Well if you are back I’m presuming that you haven’t found my observations too weird or boing or maybe somewhere in between since you’re back or maybe you’re like me and weird works for you. Yesterday added some new artists to my shop on line…so watch for some new and exciting things…even some steam punk. Oh and my Straight Jacket update: https://www.facebook.com/events/1437856319850187/ check out their latest gig. Had some heavy rain yesterday, my swimming pool was to the top water wise.
“Some beautiful paths can’t be discovered without getting lost.”
― Erol Ozan
― Elizabeth Berg, The Year of Pleasures
Like kissing a corpse:
What a hero and now he is broken–but once mended he will be stronger than ever. JAMIE FRASER why can’t they made real men half as good.
“I went on a road trip with my cat, Cap’n. I would have let him drive, but he was drunk.”
― Jarod Kintz, $3.33
“Sometimes the most scenic roads in life are the detours you didn’t mean to take.”
― Angela N. Blount, Once Upon an Ever After
Well let’s get back in the car and back on the Turnpike and see where we end up:
As we traveled on we passed another result of the wet weather. In Florida were ice is seldom a problem we have black ice when the rain starts or isn’t heavy and it mixes with the oil and chemicals on the surface it because as slick as the real thing. We slowed o pass a police car stopped along the road and further off the road a silver sports car resting cumbersomely on its roof. No sight of driver passenger or cop. Just the results of the slippery rain. But not to be deterred a yellow and black Porsche flies past, it’s oversize ass disappearing into the green framed gray distance.
As we head further south the skies begin to clear and the sun glares through the rapidly enlarging tears in the clouds.
― J. Cornell Michel, Jordan’s Brains: A Zombie Evolution
Ft. Drum, an interesting name for a rest area. Perhaps there was once a fort in this area, back in the deep, dark, days of the Seminole Wars. Those bloody days of Florida history where in 3 stages (called 3 Indian Wars) the might of the growing United States arrayed its growing military against the branch of the Creek nation which became the Seminoles when they decided to remain in Florida. When they finally they had no where else to go for refuge but the river of grass , the Everglades, the land no white man wanted, an where they were finally left alone.
But before you cry too many tears for this savage band of warriors remember that they came here after the Spanish came to St. Augustine and the land they took was from the existing native Florida Indians who for the most part were living peacefully with the Europeans. They came with the British on raids and a failed attempt to take the fort at St. Augustine (another very interesting story). The British left (at least for a while) the Seminoles stayed and claimed the land from the real tribes entitled to it. But remember when you hear the hype that indeed life is not aways fair and it’s not only the white European-types that take by conquest and might of arms.
― Rachel Caine, Kiss of Death
The thunder heads dissipate leaving dark under bellies that appear to promise more rain. Rain is tricky subject (time I originally wrote this ) this year. Florida has had a two year drought, now don’t get me wrong, we’ve had rain, but not the daily downpours we’re use to. It was so bad that huge sections of the state caught fire–with the air miles and miles away difficult to breathe due to its reek of burnt grass and trees. Citizens stayed tuned to the TV and watched nursing home evaluations, highways closed for the burning vegetation on both sides and the cancellation of the Daytona July NASAR race since the emergency vehicles usually on had for the event were all tied up with rescues and he like.
This year the rains are good, they came a bit early and they came almost daily with bunches of rain. Expert doubt that it will make up for the two bad years, but then it won’t be the first time a weather expert was wrong. Now there’s a contradiction of terms. I saw a comedian once who stated the obvious. “If you want to know what the weather is—stick your head the window and look.”
“That’s why I love road trips, dude. It’s like doing something without actually doing anything.”
― John Green, An Abundance of Katherines
But we have skirted additional bad weather that is drifting out to sea and we have just sprinkles as the dirty laundry layers move on. We pass a memorial along the road, you see way too often. memorials to lost friends and loved ones–several like this on has a plea to those passing it: “Please Drive Safely”.
More rain–the sun has runaway again and now the sudden vision blocking downpour accelerated by a vehicle with worn-out wipers going 70 MPH. And do I see the sky ahead a blue instead of dirty gray, though not a healthy blue a blue none-the-less. Then suddenly no rain as we enter Martin Co and pass a truck with a trailer full of hand carved animals, interesting but not great art, or even great carving, but much better than I can do.
“It’s a road trip! It’s about adventure! . . . It’s not like we have somewhere to go.”
― John Green, An Abundance of Katherines
At this point I-95 and the turnpike parallel each other only a short distance apart and often visible through the uneven curtain of trees and large bushes. There goes a “Fun Bus” (as opposed to a not fun one?). The roads separate drastically at the river and are no longer visible to the other. I’ve taken both paths and prefer Turn pike as it has fewer vehicles, less exits and faster drive times–worth the money to me.
The sky’s slate with the sun barely penetrating the water filled clouds as we move past Florida trucks, and Alabama cars. We follow a prison van for awhile but loose it at the rest area, back in traffic and moving on. Past the exit for Jupiter (the town,not the planet), a nice little town on the Loxachatchee and the Atlantic with its inlet light, Blowing Rock (don’t you dare say it) preserves and other park, lots of water stuff to do.
“Lured by smooth roads onto a new turnpike, he read with surprise the rules he was handed, don’t stop, don’t turn around, pay when you get there; he made his escape at the first exit he saw, for fiftyfive cents, and now he was on the old road buzzing the staid turnpike by turns over and under, teasing it crazy.”
― Douglas Woolf, Wall to Wall
More rain–the sky now the gray that sets in up north before a major snow, but the heat lets you know snow isn’t an option. The heat in Florida takes some getting to. Many residents don’t leave their air conditioned residences except to get into air conditioned destinations. The heat here is like being covered with a wet blanket that was removed from the drier in long enough to be uncomfortable but not to get dried. It is clammy, stifling, uncomfortable air in which sweat can’t dry and thus something that is to help you cool off just makes you feel even more uncomfortable.
A truck off-road, banged and battered–more Florida ice and what appears to be a drug bust going down. It is reported that this road is a major artery for cocaine and other abused substances that enters Florida from a thousand small beaches and hidden alcoves so that monitoring but a few is not possible.
“I think that travel comes from some deep urge to see the world, like the urge that brings up a worm in an Irish bog to see the moon when it is full.”
from Lord Dunsany
from Caskie Stinnett
