Of Chickens and Parties

A place where the chickens and roosters roam as freely as flow of beer, wine, and margaritas. A place where the chickens make their way around tables of outdoor restaurants, with their chicks following closely behind, and the rooster herding its flock. A place where six-toed cats live in a gated community, and have human caretakers that cater to their every need. A place packed full of Harleys and decaying ships.

Hemingway bought a place down here in 1931 for $9000. His second wife removed all the ceiling fans and replaced them with chandeliers--a nice addition for those hot August days. She also had a pool installed for $20,000. In those times, the pool was filled with salt water, which went bad within a few days, and took several days to drain and refill. Aside from being impractical, this was during the depression. Nonetheless, its a beautiful two story house with a cellar. And, it was built in 1851 to be "hurricane proof", and so far has lived up to that. Electroshock therapy was believed to help with bipolar disorder. But the drain bamage it caused destroyed his creativity. He'd just stare at the blank page in his typewriter, frozen. This may have been why he took his life.

The Conch Republic Independence Celebration had planes fly over the docks, dropping roles of toilet paper as simulated canon fire. A scooner motored by as a well aged lady dropped her top and proudly displayed her breasts to the crowd on the pier. A drag race where drag queens were pushed down the street with a motorcycle police escort, sirens flashing. The Conch fritters are awesome grease delivery mechanisms--which was in line with the southern cooking we'd experienced till then.

We got to the southern-most point on the continental US. Now we need to get to the northern-most point. What these people don't know, is that the sidewalk extends south by a few feet, so the real southern-most point is a few feet back.