New England #2

Well it’s Friday morning, and I didn’t get to write last night. We ended up driving late again and by the time we got back from dinner it was time to watch a little tube and crash. First thing I wanted to relate was a great story Vickie told me yesterday. It was about when we were checking into the Country Inn and Suites day before. It took quite a while to check in, but I never asked cause I was sitting on the porch in a rocking chair, contented. Seems as though when Vickie went in to check in, there was an alarm going off, and the girl was on the phone trying to handle it. She told Vickie she was the only one there so she would have to wait. During the lengthy process, a woman happened to walk down the stairs from the second floor (of three). The girl turned to the lady and nonchalantly said, "There’s not a fire up there is there?" The woman replied she hadn’t seen one, and the girl turned to Vickie and said, "Good that saves me from having to check." Safety first of course but then what about the 3^rd floor? If I’m the one trapped in my room on the 3^rd floor while this girl asks any old passer buy the status of the fire, I hope the passer buy has at least been on the top floor. (Unlikely since the stairs came from the middle of the 2^nd floor and most folks from the 3^rd use the elevator or the stairs on the end of the building.) Oh well you get the picture, I was feeling very safe knowing this girl was on the job. Vickie said later when she went to get some change, she could hardly tear the slug away from the TV long enough to accommodate. Back to the trip.

Yesterday morning we utilized the great pool and hot tub at the Inn, and partook of their advertised "Hot Breakfast". Turned out to be quite a spread. We went from Best Western the day before with nothing, to $25 less with indoor pool and breakfast at the Inn. The breakfast was the standard "Continental" fare, but added the ubiquitous make it your self waffles plus some scrambled eggs and sausage patties in a steam pan. The eggs were a little rubbery and the sausage had a curious texture. However, both tasted pretty good, and if you are a big breakfast eater sort of rounded out the all carb fare that the normal "Continental" presents. We departed uneventfully, and traveled across Rt. 209 toward Stroudsburg PA and the Delaware Water Gap. Along the way we stopped in Jim Thorpe PA. This is an interesting little town that changed it’s name from Maul Chunk to Jim Thorpe after collecting nickels weekly from the residents to build a shrine to entomb the remains of the great athlete. Turns out Old Jim never even visited Maul Chunk alive. Very enterprising of the civic leaders to buy a dead athlete and rename the city after him. Leaving Jim Thorpe, we drove over the mountain (literally) and came down into Packerton PA. I saw a sign that said Flagstaff view which looked interesting, so I turned UP. We went straight up for about 3 miles and ended up back on top of the mountain overlooking Jim Thorpe we had just left. As we explored, a very nice lady said "Do you want to see the ballroom and deck?" She led us inside, and began explaining this mountain top, all wood ballroom was built in 1914 and that Jimmie Dorsey and His Orchestra were the house band for many years. She said Frank Sinatra and Teresa Brewer had performed there. The Flagstaff Ballroom was a beautiful old relic with an incredible view of the Lehigh Valley. What a find, glad I turned at the Flagstaff view sign. Later we stopped at a palatial PA visitor’s center near where I-80 and Rt. 209 cross in Strou dsburg. We got the lowdown on all that was to do in the area and headed out. We drove down to see the famous bridge that connects PA to NJ across the Deleware river. We then strolled across the pedestrian bridge to view the river. It was beautiful and the fish were frolicking everywhere. We rode a lot with the roof down, and headed up through the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area. We stopped for a short hike to see Dunwoddie Falls which turned out to be worth the walk. After the park, we looked at our time and decided we could push on a little further, so we set our sights on New Paltz NY. The GPS listed several motels there and it seemed like a reasonable distance. Vickie said something about four colleges being there, but I didn’t think much about that. (1^st mistake) Turned out when we got to New Paltz, it was bumper to bumper traffic, and a lot of congestion. I decided the place was too congested for our liking so we pushed on to Poughkeepsie, which listed n umerous motels. Unbeknownst to us (but probably knownst to many), when coming into Poughkeepsie across the FDR Hudson Bridge, you have to take the first right as soon as you cross the bridge cause that’s where every motel in the city is. I’m sure you can see what’s coming---it was the middle of rush hour—a million cars---we didn’t turn---found ourselves on the far side of Poughkeepsie with no motel. Rather than go back through the city, we broke out the laptop, and searched for the next possibility. It looked pretty bleak, but New Milford CT. listed some motels and was on route 7 the route we came to drive. So even though it would put us late, we headed out to there. The drive was very interesting and as we came into town we passed a couple of old motels. We rode on looking for the motel district—well it never came. New Milford has all the normal stuff, Wally Mart, Home Depot, McDonalds, Auto Zone, etc. etc. but surprisingly no motels. I finally stopped and asked a nice Pakistani s hopkeeper if there were any motels anywhere. We sort of did charades and I ascertained there were some back 3 miles past the powerhouse and big flag. Turns out these were the old ones we passed coming into town. We stopped at the first one the Red River Inn and Vickie inquired for a room. She said they had 2 for 2 different prices and she was going to look at them. One was in the "old building" and one was in the "new building". She ended up taking the one in the new building and we proceeded to unload. We are not motel snobs, and have stayed in many a little old strip motels, especially out West. Turns out the reason she took the new building was cause it was the most amazing motel room you’ve ever seen. It made up for all the travails we had been through during the day. It was brand new, and a sort of mini suite with a huge bathroom, main room, and little office with desk for yours truly. It was decorated in sort of "Pakistani Modern" which has to bee seen to be believed. We took a lot of pictures. But what was amazing was the amenities. On the wall was a 45" plasma TV, and there was a stainless ice bucket and a stainless tray with real glass glasses and coasters. We had a refrigerator, microwave, and huge closet. In the bathroom were a selection of herbal soaps and ointments and the bed king size and comfortable beyond belief. We relaxed a while in our suite at the Pakistani Ritz, then headed out for dinner. We ended up at The Cook House that was recommended to me by the owners son. The menu offered up all manner of stuff, but the specialty appeared to be barbecue. In fact according to them it was voted the best barbecue in Connecticut by the NY Times. Somehow when I think barbecue, Connecticut and the NY Times don’t jump readily to mind. Vickie decided to try though, and ordered up ½ a rack of baby backs. I went for the meatloaf which looked interesting. While we were waiting on dinner I had a PERFECT Bloody Mary. I say this because I have sampled house Bloody Marys all over the US and many other places, often to be very disappointed. (especially Applebee’s which I consider to be the all time worst) Also while waiting on dinner we sampled their "Sauces" They had Mild, Hot, Scary, and North Carolina Style. They all tasted pretty good, but I’ve had hotter than their "Scary", labeled Mild in our part of the country. Dinner came, and the food was good—not great, but good. The ribs were nothing to write home about---Pigs Are Us in Martinsville could run them out of business in a month. The meatloaf was interesting---they brought me a piece about the size of a Volkswagen topped with a large wad of horseradish mashed potatoes, with some brown gravy drooled around. The vegetable of the day was a corn-red pepper-onion sauté that was excellent. The service was poor and I left the dolt a $2 tip. (big enough so he would know I didn’t forget, but also small enough to let him know I wasn’t impressed) We went back to the room and plasma screened ourselves to sleep. More Later.

Wes

New England #1

Well here we are on the road again. How this happened is sort of crazy. Monday morning I was reading my new Auto Week and read an article about an interesting "drive" that followed Route 7 up through Connecticut and Vermont. I walked in the dining room and asked Vickie if she wanted to go to Connecticut. She said, when, and I said tomorrow. Well, we were scheduled to go to my doctor that afternoon, (in Winston-Salem an hour away) to get the stitches out of my knee after my surgery last week. (Arthroscopic, to fix problems that developed after my last hip replacement) I said my knee felt good and if the doctor agreed, I was ready for a road trip cause I was tired of sitting on the couch reading Clive Cussler under the influence of strong drugs. She said ok with trepidation, and we set off for the doctor’s office. Got to the doctor (oh and by the way he’s a car guy) and he agreed that a road trip would be just the medicine I needed. So on the way home we started planning. It seeme d like a million things to do, but we took them one at a time and to make a long story short—ended up on the road late Tuesday afternoon. We drove to South Boston and took Rt. 360 North to Rt. 15 to Farmville, VA. Our GPS told us there was a Comfort Inn on the other side of Farmville exactly the way we were going. We rode past several motels when passing through Farmville and on to the other side where the GPS said we should stop but there was no sign of a motel. I’m not one to back track unless it’s necessary---so we pressed forward. I said "I’m sure there will be something down the road", but there was nothing. Looking at the map Rt. 522 (which we were on at this point) crossed I-64 down the road and I was sure there would be some motels there. Wrong again! Bottom line we ended up driving late (after dark, which is way unusual for us). Finally found probably the last room in Culpepper, VA at a Best Western for way too much money and no continental breakfast. (Us being the experts of the "Continental Breakfast") But I was tired, and several motels in the same area were already full. (What gives with this on a Tuesday in September in Culpepper, VA?) We landed, did our usual unloading routine, and checked out the bar, which also served food. Turned out the bar had really great food. We ordered "She Crab Soup" and 2 spoons along with a steak salad for me and a Caesar salad for Vickie. We also partook of some fine Yungling beverages and some great cheese spread with assorted breadsticks and crackers. The "She Crab Soup" arrived, and it was to die for. Creamy with tender crabmeat, a tomatoey cream sauce, with a hint of sherry. We shared that and soon the salads arrived. Mine was huge with beautiful strip steak slices medium rare, tomatoes, onions, hardboiled eggs, and great dressing. Vickie’s Caesar was exactly to her liking as well. Turned out to be a wonderful surprise at the end of a pretty hectic day. We went back to the room and crashed. In the morning we d id our normal up-coffee-shower-pack-load and vamoose routine. (Oh and by the way for those of you keeping track, this Best Western got the curved shower rod right) We were wondering tonight if the guy who invented the curved shower rod patented it. I hope he did cause every motel chain is copying the idea that started at Holiday Inn Express. We elected to pass up the over priced breakfast at the Best Western and headed down the road a little and found the Culpepper Diner. Had a great breakfast with all the attending local color, gassed up the Vette, and were on our way. We followed Rt. 522 up through the dairy country across West VA, MD, and into PA. At the PA Welcome Center we stopped and picked up an assortment of the ubiquitous motel coupon books and a detailed PA map. Along the way we decided to go topless. Temp was 76° and the day was beautiful. Since we were on the back roads rolling along about 55 ish it was like convertible heaven. Turned out to be a beautiful trip with many picturesque small towns and about a million miles of cows and corn. We ended up landing in Frackville, PA (or so we thought). We did our usual cruise around to find a motel with WiFi so we could get on the Internet in their parking lot and check out places to stay. Couldn’t find an accessible network, so we ended up in the McDonalds parking lot and paid a couple of bucks to get on their network for a 2-hr. hunk. (We decided we needed to join the McDonalds network later, cause they are everywhere, and we can get on from their parking lot). We did some research and finally headed to the Country Inn and Suites one exit down I-81 toward Harrisburg. We had a coupon from "the books" that gave us a good rate and they advertised a heated indoor pool, hot tub, and hot breakfast. We got off on exit 119 from I-81 and could see the inn up on the hill. Turned out to be quite a circuitous route to get to the place, but we are quite happy with the accommodations. While waiting in the parking lot for Vickie to register us I noted a great front plate on a Mercedes in the lot. It said "Latitude and Longitude-----To Boldly Relax Where No Man Has Relaxed Before" (a cross between Jimmy Buffet and Star Trek) We moved in, mixed one up, changed into swimsuits, and headed for the pool. We had a nice session soaking my knee in the hot tub and then doing some water aerobics in the pool that we had all to ourselves. After swimming, we found that there was an Italian restaurant (Di Maggio’s) that delivered to this motel, which is basically in the middle of nowhere. We ordered up some Tortellini Alfredo, Veal Parmigiana with angel hair pasta, bread, 2 salads, and 2 stuffed Cannoli for dessert (a first for Vickie). I waded into my writing, and the food arrived fairly soon—piping hot and delicious. We enjoyed our "room service" and now are planning our route for tomorrow. We plan to head from here through the Delaware Water Gap to Port Jervis, NY and on to somewh ere in Connecticut where we will land for the evening. Now full of great Italian food, and a couple of adult beverages, it’s looking like time to read a little and drift off to road trip dreamland. More later.

Wes

Kitty Hawk #3

Wednesday we got up, and hung around a while. I took advantage of the time to put a good hurting on a Tom Clancy novel I was reading. After everyone had breakfast, we paid a visit to the Wright Bros. Memorial. We had a nice visit there, and then decided to take a ride south to see the Cape Hatteras lighthouse. Turned out to be a little farther than we had planned (about 120 miles round trip), but it was a beautiful day, and the scenery was great. We were amazed at how everything here had developed. There were huge cottages everywhere you looked. What used to be barren sand dunes is now cottage development. We visited the lighthouse but decided to forego the climb to the top, which costs $7.00 and involves stairs numbering in the hundreds. After returning to the condo, we spent a little time at the pool, and grilled some hot dogs. My dad and I had already decided we would go fishing again on Thursday.

Thursday morning, we got up early and hit the pier again. The "blues" were running, and the pier looked like a fish factory. However, we sort of brought a knife to a gunfight. Everyone was fishing on the windward side of the pier, and they were pulling in "blues" as fast as they could throw the lines. We were excited, and baited our hooks for the blues catching. Well we couldn’t buy a bite. Turned out everyone else was using something called a "Gotch Ya" lure. This particular lure must have been like cocaine to fish, cause they were pulling them in like there would never be fish again. We spent several hours trying to catch a fish. Oh and during this time the game warden came by looking in coolers making sure no one exceeded the 10 bluefish per person rule. He looked in our cooler and all we had was some very smelly squid. (I think he laughed, but he disguised it as a cough.) I finally caught one fish, but it was a retarded fish and looked like it had been caught several times b efore. I caught it on a Bass rig that looked like a minnow. I figured he didn’t know his minnows from his "Got Ya(s)". As lunchtime approached, I made the decision that we had to find some "Gotch Ya(s)". We loaded everything in the Tahoe and headed down the road for the bait store. We found the very same "Gotch Yas" at the bait store for $1.99. Two of them joined our fishing armada. After lunch we returned to the fishing pier to try our luck with the newly purchased "Gotch Ya(s)". As it turned out the blue fish had decided to vacate the premises while we were gone. I did manage to catch three using my new found lure technology but Dad caught none. While trying to catch the blue fish, Dad managed to throw half his pole overboard due to the pole joint not being fastened tight enough. However, we were able to retrieve the errant hunk of fiberglass and get him back to full fishing strength. We spent the remainder of the afternoon till about 3pm casting our "Gotch Ya(s)" into a 35-mph w ind. (the fish of course were never on the leeward side—how they know that under water I’ll never know) Finally the wind got too annoying to bear. Having nailed our limit of three fish (which we gave away) I decided that we would call it a day. We returned home, packed everything away, and headed out for a seafood dinner because of our inability to catch anything edible. Once again it was the old Master Card commercial. Who could have known the impact on Americana some advertising weenie could have. Fishing lures $1.99 each etc. etc. etc., fishing with your 86 year old father (and 50 year old tackle box) priceless.

Happy day,

Wes

Kitty Hawk #2

Today is Thursday, and it has been and interesting couple days. Tuesday morning, I picked up my dad to go fishing on the Avalon Pier. We loaded the stuff in the Tahoe, and off we went. We checked in at the pier, and paid our fee ($10.00 for 24 hrs) to an old Jewish guy that looked like he came with the pier. The pier itself was a trip back in time. The entrance building was crammed with a mixture of old fortune telling and strength testing machines, right beside the latest video console stuff. On the entrance was a sign "If you didn’t buy it here you can’t drink it here" but to my observation, it wasn’t exactly enforced. Murray (that’s what I decided to call him) stamped our hands with a red Tuesday, we bought a nice box of frozen calamari (or squid as fishermen call it), and headed out onto the pier. We decided to "rig up" our poles at the table shortly down the pier, to stay out of everyone else’s way. My dad opened a tackle box, that probably rode in our 56 Chevy, and we put on the customary pier bottom fishing rigs. It was at this time the fun started. Somewhere between his car and the pier, the tip grommet had fallen off dad’s pole. Well this wasn’t a tragedy, it still seemed like it would work. So we found a spot, baited up our hooks and "started fishing". It was at this point, I discovered the brand new pole and reel I had brought were totally unsuited to the task at hand. I couldn’t cast it six inches without the line turning into this horrible bird’s nest on the reel. Meanwhile, folks all around us are pulling in little Croakers two at a time. Oh yea, and dad’s pole with the missing grommet, wouldn’t reel up correctly. This is when the old Master Card commercial came into my head. "Pier fishing $10.00, squid $4.50, fishing with dad on the pier, priceless. For everything else there’s MasterCard". (or in my case American Express) I said the heck with this, and we made a 30-minute round trip to Kitty Hawk’s finest Wally Mart for some new poles. Trus t old Sam to think of the fishermen at the Beach. There was a fine assortment of complete fishing outfits for under $20.00. We picked out matching Shakespeare Tiger poles (one red and one black), and headed back to the pier. Things went smoothly from there, with the exception of the fish quit biting and now all we could catch were Skates (small stingrays). I caught eight and dad caught two. They are very heavy and difficult to get off the hook. Interspersed with those, we caught a couple little Croakers. However, something about sitting on the pier and watching the beach world go by grabbed me and didn’t let go. We had fun, and then left to come back later. In the evening, we came back and tried our luck. Again it was wonderful sitting on the pier fishing and watching the sun go down. We caught numerous little croakers, and finally called it a night about 11:30. Turns out, you can show up any time after 11:00 and get on the pier for free till 05:00 when Murray shows up and starts c ollecting the money again. More later.

Wes

Kitty Hawk

Tropical Storm Barry.....

Well here we are at Kitty Hawk NC at the beach. We had an uneventful trip down on Saturday, and it didn’t start raining till Saturday night. I drove my father’s car and Vickie drove the Tahoe with her mother. The place we are staying is quite nice, and other than heart attack stairs getting to the top floor (where the kitchen and living room are) we really like it. I thought my ticker was going to explode before we got all the stuff from the car up to the kitchen. (I brought quite a bit of food from home, to save going to the grocery store all the time. And anyone who knows me knows when I catch something un-perishable on a good sale, I stock up. So I raided my pantry to the tune of a couple big plastic tubs and my freezer for a cooler full.) As usual, something interesting happened on the trip down: I overheard a guy talking on a cell phone about "a storm coming up the coast" I didn’t think any more about it, until it started raining like a cow peeing on a flat rock Saturday ni ght. This place does not have gutters, and the rain was running off the roof like someone was hosing it down with a fire hose. I was busy hoping it was raining at home. I never turned on the news and then Sunday, it was still raining hard, and the surf was pretty severe. I thought to myself, what a storm. Then today, Lorayne, Vickie’s mother told me the whole thing had been a named tropical storm. Shows you what I know. I just thought it was raining quite a bit. Today she showed me where The Weather Channel was on the TV, and we watched the talking heads yammer about the "major storm". I must admit yesterday morning when it was raining so hard we couldn’t see out the windows, I started looking for Jim Cantorini out in the yard doing a live report. But leave it to Wes to be on a barrier island in a tropical storm and not even know it.

Today (Monday) weather is beautiful. It stopped raining about 5:15 am. This afternoon it is hot and all the puddles are gone. Yesterday during a lull in the storm, (sun actually came out) we walked down to the beach and stuck our ankles in the water. It was really cold (like 67 ° ). This morning, we went down to the cottage where my Mom and Dad are staying with some of my kin on my mother’s side. I got to see and meet some of my various cousins (1^st, 2^nd, 3^rd and 4^th) their spouses etc. It was quite interesting, and I found we had quite a few things in common. Miss Vickie, as usual, acted like she had known them all her life. This afternoon, we spent some time putting new line on an ocean type-fishing pole I’ve never used. Tomorrow I’m going fishing on the Avalon Pier with my Dad, ought to be a new adventure. Last time I can remember doing it (fishing on a pier with Dad) would be about 1958 here in Kitty H awk. First time I can remember them bringing us to Kitty Hawk was when we lived in Pittsburgh, and we came down in Dad’s 54 Chevy and it took two days. Rest of the afternoon I think will be spent by the pool with some adult beverages. More later.

Wes

California Day 4 and 5

It’s been a couple of whirlwind days. Yesterday, we went to visit the Queen Mary Exhibits in Long Beach. The Queen Mary was launched in 1936 and was in transatlantic passenger service till WWII started. It was then impounded in New York on the Hudson River for many months, until it was drafted into wartime service as a troop carrying ship. In the beginning it carried 9,500 troops per crossing. (its original compliment was aprox. 3,500 including crew and passengers) To do this they stripped out everything and put in bunks, as many as six high. Then they painted the whole thing battleship grey and blacked out all the windows. The Queen (nicknamed The Grey Ghost) ran across the Atlantic unescorted zigzagging at high speed. It was un-catachable by enemy submarines due to its high speed of 31 plus knots. At one point in time the ship carried a record number of 16,350 troops on one voyage. They described the conditions on the troop crossings, and it was unbelievable. After the war the ship was restored to it’s pre-war grandeur, and returned to passenger service. But soon the advent of jet air travel across the Atlantic spelled the end of opulent steamer service. In the late 60’s, the Queen made her last crossings. Cunnard put her up for sale and the Port of Long Beach successfully bid for her at 3.5 million. The last voyage of the Queen was around the tip of South America up the coast to Long Beach. This is where she sits today as a tourist attraction and hotel. Yesterday we headed down there thinking we would take the water taxi from this side of The Port. Unfortunately California has an off season just like the East coast, and the water taxis only run Sat and Sun until sometime in May. As soon as we figured this out, we got back in the car and drove around to the exhibit area. This turned out to be a good thing, cause it gave us the chance to see the Port of Long Beach (what a busy place) and the remnants of the Long Beach Grand Prix from last weekend. At the ship, we opted for the 1^st class tour, which included two guided tours, the total ship walking tour, and the Ghosts and Legends tour. We very much enjoyed out two guided tours, the guides were very knowledgeable and entertaining. The ship was unbelievably opulent for it’s time, and was like a current day cruise ship, but much more structured. It had 1^st, 2^nd, and 3^rd class passengers. Each class had their respective areas on the ship, and woe be unto the passenger that traveled outside his/her "class". Also interesting was the original teak planking that composed most of the decks. After the two tours, we hiked down to the engine rooms and propeller shaft area (Wes’s must see). It was interesting that this ship had reciprocating steam engines and used the reciprocating exhaust to run low-pressure steam turbines. This was an unusual setup for WWII era (normal is high-pressure turbines only), but was good for the highest speed crossing the North Atlantic of the period. In addition even though Adolph Hitler issued a $250,000 prize to the captain that could find and sink the Queen Mary, she never suffered so much as a scratch from the enemy throughout her whole war career. The last tour we took was called the ghosts and legends tour. It took you deep into the bowels of the ship below the water line. It was akin to a scary theme park ride, but at one point, really brought some things home. We were in the dark in what was the bottom of one of the old boiler rooms, and between sound and special effects, they made it seem like boilers were exploding and steam was flying everywhere. It really made me think about what it must have been like way down below the water line in a WWII ship that had been hit by a torpedo and was sinking. It was really scary. After the Queen, we headed back to Newport Beach and stopped at Joe’s Crab Shack, a restaurant that had been extolled by some folks that Jerry and Brenda had met traveling. F ood was OK but nothing to write home about (no pun intended).

Yesterday (Wednesday) morning, we got up early and as soon as the traffic cleared we headed for Hollywood. We planned to take the Hollywood tour(s) and had booked a VIP tour of Warner Brothers studios. We successfully navigated the bezerko freeway traffic, and arrived in the center of Hollywood. We booked our tour, and then spent some time hanging out in front of Grauman’s Chinese Theater, examining the foot/hand prints and Walk of Fame. Soon we boarded a small bus for a tour of the Hollywood Hills and the Stars’ homes. We lucked up and due to the windy conditions had a very clear day in LA. According to the guide, it was one of the clearest in quite a while. We greatly enjoyed the tour, and saw all manner of famous/infamous sites. (the Guess Jeans guy had 6 Ferrari’s sitting covered up in his driveway) (Also saw James Woods eating along Restaurant Row) The views from Mulholand Drive, overlooking LA, the Hollywood Bowl, and the Hollywood Sign were incredible. After the Hollywood stuff (as we call it "stupid tourist stuff"), we headed cross-town to Burbank for the Warner Brothers VIP tour. This turned out to be super interesting, as we saw all the behind the scenes stuff of many popular TV shows and Movies. Out tour group was very small, so we got to go and see all kinds of cool stuff. On a personal note, at the end of the tour, was talking to a pretty girl who had been on the tour. Turns out she worked for the company that makes the cool hole buttons for Crocks. She gave me one that looks like a Jimmy Buffet parrot head that’s in my shoe as we speak. We finished up our tour and at the suggestion of one of the Warner Brothers tour folks, headed down the street to Bob’s Big Boy, an old style drive-in that had been built in 1947. We ended up having dinner at the Bob’s Big Boy in Hollywood. It was quite a nostalgic trip, and the food was great. After that we freewayed back to our Villa, and crashed. Thursday is planned as an R & R day before a day of flyi ng on Friday.

Yours,

Hollywood Wes

California Day 3

This morning (Monday) they had an "Owners Breakfast" (donuts, fruit, juice and coffee). It was supposed to start at 8:30 and go till 9:30. By the time we got there (around 8:55) it was down to 5 pieces of honeydew, an empty OJ thingie, coffee with no condiments, and a few donut stragglers. (also no plates or napkins) We jockeyed for position around the few remaining donuts with the ravenous pack of children present, and succeeded in scoring a few good doses of fat and flour. Brenda registered us all for the prize drawing at the last moment and Vickie succeeded in winning the grand prize of a $100.00 Spa treatment. We returned to our Villa, and continued to work on something we had been trying, (Jerry’s idea) to get tickets to a Jay Leno show taping. Jerry had written in for tickets a couple of months ago but was not able to get any. He did find out that we could call for tickets the day of the show and if there were any available we could get them. (the tickets are free) However , we had to call exactly between 10:45 and 11:15 a.m. Brenda manned the phone and we scored tickets. We were able to print the tickets in the resort lobby and were all set. We had to be there in line by 3 p.m. in order to get seats. Burbank is about 59 miles from Newport, and involves quite a bit of freeway movin and groovin. We programmed the "Hertz Lady", as we have taken to calling her, to take us where we wanted to go. Jerry drove using his most excellent Detroit driving skills, I navigated, and we flowed with the traffic (at about 80-85 mph.) arriving safely at our destination. California freeway traffic is quite interesting. Interspersed with all the trucks and semi normal drivers, you have the crazies flying in and out of traffic passing us like we were stopped. (and we were doing 80) You also have the other crazies that are driving 80 reading the paper and talking on the cell phone. Meanwhile the speed limit is 65 or 55 depending on where you are. We commented we probably s aw more cars in our 1 hr trip today than pass through Martinsville in a year. We all agreed this helps us remember why we don’t want to live in a big city. It also really emphasizes the mind set difference between the sprawling West Coast folks and us backward small town Easterners. These folks literally live in their cars. (Oh and regular gas is currently $3.45/gal here.) We arrived at the NBC studio in plenty of time and took our place in line to wait for entrance. We had the interesting experience of standing in line behind a fellow who knew everything there was to know about everything. He seems to have invented the moon rocket, personally knows all the past and present astronauts, is currently producing documentaries for Discovery, when young used to fly to Atlanta for breakfast and Idaho for a grilled cheese sandwich, circled in a plane over the Spruce Goose when it was towed to Long Beach, consulted with Werner Van Braun on rocket propulsion, knows where Dick Clarks office b uilding is, and showed Jerry the fire truck Jay Leno drove to work this morning. His partner is the Executive Vice President of Baldwin Productions who supposedly produced Sahara, Crash, and Ray. He talked to several of the astronauts Friday, and shared his 25 anniversary with Wally Schirra who was celebrating his 60^th, whose wife is not doing too well, and gave us all the up to date info on the Long Beach Grand Prix and the Queen Mary which was built by the same company as the Titanic, so you can see exactly how things were on the Titanic. We were certainly impressed. In fact Vickie looked like the RCA Dog and His Master’s Voice. After our lecture on everything there was to know about everything, we proceeded through the airport-like security, and ended up with great seats for the show. The set was very cold and we were all literally shivering. (Note to self, wear a coat and hat when you go to a TV show taping, Jerry said he was clapping to stay warm) However, it soon g ot really cool (not temperature). Jay Leno came out in jeans and talked to us about what would happen during the show. Unbeknownst to us, the show is truly done live, and they don’t stop and correct any mistakes or screw-ups. He told us all to laugh if we thought he was funny, and have a good time. They had a funny guy come out and continue the warm up of the audience while Jay got dressed. Soon the band started playing, everyone was clapping and cheering, and the show started. They really do have signs that light up and say "APPLAUSE" to let you know when to really cheer. We got into the spirit of the whole thing and had a big time. When it was time for commercials, the band played and entertained the audience. One of the numbers during the commercial time featured the sax player. It was a Reggae sort of song and the band was not really in the pocket. Then the sax player started his solo and it was like he was playing a different song or some music written by aliens. We decided th ey might be looking for a new sax player soon. When it was time to go on air again, it was just like you imagine, the director counts down 10, 9, 8, etc. and Jay’s on. All in all it was a unique experience, and if we lived in California, would be something we would do whenever we could. A really fun time. After the show, we went across the street to an Acapulco Mexican Restaurant and had a nice dinner while waiting for the traffic to clear. We then followed the Hertz Lady home to our villa and plan to watch the Leno show tonight.

In the meantime we are trying to absorb the horror of what happened today at VA Tech. The endlessly yammering talking heads on the news channels seem to be trying to make it into some sort of terrorist deal or at least some type of conspiracy. It is awful for all the kids at Tech and their families. Who can really understand what goes on in some people’s minds? I sincerely believe, though, all the police type shows that portray bloodless shootings and gunfights where no one dies using pistols that never run out of ammo have a lot to do with these type of actions.

Your closet writer,

Wes

California Day 2

Sunday morning it was a little rough getting going but we finally got moving and headed south down California Rt.1, the Pacific Coast Highway. We drove south through Corona Del Mar, Crystal Cove, and Laguna Beach, to Dana Point. Along the way we stopped at a Ruby’s Diner for a late lunch. The food and ambience were wonderful. It is a chain but is modeled after a 50’s type diner. They had great shakes and a cool American Kobe Beef mini burger plate. All along the CA 1 the scenery was pure California coast, mountains, and cliffs with houses hanging off every possible inch. The surf was up and people were out enjoying the 68-degree weather. I spent a lot of the time car spotting. This is truly the place where all the exotic cars go, and folks actually drive them. We saw more Ferrari’s, Lamborghini’s, Porsches, Rolls Royce’s, Bentley’s, and high end Mercedes and BMW’s than I have ever seen. Dana Point was fabulous and we found a beautiful overlook high above the marina/harbor. We th en headed off to see San Juan Capistrano (looking for Swallows). Had a funny event along the way: I had been working on learning how to program the "Hertz Never Lost" navigation computer. To find the San Juan Mission, I programmed San Juan Capistrano into the computer. We dutifully followed the directions, and ended up in the parking lot of the San Juan Capistrano Post Office. We asked directions from a nice man, and soon found the Mission a few blocks over. We looked around in this area and then headed back up the coast to Newport Beach to land. Along the way, we stopped in Laguna Beach at a Park, and spent some time walking around. The flowers were too beautiful to describe. There are all types of blooming cactus and a multitude of other blooming plants we did and didn’t recognize. (the birds of paradise were especially beautiful) When we got back no one was too energetic so we watched a special on Yellowstone Park and crashed.

Your correspondent,

Wes

Newport Beach #1

For those I have'nt written to yet---we are currently in Newport Beach CA. Here are some adventures from Southern California.

Well here we are at the Marriott Newport Coast Villas resort. The trip yesterday was pretty much uneventful, which is great for a cross-country flight. The flight from Greensboro to Atlanta was somewhat funky in that it was on a Bombardier 65. I think that Bombardier should stick to making snowmobiles instead of trying to make planes. This was the smallest 2 and 2 seating plane I’ve ever been on. The overhead bins were too small for our carryon bags so we ended up in the sardine-like seats with carryon bags sitting on our feet. I felt like I was in a straight jacket. In any event, I was very glad to get to Atlanta. Amazingly, flying on Friday leaving at 9:50 found the GSO airport virtually deserted. Atlanta also was not too crowded for noonish on a Friday. We arrived at LAX (Los Angeles) and everything went fine...Until.... we went to the Hertz rental car place via a 15 minute bus ride. Jerry went inside to get the car and he never came back. I went inside to check on him and he was in one of those zigzag lines with about 4000 people in front of him. There were 30 or so counter positions but only four or five had bodies in them. An hour later he emerged and we took possession of our Ford Taurus (Grey of course). A while later, after an hour or so on the 405 south, we arrived at the resort. In the meantime I spent a while trying to figure out the "Hertz Never Lost" that had come with the car. Mostly all I succeeded in doing was having this reasonably pleasant woman tell me about turns that didn’t agree with the directions we had. We arrived at the resort and were checked in at the curbside by a very pleasant, helpful, good-looking young woman. We located our unit, made a foray to find supper, and then a trip to the grocery store. After locating several restaurants that appeared to have long waiting lines and/or valet parking, we opted to head directly to the grocery store and just buy dinner to eat leisurely at the condo. The grocery store was called Pavil ion, and was very nice, like a big Harris Teeter. (Except in California, the grocery store sells beer, wine, and liquor) We rounded up everything we needed for survival and landed for the night. Traveling all day and a 3-hour time change had whipped our butts.

Saturday, I was up early (04:30) due to the fact that it was really 07:30 my time. I read a book for a while then got started on cooking breakfast for all. After breakfast we adjourned to the pool and spent the day meeting all sorts of cool folks. But somehow starting @ 04:30 with Bloody Mary’s and then a 12 pack each of Tecate and Dos Equis in the pool and in the hot tub and in the pool and in the hot tub, etc. etc. and it turned into quite a day. I played a lot of solo tetherball, forgot to put on sun block, and oops got quite a set of red neck and shoulders. Cooked Italian meatballs on the very nice gas grill provided outside then simmered them with Marinara and diced tomatoes for a great pasta dish. We had a fine dinner and eventually wound down for and long night’s sleep.

Wes

California

Hi all, just a quick note--we've been real busy since arriving in California. I'll write you some news when I we get back later. We got tickets to the taping of the Jay Leno show tonight and we've got to get rolling. The Pacific coast is so incredible. Houses on cliffs, Lamborgini's beside you in traffic, and the rest of the Porsches that aren't in Florida, beautiful flowers, Rolls Royces, enhanced body parts, blond hair.......Be sure to watch for us on Leno Monday night.

Wes

Day 16 and 17 Estero and driving through h_ll

We had a wonderful time visiting with Herb and Linda Spencer. Linda is my cousin—daughter of my Father’s deceased sister. She and Herb have been married since I was about 10, and lived in Lexington, Kentucky. Herb had a very successful commercial AC and heating business there. He sold the business a few years back and finally retired a couple of years ago. They bought their place in Estero Florida 6 or 7 years ago, and now spend the winters there. We were welcomed, fed, and used the facilities to thoroughly wash the car. Also while we were there Grant Spencer, their son, whom we hadn’t seen in a while, came in from a business trip. He is a Regional Manager with Trane air conditioning. The whole visit was wonderful, and we hope to get back to see them again some time. We realized last night, we needed to get back on the road today and make some miles. Rt. 41 left Estero and headed North, so we took it. We wanted to see Longboat Key and points North on that island. Rt. 41 was non- stop traffic lights all the way. We made the cut off to go to Longboat Key, and the place was beautiful. We followed Rt. 789 all the way up to Anna Maria Island (thanks for the tip, Jerry) through Longboat Key, Bradenton Beach, and Holmes Beach. We doubled back a little and took the bridge back to Bradenton (the city). It was late so we found a cool little hut called The Shake Pit on Rt. 64 in Bradenton. We had a great lunch and then went on up Rt. 19 (also I-275) across the Sunshine Skyway to St. Petersburg. What an amazing bridge this was. After that though, the trip degenerated. Rt. 19 turned into a parking lot with stop lights every 12 inches. We finally couldn’t take it any more, and set sail for the Sunshine Turnpike North, Rt. 589. After abominable traffic we finally made it to the entrance to the toll road. We got up to the booth, and oops, we needed a quarter and didn’t have one. Traffic was backing up behind us, and we didn’t know what to do, so we pulled through the boot h and over to the side. At that point, we became public enemy number 1 and 2 in Florida. The photo enforcement will be sending us a $100 ticket. However, a nice guy behind us donated a quarter, and we sat there till 30 cars finally got through, and we backed up and dutifully deposited our quarter. We called the enforcement folks tonight and the nice guy told us to call between 8:30 and 5:00 tomorrow to straighten it out. We are going to try. After the quarter fiasco, we headed on up the Turnpike, and stopped about every 8 miles or so to give them another dollar tribute to drive on their pretty road. Folks who live in Florida can have something called a Sunpass that lets them go through a special lane at 70 MPH and pay electronically. We went as far as we could go on the Turnpike, and ended up back on Rt. 19 at Crystal River. We camped for the night, and are through with the West Coast of FL. We have decided it is way to congested for us, and we are heading inland for a more stress free route North. We slipped up the road a mile to the Denny’s for dinner. While there I discovered something all of America should know: Do Not Eat Meatloaf at Denny’s. I have never had an issue with food at Denny’s, but mostly I have eaten breakfast type foods there. Last night I ordered their "Great New Dinner Selection" meatloaf and mashed potatoes with mixed grilled vegetables. The mashed potatoes were ok, probably real. However, they were covered with a dark brown substance that had its origins in motor oil. The "meatloaf" (there was a bunch of it) was some kind of mystery meat that had been fried on a flattop like a hamburger. That in itself wouldn’t have been too bad, but the texture resembled that weird meat they put inside "chuck wagon patties" and the flavor was like a sort of spiced sausage. Sum total of all the parts was even worse than the individual components. All the flavors and textures melded to present something that resembled fried Alpo. There wasn’t enough ket chup or Worchester in the universe to make it edible. The grilled mixed vegetables were well past their prime, but wonderful compared to the meatloaf and motor oil gravy. But enough Denny’s bashing. We enjoyed a great deluxe continental breakfast this morning at our Comfort Inn. Today we are heading for inland Georgia and are going to try a route Vickie picked out using Rt. 301 and Rt. 1.

Homeward Bound,

Wes and Vickie

Day 14 and 15 The Everglades

Got back too late from our day and then eating last night to write anything down. We left the Econo Cheap yesterday morning, and headed into the Everglades National Park. Where we were staying was only a few miles from the park entrance. The trip to the park entrance was through lush vegetable fields. We passed tomatoes, zucchini, and yellow squash. Squash harvest was in full swing and the fields were swarming with migrant pickers. I never saw a squash field with rows as far as the eye could see. It made my back hurt just thinking of those folks bending over putting squash in a bucket for hours at a time. We arrived at the park, paid our $10.00 (which was good fo r 7 days), and headed in to see what we could see. The main road lead to something called the Flamingo Visitors center, about 38 miles Southwest of the entrance. We rode through 38 miles of desolate marsh and arrived at Flamingo. It must have been pretty cool at one time, but now it is a bunch of derelict buildings. According to the ranger Wilma and Katrina really put the whammy on the place. It used to have a bar/restaurant, and nice cabins and motel like rooms you could stay in. All that’s left functional are some campgrounds and the marina/store. However, they still offer guided boat tours of the Mangrove Tangle Estuary nearby. We were about ½ hour away from the next boat trip so we bought some tickets and grabbed a little snack. They had nukeable pre-cooked food, beer, sodas, snacks, etc. I found a cool “Cup O Noodles” that all you do is add hot water to. That and a beer, and I was a happy camper. (cost all of $0.60) We powered down a few carbs, and joined the other folks for t he boat tour. The tour was 2 hours and narrated by a park naturalist. It was worth the price cause the group was small and you could ask any questions you wanted. We saw all manner of birds, alligators and crocodiles, along with numerous types of Mangrove and other swamp trees. After the boat tour, the naturalist suggested we head for the Anhinga Trail back near the entrance of the park. We rode back through the swamp to the suggested destination. Here we found a mile or so nature trail that was literally covered with wading birds, swimming birds, giant fish, turtles, alligators, you name it. All of the animals were seemingly unaffected by our presence, and Vickie nearly wore the camera out taking pictures. We stayed there till nearly dark. After that we had to get back to the Econo Cheap and the Rt. 1 Sunday night traffic was abominable. (Rt. 1 ran directly in front of our place) We finally got back (only to discover the cheap b_stards had turned off our AC while we were gone) and camped for a while to let the traffic clear. Then we headed next door for another shot at Sonny’s Barbecue, to try something different. Vickie had baby backs and I had pulled brisket, both were excellent. This morning we once again breakfasted from the not too deluxe continental breakfast, supplemented with 2 nice hunks of sweet cornbread doggy boxed from Sonny’s. We left Florida City and headed for Everglades City where we are now—I got us a reservation at something called the Captain’s Table Motel and Apartments. Along the way, we traveled up Rt. 936 out of Homestead. This passed through one after the other huge nurseries. We could not believe the nurseries on both sides of the highway as far as the eye could see. Now I know where all those plants and trees at The Lowes come from. We followed this road up until it intersected Rt. 41, the Tamiami Trail. This road heads due West toward the coast. The road is in abominable condition, the truck traffic has ruined it. We followed it across and stopped at another Everglades Park entrance called Sharks
Bay. We hiked another short nature trail (yes Wes and Vickie actually hiked a little) and saw some more interesting wildlife. Then we headed further West. Along the way there was this road that cut off 41 called the Loop Road in the Big Cypress National Preserve. I decided to take it. It was really a backcountry little lane and a half barely paved road through the boondocks, until—it turned to dirt. I told Vickie, this finally made it a real road trip when we ended up on a dirt road. Based on what the GPS told us, we still had a good piece to go on this road, but the sights were so good we forged ahead. The road literally had water on both sides, and every so often it would have these green stakes with an opening in the side brush and a vista on both sides of the native marsh. We saw so many birds, alligators, fish, and even a deer. It was worth the trip. Often we h ad to pull over to the side of the road so we could let another car pass in the opposite direction. By the time we were done, the Vette looked like a powdered sugar donut. We finally got to Everglades City, and had lunch at Susie’s Restaurant. What a quaint little place, and what good food. A killer fish sandwich for me and hand ground burger for Vickie. We went down to the Everglades Park entrance, and found out they had a boat tour titled “10,000 Island Tour” that went out after dolphins and manatees. We signed up for the 5:00 tour which included the sunset. We then left the park and checked into our place, which was great. The desk clerk told us we could use the boat wash to hose off the car so we did. We hung out for a little while at the motel (I wrote, and Vickie discovered a group of trained pelicans that she got to pose for numerous pictures) and then set out for the boat tour. It turned out to be great, with a beautiful view of the sunset over the Gulf. While returning to the dock a dolphin swam and frolicked alongside the tour boat. I got some great video footage of his performance along with the sunset. We had a nice dinner at the seafood restaurant next door, and crashed for the night. Tuesday A.M. we set off for my cousin’s place in Estero, near Ft. Meyers. We enjoyed driving up the coast through Naples etc. and arrived at Herb and Linda’s house in the early afternoon. They live in a fairly new gated community fairly typical of the retirement communities in this area. Very nice, and with minimal maintenance required. It never dawned on me till reading the local paper last night, how seasonal the population in Florida is. Linda was telling me this particular development (one of thousands in South Florida) has 1200 or so “doors” as they put it. In the non-winter months, the occupancy rate is less than 30%. This means the population here swings 70% winter to summer. Another big issue down here is water. They go so far as to pipe the waste water tre atment plant discharge into special piping used to water lawns etc. It really is a different world. We’ll be here for a couple days—plan to give the car a serious wash job, and then head on up the coast.

More later.
Wes and Vickie

Day 13 The True Meaning of Cheap

Well not too much to report today. Yesterday we left Key West, took the compulsory pictures at Mile Marker 0 on Rt. 1 and the Southernmost Point do dad, and headed North. We had made reservations at an Econo Lodge in the Homestead/Florida City area. Along the way, we stopped at the T-shirt outlet again, to replace a Croc Letter I had lost. You could say, "Wes lost his S in Key West" (as opposed to those who loose their S’s in Las Vegas or Atlantic City). We Easily found our reserved motel, and then the fun started. When we walked in the front door, there was no one around. Vickie rang the bell a couple times, but no one around. Finally the phone happened to ring, and all of a sudden this 300-year-old Pakistani woman came out from the back room looking like she just rolled out of bed. She answered the phone and then tried to check us in. After banging the mouse on the counter several times she looked for help. About that time the second shift desk clerk arrived (a pretty red head in tight jeans with a stunning body) She also tried the computer, but with no luck. Then the owner came in who was apparently the 300-year old woman’s husband. After much very loud talking, it was established that the computer was locked up. They gave us keys and told us to go on to the room, we could check in later. We got to the room, which was ok, nothing special, but clean and discovered a unique set up. It had said on the board at the desk that the refrigerator and microwave were an additional charge. The way they accomplished this was totally hi tech. There was a crude wooden box affixed to the wall, and the plugs for the fridge and microwave were locked inside. After I agreed to the $1.00 per day up charge, they told me to tell the cleaning woman in the hall to turn the things on. Well I told her, and she looked at me like I was speaking Swahili. I waited for 15 or 20 minutes, and then checked again. They told me they had given the approval to another guy. He finally met me in the room and we got everything plugged in and tested. Of course to save money, the AC unit had been left off, (it was 92 outside) so it took quite a while for the room to cool down. Another interesting aside about this particular establishment: they are apparently in the middle of a large painting project (roller and tray with paint in them sitting in the hall most of the afternoon) but the person who is doing the painting is blind. All over the motel, there are large globs of paint on everything possible that isn’t supposed to have it. Since the place did have a coin laundry, we decided to do that chore because we really needed to. All that went reasonably well, and while the clothes were drying, we went just down the road to Sonny’s (Sonny Tillman who is apparently famous) Barbecue, and had "Ribs for 2" which was quick and good. We returned and forgot to look at the lunar eclipse. After a good night’s sleep (listening to the AC unit cycle on and off 745,692 times, I believe t he control logic of these particular units could use some massaging) we arose to the free Continental Breakfast. As I have espoused before, there are different levels of Continental Breakfast service. This particular one was not advertised as "Deluxe", so I figured it would be basic. What it ended up being was downright cheap. You had your choice of toast (wheat or white) margarine, grape jelly, coffee, and tea. There was instant oatmeal, but no milk. There was no fruit of any kind, and the usual weird juice machine with orange and apple. They had also taken (what looked like) Little Debby Honey Buns, and cut them in half, still in the wrappers. Of course, there was no microwave (unless you had sprung for the $1.00 one in the room—but the sign expressly forbid returning to the room with any food) so what you got was what you saw. We dined gloriously, then set about planning our Everglades adventures for the day. More later.

Wes and Vickie

p.s. Had meant to write about this sooner but it was again this morning emphasized to the greatest degree I have seen so far. As frequent travelers may already know, Holiday Inn Express started a great idea by using curved shower rods that greatly expanded the area inside the shower (a good idea which I adopted at my own house). Since then, most (even the small ones) motel chains have stolen this idea. Only problem appears to be in execution. No one seems to have told the installers that the desired end result is more space in the shower so 90 percent of the newly installed rods are installed 6-8 inches back from the old rod mounting points (which are usually visible due to patched mounting holes). End result is they actually make the shower smaller. A good idea gone sour.

Days 11 and 12 in Key West

We just returned from the ferry trip out to Dry Tortugas National Park. What a day. We got up at 06:00 to make sure we were there by the appointed check in time, so no time this morning for writing. Yesterday, we toured Key West quite a bit. We spent some time in the pool in the morning, and then wandered around Duvall St. etc for the balance of the day. We had lunch at the famous Hog’s Breath Saloon, and appeared on their web cam during lunch. We had drinks and dinner at the Roof Top Café on Front St. watching the sun go down and then joined the Sunset Celebration. At the Roof Top Cafe, we sampled 2 of their specialties. They have Blue Crab Bisque that is better than anything I’ve had in a long time, and they are famous for one of the best Key Lime Pies in town. Both were incredibly good. We wandered around town as the evening wore on taking in the redundant junk stores, and the increasingly interesting street life. This place reminds me of New Orleans before it was devastated. It sort of comes alive at night. Only difference is they don’t close Duvall like they did Bourbon St. As I said before, we had an early morning today catching the Fast Cat to Dry Tortugas. We boarded the boat and enjoyed a good continental breakfast as we left the harbor. The Fast Cat is a catamaran that can hold about 100 people. We had about 60 or so folks on today for the trip. We hadn’t quite expected how rough the trip might be. The further we got out into the Gulf, the rougher it got. Vickie and I both managed to not blow chunks, by sitting quietly, concentrating, and looking out at the horizon full time. The trip takes about 2 hr and 20 minutes. I would have loved to read my book, but was not possible. We finally arrived at the park (Ft. Jefferson) and got onto dry land. They offered a tour of the fort, but Vickie and I sort of went off on our own, and saw most everything. The history of the fort is amazing. They had to haul all the supplies to build it there by ship, along with all the supplies for the builders. There must be 10 billion bricks in the thing, and it’s 70 miles from Key West in the middle of the Gulf. They had a horrible time just keeping the garrison in food and water. The fort was constructed with 1,500,000 gallons of cistern storage for rainwater. Even today, the park rangers that man the place use stored rainwater for sanitation, and reverse osmosis for potable water. It said the rangers do 3-year tours of duty on this remote island. Must take a special breed to want to do it. Just beside the Fort Island was a bird island that is host to millions of nesting Sooty Terns. It was nesting season, and the racket from the swarming birds was incredible. After touring the Fort, we had a great lunch on the boat, and then set out to snorkel. We met some folks from Michigan that had been camping on the island for 3 nights. When I say camping, this place has no water, no ice, no showers, and no food. It is totally primitive camping. You ride t he ferry out, and bring everything you need with you. They said they’d been three days without a fresh water shower, but after all the tourists left and they were there with only a few campers, it was worth it. Like being on a desert island. We were afraid the water would bee too cold for snorkeling, but as it turned out, it was cool but not unbearable. We had a great afternoon sharing the water with coral and fish. We saw a great big Parrot Fish, a bunch of Groupers, Yellow Tails, and I saw about a 3-foot Barracuda. I’d have loved to have a wet suit and about 2 days to spend there (hence the camping). We also learned from the boat crew, that Dry Tortugas is very often the landing place for Cuban refugees. The way it works is, if they make it "feet dry" to the island, they get to go to the US. If they get intercepted prior to that, they are sent back to Cuba. Someone told Vickie that to get on a "fast boat" with some guarantee of success costs about $6,000. By the time we got on th e boat and headed back, I must have had my "sea legs" because I picked up my book and read it most of the trip back. The book and I were swaying in unison, and other than continuously having to refocus my eyes, no ill effects. We got back to the harbor, took advantage of our 10% discount at the Fast Cat’s T-shirt store, and can literally say "been there, done that, bought the T-shirt". We cruised back to the Simonton and enjoyed the early evening with a good drink, good shower, and time just sitting on our porch overlooking the bustle on Simonton Street as twilight engulfs the buildings sort of like a blue and pink fog. Will have to search out some food and drink for the evening, but then as they say, "the evening is young" Tomorrow its back on the road to the Everglades. More later. Well didn’t get this sent last night, so now it’s Saturday morning. Last night we got to experience Key West on a Friday night with a full moon. Place was wide open. Unless you were DUI or peeing in th e street, whatever you were doing was probably OK. We found out today that Kenny Chesney made an unannounced visit and 3-hr concert at the Hog’s Breath Saloon. Oops, we were out snorkeling and surviving the boat trip. Folks we talked to said it was quite a crowd however became extremely rowdy.

Wes and Vickie

Day 10 Landed in Key West

After a beautiful drive down the Keys yesterday, we landed in Key West. Our room wasn’t quite ready, but our parking space was. Parking in Key West is problematic at best. To illustrate, we walked past one parking lot that had a sign "All Day Parking $10". This was around 1pm. A couple of hours later this same lot was "All Day Parking $15" (less time for more money assuming the day ended at midnight). Our pre-reserved parking spot was one of 8 spaces owned by the inn that go for $20 a day. With the car safely disposed of we adjourned to the Conch Republic located on the waterfront for Margaritas (many) and lunch. Vickie and I split a cup of conch chowder and a Caesar salad with blackened tuna. End result was a $63 lunch but the scenery was great. After lunch we wandered around the harbor and then went back to claim our room. The room is unique and great. This whole inn is like an oasis in the middle of old town Key West. There are four small heated pools and a labyrinth of corri dors almost completely engulfed in lush tropical foliage. The structures are all tin roof and clapboard that appear to have been here for a hundred years (which may be true because the inn was created from the original Simonton cigar factory and outbuildings. Mr. Simonton was the man who originally purchased the island of Key West for $2,000 from the Spanish). In any event, it a superior establishment that warrants it’s relatively steep rates by non Key West standards. After claiming our room, some mysterious time warp happened that may be due to the Key West latitude. But somehow, there was an interaction between the room clock, Vickie, and a derelict watch (left over from the Aruba trip in a beach bag). End result, we thought it was two hours later than it really was. We went to the pool to get some relaxation prior to heading out to the sunset celebration. I should have been suspicious when we were at the pool for a long time and there was no hint of the sun going down. Finally I decided we had better get going or we would miss the sunset. Once again I should have been suspicious when we got to the room and it was 6:30 and there was still no sign of the sun going down. We changed clothes and headed for Mallory Square only to get there and realize that it was only 5pm according to the cell phone. We found a spot in the shade and watched the wild chickens run in and out of the restaurants while the Mallory Square sunset celebration slowly materialized. The performers have a unique method of establishing their turf. They lay out ropes on the ground around the perimeter of their performance area. This pseudo fence keeps the crowd at bay and establishes their territory. The performers are a motley crew of jugglers, sword swallowers, acrobats, unicycle riders, and generally all around lunatics. The stars of the "show" are first the sun and second the Cat Man. The Cat Man is indescribable but I’ll try…..He is a performer who trains common alley cats to do intere sting tricks like a mini lion tamer. However, he is a late 40’s Frenchman with long blonde hair and about three bricks shy of a load. He reminds me of a mime that talks. I understood one percent of everything he grunted. The cats, however, responded to his every command. He is a total demonstration of the saying that there is a niche for everyone. The whole sunset scene at Mallory Square has to be experienced to be totally appreciated. There were boats of all descriptions going in seemingly random directions. A pirate ship passed by in full sail. All the performers were plying their trade. The vendors were selling all manners of trinkets and outrageously overpriced food and drinks. I bought Vickie a small $4.00 bag of popcorn which she said was excellent but I thought tasted just like popcorn She questioned the vendor about the price in jest and he simply said "Hey it’s Key West….what do you expect?" From here the evening gets slightly blurry. During the Cat Man’s performance I dis covered an interesting little bartender quietly plying his trade across from the Cat Man. He made something for a man in front of me called a rum punch with a Bacardi floater. Not sure exactly what was in it but it looked big and tasty. I ordered one of the same. I suspect the Bacardi floater, which was an extra cost option, was 151 proof dark rum. All I know is that it tasted real good and had a nice hunk of pineapple on it. After cheering the Cat Man to glory, I invited Vickie to join me for another rum punch with a Bacardi floater. We got our drinks and she commented on how tasty they were. After that I remember buying a couple of over priced hotdogs from a vendor with a huge assortment of mustards and hot sauces. We at our hotdogs sitting on the curb and then attempted to trek back to the inn. What time we arrived is anybody’s guess (or for that matter how we even found the inn). The next thing I remember is the garbage truck coming in the middle of the night and sounding like it was crushing a car directly under my window. The operator cycled the mechanism on the truck numerous times at the maximum engine rpm to make sure everything was crushed. Since we were on the second floor, his exhaust stack was about even with my window. I was glad the old glass had been hurricane tested. Then he proceeded to leave with the compulsory beep, beep, beep, of the back up alarm and yelping air brakes. I went back to sleep only to be awakened by Vickie telling me we had to get up for breakfast because it was 8:30. I once again was suspicious of the time as it was still dark. She went outside to check and low and behold the sun was just coming up and it was really 6:30. We ended up down at the pool around 7:30 awaiting breakfast at 8:30 and me dictating this report to Vickie as I sip my Bloody Mary. The clock has now been assigned to the correct time zone. All is well with the world and Key West is pretty close to Paradise. As we saw yesterday on the police car "To Serv e and Protect Paradise". Send money….we love it here.

Wes & Vickie

PS More pictures

Day 9 Key Largo to Islamorada

Well today we left our cozy suite at Marina Del Mar, and relocated to Lime Tree Resort which said it was in Islamorada, but is actually on the South end of a little village called Layton. As we came further south, it really started to seem like the keys. Bridges, islands, and visible water on both sides. This is really a beautiful place. Our latest landing spot, is a very quiet, older seaside resort in a very unpopulated area. My car is parked in front of the room 50’ from the ocean. I’m writing this under a tiki hut 25’ from the ocean, with a cool onshore breeze and a glass of Martini & Rossi Asti. Vickie is in a hammock suspended between 2 trees nearby. She just said I should stop and pick her up on the way back from Key West. This once again is something I just picked out from the Internet and turned out just about the way I pictured it. It is probably little changed in the last 40 years. Had a weird experience getting here today. The GPS insisted the place was abo ut 4 miles North of here. We pulled in and it looked like some kind of flea market. Knowing it was wrong, we returned to the road, and relied on the mile markers and finally found it. We were early so we asked where the Post Office was. (we wanted to mail our sweat pants home to make more room). We did the mailing, and then asked the lady where to get lunch. She directed us to the Islamorada Fish Co., which was a restaurant and seafood store. Dining was outside and the food was great. While there the lady beside us told us to check out Robbies’ where you could feed the Tarpon from the dock. She said it had been featured on 60 minutes. I thanked her, and after lunch we proceeded to look for Robbies’. As it turns out, Robbies’ was the exact same place we had pulled into thinking it was our resort (according to the GPS). We paid the $1.00 admission out to the docks, and really did see huge Tarpon just hanging around the dock. For $2.79, you could buy a small bucket of whole dead fish to feed them. We didn’t have to, because several fathers had already dutifully bought buckets for their children. The Tarpon literally climbed over each other to get the fish. Of course you have to run the pelicans off to keep them from snatching all the fish away from the Tarpons. It was amazing, and the fish were huge. I think Vickie got some good pictures. We left Robbies’ and headed back South to our resort. The room was ready so we moved in and hit the beach. No Internet here, so this will be a day late coming. We had a relaxing afternoon, and a good dinner at the Italian Fish Restaurant next door called Little Italy Seafood. We had a thunderstorm last night, and this morning we packed up and headed down the road after both voting NO to a tour of the as yet unstarted (only thing complete is a small boat dock) NEW Lime Tree Resort Condos starting at $800,000. After an absolutely gorgeous drive with the roof down, we arrived at Key West. What a great place. Now we’re back on the WiFi again. More later.

Wes and Vickie

Day 8 Hanging at Key Largo

Good day yesterday. We lazed around in the morning, and then laid by the pool all afternoon. We went to the dockside restaurant for lunch. Had conch chowder, coconut crusted shrimp with coconut rum dipping sauce, and fried cracked conch strips. After the lunch hour, we retired to the pool and did some water exercise. (well Vickie did some then slept by the pool while I finished) Later we watched the pelicans and cranes beg for fish scraps from the fishing boat when it came in to clean fish. Then it was off to Coconut’s bar to enjoy some frosty treats and a rather amazing guy. They had a performer with a modicum of talent, and a mastery of electronic assistance. He had a keyboard, 2 speakers, an amp and a mic. He could play any song, as long as it was on one of the floppy discs he plugged into the keyboard. He did, however, have a lot of showmanship and a voice that was quite adaptable. He kept the crowd rolling long into the night. You can imagine an open-air dockside bar, and a hundred or so folks singing along and dancing to oldies through Jimmy Buffet. We met a lot of folks, and partied till it was time to stroll down the dock to bed. This resort has made it to the top of our short list. We will be back here again. Thinking of working up a lounge act and coming back "on the circuit" next winter. This morning, it’s off to Ismorelda and hopefully some new adventure.

As ever,

Wes and Vickie

Day 7 all the way to Key Largo

ay 7 all the way to Key Largo

We lazed around yesterday a.m. and then hit Rt. 1 for the short trip further South. Around Florida city, we picked up Rt. 905 which is a secondary road across a toll bridge ($1.00) to the Northernmost point in the Keys. It was a beautiful drive with little or no traffic. When it got to the Keys it made a "T", so we decided to see what was North from there. It was only about 2 miles, and we ended up at some kind of gated community called Ocean Reef Club. I checked it out on the web, and it is very interesting and appears exclusive. We turned around there and headed South to Key Largo. After all the stress and mess of Miami, just driving here was a pleasure. The roadside is dotted with fishing and diving businesses, along with local type restaurants and boat sales. We came into, and passed through Key Largo without ever seeing the place we were to stay. We got out the trusty Delorme, and Vickie guided me right to it. We were immediately pleasantly surprised. We had picked our dest ination from the Internet with little more than what the web site told us. The resort is off Rt. 1 on a nice quiet boat harbor where the fishing and diving boats come and go. It has numerous moorings that are full of beautiful boats. Our room (which for some unknown reason was upgraded to a King Suite) is on the 3rd floor with a deck overlooking the main boat channel. Across the way from us is a Lagoon 440 catamaran that we looked up on the Internet this morning. It carries a $585,000 base price, with a long available options list. The resort is old style Keys with hurricane shutters on the windows and all concrete construction. It is in very good repair, and quite comfortable. There is a large open-air restaurant and bar called Coconuts serving lunch and dinner with happy hour from 4-7 p.m. During happy hour, they have peel and eat shrimp, steamed clams, and oysters on the ½ shell. Also conveniently, the shuttle to the gambling boat leaves here several times a day. Vickie availed herself of that last night while I went to the bar for oysters and beer. I think we may have found a new home away from home. This place is idyllic, convenient, laid back, and reasonable. Might just have to buy a boat, and move to a mooring here. Today we are just vegging out enjoying the sunshine and ocean breeze. Plan to hit the restaurant for some cracked conch for lunch, and spend a little time in the pool. More later.

Wes and Vickie

PS - some pictures

Day 6 South from Vero Beach

It was the best of times and it was the worst of times. Don't remember what novel that comes from, but it truly describes our day yesterday. We got up, got moving, and stopped by a very nice coin car wash to get the crud off Mr. Vette. The car wash was one of the nicest I've been to, and had this new do dad that has a nozzle and lets you blow-dry your car. It's sort of like a captive leaf blower with a hose and hand nozzle. Using that after the spot free rinse gave an excellent result. We pulled out to a nice finish up area, and did a little detailing. We then went next door and paid the highest for gas so far on the trip. Chevron premium for $2.68. After fuel, we hooked up with our friends Neil and Andrea to visit for a while. They live in a very nice gated community in the Southern part of Vero Beach. After a nice but too brief visit with them, we headed South again on A1A. It was a 100% perfect day, with the roof down, sun shining, and about 76 degrees. As has been the norm, A1A is difficult to follow, but with Vickie on the Delorme, we persevered and kept with it. As we proceeded South, we passed through different named areas, but eventually came to West Palm and Palm Beach. WOW, this is where some of the old money must be in Florida. As we traveled A1A going South toward Ft. Lauderdale, we passed ocean front castle like houses, with landscaping that must receive daily attention. Most had walls and/or 10-ft high perfectly manicured hedges, with ornate iron gates. It impossible to describe how beautiful all of the landscaping was. The sub tropical climate here allows them to grow exotic plants, and what we consider annuals grow in unbelievable colorful abundance. Another thing I noticed was of the oncoming traffic, every third car was a Porsche, Bentley, Jaguar, Aston Martin, and occasionally a Ferrari. This is where they must sell all those exotic cars. Up until this point, we had a perfect day, but things started going a little sour. We thought we might land for the night in Pompano Beach, but we were unable to score a decently priced place. So Wes said, Ft. Lauderdale is where all the kids go for Spring Break so there must be hundreds of rooms. So we drove on South. Somehow, we never seemed to find where the hundreds of hotel rooms were in Ft. Lauderdale, and the traffic got really abominable. So Wes said, let head back toward Rt. 1 or I-95, there ought to be lots of rooms there. What we didn't know was that snowstorms up north had snarled air traffic, and everything we tried was booked solid. We found a Holiday Inn that still had 2 rooms left for only $309.95 each plus tax. The clerk cheerfully told us it was "just supply and demand" but I call it extortion. We tried a Marriott we found in downtown Miami, and it was in the $260.00 range, so Wes said, I'm heading South on I-95 until we get out of town. Don't know if anyone has ever driven I-95 from Hollywood FL South through Miami, but best I can tell you is DON'T. It is 8 lanes of dodgem car insanity. And then to really fool you, you are rolling along on I-95 and there is a sign that says Junction RT 1 and it literally does that. One moment you are barreling along I-95 with 5000 other idiots, the next you are on Rt. 1 and stopping for traffic lights. I've never seen such a mess in my life (except maybe Northern VA or Cranberry Township in PA). Well we kept on driving, finding nothing, (it's now about 9:00 p.m. with no supper) until we spotted a Best Western. About 3 turnarounds and a couple of U-turns later, I came the wrong way into the driveway. We got a room for a reasonable price and crashed. Turns out in addition to everything else 10 gazillion people were also in town for the Food Network's big deal in South Beach. (found out via the paper this morning) Today we are going to continue to head South, we'll just have to come back and see South Beach and Miami Beach another time. Since we got a little ahead of schedule due to last night's marathon drive, we called the resort in Key Largo, and they agreed to extend our stay for another day at the same rate. So, we aregoing to head for Key Largo today and check in there tonight. Looking forward to some laid back R&R. More later.

Wes and Vickie

Day 5 South to Vero Beach

What a day what a day what a day, this is long, but quite a bit to relate. Got up early this morning, and watched the sunrise. We were planning to go Kennedy Space Center or as it’s called again now Cape Canaveral. (today I actually learned the real distinction between the two) We headed out and drove Rt. 3 North into the visitor’s center. Let me preface all this with, I had a great time, but I am appalled at how poorly run/managed the Space Center Visitors Center is. Please don’t think I am negative about the Space Center experience, but given 6 months as manager, I could improve the operation by 600%. We arrived and got in line to pay for our admission. Of about 16 or 18 possible booths only about 8 were open. The lines were fairly short but extremely slow moving due to the complexity of the purchase transaction at the window. I was also not real impressed with the price--$38.00 per person general admission and $59.00 if you took one of the special tours. We decided we wanted to take the special tour, and had a coupon for $3.50 off each, so we went for it. I figured, we might not be back any time soon. As it turns out it was worth it. But then in the meantime, you had to go through a rough parody of airport security. What another circus. NASA could certainly learn a few things from TSA. Of course they are both government agencies—who would ever expect them to talk to each other. We finally got inside, and jumped on the 11:30 showing of the #1 IMAX movie. All sounds pretty good to here, but reality of it is getting everyone seated in the IMAX Theater was akin to the confusion of buying the admission tickets. They could have opened the doors on both sides, and filled the theater quickly and efficiently. But, they insisted on having an entrance and exit side, and yelling steadily at everyone to move all the way to the right to make room. Well the folks that got there early and got the good center seats were not about to move to the right, so they promptly ignored the yelling lady, and so all the late arrivals ended up crawling over seat backs to get to the seats on the right side of the theater. Finally everyone managed to struggle to a seat, and the movie was great and very inspirational. This one was made by Tom Hanks, and was so incredible. The movie finished up about 12:15 and we needed to get something to eat prior to the next 1:00 movie. We went directly across to the food court, and once again, confusion reigned. They had three lines, one for burgers and stuff, one for Italian stuff, and one for the salad and wrap carousel. (which was a pretty interesting idea, it continually rotated at they kept stocking it with salads, wraps and stuff behind the wall) Only problem with all this was 1 they didn’t have enough trays. 2. All the lines backed up and blocked the check out lines. 3. The lines crossed over and blocked each other 4. The lines blocked the drink stations 5. You could walk out past the cashiers without paying if you we re dishonest (or tired of waiting) cause they were so covered up by the intersecting lines they didn’t have any idea who paid and who didn’t. Vickie and I got 2 pretty good-looking salads (not real large) and 2 medium size drinks. The bill was $24.17. But then a hot dog was $7.99. We stuffed down our lunch (which was quite good) and then went through the same circus filling the second IMAX Theater. We got out of the second movie in time to check out the Missile Garden of old space missiles. Soon it was time and we headed over to the bus loading area. Once again we stood in line waiting on our particular bus for the special tour. Boy were we ever in luck. As it turned out the shuttle is due to launch on March 15, and was just rolled out to the launch pad this week before we got there. We got to see everything as the tour says "Up close and personal". Our guide was very knowledgeable, and the expanded tour is definitely worth the money over the standard tour. Also, since Cape Canaver al is a 250 square mile nature preserve, we got to see all kinds of water birds, wild boars, alligators, and several bald eagles. The eagles were worth the trip alone. One of them was sitting on a light pole, and when the bus came by started zooming and swooping all around the bus. Guide said it was probably just showing off. All this space stuff is unbelievable when you see it in the flesh, so huge and larger than life. Make the trip sometime if you haven’t, you won’t be disappointed. The tour concluded with dumping us off at the Saturn V building. The Saturn V building holds a full scale moon rocket that was never used, not a model or mock up—the real thing. It is so big as to be incomprehensible. They also have the real original mission control room, just as it was during the last moon flight. Looking at all this (60’s) technology, it is staggering to think that men got in that stuff, and flew to the moon. The guide said the first Apollo computers had less memory than a hand hel d calculator today. I’m a believer. The astronauts are all VERY brave people. Another interesting thing, they are in the final construction stages of a Disney World type shuttle flight simulator, which will hold 45 people at a time. They used astronauts that had actually flown on the shuttle as consultants, and the guide told me, they (the astronauts) said, they had really nailed the experience. Of course, given our experience with the whole Visitors Center thingy, you’ll have to stand in line for 3 hrs to get in, and then crawl over the seat backs to get into it. After visiting the Visitors Center, you have to wonder how NASA ever manages to launch anything. Hopefully the guy running the Visitors Center is not in charge of anything else. We were quite late getting out of Kennedy---oh yea, the distinction. Cape Canaveral Air Force Base (which still exists) was the site of all the manned launches up till Apollo 3. All manned launches after that moved to Kennedy Space Center, which i s on Cape Canaveral (the landmass). (confused yet?) Then recently the Government decided to change the name back to Cape Canaveral Space Center, but they have not changed the signage or anything else. But then it’s the Government, so who would expect anything less. As I said, we were late getting out of there, it is really a full day if you see a lot—2 if you see everything. So we jumped on I95, and I defended my turf in the fast lane at 85 mph for about 60 miles. We got to Vero Beach, crashed at a Best Western, and walked across 4-lane Rt. 60 to the IHOP for dinner. Will see our friends in Vero Beach in the morning, and then head south on A1A.

Wes & Vickie

Day 4 Daytona South to Canaveral

This morning we didn’t get a real early start, Vickie walked on the beach, and I made like the closet writer I am, sitting looking at the ocean and pounding the keys. We didn’t go very far—about 5 or 6 miles over to Daytona USA at the Daytona racetrack. On the way Vickie (having been once to the Daytona 500) was relating to me what it is like when 250-300,000 folks descend upon the place. Looking around, and knowing what race weekend is like in Martinsville, I could imagine what a circus it must be. Since our timing was perfect (between race week and bike week) Daytona USA was not mobbed, and we had a very pleasurable time. Our guidebook, which now is quite a few years old, said admission was 12 dollars. Well now it’s 24 but we had found 2, 3-dollar coupons in some Daytona coupon books, so it ended up being $44 and change for 2. (we aren’t old enough for the senior rate yet) We wandered around a little and planned our attack. Next track tour was 11:30 and next IMAX Theater show was 12:30. While waiting for the track tour, I hit the snack bar for a little booster. (Vickie hit the huge souvenir store to look around) $6 and change later I was the proud owner of a plain hotdog, and medium drink that was mostly ice. I took advantage of the generous condiment bar (mustard, ketchup, and relish, nothing else) and soon had a lovely dog. Consuming my glorious repast, we got in line, and boarded the tram for the tour. After thoroughly annoying the woman behind me by telling her to shut up so I could hear the narration, we enjoyed the tour. (I’m usually such a polite guy, but the louder the narration got the louder this woman talked) First thing that amazed us was how big the track really is. Can’t even imagine it from looking at it on TV. Second was the banking and track. The 31 degree banking is STEEP, and the track isn’t very wide at all. I have quite a respect for those guys going 2 and 3 wide @ 190 MPH on it. On the other hand, I’d kill to be on there by myself in theVette, and put my foot in it till I scared myself. (or ran out of gas) After the track tour, we went back inside and looked around till time for the IMAX Theater presentation. We got great seats, cleaned our special 3D glasses and got ready. The first feature was all about the Daytona 500, and was in normal vision. Part of it was very touching when they showed Dale Earnhardt Sr. and you realized what a real part of the sport he really was. Also, the shots of the old guys reminded you of where the sport had really come from. The second feature was the IMAX part and it was the story of NASCAR. The IMAX experience has to be experienced to understand it. It’s like the old 3D movies, but in techno spades. Literature said they had a 12,000-watt sound system. I believe it. Even Wes, who is half-deaf and likes loud music, thought it was loud. They needed to do about 87% of what they had it set at. All in all, it was a great show and quite moving when it showed the giant flag, huge cr owd, National Anthem, bald eagle, and fighter plane fly overs. After the theater, we toured the rest of the exhibits, and headed out. On the way out we caught a late lunch at the Krystal Burger. (sort of like White Castle, but not as good) Everyone will be glad to hear they have added a few things to their menu. They now have mini pups (3 bite hot dogs) mini corn dogs and mini chicken sandwiches. Every selection full of artery clogging goodness. Oh and the Krystal now has free WiFi so you can surf while eating, to take your mind off the mega calories and fat you are consuming. We left Krystal, and jumped on I95 to get South of Daytona. Cruising down the Interstate, Vickie studied the Delorme, and found something called Rt. 3 that went off Rt. 1 down through some kind of wetlands nature preserve. We jumped off and picked that up. It was scenic, and we had the road to ourselves, until. Oops, here is the security gate for Kennedy Space Center, and we have to turn around. Well we took a detour back over to Rt. 1 and headed South again. While we were driving, Vickie wanted me to consult about our route and final destination for the day. So I pulled over into an asphalt turnoff, beside some railroad tracks. We were sitting there looking at the computer and maps, and all of a sudden there was a loud knock at the window. Just about scared me to death. It was some local Sheriff dude, telling us "we were trespassing on railroad property". I told him we just stopped to look at the map and he none to politely told us to move along. Boy does he need to get a life. I’m sure he was just bored, and figured harassing some guy in a Vette was a good pass time. (I mean, it just looked like a little side road) Well we moved along, and took Rt. 528 off Rt. 1 toward Coco Beach. We came past the cruise ship terminals in Port Canaveral, and we got to see 4 big cruise boats cranking up to pull out. (it was around 4:30) We got to Coco Beach, and started looking for a place to land. We pulled up in the parking lot of a Marriott Courtyard, parked in the shade, and got on their free WiFi. (big motels are always good for free WiFi in the parking lot) Marriott guy walked by and I told him we were just borrowing his shade looking at the map. We did the Hotels.com and Orbitz thing, and found the Hampton right beside where we were sitting was a pretty good buy. We got on the cell, booked it, and cruised across the parking lot to check in. Quite painless. Room was great, 8^th floor with water and ocean views on all sides. Took a bunch of sunset pictures, and went out for dinner. On the way we stopped at one of the biggest liquor stores we’d ever been in. It was the size of a small grocery store. They had things we’d never seen before, and enough wine to fill a tank truck. I decided this is where I’d take shelter when the hurricane was coming. The nice lady at the liquor store hooked us up with a good seafood pubby kind of place, and we had a great dinner. Stuf fed flounder and oysters on the ½ shell for me, and house skirt steak for Vickie. Today it’s off to Cape Canaveral to see the shuttle and rocket stuff, then South to Vero Beach to see our friends Neil and Andrea.

More later,

Wes and Vickie

Day 3 Fernandina Beach South to Daytona

Got a good start this morning, and headed South on A1A. Sometimes this old road is easy to follow, and sometimes, it’s quite a mystery. Before we left on this trip, we bought Delorme 2007 Streets and Trips for our laptop, along with a GPS antenna that plugs into a USB port. It has proved invaluable in finding our way today. We went South for a period of time, and arrived at the St. John’s River ferry. You have to take this over the St John’s River to stay on A1A. We got on the ferry (costs $3.25 per car) and settled down for the ride. I decided to get out and take some pictures. About the time I got to the front rail, I realized we were getting ready to dock. Turned out to be about an 8-minute ferry ride. (must be pretty boring duty for the ferry captain) We continued South on A1A, and again got lost. The sign said to turn right for A1A but then the route vanished. Once again the trusty laptop navigation program (not to mention the world’s greatest navigator) found our way. We t ook a side trip off A1A on 203 which is also known as Pointe Verde Blvd. which rides along the coast through the land of the rich and famous. I’ve seen richer and famouser areas, but this one was pretty amazing. All the houses looked like an army of 4000 Mexicans were on landscape duty full time. We continued down the coast on A1A passing through a continuous strand of condos and beach houses. There is very little buildable coastline that doesn’t have something on it. The vacant lots that are left are there because someone wants 5 bazillion dollars for them. There are still some areas that look like what I imagine FLA must have looked like 20 or 30 years ago, but they are few and far between. In fact, similar to where my son lives in Manassas VA, parasitic building has started. This is when someone buys a little old 1000 sq. foot ocean front cottage for 3 or 4 hundred thousand just to get the lot. Then they tear down the still functional home and build a new 4000 or more sq. foot M cMansion. The temp got up to the 80’s, so we decided to stop early and clean up the car so we could put the bra on. (we couldn’t put it on at home cause the vinyl wouldn’t stretch much at 20 degrees) So we stopped early in Ormand Beach, and got another room at the Comfort Inn with a view overlooking the ocean. Since we are in the week between the Daytona 500 and Daytona Bike week, accommodations are readily available. We cleaned up the car, put the bra on, and then did the most amazing thing. We went driving on the beach with the roof down. They let you get on the beach just a ½ mile or so from our motel, and we drove way down the beach about 4 or 5 miles. We then turned around and came back. It was approaching sunset, so everything was beautiful. Trust me, driving on Daytona Beach in a new Corvette with the roof down, good sounds on the radio, sea birds flying all around, the waves crashing, and the sky getting rosy as sundown approaches, is pretty close to perfect. (oh yea, and a Mojito in the cupholder) After that, we had a gourmet dinner at the Waffle House (I can’t get enough of their Scattered and Smothered hash browns), and some ice cream at The Creamery just down the street. We turned in for a good night’s sleep, and then this morning, Vickie is walking on the beach with her coffee, crossword, and shell bag. I’m sitting in the sun in my shorts communing with my laptop. Today, we plan to visit Daytona USA and the Daytona track. Then we are going to head in the general direction of Cape Canaveral to see about the tour there.

Hola,

Wes and Vickie

Day 2 South from Hilton Head SC

We left Hilton Head this morning heading South, with no concrete plan in mind. Coming out of HH we cut off on a back road toward Bluffton and got out of the heavy traffic. We rejoined Rt. 17 further South. We followed 17 to Savannah and exited just after another amazing bridge toward downtown. We toured the old part of Savannah and went by Paula Dean’s restaurant. It wasn’t mealtime, so we continued on. We saw most of old Savannah and then rejoined Rt. 17 to continue South. Saw one of those classic road signs you see in the magazines leaving Savannah. It was a big official yellow road sign, and said "Street Closed When Flooded"??? as opposed to what???? Rt. 17 continued its predilection for being straight with nothing but trees and marsh to look at. We took a side trip just past Eulonia, GA out Rt.99 that parallels 17 but is even more rural. The scenery was truly undisturbed rural Georgia. We passed, uneventfully, through Brunswick, GA on our way t o Jekyll Island. Jekyll Island is quite an interesting place. In the early 20th century, it was a private resort owned by the Vanderbilts, Goodyears, Carnegies, Fords etc. It was said that at one time the owners of Jekyll Island Resort controlled a full 20% of the world’s wealth. Now days the state of Georgia has owned it for the last 40 years. Many of the old original "cottages" are still there and have been restored. The huge home of the Vanderbilts has been converted to a hotel and is run by heirs of the family. While we were touring that, we saw folks out on the front lawn in period dress playing croquet just like must have happened earlier in the 1930’s and 40’s. Our guidebook told us you could actually stay at the Vanderbilt hotel, but prices were in the $375 a night range. (but with gourmet meals) We guessed that the folks on the front lawn were regular guests and knew what dress to wear for period croquet. We toured the rest of the island, and noted there were ma ny very nice houses in the residential areas of the island. Most of them looked like brick ranchers from the 60’s, but looking at the real estate listings on the Internet, most of them went for half a million or better. Rentals were in the 2 grand a week range. All in all though it was a beautiful place—very well kept and manicured, and little or no traffic. We left there and continued South on 17 heading for the Florida border. In Woodbine, GA we saw an antique dealer with a sense of humor—had a sign out front that read "Dead People’s Things For Sale" We crossed into Florida, and finally turned onto Rt. A1A with 734 miles showing on the trip meter and 74 degrees on the vette outdoor temp. We followed A1A to Fernandina Beach on Amelia Island, and decided to land for the day. Got an ocean view room at the Comfort Suites, and had a good meal down the road at Sliders. (fresh grouper was excellent). We’re camped for the night, and plan to head down A1A tomorrow morning. Should be some top down weather tomorrow, had the AC on today when it was 78.

More later........

Wes & Vickie

Southeast #1

Hello all,

Well here we are back on the road again. We left M’ville Saturday morning, and spent the weekend with some friends in Georgetown SC. Watched the Daytona 500 on Sunday, and saw some of the sights in Georgetown Saturday. Georgetown is a quite old seaport about an hour South of Myrtle Beach on Rt. 17. It is also home to a steel mill and paper plant. It has a very cool waterfront with a small boardwalk with neat pubs and oyster houses. We left Georgetown Monday morning headed South. The stretch of Rt. 17 between Georgetown and Charleston SC is nothing but a straight road through some pine trees—not too much to see but a lot of marsh and wetlands. Charleston is really old. According to the literature, many of the buildings are of the 1700’s vintage. We toured through the old Battery section of the city, and were amazed at the well-preserved old city. Many of the streets were paved with Belgian blocks, which came over as ballast in the old sailing ships. For my friends from Pittsburgh , I’m sure you remember the Belgian block streets (cobblestone) that have now mostly been replaced by soulless asphalt. Also in Charleston is a magnificent bridge called the Cooper River bridge which Vickie got some good pictures of as we crossed. We headed south from Charleston, and slipped onto some side roads that paralleled Rt. 17. We took a side trip out to some island, which dead-ended us in the parking lot of a towboat company. On the way back we took a little side trip where I had noticed a sign advertising a waterfront lot for sale. We found a 2-acre lot overlooking a beautiful marsh vista, complete with dock permit. Just for curiosity, we called the number on the sign and inquired. The lot was on sale for the bargain price of $589,000 (no house). According to the fellow we talked to, another nearby lot on the same water vista had recently sold for $985,000. Keep in mind, that this lot was a long way from anything except Rt. 17 and some marsh. Can’t believe what the influx of boomer snowbirds is doing to the price of any waterfront lot in the South. We continued South, and took a side trip out Rt. 21 to Huntington State Park, which is near Paris Island Marine Corps training base. It was a beautiful 20-mile drive to some gated community island way out on the Atlantic Ocean. There is quite a maze of off shore islands off the coast of SC and GA, some of which are accessible only by ferry. They are beautiful and remote, but look like somewhere I wouldn’t want to be during a hurricane. (or when global warming raises the water level by 10 feet) We continued south to Hilton Head Island. Hilton Head is a classic example of too many people having too much money and time on their hands. The whole island is one huge maze of condos, resorts and golf courses. (I literally felt like a Corvette rat in some giant alien’s maze) The traffic was unbelievable, and the interesting method of disguising everything (even McDonalds and KFC) to look like a plaza or resort, m ake finding anything very difficult. We decided to call it a day at Hilton Head, and started considering our landing options. Just on a whim, we called our Marriott Vacation Club to see if they had a vacancy. They didn’t, but hooked us up with another Marriott property that did. We ended up at a very nice 2-bedroom condo at the Barony Beach Club for motel prices. We got settled in, and headed to the Westin something or other next door where we had reciprocal privileges. We were told we could get a drink and eat, at something called Turtles Beach Bar. It was a short walk and we found it handily. As is typical of these resorts, they give you a cheap room and everything else is ridiculous. 2 drinks cost us like $17.50 with tax and tip, but it was cool cause the bartender was a Corvette guy, and we had a good time talking to him. We looked over the menu, and decided to pass on the $14.00 appetizers, and $36.00 grilled ribeye. We had a small mishap…. on the way back to our room, I misse d one step and took a fall. (I’m ok, just a skinned knee and a slightly sore right hip) This was due to darkness and bifocals contrary to what you might believe alcohol was not a factor (this time). We really didn’t want to head back out into "the maze" so I manned the trusty yellow pages. Found an Italian place nearby, which was on the Internet, took American Express, and delivered. We scrutinized the menu on line, ordered some choices, and while I relaxed in the giant whirlpool tub, they brought our stuff, hot and tasty, right to us. Ended up costing a fraction of what the resort was trying to screw us out of, and great food to boot. Thanks to Giuseppi’s; we had a great dinner right in our own condo, in front of the 754-inch TV. More later.

Wes and Vickie

Heading out

Well Vickie and I are on the road again for 3 weeks or so. We will be sending a journel of sorts, and we have included you on our distribution list. If you are not interested, please reply and let us know so we won't create SPAM in your Email. Otherwise, join us as 2 boomer retiree's take on the Southeast.
Hola,
Wes and Vickie