eventually become the Florida East Coast Railway. It is this railroad that opened up the Florida "gold coast" for "development", from Jacksonville to Miami. In fact, Flagler basically founded the cities of St Augustine, Fort Lauderdale and Miami.



Flagler decided that his Florida East Coast Railway should be extended from Biscayne Bay (Miami) to Key West, a point 128 miles past the end of the Florida peninsula in 1905. At the time, Key West was Florida's most populated city and it was also the United States' closest deep water port to the canal that the U.S. government proposed to build in Panama.

Flagler wanted to take advantage of additional trade with Cuba and Latin America as well as the increased trade with the west that the Panama Canal was expected to bring. In 1912, the Florida Over-Sea Railroad was completed to Key West.

More on the Over-Sea Railroad as the virtual walk progresses since some of where I will be walking is rail-trail, railroad bridges converted into fishing piers and even spectacular bridges to nowhere.





Thanks LadyStyx for the idea: