I must finish this assignment alone.
Photographer Chris Urso decided to rent a car this morning to spare himself the nine hour bus ride to Tampa.
He said he wanted to leave early to get back to his wife and young child, but I suspect he needed the long drive to sort out his new-found love of Key West’s zany brand of drag shows.
Duval Street seems to have changed Urso for good.
We followed the crew from Tampa to a drag show on our final night in Key West. We were well passed deadline, but went in case something newsworthy happened.
A few performances into the evening – including a riotous one about a romantically frustrated woman – the festive mood took hold of Urso.
“This is great,’’ he kept saying. “This is so great.”

When one of the drag queens mentioned she had written a book about her journey from Oregon, Urso insisted he needed to buy it.
This morning, he was off to see his family. But his final words were about that book.
This is a tough assignment to explain to friends and loved ones. All sympathy for the fact we are working on a weekend runs dry when they find out we are in Key West.
Urso tried to call his wife last night to tell her about our very long day.
He made a crucial mistake of calling from a wonderful little Latin restaurant in a covered alleyway. We are about to have a late dinner. Laughter and island music from the street seemed to float in on the warm breeze.
Her night with their child wasn’t nearly as festive.
“I sensed some tone,” he said after a brief phone conversation with his wife.
He seemed to forget all about the “tone’’ midway though the drag show.
This morning he insisted he had to come back to Key West – soon. But next time he will bring his wife.
She better like drag shows.

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