Key West is Gentle on My Mind

"It's knowing that your door is always open and your path is free to walk.
That makes me tend to leave my sleeping bag rolled up and stashed behind your couch.
It's knowing I'm not shackled by forgotten words and bonds and ink stains that dried along some line.
That keeps you on the backroads by the rivers of my memory - it keeps you ever gentle on my mind."

John Hartford's beautiful lyrics on Gentle on my Mind are masterful. Every so often, an artist captures the mood of a melody with the proper lyrics, as John did on this one. Glen Campbell launched a career with this one song.

I find myself more and more thinking of Key West. I have always said that the only place I would leave east Tennessee for is Key West. No where else in Florida, just Key West. I considered Saint Augustine but more and more the lure is Key West. I absolutely love that place. It is in a world all it's own. If you have never been there, it is hard to explain the laid back, eclectic, and wistful attitude of the locals. Marisa and I first traveled there in 1989 when my oldest son Charlie was just two years old. We stayed with Marisa's parents on Big Pine Key, about 30 miles from Key West. I started to write "north of Key West" but the fact is, everything is north of Key West, being the United States southernmost city.

Our first day in Key West we rode the Conch Train that takes you around the island and shows you many of the interesting and historic sites. Marisa's mother, Chris, had won a free airplane ride over the island and Marisa, Charlie and I rode in a Cessna on a tour of the island. Our pilot was a young lady that was most informative and very friendly. Sadly, months after we met her, she was killed in a plane crash while attempting to attach and pull a large banner sign with her plane.

As we toured the island we both fell in love with the culture. Fish sandwiches are served in every restaurant and they are about $7.00. Each is a mouthwatering slab of fresh grouper that slept the night before in either the Atlantic or the Gulf of Mexico. We spent the afternoon walking up and down the streets admiring the architecture of the houses. According to city code, each house must have a unique design of "gingerbread" trim and fence, thus there are no two fences alike, nor are there any two houses the same. We toured Ernest Hemmingway's house and stopped at a few bars along the strip. We found out that we could take drinks from bar to bar, you just had to pour the drink into a cup from the bar where you were at. As the afternoon wound down we went to Mallory Square, a boardwalk out where the cruise ships dock on the west side of the island. Each afternoon local performers, artists and vendors gather on the boardwalk and in the square. Street performers of the highest calliber are the norm. The food is all local and all of the crafts and jelewry are hand made in Key West. If not, you cannot sell your wares. The action stops as the sun sets over the gulf, and the party proceeds until past dark at which time the crowd moves out onto Duval Street for the nightly "Duval Crawl". It is a ritual that is repeated daily.

When I saw this I knew that this was where I wanted to end up living one day. We have visited several times and each time we look at real estate that we could buy.

So as my children have grown, Marisa and I are thinking more and more about selling our property in Tennessee and heading down there. So if one day you hear that we have relocated to Florida, you will know where we will be...just over 90 miles from Cuba...in Paradise.

Want to see what is going on in Key West? Go to www.liveduvalstreet.com for a live webcam in front of Sloppy Joe's on Duval Street.

Changes in lattitude bring changes in attitude.

Until next time...