Riding around Key West

The water off the shore of Key West seems to change colors like a kalidescope, depending on the light. The colors ranged from opaline blue to a shade of pink I don't think I'd ever seen before. I am not sure what the pink is coming from.

The water is very shallow and clear as a bell. I had hoped to take a ride on a glass-bottomed boat get some underwater video but a stiff onshore breeze made the water choppy and stirred up lots of silt from the bottom. I'll try again tomorrow but I'm not too confident since the weather service is predicting thunderstorms and high winds.

This is the marker that denotes the southernmost point on the North American continent. Isn't it cute, pastel colors and all.

This is it, the spot that marks the end of U.S. Route 1. I was hoping there would be something more — oh, I don't know, ceremonial looking? — but this is it. I got the people in the picture to gather around for the shot. No, I'm kidding of course. They were just standing there.

A chicken. Why does he have a picture of a chicken on the page? Well, first of all, it'sa rooster. And there's a colorful story behind it. What is it? Well, I am glad you asked. I got this story from a guy selling flavored ice on the street near the southernmost point marker.

According to him, a few years ago, maybe seven or eight years, the Key West city council decided that cock fighting had to stop. They assessed the situation and concluded that the toll it took on the animals, fighting cocks like the one above, was just too much for animal lovers to tolerate any further. So they passed a law banning it. And they passed a law fining anyone found in possession of these animals $500. This encouraged former owners of fighting birds to become former owners. What to do with these birds, they asked themselves. Simple. Release them. So they did.

Now, Key West is awash in feral — can chickens actually be called feral? — birds that are reproducing like, well, chickens and roaming free all over the place. I saw them running around auto repair shops, in people's yards, hell, in front of a fire station.

The chickens are all over the place. I rode passed this bunch on my bicycle. At first, I didn't believe what I was seeing. Why would chickens be running around free? Many cities allow people to possess chickens but they are supposed to be kept in cages or coops. No one seems the least bothered by the birds.