Key West - The Bus Ride

Key West - The Bus Ride

On Thursday January 14 2010 we traveled by bus (actually two buses) to Key West. Andrew is not a mass transit person so he took control of the bus schedule. He carefully considered our options and presented them to me.

Option1: get up really early and depart at 0530

Option2: get up really early and depart at 0611

Option 3 get up somewhat early and depart at 0812

Options 1 &2 were too ridiculous for me to consider. I retired so I wouldn’t have to get up before the sun.

Option 3 wasn’t the departure times I would have suggested, (0 933 or 1124), but what the heck you got to compromise sometime. After all we are in Paradise.

1700 islands make up the area known as the Florida Keys. Some islands are connected by bridges others are only accessible by boat. Marathon to Key West is considered the Lower Keys. We traveled from mile marker 50 to 0. The scenery was beautiful. The island names end with the word Key, for example, Little Torch, Ramrod, Summerland, Sugarloaf, Stock and Cudjoe.

We successfully transferred to bus two, the Key West downtown line at 0945. Both buses had signs which directed exiting the bus from the rear. Neither bus had a rear door but they both had one center side door. Seats facing the right and left of the bus are designated for the elderly. If you sit there you must give the seat to an elderly person who boards after you. In the Florida Keys this could mean getting up often so we sat in seats facing the front of the bus.

Andrew had studied the bus schedule and confidentially pulled the cord to request a stop on Caroline Ave. He looked at me and said “This is our stop get off”, so I did and when I turned around I saw Andrew signally me to meet him at the correct stop three blocks away.

Andrew got a few comments from other passengers who were also boaters. “You’re in trouble now“and “I won’t want to be in your boat shoes” were two of them..

I could see Andrew was genuinely upset even though the words coming out of his mouth sounded like "Why did you get off the bus".

I bet you are wondering how I reacted. I quietly explained that taking control of the bus schedule made him the captain of this adventure. And less quietly "because you told me to get off the bus"!

I did not get mad because I’m in Paradise where it’s easy to forgive!. Forgetting is another story. I’ll save this ‘get off the bus’ memory for future use..