My wife and I returned last Sunday from a week in sunny Florida. This was the trip that we had to postpone due to my wife's surgery in April. It had been a while since we were in Florida that late in the year but overall I think it was a pretty good time to go. It was far from crowded and most of the restaurants were still open to tourists like ourselves.
We started off our trip on Friday. We drove to Meridian, MS to spend the night in a newly opened Drury Inn. If you have not stayed in one, don't laugh at the name. They are a mid tier franchise that is pet friendly. That is one of the primary reasons we keep going back.
When we arrived, it was raining. Texas had been soggy for a couple of weeks and we were hoping to move out of the rainy area for a while. Well, I guess we brought some of the rain with us so we did not go out that night. I had hoped to do a little geocaching then but that was not in the cards. I had to wait until the next morning (not really having enough time do do any "serious" caching since we had to check out at 11:00 AM and it was not light out until 7:30 AM, and we still needed to eat, get cleaned up and pack up the van) to do my caching and while it was not an expedition like I am used to, I did manage to get several before we left.
We hit the road around 10:30 or so and made pretty good time to the beach house in Cape San Blas. We had used this house last year and mostly liked it. A couple of downers were no Internet or mobile phone service and some maintenance issues (broken patio door and the overall cleanliness of the place) but those were mostly fixed this year. The owner now has wireless broadband and he fixed the broken patio door handle. The house in places was still not as clean as we would like, but overall it was better than last time.
One of the first things we noticed when we pulled in was a lot of standing water by the main road (SR-30E) and at the end of the cul de sac on which the house resides. The boardwalk was cut off from the homes by a large (make that huge) and deep pool of standing water. There were two sump pumps running 24x7 to pump the water out of the low spots but they had been running for over a week and the water never seemed to go down. We later learned that the last named storm that came through the area dumped a ton of water and it had yet to dissipate.
We got out of the van and were immediately attacked by swarms of mosquitoes. We were not pleased and wondered if our vacation was going to be ruined. Flooding, mosquitoes, and a long drive to pretty much any food, store or attraction did not sit well with us. My wife was visibly upset.
We were both tired and after we unpacked and made a well meaning, but futile attempt at getting to the beach, we turned in for hopefully a good night's sleep.
We awoke the next morning and I took our dog out to do her thing (after I slathered all natural bug juice on me). I walked over to the next cul de sac via the secondary boardwalk and noticed that it was flooded as well. I also noticed that the empty lot next to that cul de sac had not been improved upon since we were here 18 months ago. A local informed me that the developers went bankrupt and the bank has been looking for buyers for a long time. Not only did they go bankrupt, but the developers also had most of the tress cut down (some were not even theirs, but other property owners) removing a natural wind break that contributed to the damage from the last storm. The boardwalk that the developers were supposed to build that allowed access to the beach was never built so with this new flooding, everyone suffered with no quick way to the beach.
After speaking to a couple of locals and getting the low down on things (including the location of public access that was not flooded just about a mile away) I went back in the house to grab some breakfast. I filled my wife in on my findings and after breakfast we headed down to the public access.
We we arrived (with our dog), we noticed the park area was flooded as well...actually pretty bad. I have some pics I can post when I get more time. We were beginning to think that the locals were wrong about the access here but then I spotted a path leading to another part of the park and some additional parking and that area was 90% clear. We headed over and found that we could get to the beach from this location. Problem solved. While not ideal, it would work for a week.
Now that we had a way to the beach, we used that every morning and every evening to take 2-3 mile walks each time. Our dog (an older Golden Retriever mix) joined us about half the time. We would have taken her more but the walks were hard on her and the sand burrs were plentiful.
Each day my wife and I would pick a direction and drive to some small town to eat lunch and see the sights. The old coast has a lot of them to chose from and we decided to go to the closest ones on this trip. Things did not always go as planned but we did have a pretty good time and I was able to do some geocaching on our outings.
Our outings included trips to Apalachicola (known as Apalach to the locals), Port St. Joe, Wewahitchka (known as Wewa to the locals), St. George Island (known as SGI to the locals), and Carrabelle. Out of the six trips to little towns, we ended up eating in Apalach four times. The food there is really good. Wewa did not have much and neither did Carrabelle. SGI may have had some places that were okay but on that day we had decided to eat in Apalach so we did not look. Overall we had seafood for lunch each day and we cooked dinner that evening at home. It helped on the budget to do that.
By the time we left the beach to return home to Texas, the water had gone down enough that we could walk to the boardwalk from the rental but the water on the other side of the dunes was still forming a swamp so we could not take that route in concern for snakes.
Our trip back to Texas was uneventful. The rain followed us to MS again so that evening was a soggy mess. I did manage to get out the next morning to geocache a little, but I only got three. Once we hit the road it was smooth sailing all the way back to Dallas.
I took some pics, many which are on my Facebook page and a few I may post here. We enjoyed the stay despite the fact that the ground was soggy and flooded in places. It was not the best vacation, but it was not bad. Like all vacations, it went by too quickly but at least when I went back to work I was not on call. That pleasure comes next week.
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Sadly, I Have Slacked Off, Yet Again.
I am not sure why I have so much trouble updating this blog on a regular basis. I normally have enough time to read news, browse Facebook, read my mail, work, be a decent husband, and keep my commitments to our church but sadly I let this blog go untouched for weeks at a time. No excuses. I am slacking off.
Time does not stand still just because my blog goes idle for extended lengths of time. My life rolls on and things continue to change all around me. I am not sure where to begin but I guess I can start with an update on the hobby I am passionate about, Geocaching. If you have been here before you know all about what Geocaching is so I will not bore you with the details. For those who are new, skip on over to www.geocaching.com and read a bit. You may find yourself a new hobby!
About a month or so ago I received an e-mail from a new geocacher having trouble with one of my harder caches. Being new, I was trying to be helpful but not give anything away. Long story short, he eventually found the 2 stage multi I own and we became friends. He and I have been out caching a couple of times and once more with one of his friends from church who was interested. Wayne (my new geocaching friend) is a Christian and has good values. His wife and mine share the same first name and we both are in the same basic age group (although he is a tad older than I am). But oddly enough, if we did not share the bond of Christ, I doubt that I would have befriended him (I can tell you right now this blog is going to rabbit trail quite a bit...I can see it coming! If you cannot stand blogs that do that, I am sorry but I have to tell this as I remember it).
You see, I have another friend, Allen, who is a geocacher and also a fellow Christian and we are much more alike when it comes to geocaching. Both Allen and I like the harder, more challenging caches. Long, strenuous hikes, river crossings, dangerous tree climbs...we live for those things. The one area where Allen and I majorly differ in our geocaching style is that he loves puzzle caches and for the most part, puzzle caches annoy the crap out of me. But I digress.
Wayne is just the opposite. Wayne is more into urban caching where the only real exercise you get is walking from your car to GZ of the cache. While he and I have gone and walked a few times (3 miles or less), he made it clear that he is not partial to those kinds of geocacaches. Nonetheless, we still have gone out and cached together (once his style and twice mine although the one of his turned out to have a 1 mile hike involved). Why? Do I love the sport so much that I overlook mine and Wayne's differences? Maybe but I want to cover that a bit later.
Our first time out together, we went to Oak Point Nature Preserve in Plano to hike the new section they just recently opened up. One of the newer cachers (NatureNed) hid several that I was just itching to try to find. The trek would cover about 3 miles on a warm August day. Wayne did not have any of the waypoints loaded in his GPSr, so he tried using his iPhone to cache. He was not overly successful but he did manage to spot the caches shortly after I did. However he made it clear that he was tired and hot and needed to get something to drink. I understood. Wayne, while close to my age, is 50 and not in the best of shape. What he lacks in stamina, he does however make up with a lot of heart.
The next time that we went out, I told Wayne that we would do some easier stuff. So since there were several new caches along a paved hiking/biking trail in our little city, I suggested that we get those. The total walk was about two miles but Wayne was not really into the actual hike. He suggested we go back a drive to the caches but I convinced him to trek on. He made it and we again stopped for cold drinks before parting ways.
I was beginning to think he and I were not really going to click but the following week Wayne called me up and invited me to his church's men's breakfast. I thought it would be a great thing to meet more Christian men so I agreed. After breakfast, Wayne stated that one of the guys who was at the breakfast was interested in Geocaching and wanted to tag along with us if we went out. I told Wayne I was game and we decided to cache in West Richardson since that was one area I had not been in yet. Scott joined Wayne and I on a short two hour caching run that netted him five geocaches. By the time we found his last one, he was getting good at spotting them. It turns out that he and the rest of his family have been bitten by the geocaching bug and are now hooked. Welcome to the insanity, Scott!
Scott had an appointment that he could not miss so we drove him back to his car and Wayne and I took off to grab a few more caches. I was getting dangerously close to a milestone of 1500 finds and I wanted it to be memorable. I had picked out one and we drove around picking up caches until we grabbed 1499, then we headed off to get number 1500.
Number 1500 turned out to be a bit of hike for Wayne (.5 mile up and .5 back...1 mile round trip) in warm weather, but he made it okay. Actually if not for him I may not have been able to get this cache as he had one very important tool that made retrieval much easier. After getting number 1500 (a 4.5/4.5 out of 5/5 hide) I dropped him off and went on my way. Now to hop on that rabbit trail.
While I like geocaching (okay, I LOVE geocaching), I doubt I would spend my timing doing it with someone I did not like UNLESS there was a greater bond. In this case Wayne and I are very different. While he is not a fan of puzzle caches (like me) he has no desire to hike or take longer walks to grab caches...something I like to do. Instead, we pair up because the bible commands us to love each other. If I were not a Christian, I would not want to be around Wayne because we are very different. However scripture tends to command us to do things that are against our nature: Love our enemies, for meant to love their wives and for wives to respect their husbands, turn away from the lure of the flesh, etc. So with that in mind, I put aside my desires and focus more on others. When Wayne wants to geocache, I ask him where he wants to go and what he is looking for in a cache. And the same goes for Wayne. While he is far from in shape, he pushed on because he was respecting me.
That is what Christianity is all about...relationships. God commands us to have peaceful relationships with others just as we have one with him.
By the way, number 1500 cache "Mollydawg's Retrieval Nightmare" was a collaborative effort. I had some things Wayne needed, he had a few things I needed, and we both worked to retrieve the cache which is well worth the difficulty level (but I feel the terrain is over rated...it really should be no more than a 3 in my opinion). He felt a degree of satisfaction knowing he was part of the process to get a 4.5/4/5 cache he (nor I) would have ever gotten alone.
Time does not stand still just because my blog goes idle for extended lengths of time. My life rolls on and things continue to change all around me. I am not sure where to begin but I guess I can start with an update on the hobby I am passionate about, Geocaching. If you have been here before you know all about what Geocaching is so I will not bore you with the details. For those who are new, skip on over to www.geocaching.com and read a bit. You may find yourself a new hobby!
About a month or so ago I received an e-mail from a new geocacher having trouble with one of my harder caches. Being new, I was trying to be helpful but not give anything away. Long story short, he eventually found the 2 stage multi I own and we became friends. He and I have been out caching a couple of times and once more with one of his friends from church who was interested. Wayne (my new geocaching friend) is a Christian and has good values. His wife and mine share the same first name and we both are in the same basic age group (although he is a tad older than I am). But oddly enough, if we did not share the bond of Christ, I doubt that I would have befriended him (I can tell you right now this blog is going to rabbit trail quite a bit...I can see it coming! If you cannot stand blogs that do that, I am sorry but I have to tell this as I remember it).
You see, I have another friend, Allen, who is a geocacher and also a fellow Christian and we are much more alike when it comes to geocaching. Both Allen and I like the harder, more challenging caches. Long, strenuous hikes, river crossings, dangerous tree climbs...we live for those things. The one area where Allen and I majorly differ in our geocaching style is that he loves puzzle caches and for the most part, puzzle caches annoy the crap out of me. But I digress.
Wayne is just the opposite. Wayne is more into urban caching where the only real exercise you get is walking from your car to GZ of the cache. While he and I have gone and walked a few times (3 miles or less), he made it clear that he is not partial to those kinds of geocacaches. Nonetheless, we still have gone out and cached together (once his style and twice mine although the one of his turned out to have a 1 mile hike involved). Why? Do I love the sport so much that I overlook mine and Wayne's differences? Maybe but I want to cover that a bit later.
Our first time out together, we went to Oak Point Nature Preserve in Plano to hike the new section they just recently opened up. One of the newer cachers (NatureNed) hid several that I was just itching to try to find. The trek would cover about 3 miles on a warm August day. Wayne did not have any of the waypoints loaded in his GPSr, so he tried using his iPhone to cache. He was not overly successful but he did manage to spot the caches shortly after I did. However he made it clear that he was tired and hot and needed to get something to drink. I understood. Wayne, while close to my age, is 50 and not in the best of shape. What he lacks in stamina, he does however make up with a lot of heart.
The next time that we went out, I told Wayne that we would do some easier stuff. So since there were several new caches along a paved hiking/biking trail in our little city, I suggested that we get those. The total walk was about two miles but Wayne was not really into the actual hike. He suggested we go back a drive to the caches but I convinced him to trek on. He made it and we again stopped for cold drinks before parting ways.
I was beginning to think he and I were not really going to click but the following week Wayne called me up and invited me to his church's men's breakfast. I thought it would be a great thing to meet more Christian men so I agreed. After breakfast, Wayne stated that one of the guys who was at the breakfast was interested in Geocaching and wanted to tag along with us if we went out. I told Wayne I was game and we decided to cache in West Richardson since that was one area I had not been in yet. Scott joined Wayne and I on a short two hour caching run that netted him five geocaches. By the time we found his last one, he was getting good at spotting them. It turns out that he and the rest of his family have been bitten by the geocaching bug and are now hooked. Welcome to the insanity, Scott!
Scott had an appointment that he could not miss so we drove him back to his car and Wayne and I took off to grab a few more caches. I was getting dangerously close to a milestone of 1500 finds and I wanted it to be memorable. I had picked out one and we drove around picking up caches until we grabbed 1499, then we headed off to get number 1500.
Number 1500 turned out to be a bit of hike for Wayne (.5 mile up and .5 back...1 mile round trip) in warm weather, but he made it okay. Actually if not for him I may not have been able to get this cache as he had one very important tool that made retrieval much easier. After getting number 1500 (a 4.5/4.5 out of 5/5 hide) I dropped him off and went on my way. Now to hop on that rabbit trail.
While I like geocaching (okay, I LOVE geocaching), I doubt I would spend my timing doing it with someone I did not like UNLESS there was a greater bond. In this case Wayne and I are very different. While he is not a fan of puzzle caches (like me) he has no desire to hike or take longer walks to grab caches...something I like to do. Instead, we pair up because the bible commands us to love each other. If I were not a Christian, I would not want to be around Wayne because we are very different. However scripture tends to command us to do things that are against our nature: Love our enemies, for meant to love their wives and for wives to respect their husbands, turn away from the lure of the flesh, etc. So with that in mind, I put aside my desires and focus more on others. When Wayne wants to geocache, I ask him where he wants to go and what he is looking for in a cache. And the same goes for Wayne. While he is far from in shape, he pushed on because he was respecting me.
That is what Christianity is all about...relationships. God commands us to have peaceful relationships with others just as we have one with him.
By the way, number 1500 cache "Mollydawg's Retrieval Nightmare" was a collaborative effort. I had some things Wayne needed, he had a few things I needed, and we both worked to retrieve the cache which is well worth the difficulty level (but I feel the terrain is over rated...it really should be no more than a 3 in my opinion). He felt a degree of satisfaction knowing he was part of the process to get a 4.5/4/5 cache he (nor I) would have ever gotten alone.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)