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Pick a Key – What Pegman Saw

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Today Pegman travels to the Florida Keys at the bottom of the United States. Like the other Torch Keys, it was probably named for the native Torchwood tree.

Stroll and around and see if you can find something that interests you. When you’re done, write 150 words and link to the prompt using the frog below. Remember, reading and commenting is part of the fun!

Thanks for stopping by, and happy writing!

Now, it has been remarked that I like to write travel pieces. And in this case, I find myself doing so again. Couldn’t help it, Pegman was short on views so you are stuck with my picture of 7-mile bridge 😉  And a memory of a couple of trips, too 😉 Sorry (not)!

Pick a Key

“So, take three on going to the Keys?”

“Whaddaya mean, take three?”

“Forgotten 2009, have ya? We were supposed to join my sister and gang in Bahia Honda Key but instead you wound up spending six days in the Celebration Hospital.”

“Um. Yeah. That was an epic fail on my part.”

“At least you did manage two days in Disney.”

“Yeah, that blows that I caused us to miss the rest.”

“But what a story you’ve provided me with!”

“At least in 2013 we made it to Long Key.”

“But getting there we got a flat in Key Largo!”

“That I didn’t even realise was us!”

“I swear, the guys looked like a team from NASCAR!  Zzzip! Zzip! Zzzip!”

“They were mighty impressive, that’s for sure.”

“That time we went down to Key West, too.”

“Yep.”

“And now you want to go to Middle Torch Key? I’ve never even heard of it!”

A quick change of tires on the road in Key Largo

 

76 thoughts on “Pick a Key – What Pegman Saw”

  2. What a beautiful part of the world to spend a vacation. Glad you have some lovely memories of it – even if they’re mixed with hold ups and hitches!

    Liked by 2 people

  5. The sight of a long highway like that is just begging for a blown tire, isn’t it? Ah well, misadventures are part of the fun of adventuring.

    How fun that you can blend real-life stories with the prompt! Obviously I can’t do that directly in Eneana. (And if any of those stories are secretly autobiographical, that will stay secret, ha ha!)

    Liked by 2 people

  6. Dear Dale,

    You should never apologize for what you write. Since I know some of the Disney World story it made me smile. In fact the whole dialogue made me smile. Travel on, my friend. Take pictures, write stories and share them with the rest of us. 😀 ❤

    Shalom and lotsa hugs,

    Rochelle

    Liked by 3 people

  9. Hi Dale – I like your photo and your fiction.
    The travel story really hit home here because it was so realistic –
    flroida has so much to offer and in my fiction this week – I had mentioned that the first thing that came to my mind for a story was “college graduates traveling the state before they started their careers” because I knew so many folks that did that early 1990s. But I took it out of my post because I did not want my “notes section to be too long” – and I say that with sincerity – I know I can make it as long as I want – but you were right that too much in the author notes is not ideal for flash fiction (but again – if someone wants that – it is their prerogative)
    —
    anyhow, you really grabbed the essence of how there are many keys to explore….

    Liked by 2 people

    • Hi Yvette,
      Maybe my fiction was realistic because it was real 😉 Well, except for the Middle Torch Key. We never heard of it nor visited it 😉
      Glad I got the essence 😉
      And you can do whatever you darn well please on your blog! We have the prerogative of reading footnotes or not (and honestly, you are not the only one who does this and I must say in almost all cases, the extra info is super interesting.

      Liked by 2 people

  12. Q,

    Where’s the pic? All I see is text. Maybe it’s me, Imma refresh after posting this comment and see if it is.

    The Keys feel like another country. Most definitely a different state than the one it belongs to. Which is a very good thing, since even though I lived there once, the only place I really loved was Miami. But Key West, man that is a very good difference from the rest of the state.

    At least Mick was a good sport about things. 🙂

    B

    Liked by 1 person

  13. The well-travelled Dale. Nice share. And I know what you mean about available photos on Google. Nice scenery, but does anyone live on these islands. My post goes out at lunchtime GMT noon, but now I’m wishing I’d have kept it simple and witty. *So many keys, and only one lock.*
    I’m out for the day with the camera so …. laters 🙂

    Liked by 1 person

    • Ahhh… not that well-travelled – yet! The photos were beyond limited. Nothing stops anyone from using one of the other keys.
      Oooh! That would have been great!
      Enjoy your outing! 🙂

      Liked by 1 person

          • I feel for you. It hit 20 C today, but felt more like 15. These are very low temperatures. Usually I can’t go out in August cos I can’t handle the heat. Not this year. We had five days of hitting 30 C, when the wind was blowing up from the Sahara. Otherwise … wrap up warm.

            Liked by 1 person

          • And this morning I saw a news flash that Met Office forecasts a heatwave for this next weekend (it’s a bank holiday weekend, considered the last of summer, and by tradition the weather’s abysmal). The report said highest temperatures wever. Aren’t these news folks funny. I checked out Met Office site, for Norwich: 23 C. That is not heatwave, that is not hottest ever. Though hottest for a bank holiday weekend with the reputation of being cold, wet and windy, that I will allow. We shall see.
            Inland temperatures hit 41 C when we received that African wind. That is freak weather for the UK. I didn’t go out.

            Liked by 1 person

          • Crazy. The Met offices are so often wrong. Mind you, for this week, they have called it here. It’s going to be another hot and stinky one,
            I don’t blame you. I wouldn’t go out in that horrid heat either!

            Liked by 1 person

          • Well, my next walk will be Wednesday next. Forecast 23-24 C, for where I’m going. If that bears out on the day, I’m calling a miss till the following week. I know that’s not very hot, but it’s the upper end of my endurance for walking.
            Advice. Plenty of water, inside and outside.

            Liked by 1 person

          • If I’m about town, able to sit, take rests, or down at the beach, it’s fine. But when you’re walking, you’re pumping out heat, your heart is chomping away, everything’s going at full power. And my body isn’t able to cool fast enough. Shucks, hey. But I’m good in the winter!

            Liked by 1 person

  17. Great story Dale! I’m tickled you were there and love the personal account. Too bad about the flat, but those kinds of things are always much more entertaining after one has survived them.

    Liked by 2 people

    • Oh, Karen… if you only knew the number of stories my late husband has been a part of. It’s great for my writing, tell you what!! He’s been my muse on more than one occasion. He was such a klutz.

      Liked by 1 person

  18. How funny. My memories of Florida are TOTALLY different. Tell you from my computer later…. too much for my fingers on the ancient iPad….. sending you already headache pills in advance. You‘ll need them!

    Liked by 1 person

      • Alright, am now equipped properly with my laptop and a keyboard! 😉
        At the end of our nearly two year stint in T’ranaaaa (Toronto) we took off for some 4 months of travelling the lows and highs of the US/Mexico/Canada before returning to Switzerland. In Florida I experienced all of these:
        – Such frost that I had much time to regret having given away my full length wintercoat with a fur decorated (raccoon) hood and hem to a homeless woman who is probably still singing my praise somewhere in heaven. It became so cold right after that the gardeners of a National Garden (Sunken Gardens? – Can’t remember) set up little coal stoves next to especially delicate plants. I will never forget How cold I was and how much I regretted my instant decision of ‘I won’t need that coat anymore, we’re off to Mexico and it will be hot – better do a good deed for that poor, red-frozen woman’….
        – The most glorious sundown we watched right from our VW bus – over in 30″ but worth the waiting time – only rivalled by sundown in Brittany in June, day till 11pm, then night in 40″….
        – The fact that we bought, completely unaware of the problem of suitable storage in a VW bus of a certain age, a 3gallon canister of freshly pressed orange juice, followed by the fact that after a rather enforced hastily ‘disposal’ (drinking) of said orange juice we had other, equally hastily outings from our on a regular basis, and some serious belly gurgling and cramps too.
        – The worst experience however was that we saw not only the glory of Florida but rather the poverty. We saw countless people’s home situations, namely trailers with their wheels removed and set on 4 bricks, no isolation or stuff nailed to the sides of their vehicles. We also enquired why there were so many poles with netting hanging down the sides and they said they’d die of mosquito bites in spring/summer if they would not protect their homes and themselves with those nets. For us Swiss a terrible discovery (that was decades before I read about your drone sized mosquitos in Manitoba, Dale). They all had no toilets/showers and had to share with others in camp-sites’ similar washrooms. I have never forgotten this, and all the beauty of the Florida’s islands, right down to Key West (did the whole long and very beautiful highway/with several dozens of bridges) couldn’t sate my heart’s sadness.
        I have, many, many years later, when I met husband II (the great Hero Husband), learnt that THEY holidayed many times, together with one uncle and wife from Chicago, for weeks in Florida; in a rented luxury motorhome (of course!), staying only at places with swimming pools and fine eateries. No wonder, they were totally enchanted with Florida. You see, different people see different things. I never wanted to return to Florida since.
        And we didn’t visit the Disney Studio either, but we saw many, many wonderful, impressive and glorious gardens, one alligator farm (another visit I could have done without….). Aaaah, memories galore. Sadly, all my precious diaries, letters, postcards, souvenirs and photos, got thrown in our humid cellar by my later ex-husband, because I couldn’t take those documents, photos with me to my then rented studio. They rotted and when I tried to get them back, they were pulp (fiction) and fell apart in my hands. How I cried for days after that discovery.
        SORRY for taking up all that space, but I don’t do that too often and I hope you’ll forgive me. Not having my own blog, I have to pass on my ‘memoirs’ in that fashion!

        Liked by 1 person

        • Oh my goodness, Kiki!
          Thank you for sharing. I honestly did not pass through the poor sections – not intentionally but not, not intentionally. For camping reasons, we had so much fun with the boys and my sister and her family as well as other friends. I did get eaten alive by sand fleas on the last trip, though.
          Having done Disney once, I’m good. I feel no need to return, quite frankly.
          It was bloody cold in 2009 when my husband spent 6 days in hospital but not that cold!
          I would have been as horrified as you to have lost all those pictures and journals. So sorry you did.

          Liked by 1 person

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