Been there several times as a kid. Nowhere near as flamboyant as it is now, so I understand. Pretty beat up, seedy and rough around the edges when I was there as a kid. I was not impressed. Dad was a big Ernest Hemingway fan, so we would take day trips down there in the Beechcraft from our place on Sanibel to visit the Hemingway house and eat at the Turtle Bar.
I remember the beater cars that were all over the island with their keys in the ignition. If you wanted to go somewhere, you just jumped in, drove to your destination and parked it for the next person. Rode the Conch Train and got pictures taken at the southernmost point of the US as I recall, too. We used to go on the Navy base there as Dad had a buddy that was stationed there. Got to see the huge pile of “rafts” (and I use that word loosely) that the Cubans would use to try and make it across the Straights of Florida. The Coasties moored there, too, and they would bring these things up on the cutters and just pile them up on the docks. Boards or pallets lashed to inner tubes, stuff like that. Scary stuff thinking about going across 60 miles of open water on one of those. I often wondered how many of them never made it. -D > On Jun 17, 2017, at 4:35 PM, Greg Fiorentino via Mercedes > <mercedes@okiebenz.com> wrote: > > WRT Souvenir passports, Texas (for one) issues them as well. They are fun, > but (obviously) not a valid travel document. There should never be an I&NS or > CBP admission stamp in one of these, but official souvenir stamps would be > ok. I have a couple of souvenir stamps from the QE2 in my US passport. I do > have a Texas passport somewhere. > > I've never been to the Conch Republic, though I almost got sent there on a > TDY. I volunteered for a TDY to Havana to interview Marielitos, but the venue > was changed to Key West...er... I mean the Conch Republic. They gave me very > short notice and I was unable to make it. > > Greg > _______________________________________ http://www.okiebenz.com To search list archives http://www.okiebenz.com/archive/ To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to: http://mail.okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com
