I was supposed to race a full ironman distance triathlon in Key West, Florida last weekend. The idea of a race in a warm place in the middle of the winter made me want to go there. But on Christmas day my left knee started hurting so I took it easy for some time. Then I was training with ibuprofen. I tried without it at some point but concluded I would not be able to train without it. Then my right foot started hurting. Then I stopped training.
I was glad I had not paid the entry fee yet. I kind of forgot about Key West even though I did have flights from Lawton to the island. A couple of days before the outbound flight date I started thinking about going there anyway, just to use the flights and to see the famous island. I didn't really want to go, though, but at the very last minute I went to the airport with a small backpack. I also took my small bivouac tent since I had no reservations and all the hotels seemed to be 200 per night minimum. At that point I wanted to invest the bare minimum in that trip.
The flight from Dallas to Tampa was about 1.5 hours late. Then I had go through security again because I needed to go from one terminal to another. The security check took extra 15 minutes because the personnel spotted me as a suspicious individual wearing a red t- shirt. I could feel it coming when I was standing in the line and an official or whatever who was there to just observe people said "how are you" to me but not to anybody else in the line. And then a little further another one did the same thing. I think I just said "good" with a blank face. My minimal answers didn't please them but nothing was found and nothing tested positive so I could go, knowing I had missed my plane. I thought I would have been offered a 50% discount on an expensive hotel, but was happy to get a totally free room with dinner and breakfast, and then a flight the next morning.
In the morning I walked from the Key West airport, and along a long beach, slowly. I had read that Key West was a hub for homeless people because of its nice winter weather, free coconuts and free showers on the beaches. In the city centre there was a small park where I saw people sleeping. I had read that the police would arrrest anybody sleeping outside, but maybe that applied only to overnight sleeping or camping? And I saw a lot of rough looking people riding loaded bicycles. Key West is a very bicycle friendly city, I have to say! Numerous bike rental places, and tourists and locals riding around. Drivers seemed to respect bicycles. I rented a cruiser for 24 hours (12$) and headed north. There is a dedicated bike path about 15 miles long going north from KW alongside the overseas highway which goes to mainland Florida.Near the city the bushes were full of homeless. The further I went, the less people I saw, but the highway was busy.
I went to the end of the bike path. It got dark at 6.30 and after that I put my tent up behind some bushes but quickly realized I was not tired enough to sleep that early and with that much noise from the traffic. To pass the time I very slowly drifted back to Key West and rode in the busy center where people were partying hard. At 10.30 I went to a beach and sat there for a while in the darkness. Soon I learned there were people 20 meters from me. So I moved a little bit to scout another spot. I would stand with the bike in a dark area close to the beach. Saw a bike approaching on the other side of the street and then the guy ran into the bushes with his bike. 5 minutes later the same guy changed to the other side and was now quite close to me but didn't know I was there. Then I changed to the other side. It was kinda amusing but not really.
It was a grassy area along a very dark section of a street but very exposed and I was between a fence and a tree. I didn't put my tent up but used it as a blanket. I was there for 6 hours and slept most of it.
I woke up and went to see the triathlon start on the beach. The 2.4 mile swim course looked absolutely huge from the beach when you could see the whole one loop course. I was at the race site most of the day, and once rode around the island and returned my rental bike. I left the race site once again at 9.30 in the evening and walked to the city center. Later I got back and tried to spend the night in the same spot where I was the night before. I was there, in the darkness, and again I saw people obviously trying to find a peaceful place for the night. Suddenly I saw a police car park on the other side of the street from where I was, and an officer checked the narrow beach side park with a flashlight. Then he crossed on to the same side where I was, but luckily he stopped about 50 meters from me because he found somebody,so I had time to leave the place. I didn't want to talk to the police and luckily I was able to leave without him or them seeing me.
Later after a lot of walking I got to a Walgreens at 12.25 at the other side of the island and spend 15 minutes inside. Then after 1am I went to Ihop. My plan was to eat slowly and I was almost asleep when I left at 2am. After walking about 30 minutes I got to a place along the main road where there was a tiny green strip between Dunkin Donuts and a baseball field. There was barely any shadow from the street lights and it was very exposed too, but I lay down on the ground and just used my backpack as a pillow. I spent only about 2 hours there, sleeping maybe 1.5hrs and started walking 4 miles to the airport.
It is crazy to think that the city only has 25.000 people living there but it "welcomes" 300 new homeless every year. They are very visible. There are not many places where they can go and hide in because it is an island and almost all of the land is developed.I had and have a lot of thoughts about this issue, and many other things and encounters (some of them weird) happened there but this blog is already quite long
