This Week on the Island

by Doug Bennett
Key West, FL

September 19, 2004
Volume I, Number 42

September is our slowest month of the year. You can walk into most any bar/restaurant and find a seat. The problem, for the people in the tourist business, is that they will not make any money this month. Some of them will be laid off until Fantasy Fest in the last of October. I personally like September. It is more like the Key West in a Jimmy Buffett song. It's slow and it's easy and I like it just fine. Hurricane season has made it quite a bit slower.

The OK for residence to return was given on Monday and people started coming back to Key West by Monday night. Tourist started showing up on Wednesday. Thursday the motor cycles for the poker run started arriving. The Poker Run started in Miami on Saturday morning with over 10,000 riders. They have 5 stops between Miami and Key West. At each stop they pick up a card for $10 each. Contestants with 3 or better roll the dice to determine the winner. The winner gets $20,000 or a new Harley. Lots of money is made for the Diabetes Research Institute of Miami. (10,000 riders * $10 a card * 5 cards - $20,000 for winner = $480,000 if they only play one hand each).

Duval street was closed to all traffic except bikes. They were everywhere. Bikes were parked from Margaritaville to Front street. There were 78 bikes from Captain Tony's to Sloppy Joe's (1/2 block). The side streets were also covered with bikes. It got really interesting after sundown with bikes roaring up and down the middle of Duval. Some riders with only g-strings. Rick's/Dirty Harry's, Sloppy Joe's, and Schooner Wharf had lots of contest. (Tattoo, Bikini, wet nightie contest). There was a welcome hog roast at Hogs Breath on Friday night and a pig roast at Schooner on Saturday. The dogs don't like all the noise.

There are some interesting bikes here this year. There was a separate contest for Tricycles. Many interesting designs. One tricycle had the front end of a Camaro as a trunk. The seat of the bike was actually carved into the grill of the Camaro.

Key West, You have got to love it
'Meet me at the end of the road' - Conchy Tonkin-
Doug Bennett

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