On In To Mobile!

Friday, February 29, 2008 (Leap Day)
All Systems Go!
We headed, FINALLY, out of Florida, to the west.
On the way out we stopped in Apalachicola, Florida. This is a very nice and very small beach city center with a bunch of artsy things going on. There are a few great antique dealers, great old buildings a small little port that was used for shrimp boats at some point (this small port is reminiscent of Middletown’s place on the river (great potential, yet undeveloped as such)
We landed, just a short piece up the road, for an overnight stay in Mobile, Alabama. None of us had ever been there before (We had never been in Alabama at all) and it is entirely possible that we will not go there again. We drove through downtown and it was nice and interesting. I found the old train station to be very cool architecturally. They also have a good science center and museum but if there were any other drawing points, we missed them.
There was really one cool thing that did occur for our time in Mobile which was also serendipitous. As we pulled into our under embellished camp field for the night and got settled another camper pulled in right next to us within the next 10 minutes. We exchanged hellos and each of us went about the business of setting up our traveling homes for the night. After a while, when all was set, I saw them fussing around with their bicycles in the back of their pick up truck. I went out to see what they were up to and found that their bike rack had broken off of its stand on the back of their trailer while enroute to the site earlier that day.
One bike had been pretty serious bent up but the tandem bike they had survived the fall to the highway and being dragged at 65 miles per hour (unnoticed by them until another driver on the highway enthusiastically informed them that they were dragging their bikes). While talking and examining and helping them determine the best way to load them into the back of the pickup, I noticed that the man was wearing a Yale Divinity baseball cap. So we got to talking about that and I found that he went there way back and was now a recently retired minister from a liberal Christian church in Dallas. (As liberal as it can get I suppose, he likened it to UCC in CT.) We talked a short while about our friend Charles Vogl (of New Year Baby fame) who is currently attending Yale Div and how it is a small world and such.
Moments later, I had this thought that we could do something really nice for them and also help us out with an up and coming issue if we offered them our two bicycles (Megan and mine) as a pay it forward offering and so that they would not have to be without a bike or worry about trying to get theirs fixed.
I have just bought two recumbent bikes on EBay from a guy in Houston. We figured we were on our way through there and would pick them up on the way. My regular 21 speed road/mountain bike has been hurting my shoulders and wrists for years and I wanted to have the sit down on and pedals forward type for years as well. This trip has afforded us the luxury of time to bike but it wasn’t all that much fun when I hurt afterward.
Seeing that we were just two weeks away from Houston and getting our newer bikes there, we offered our bikes to our new friends. After a bit of discussion and them trying them on for size and convincing them that we did not want anything (money) for them but just wanted to help them out and have our bikes go to someone who would use them, we all agreed and made the gifting official.
They were on their way to a month long campground host volunteer position in northern Florida and were amazed and very happy to have the bikes to use there. I love it when things just work out this way. I was wondering what the heck we were going to do with those bikes once we got our new ones.Issue Resolved in a really nice way!

Three nights at Big Lagoon and all that means!

After we left Eden Gardens, we drove all another 70 miles or so to the eastern side of Pensacola and stopped at an official road side pull off along side of the Pensacola Bay. It was very windy and unusually so, being parked, this was to our advantage (not so great while we are not driving this big tin box down the road) as it had brought out the wind surfers to the bay. We watched them for a 1/2 an hour or so and made plans to try that strenuous but fun looking activity in the near future.
While stopped, I did my usual scan of the towing situation to make sure all was well and to my surprise or dismay, it wasn't. The tow dolly had broken where the long arm that attaches to the hitch joins to the bar that acts as the axle. This is not good. It is the connection that holds the whole thing together. The integral ramps were basically dragging on the ground (also not good). I decided to try and make it the last 20 miles as it was and had my dear brother (always ready to help out) look for welders in the yellow pages on line (in Pensacola). We made it about another mile but every time I step of the gas a little the weight shifted rearward and forced the ramps back down to dragging on the ground. We stopped as soon as we could and unloaded the car from the dolly and Megan followed me in the car the rest of the way to the camp, Big Lagoon State Park. This park is beautiful and very limited in camping (75 sites), well maintained and very friendly.

With the help from the list of welders my brother sent and asking the rangers who they would call, we found and made contact we a guy who had a mobile unit and could come to us. One of the rangers, Chris, happened to be working on the water connection at our site and not only recommended this guy but also made the call for me to his wife, Jennifer, who runs the office and put us together. She was just as accommodating as anyone could be and I knew in the first few seconds of talking to her that we had found, serendipitously, the right people. I made arrangements to send her some pictures via email that I had taken to allow them to see what was required prior to coming out to our site. (And she didn’t even laugh that I had taken pictures of my broken tow dolly) She called back within an hour of getting them and discussing the job and told me that her husband Gerry could stop out that afternoon after he left the site he was working on at a local college. That time didn't work for us but we made arrangements for the next evening for him to stop out and fix it on site.
I knew taking the pictures and bringing them on my lap top to a local podunk welder was gonna seem like, "geek boy has a weldin problem" but I didn't want to drag the damn tow dolly all over town trying to find someone to fix it. SO, this on site gig really worked out swell and saved me a little hometown embarrassment as well.
The next morning we got up sort of early and made our way back to the Naval Air Museum. This is the home base of the famous Blue Angles flying team. We spent most of the day here after having gotten there early enough to get a spot on the one hour bus tour of the air strip aircraft restored museum section. This air museum is an amazing place particularly from a historic perspective. Even if you are not military minded the history and expansion of flying machines and the extremely articulate manner and methods used to put back together and maintain these aircraft is something of a wonder. The museum aircraft restoration shop and project is completed by volunteers. And they are damn good at what they do. I was impressed. The inside aspect of the museum is huge and immaculate. There are a variety of displays honoring aircraft, military operations, flight simulators, and the history of the Navy. I was moved by the Vietnam Prisoners of War display and documentary, even though McCain was a featured POW on the film. If you get a chance to see this place, don’t miss it!
On site there is also a full time educational arm of the museum, staffed by two full time teachers, that brings 6th, 7th and 8th graders into the facility for varying length programs through out the school year and teaches them jet engine propulsion, actual jet flight simulation, advance mathematics and physics. This was and amazing opportunity for these students and the teachers were very proud to be able to bring this to students.
The welding repair took place later that day as my new friend Gerry from “On Demand Welding” in Pensacola stop in with his working partner, Trey, and did what they do best. These were two of the nicest guys I have met on this trip. Just a pleasure to be with! Thanks for that guys! Welding repair handled with style we were ready to go and feeling confident.
I don’t wish anybody any welding repair issues but if you have one and you happen to be in northern Florida. Call On Demand. You’ll make a new friend too.The next and final day at Big Lagoon, we spent in the campground. Jasper and I took his metal detector that he got for Christmas and headed down to the beach to find some Spanish Doubloons’ while Megan enjoyed some quite time at the campsite. After three plus fun hours, we had found several hundred pop tops of various vintage an entire coke can, buried 7” under, 3 fishing weights and one dollar and eighty two cents in miscellaneous change. It made me wonder how much money and trash is actually buried everywhere just below the surface in the crust of our planet. It won’t be very difficult for the future archeologist to find our artifacts.

Big Lagoon State Park!

We left St George Island State Park and headed west for a two night stay at a private campground that was supposed to have everything (according to their description) that would have Jasper be a happy boy for those nights. I guess you can write anything you want and never have to update it.

Needless to say it was OK but they only thing that worked for us there was the fact that They had a basketball court for Jazz and me to shoot hoops and that the immediate neighbors were nice. The place had been recently and continually dumped on, rain wise, so it was very damp through out the park. We got there late the first day only to find our site had already been taken, by someone who drove in and was just as confused by the sign sheet left out for everyone arriving after the office closes, as we were. I, with the help of a friendly passerby, found the on site maintenance man, and after some personal effort he got a site up and running for us and we managed to get set up and have some friendly conversation with the neighbors before dark.

I noticed while taking the car off the dolly that one of the, not so great anyway, tires was real low on air. So....

The next day was spent doing function things. We had to do laundry and decided to have it done in town, twenty miles away in Panama City. While going there I decided to get new tires for the dolly and have that ready to go, no more worries. After a bit I found a company that sold almost my size tires and got them mounted while we were doing the laundry. It is days like this when my romantic version of this trip has a tendency to slip away a little and I have to actively recreate a vision of what I want this trip to be and accept that things are going to happen and that's all part of it. There is a theme for me in here! I am still discovering how to be with things when they don't work out the way I think they should. Probably no real surprise for some of you but an on going source of surprise for me. GO figure!

That all went well enough. We now have clean clothes and new dolly tires. We spend the next day lounging a bit and cleaning house and playing some B Ball and walking on the beach. But a cold front is moving in and my body has finally acclimated, to some degree, and it feels cold with the stiff wind blowing from the Gulf. We make the best of it but, Megan and Jasper both voice their dislike of the place we are staying. As we travel around, we find, certain places have a very different feel. Some are OK to visit, some are OK to stay at and others are you have got to be kidding me, no way we are stopping or staying.

We loaded up the car on the dolly after dark that last night. There were weather reports of severe thunder storms and hail for the morning and they aren't kidding when they say severe. They predicted 60 mph winds and we got then along with a sizable downpour. We were very glad we had already loaded and closed up.

We got on the rod then heading for Big Lagoon, inside the city limits of high class Pensacola. This park is beautiful and very limited in camping (75 sites), well maintained and very friendly.

I want to let you know that Florida just a fabulous job of maintaining and operating all of the sate parks. It has been an extreme pleasure, consistently, to stay in them. You can count on them for there stated attributes and beyond. All of the rangers and other employees have been so friendly and helpful as well as the volunteer park hosts. Hope you get the chance to enjoy them your self some time.

On the way here we stopped at another day use state park called Eden Gardens. I will leave you with some of the photos of this beautiful, once privately owned, estate.

I have to go know to meet the welder who is repairing our tow dolly with the new tires. If came apart on the way over to Pensacola.

"The difference between an adventure and an atrocity is attitude"

St. George Island

Saturday Morning we left Lake City and continued actually heading true West for the time on this trip. We headed to St. George Island on the pristine, emerald coast of the Gulf of Mexico in northern Florida. We stayed on the Island in the same named state park. One of the nicest we have been in. Unfortunately we could only get one night there.

Megan and I were sick from food poisoning all day Saturday but I was so struck by it that by noon on Saturday all I could do was lie down. I was hammered by it all night until 4:30 AM Sunday when it finally had run its course....

As you can see by the picture, our being affected by food poisoning didn't stop Jazz from enjoying "one of the best Smore's he has ever had."

This left me, finally, able to move and to make a concerted attempt to enjoy some of the time on this (what I had heard until this moment) beautiful island. So, on Sunday morning we headed down to the beach and sat in the fold out chairs until noon. We then went and broke camp and got out of our site but returned to the beach for the rest of the afternoon. We met and Dad and Son, on the beach, from Tallahassee who had been camping there for the weekend. We hung with them and the the kids enjoyed swimming and exploring in the salty gulf waters. At around 3:30 we headed to the RV to head out west a bit further over to Mexico Beach, Florida as we head on and aiming to be out of Florida by Mid Week. The water and sand and bright clear sky's and the reasonably limited population of tourist in these coastal towns make them perfect spots to be in the winter.

"I think if you click on it you can enlarge it"
If you look just to the left and over the top of Jasper's friend Jake you can see one of the many dolphins that swim by just 50 feet or so off shore. The boys actually got to within 15 feet of them but I wasn't there to get the picture. You can see it on the Picassa site listed in the My Profile section to the upper right of the blog page.

Here is Jazz riding his bike on the beach and obviously thru the shallow tidal pool left just as high tide is starting to come in.

Northern Florida

We are on the move!

It has been a while since we posted as we have been busy in Port St. Lucie as I have previously mentioned. We have completed the things we wanted to do there for Pop and Bud and Megan has had a wonderful opportunity to be with her granddad and they had a truly heart touching moment together just as we were ready to pull away from the house. It made the trip worth while and the parting moment sweeter than any writer or director could have possibly suggested. I will explain in a few moments just what occurred.

Please make sure you check out the picassa picture web site - listed to the right under our info for all of the pictures that I do not get to post along with the stories.

I will just spend a few lines explaining what we were able to get done there and then on to the closing moment. It feels so completely great that we were able to help out. We are satisfied that what we did made a big difference for all of them living in that house. So...

We picked out and assembled a shower chair and a raised toilet seat with arms on both sides to allow Pop the ability to get up and down without getting stuck any more. A little dignity is nice. We also repaired the toilet that had been leaking for who knows how long.

We painted all of the gables on the exterior of the house. All of the areas where we painted have not been touched in about 30 years. We also painted the storage sheds out side that contain all of the tools and supplies that we normally put in basements or garages. (They have neither). We also painted five large exterior rolling racks/bookshelves that house plants and other decorations within the screened in pool area. We cleaned up outside by removing old electrical panel boxes and conduits that had been abandoned since the hurricanes several years ago. I patched the concrete block areas that became exposed as a result, as well. We also got rid of some things that were being stored outside of the sheds for various reasons but of no use.

Inside, we stripped the wall paper off of the main hall bathroom walls, patched and prepped the walls and ceiling, primed and finished painted them. We also hung new towel bars. In bedroom three we cleaned and finished painted the walls and trim a nice light sage green. In bedroom two, we cleaned and finish painted the walls a real light yellow. Then Bud cleaned the carpets. This gave us the opportunity to clear out the rooms of unwanted belongings and clear space for the move of some of Nancy's furniture over to the house that they will be living in after she and Bud are married in October. We went to her place and brought back her dining room set, framed pictures and paintings, dressers and a real nice futon frame and mattress. We relocated Buds older furniture over to fill the gaps in Nancy's place so it can still be used or rented or whatever.

Back at Pops we set up all the furniture in three rooms and reorganized it to work and hung all of the paintings. We then took on the task of hanging crown moulding in the Kitchen, Dining room and Living room. It is clear to me that we could go around America visiting all of the people we know in many states and do the same thing for them wherever we stayed. How nice is it to have someone come to your house and get the projects that have been waiting on the list for a while organized and completed while you are at work. What seems to happen is that then on the weekends the recipients are so fired up and motivated that we go right thru the weekend getting even more done. It is good for everyone involved. Those of us who like to help and those who enjoy getting the help.

Upon completion of those things we made ready to leave by collecting all of the various items that we had used and spread out throughout the many rooms of the house.

I will complete the story tomorrow. We are heading to St Georges Island on the Gulf tomorrow.

In the mean time here are some of the pictures from today. One of the coolest things we have done to date was to swim in the spring fed swimming holes that are a constant 72 degrees, as the 240+ million gallons a day , of perfectly clear, pristine water that stays underground in the aquifers for up to 40 years before it pushes up to the multitudes of the springs openings throughout Florida and turn into above ground rivers. It is no wonder that Ponce DeLeon thought these were the "Fountains Of Youth".

Jasper, eventually, became very brave and got off of his tube and swam with us in the crystal clear, constantly 72 degree water from the aquifer. We had a very special time here knowing that these springs have been here for a long, long time and that they were still here for us to experience.







The final piece I wanted to add to this story was the last minutes just before leaving Port St Lucie. Megan went in to Pops room to say good bye to him even though he seemed to still be sleeping. She stood by the side of the bed just gazing at him as if saying her goodbye in silence. Soon Jasper joined by her side as they bid him so long. As if noticing them there as he slept he gently awoke. He looked up and asked her what was going on. Megan told him that we were leaving and that she wanted to say good bye to him before we left. He asked "Where are you going?" She explained that we were heading off on the rest of our trip to travel across the US and into Alaska. He looked up at her and exclaimed, "really, wow! When are you coming back?"
I don't know exactly when we will return. We expect to be out on the road for the rest of the year," Megan told him. He looked at her in a gentle way and sweetly said, " Well, I'm sure gonna miss you and I love you a lot." With that Megan became teary and they hugged and kissed and Pop gave Jasper a hug and kiss too. They left the room and Pop drifted off back to rest. A very touching moment for Megan and a perfect closure to our visit.
From there we headed up to Lake City, Fl. This is just outside of High Springs where we experienced the cool spring water shown above. We stayed in this area for three nights and had a perfect viewing spot and miraculously clear skys from our campsite for the Lunar Eclispe on Wednesday night. We sure hope to got to watch this spectacular astronomical event. It was awesome and beautiful. We left lake City on Saturday morning and began our trek West to the panhandle of Florida.

Joe Torre in Vero Beach!

Today, Jazz and I, took off on a sort of quazi planned and hopeful trip up to Vero Beach. We left with a hope of catching up with Joe Torre and getting his autograph as he started a new chapter in his life and career with the Los Angeles Dodgers. They began spring training today at Dodgertown. Today just the pitchers and catchers of the previous year and the hopefuls for the up coming year all met to begin their bids for the starting lineup for the new season.
"The grass feels really good and cool," Jazz said, as his he accidentally had a shoe slip off while we were standing there watching and he immediately said, "Dad, take your shoes off and feel this grass. Is this real!"
I asked a guy standing in the shade if he had seen Joe Torre this morning. He told me that he had and that he was still way up in the north field. We turned and headed to towards that field in order to increase our chances of getting a picture and his signature. For the occassion I had, somewhat inappropriately, worn my old Official Yankees Cap for him to sign if we got that close. As we got closer to the field where he was reported to be, it became obvious that he was in fact there. It had to be him, surrounded by the mutiltude of fans pressing him up against the fence at his back, just outside the diamond where some of the coaches were about to begin bunting practice. (NO one even noticed that going on)
The scene was just a little brutal as the grown men pushed in and shoved, quite physically, to get their chance to say Hi to Joe, wish him encouragement (as if their comments alone would make his season completely successful) and have the wide variety of baseball paraphernalia signed by one of baseballs legends, as he began his new seasons away from the ongoing controversy of New York and the current congressional hearings that have been creating a black spot for baseball of late.
Standing in the crowd and not being pushy, I tired my best to get my hat close enough for him to see and sign. Feeling as though my efforts were not going to work, I also tried having Jazz get in close enough, straight thru the closed off group of big guys, who had little regard for the fact that he was even there, as he got pushed around and shoved as they jockeyed for position, as soon as one lucky person moved from the front of the group. I made a few semi loud comments for certain guys, to watch out for him and to not get him hurt, but it all but fell on deaf ears. I pulled Jasper back to protect him.
The next thing I know, Jazz is standing right behind Joe and calling to me and signaling me to give him the hat and marker by his reaching for it. He evidently went to the left and squeezed in along the fence to get in perfect position right next to Torre. I handed him the gear knowing that a kid had a much better chance of breaking rank and size. And just as I did, we heard Joe say, "I really have to go now and get to work." I thought for a second that we might just miss this opportunity to get what we came for but in that moment Torre turned and saw Jazz standing there with the Yankee cap in hand and raised in his direction. He took the cap and signed it for him and as he did I snapped the picture to the right. (You can see the cap being signed and Jaspers head in the lower left corner of the picture.) Jazz came out of the group and over to me. We were both really happy and satisfied for having gotten the signature we came for on this special day.
I imagine I was probably more estactic than Jazz for just having a deeper sense of what was going on and knowing and appreciating who the guy is and having watched him for the past decade and a half in New York. Also there was this little repeat of history going on that really moved me to misty eyes, crackling voice and joy in this very moment.
Back when I was 8 years old my Dad brought me to some field in either Fort Lauderdale or Miami for my first glimpse of a spring training team and field. At that field, that morning, I walked up towards a fence with many people gathered around and pushing and shoving for positon just like they were on this very beautiful day in February at Dodgertown Field. The only difference is that it was 1963 and that there was a man that I had only heard of and had never actually seen, sitting on a chair on the inside the field behind the backstop fence to the right of home plate. The man was none other than Casey Stengal. As I got close enough to the fence where we could actually see each other, I got pushed to the side by a guy who was very enthusiastic to get into the gap that appeared above the heads of the taller guys waiting in the area. (My shortness in the group apparently made it look as if there was a gap between Casey and the fence and he was looking to get into the gap) As I got moved to the side Casey stopped the signing and asked people to stop shoving and wait while spoke with this young fella. He signed my score card that was printed with the list of players on the field that day. He talked to me for a minute or so and gently wished me well as he handed the signed card back to me thru the fence link.
Jaspers experience was much less tramatic when he actually got next to Joe Torre. He was feeling successful and reacting to his Dad's apparent happiness about getting the cap signed. So when I told him that I really would love to get a full frontal picture of Joe with him, he simply said, "do you want me to go back up there?" I told him that if he thought he could get there easily that that would be great. So he just walked back to the same side angle that he went in the first time through and I just followed him. As Joe was really trying to leave this time, Jasper patted him on the back, facing him and looking directly at him, he asked if he could take a picture with him. Joe reached down and placed his hand around Jaspers head and gently turned him towards me to stage the picture for us. I snapped it , we thanked him for taking the time and we left feeling satisfied and complete. Knowing all of the bad press that baseball is going through right now, it was a sincere pleasure to meet up yet again with one man who has the presence of a true hero. That is how he appeared to each one of us in that group. He is truly gracious and kind in a time when it is most appropriate. We are thankful for this shining moment and example of a great man!

"Writers Wanted"

I have embarked on a writing path as part of the fun of this trip we are on. I have started writing the first book and have conceptualized three others to date. Thus I have attracted and met several people who are on similar paths and doing writing for fun and some for pay. Some of us are interested in starting an online writers group.
This group would be primarily to support each other in our writing and to offer a place where we could share our writing projects or pieces as they progress or prior to submission for publication (if that is your goal).
The guidelines are not set and we could form them as a group. We will most likely not have more than 5 of us in the group to keep the time committment to an effective level as we meet online and share. The one thing that the online format offers is that we are not required to be in the same place at the same time in order to hear or review the written pieces. We will most likely have a requirement to write something each week and to review someones or each persons work each week and send comments back to that person thru the group email process.
I would certainly enjoy doing this project and am looking to get started as soon as possible. I have three people so far and am looking for two more to join the group. If you or someone you know would like to be a part please email me at bill@adaptbuilders.com as soon as you can so we can get it rolling.
Thanks in advance for your participation and I look forward to hearing from you