6-30-07 #1

More wandering around the town. Old Lighthouse, view from top. There were 84 steps to the top, believe me, I counted. These trees are everywhere around here. I forget their name, but they bloom in June. I love that color. This street comes directly off of Duval, the main drag. It just struck me with it's serenity, as opposed to the rest of the area.

6-30-07 #2

This is a picture of the interior of the fort. It took up a lot of ground. I walked around the top, and can attest to its size. There was a small boat on the beach. That's it in front of the Coast Guard ship. They were there to load it up, and haul it off. It had come ashore two days before our trip, and the odd thing is it held 19 Cubans. The Tortugas are American property, so they made it to the U.S. They've probably already started a Cuban restaurant. Notice the inside of the boat with that ratty ass motor and rusty old rudder. A Coast Guard guy said they were probably bailing the whole way. Sheesh! I went snorkeling while we were there. I can see I need some longer arms for any future underwater shots. Anyway, as I was tooling around, I got surrounded by this school of little fish, each about two inches long. Bait fish? Dun..dun/dun..dun.

6-29-07 #1

I was driving down the road the other day, and this sign caught my eye. I asked the lady working there what it said. She said she had been working there for over 30 yr.s, and had no idea. Therefore, I figured, due to the exploding cloud, it probably meant "full of gas". How appropriate. This big catamaran was what we took out to the Dry Tortugas, a small island about 70 mi.s west of the keys. The whole way out, the boat was shifting right to left and back. I asked one of the mates what the deal was. He told me it had something to do with the double hull, and the waves hitting from the side and other stuff. It's called "walking". He said all cats do it. Anyway we got to the island, and this fort took up the entire area. It was built during the War Of Northern Aggression...Civil War to some. 70 mi.s from the nearest land, and someone figured it needed a moat. Our government was at their finest.

6-25-07

Strolling down the Avenue that's known as A-1-A. Made it to the Keys last Thursday, and have finally found a wi-fi service, after finding out my hotel doesn't have it. I was wandering around the other day, and went in to Captain Tony's to get out of the heat. My dentist in Elgin is now advertised on the wall there. The wi-fi spot is Key West Bait & Tackle. So much better than a coffee shop. Let the wandering continue, and I'll talk later.

6-17-07 #2

Some more of the snaps.

6-17-07

Whoop-te-doo,
I'm finally getting this thing going. Started the trip on Thursday, the14th. I didn't want to go through Houston, I hate that place, so I took 290 to Brenham, went to the creameryterium, bought a t-shirt, and headed on out hwy 105. It was between Kountze...MYYY DADDY...and De Quincy, La. that I figured these side roads are nice, and everything, but gas and time are not well spent, so I'm back on the interstate for a ways.
I stayed in Lafayette for a couple of nights, chowed down on lots of gumbo, skrimps, crawdaddies, etc. Took a drive through the heart of the swamps along the Gulf from Pecan Island to Holly Beach. Remember the boondoggle from a few years back Deano, when we all went down so Buffalo could leave that application for work at the door of that job shack somewhere along the way. I can't remember for the life of me, what jailhouse, at which town we ended up waiting for Buddy to get out of incarceration from. Tweak my memory later. Anyway, it was along that road where I saw this 7ft. plus of Cajun road kill. AAIIIIIYEEEEEE! I imagine that woke somebody right up when they ran over that. After getting a few pictures of the swamps, I headed back to New Iberia, then cut down south to see Avery Island. It's a nice slow drive through the gardens, the gazebo on that island has a statue of Buddha in it, but it's locked up so I couldn't get to it. After tasting some samples of hot sauce in their gift shop, it was back to Lafayette, and tripping on down the road. I ended up in Pensacola, where the hotel wireless wouldn't talk to my computer, so I just lazed around there for a couple of days. I'm slowly going toward the Keys. I forgot I'd taken those pictures on the ferry at Cameron. Anybody remember ever seeing a fire axe in glass like that? I guess I'm limited to 5 pictures per post so I'll make another post or two for the rest of the pictures. I'll talk later.