The TripTik known as my life

I’ve been driving along on this TripTik known as my life, enjoying the scenery, keeping an eye on the signs, watching the mileage continue to build up, and as sure as Obama likes ketchup, and only ketchup, on his hamburger, I’ve come to yet an intersection. Like any safe driver, I’ve looked both right and left, and checked out the road ahead.

I’ve decided to take a right turn.

So, first thing tomorrow morning, (6/15) I will be on the road, driving 2,610 miles from Vegas to Islamorada, Florida. Self-proclaimed “Fishing Capital of the World,” Islamorada is where one of my brothers has realized a 20 year dream thanks to the state of the real estate market: he’s in the process of closing on a vacation house in the Keys, with a canal as the backyard and his boat tied up to his dock, right next to his personal tiki bar, and just minutes from the Gulf Stream and that fabulous fishing. It’s about the mid-point island of the 1,700 island “keys,” halfway between Miami and eclectic Key West.

You see, the house needs some tender-loving renovation so I will stay there to help supervise that work while my bro focuses on his job which includes frequent travel. It will be a glorious time in the land of flip-flops and fish, humidity and Rum Runners with Gran Marnier floaters, mosquitoes and slow-living, 95%-higher-than-the-average-US-cost-of-living and spectacular sunsets.

The only danger, if it is indeed a danger, is to become afflicted with the untreatable malady known as Keys Disease. If one contracts Keys Disease, one does not return from whence one came, becoming permanently entrenched in the Keys life. My doctor gave me a prescription for an antibiotic for “just in case” but it will be useless according to testimony from any Keys resident with origins from elsewhere.

My current plan is to stay a few months, at least through the best of the fishing season, unless the renters in my Vegas condo decide to stay longer. Having the mortgage paid is a nice incentive to let them enjoy Vegas as long as they want. J

Meanwhile, the new motto is “tight lines.”