Boobs & Bikes

Yes in deed... I think I have now seen more silicone and chrome in one place than ever before!
It was the 36th Annual Key West Poker run and it was the most bikes (and boobs) that I have seen in one place. Here is the website in case you are not familiar with what a poker run is - http://www.petersonskeywestpokerrun.com/custompage.asp?pg=history

They started rolling in on Thurs and then rolling out today. It was estimated the 10,000 came down for the event and based on last nights crowds that seemed about right. Duval (the main party street) was closed for at least 5 blocks and Greene (which crosses Duval by Sloppy Joe's) was closed for 2 blocks. This is where bikes lined both sides of the street. It was amazing all that we saw. There were some amazing bikes!

Then of course there were the much endowed woman who also had a lot to show so at times it was hard to determine what to look at next. In Key West it is legal for women to be completely topless as long as they are painted so it is a tradition during events here that painting booths are set up and many women get painted. So to say the least there were more than a few of those around. I was amazed at the number of older woman (over 50) who get painted or have amazingly small tops on. Who would have thought!

Tom and I spent a few hours just watching the crowd and wandering through the bikes. Luckily we live a few blocks off of Duval so when we were done it was a 10 minute walk home to where it is much more peaceful with only the occasional bike coming down the street. Ours is also a one way street which cuts down on traffic.

Then in contrast to Sat night I attended the CMA Bike Blessing this morning. Tom was off playing dive master for Mel Fisher investors (which he is doing all week) so I decided to attend. It's the closest thing to church service that I have attended since we moved. We haven't found a new church here since the first run of looking for one led us to the usual standard religion, conservative churches which is not the non-denomination/ bible based church we have previously attended and loved. You would have thought that in a place that is so unconventional that there would be more of a choice. OK there is 1 non-denominational church but it is for the gay community so I didn't think that was a good choice. In fact there are a lot of churches but at first glance we haven't found one we want to attend, have to dress for (yes they dress up for church here) and sing hymns!
OK so back to the CMA Bike Blessing..... CMA is the Christian Motorcyclists Association and they held a nice service at Mallory Square which included a blessing of the bikes and those who ride. There was about 100 or so people who attended, some of them who are CMA members and other, like me, that just wanted to attend the service. The majority of the attendees also brought there bike to be blessed for the ride so they were all lined up in Mallory Square facing the ocean. It was a beautiful picture of all of the bikes and ocean in the morning sun along and a great group of people to spend some time with. Here is their website in case you are interested in their work - http://www.cmausa.org/

So ends another weekend in KW. It was good to have the city filled with tourists again. With the last 3 storms coming through and 2 of them having mandatory evacuations it causes people to change their vacation plans and head elsewhere. This town is very much dependent on tourism so it was good to have the noise & money return (even if I wasn't able to get my favorite seat at the Iguana) and hopefully to stay since there isn't any storms headed our way in the near future. At least we hope not but the storm season doesn't officially end till Nov so continue to keep us in your prayers.