Archive for Uncategorized
December 8, 2006 at 9:31 am · Filed under Uncategorized
To my mind, the pace of life should slow down in a place like Bahia Honda. I wish I could take a pure vacation but work obligations will not allow that, so I’ve done the most I can by working early in the morning and late at night.
I’ve said before how useful the ranger talks are at state and national parks. So I “rescued” Brad from his late-morning drowse and we headed over to the old bridge to hear about the old Keys railroad financed by Henry Flagler from 1905 to 1912. It’s another great railroad debacle story like the one I heard in Anza-Borrego State Park last January. The railway is gone now. Route 1 covered it, and the only vestiges are some abandoned bridges.
There are nice beaches at Bahia Honda, and they are quiet this time of year. We took a picnic cooler and spent the afternoon wading through the shallow waters. Despite cold weather virtually everywhere else in the continental US, the Keys have once again been in the low 80s. I’ll be sorry to start heading north again so soon.
Brad and Mary came over last night for dinner. Brad has some experience in the restaurant world, and so he’s a handy cook. We let him do some of the work last night…
… while Mary and Emma played games and watched a little “Pinky & the Brain” on the big new screen.
We have debated whether to try to get another day here in Bahia Honda. The consensus seems to be that we won’t try, because we have a few stops we want to make on the way back up to Tampa and we don’t want to rush. Our schedule is being driven by airline tickets to depart Tampa on Monday. We’ll be flying to Vermont for what Emma calls “fake Christmas” for a week. After the sun and balmy weather here on the Keys, arriving in Vermont will be a shock indeed.
December 6, 2006 at 7:47 am · Filed under Uncategorized
John Pennekamp State Park is the home of America’s first underwater park, and the only reefs in the continental US too. So it’s not surprising that snorkeling and scuba diving are the two most popular activities here.
I had tried to snorkel here a few years ago, but was stymied by bad weather. This time things looked better, so I carried my gear from the trailer over to the park’s shop for the noon boat. (Since the tourists have not begun to arrive in large numbers yet, reservations weren’t necessary.)
My buddy on the trip turned out to be a French man who was in town for a convention of polymer chemists. He spoke little English and I speak very little French. Perfect. I had fun trying to translate the Captain’s speech about coral protection, reef fish, inflatable vests, and Man O’War jellyfish. I learned the French word for jellyfish, then promptly forgot it.
The reef is about five miles offshore. The trip out, winding through canals of mangrove, is visually interesting and fun, especially in a fast twin-diesel turbine boat. Unfortunately, out in the open water the seas were running 3-4 feet, which is too choppy for snorkeling. Also, I suffer from mal de mer, as I explained it to my snorkel buddy, and once they anchored the boat at Grecian Rocks reef, the motion began to get to me. I got in the water fast.
On the reef the waves were 1-2 feet, acceptable for snorkeling. It still was a bit rough but, hey, I was out there, I’d spent $31, and being in the 78 degree water was a lot nicer than sitting on a pitching and rocking boat for 90 minutes. Besides, my French snorkel buddy needed me. He didn’t know the signal to come back to the boat when time was up.
Hey, aren’t you supposed to have top of the tube above the water?
We saw colorful reef fish of all types, conch, several types of coral, and even a Spanish cannon. (My French associate Jack provided all these pictures from his underwater digital camera. I took many others with a film camera but haven’t developed it yet.)
I was thrilled to see a two-foot long grouper capture and eat a 4″ long reef fish right in front of me. (I guess the colorful disguise didn’t help that little guy.) But I didn’t see some of the creatures that I had hoped for, including nurse sharks and stingrays.
Eleanor and Emma checked out the two beaches that are here in the park. Like most of the Upper Keys, Key Largo has no natural beaches, so the only ones you will find are man-made and quite small. They could have gone snorkeling off the beach over a reproduction (!) of a Spanish wreck, but the water close to shore was too turbid from the wave action today. It was also Art & Crafts day — they made jewelry for Christmas gifts. The trailer is filled with colorful beads and silver wire.
I would have liked to have taken them with me, but Emma is not ready for a snorkel boat yet. She needs to get out of the habit of standing up everytime she sees something underwater. The coral is too fragile for that.
We’ve snorkeled four states so far on this trip: Vermont, Maine, Florida, and Texas. Anywhere the water is clear, we’ll go take a look. Any suggestions?
December 3, 2006 at 6:54 am · Filed under Uncategorized
On the road again, and it feels good! We towed the Airstream down to Ft De Soto for the afternoon, and met Brett, and another Airstream couple, Terry & Marie, at our “day camp” by the North Beach. They brought motor scooters, so I got to take one out and give Emma a ride.
One of the neat things about taking your Airstream to Ft De Soto is that you can park on the bay at several points, on reasonably firm sand.
Our next stop was the Sunshine Skyway South Fishing Pier, across Tampa Bay. Readers of the Vintage Thunder blog last year may recall we’ve been here before. It’s a neat spot for an overnight. Bert & Janie drove out to join us for the evening, just to see what it’s like. They may bring their Airstream next time.
Bert interviews some fishermen on the Skyway Pier
After sunset Bert and I went down the pier to try to get some night shots of the nearby Sunshine Skyway Bridge. I like how this bridge looks like a sailing ship at night, but it’s tough to get a decent shot even with a tripod. We were at it with two Nikons and long lenses, for half an hour.
It has been a quiet, if damp, night on the pier. Being over the water, a mile from shore, it is naturally very humid. But the temperatures have been perfect and as I type this, the sun is rising to give a pink and blue start to the day. We’ll tow south today, either to Naples, the Everglades, or the Keys, depending on how it goes.
Our Google Earth position on the Skyway Pier.
December 2, 2006 at 10:17 am · Filed under Uncategorized
We are departing for Ft De Soto today, where we’ll meet a few other Airstreamers before we start heading further south. Eleanor is rushing to get a load of laundry done while we pack up. Yesterday we did the car maintenance, which was limited to an oil change and a wash.
I’ve been reading more travel books. It’s becoming a compulsion. A few weeks back I re-read the lively story by Anthony Bourdain called “A Cook’s Tour.” Bourdain is a hilarious writer with the gritty realistic viewpoint of someone who has spent his career in the modern equivalent of a 16th century ship’s belowdecks: a restaurant kitchen. In the kitchen, it’s a strict authoritarian system, where if the chef says “Fall on your sword,” you fall on your sword and then get up and make a perfect grilled seafood medley.
His book is about his travels around the world on behalf of the Food Network, for a TV show he hosted. It’s not politically correct (his rants about vegetarianism are particular brutal), it’s not G-rated, and it’s not predictable. If you can deal with those things, it is a lot of fun to read.
My current book is “Blue Highways,” by William Least Heat Moon, which is considered a classic by many travel readers. The book feels aimless at first, as the author takes off in his “basic plumber’s van” in the aftermath of his marriage, and seeks out the smallest and most oddly-named towns he can find. Then you realize it’s meant to be aimless — reflecting the author’s voyage and purpose. Along the way, he meets a cast of characters who are too diverse and honest to be anything but real. It’s Kerouc, mellowed out and slowed down, in the late 1970s.
You might have guessed that I’ve been reading travel books to inspire myself to write up our story in a book format. I took a crack at it last August, but threw out 80+ pages of draft in October because it wasn’t what I was hoping for. With an appreciation of the various styles of people like Capt Joshua Slocum and William Least Heat Moon, and the stories of Magellan and Wally Byam, I hope to eventually strike upon the style that will work for our extended trip.
We are neither Magellan nor Byam, not sailing the world like Slocum, or interviewing locals like Least Heat Moon. We are not in search of the perfect meal like Bourdain — nor any form of perfection. When I can adequately answer the question of why we are out here, I think then I’ll be ready to write the book.
December 1, 2006 at 10:29 am · Filed under Uncategorized
Our Tampa visit is winding down. Today we are finalizing a few last things and starting to pack up. One of the last projects to get done is the installation of our new shelves.
Click for larger
They are a huge bonus for our storage. Right now you can see the laser printer sitting in the upper slide-out tray. Most of the time that tray will hold a bin for recycling, and the lower shelf will hold another bin for laundry.
The laser printer will go in when we are in a campground that doesn’t offer recycling (all too often, I’m afraid), and when we are parked for long periods. (The laser printer travels in the back of the Armada.) Below the shelves we have room for shoes, and on the left are a series of hooks that hold headlamps and rally badges. This really improves our space utilization.
On the top of the counter you can see a series of terra cotta object sculpted and painted by Emma: an “boy with a hat”, a basket, an “experiment pod”, and a hamburger. By the way, she lost a tooth last night … her third one.
This will be our last night in Bay Bayou!
November 29, 2006 at 10:32 am · Filed under Uncategorized
Our days have been consumed with work lately — the curse of the working traveler — so we’ve been spending a lot of time inside instead of out having adventures. This isn’t so bad right now, because the temperatures and humidity have been slowly building all week and today it may be more comfortable inside with the A/C on.
Yesterday Eleanor found a chrome shelving unit that looks like it will suit our needs under the new countertop we installed at Barry’s. We did some initial test-fitting last night and will finalize it later this week, after we borrow a hacksaw to shorten the legs. I’ll post photos of the finished project.
Brett showed up last night to help with that, and also to finish up some wiring for the new LCD TV. We’ve now snaked the wires through the wall so that the TV installation looks nice and clean, and everything is ready for installation of an inverter in the overhead bin later. Once I find a good “pure sine wave” 300-watt inverter I’ll wire it up, and this will allow us to watch the big TV when boondocking. (I want to get a pure sine wave inverter so I can also use it to power the laser printer once in a while.)
In addition to having an Official Magazine (which I am proud to say is Airstream Life), and an Official Bicycle (Birdy Bikes), I bet you didn’t know that Airstream has an Official Coffee.
I found this out a few months ago when we spotted Silver Joe’s Coffee giving out free samples at the International Rally last July in Salem OR. So we bought some to give it a try. (You gotta have all the Airstream “stuff”, right?)
Silver Joe’s gets the Emma Seal of Approval
November 28, 2006 at 8:07 am · Filed under Uncategorized
In St Petersburg there’s a bit of old Florida called “Ted Peter’s Smoked Fish”. For forty years they’ve been smoking fish over red oak there, and serving the fish up with platters of German potato salad, coleslaw, thick slices of onion & tomato, mustard sauce and a dill pickle. It’s a pungent taste treat that’s a real relief from the “same old” restaurants.
We went there last night with Brett. Eleanor and I split a smoked mahi mahi dinner plate and Brett got the smoked mullet. The portions are very big … Eleanor and I had leftovers from our shared dinner, but that didn’t stop us from ordering the excellent Key Lime Pie to split with Emma.
By the way, if you go to a Florida restaurant and the Key Lime Pie is green, or looks like meringue, or has the consistency of cheesecake, it’s not right. The good stuff is tart, yellowish, and will absolutely amaze your tongue with its taste. Ted Peters has some of the best we’ve ever had. Since we are headed to the Keys next week, we’ll have to see if we can top it. In fact, I could see turning this trip into a mission to sample the country’s best Key Lime Pie …
We found Ted Peters last year courtesy of “One Tank Trips” by Bill Murphy. If you come to Florida and want to find fun things to do, check Bill’s book.
It looks like another beautiful day in Tampa. The temperatures have risen and we are getting nice weather in the upper 70s and low 80s now. I wish I didn’t have to spend so much time working at my computer, but at least with the windows open on the Airstream, and a gentle breeze blowing through, it makes for a nice day in the office.
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