BABY, BABY, BABY!
Last night looks to have been a very busy night for at least 83 hatchlings that crawled out of their nest here on Key Colony Beach and headed out to sea. Most of them followed their natural instincts on a very dark night with just a crescent moon, and went the right way. Eleven of them, for one reason or another, headed off to the pool at The Residences, where our manager discovered them this morning. One lively little hiker was actually found getting ready to cross Ocean Drive. The nest was next door at Monte Cristo, about 4 beaches down from us. It had been discovered and reported to Save-A-Turtle on July 4th, and marked off with flags. The hatching was to have occurred exactly 53 days later, on Aug 27, so you see our guys and gals arrived a few days early. This morning after his discovery, Steve called Ed Borysiewicz, or City Inspector and head Turtle Count person on Key Colony, and lucky for me, I was riding my bike by, and got in on the whole thing. The nest was inspected and hatched eggs counted, 83. Eleven disoriented will be held until this evening when they will be given a second chance to find their way at exactly the same spot. The eggs that didn't hatch were also counted 33, and then buried back in the nest. All of this is carefully recorded and reported back to Save-A-Turtle. We hope that the little tikes that made it will return here to the same beach in a few years to lay their eggs, that's how it's supposed to happen.

It would have been nice if Mama Turtle would have come back for the evening to show the babies where to go, but she was out to sea after laying the eggs 53 days ago, and more interested in her own survival. And from the looks of the beach this morning and all those tracks, there must have been quite a bit of confusion on which way to go, and it sure looked like a lot more than 83 hatchlings were marching around.

I know were I'll be at dark tonight, when the 11 wanderers are given their send off... down at the beach!

A NEW BIKE! And it's MINE!!
It's a Trek Pure, and believe me, I spent way more time bike shopping and test driving than we spent on our new car purchase last month. But this was important, a new bike is not something to be quick about. I had it narrowed down to 3 so called comfort bikes that I really liked after riding several. Comfort, that's the important quality for me these days. I checked out the bike shops in Key West last week, and ended up at my LBS, that's Local Bike Shop in biker lingo. For those of you who have had bad experiences with Overseas Outfitters, I know what you went through. But now there is a new young manager/part owner, and he is really making an effort to turn things around. His parents (my age) live on Little Torch Key and help out at the store. They couldn't be nicer, and the Dad has had two weeks of bike mechanic training...what more could you want?
Now not to bore you with too much ancient history, I got my biking start exactly 58 years ago with my first bike and some tender loving help from my Dad.

I think it looks a little bit like my new bike, except for the training wheels. As a young girl, I rode my bike daily until I got into my teen years. For some reason, it just wasn't cool to ride a bike in the 60s. I took about 40 years off in my riding, and then bought my next bike when I was about 50 and put many miles on that Trek. Because of various back issues, I find myself riding it less and less, so time to try something new. That old Trek won't go to waste, Bill has already taken it over and attached his motor to it. It will be an improvement over the K Mart Dirt bikes, and those two will go to Manuel, who will put them to good use.