Verse 4 - The move to Key West and Gardi's Internet Cafe

This post is a continuation of The Bowery Station Story.

We had hoped to move all our belongings to Key West, do a little exploring, and then take about a year and explore the good ol' US of A on a road trip.  After having traveled so extensively in Europe, and it being before the advent of the smart phone, we understood the need for internet cafes wherever we traveled.  Europe at the time was far ahead of the States, with immense Internet cafes in every town.  Arriving in Key West we immediately realized... Key West was lacking.  There were one or two small places to get on the internet, with dilapidated computers and sticky keyboards, but there were no true, functional internet cafes.  The need kicked us in the teeth.

After loading our all our belongings into storage in Key West, we took a stroll down Duval, hoping to get a gauge of commercial rental prices before we left on our year long road trip.  Starting at the North end by Sloppy Joes, we made a few calls...tiny places were going for $20k/month...ouch.  We kept walking, kept calling.  About the middle of Duval Street things were down to about $6-$8K/month.  Then we hit the intersection of Duval and Truman Ave, US Route 1, and we saw a small for rent sign in a dusty deli, pseudo coffee house.  As fate would have it that day we walked in and asked the girl what the dilly was.

She expressed that not only was the location for rent, but the whole business was for sale, and I should speak with the owner in the back.  Out stepped a small little Italian man, (and a great salesman...and ultimately a great friend), and bada bing, fifteen grand a hand shake later we were in business in Key West.  Only nine days from wheels up in Germany and we were back to work in Key West.  So long to that glorious idea of a cross country road trip.... but we were young...we would get there someday..... right?  RIGHT?

To make a long story short, Gardi's Internet Cafe flourished, lines were out the door, cash was rolling
in...but alas...is life all work?  After one full year, working 8 to 8, 8 days a week, as was our store moto, we had maybe spent 2 days outside the shop.  We had one chance to get on a boat when some friends came who were visiting, and we couldn't find reliable employees.  We served internet, coffee and Key Lime Pie.  We even made the Key Lime Pie for many restaurants on Duval and sold it to them wholesale.  Hogsbreath, Caroline's, and Fogarty's just to name a few.  Often times making over a hundred pies a day, knee deep in condensed milk...  But was this why we moved to the Keys?  Hell no.  We can all define success in many ways, but being a slave to your own creation out of pride certainly wasn't in our formula. (Remember this concept for later on in this diatribe of a blog/book!)

We sold the business after a year, Lisa quickly found a job teaching, and I returned to the tech world with a job at the Office of the State Attorney.  But, we regained our lives...weekends off, vacation, holidays...a guaranteed paycheck...oh... and we got ourselves out on the water...both living and playing on the water for the next decade!  Life my friends, is and was good!  We even tied the knot officially after years of living in sin.... which really changed nothing as we still kept sinning.  We enjoyed the lifestyle of living on a Sailboat in emerald green waters, and lived on shore as well in the rustic world that was Key West at the time.  Either way we were out on a boat or kayak almost every day, living the life we only dreamed of years before in Vermont.

So, at this point, an intuitive person might be asking themselves... "self, what does all this drivel have to do with BS, why did I buy this book, and/or why am I wasting my time reading this blog?"  Of course I would answer....sucker!  But I digress...read on.

After our captive foray into self employment, and the freedom that our return to working for the man offered, we were able to get out and experience the bar, and the live music scene in the Keys.  Venues like the Hogsbreath, Schooner Wharf and The Green Parrot offered up some top national talent, mixed in with the best of Florida, and the local scene.  Granted, many of the bars on Duval felt the need to cater to the visiting tourist, and put on more of a shtick... many still preferred to showcase true talent.  It wasn't hard to find great live music on any given night, comfortably perched on a bar stool garbed in shorts and a tee shirt... the days of Nectar's had returned to our lifestyle....albeit in a much warmer climate.  Also, the flexibility to travel had returned with our government sponsored vacation time off.  Granted, it was hard to get anywhere quickly or easily from a remote Island chain...but it wasn't impossible.

Stay tuned as The Bowery Station Story unfolds in it's next episode...Where in the World is Apalachicola?