May 2014

May 19, 2014

Loxahatchee Everglades Tour

When you have visitors like Curator Jessica from Ohio, you can’t send them back to the Midwest without having seen a gator or two.

Wife Lila and I have had good luck with the Loxahatchee Everglades Tours folks at the end of Loxahatchee Road (used to be known as Lox Road) on the Palm Beach – Broward County line, so I hauled our visitor down there at an unacceptably early hour by my standards. As it turned out, we were a couple of minutes late to make the first boat: the couple in front of us took the last two seats. We killed the time watching a gator swim through a pipe from one canal to another, visiting very clean restrooms and scoping out the displays.

Miz Jessica was willing to pose with a bobcat, the Ohio University team mascot, but she wouldn’t stick her head in the mouth of even a stuffed alligator. There was a sign asking visitors not to touch the displays, so I couldn’t try to convince her to lick the reptile like she did the St. Louis Arch.

Blue Heron having lunch

We had scarcely started the ride when we came upon a blue heron chowing down on a small gar. He flipped him around until he was headed down head first. When the boat got closer, the bird decided on having a to-go meal, and flew off with the fish sticking out of his mouth.

Photo gallery of airboat ride

Here’s a selection of what we saw on our airboat ride. Click on any photo to make it larger, then use your arrow keys to move through the gallery.

May 18, 2014

Last Gasp of Missouri

Almost every visit I shoot a series of photos when I first hit the Bill Emerson Memorial Bridge leaving Illinois for Missouri, and a series when head back out of the state. (Click on the photo to make it larger.)

No, I don’t shoot and drive at the same time. I adjust the polarizing filter and exposure long before I get to the bridge, set the zoom on a medium length and just balance the camera on the steering wheel with one hand. I shift the angle after I see the image that pops up on the LCD display on the camera’s back. It’s a matter of luck, not particularly skill.

The little green sign on the right side of the frame, just at the crest of the bridge, tells me I’m leaving the Show Me state and entering Illinois.

See you again in the summer.

[Editor’s Note: I’m doing a quick post because I have to get up before the chickens to take Curator Jessica on an airboat ride in the Everglades. I tried to discourage her by describing what would happen if the airplane propeller behind her back broke loose if the boat hit a snag at high speed: she’d turn into a pink spray the gators could suck down with a straw. Ohio Gal thinks I’m kidding, but wait until she sees it.]

May 17, 2014

Contrail Brings Challenger Chills

The Road Warriorettes and I had a great day touring Florida. I’ll be sharing some of those stories and some neat things we discovered in Georgia in the future. Getting along toward sunset, I said we should take a look for gators at Nubbins Slough on the northeast corner of Lake Okeechobee.

When we got to the top of the dike, we met a pickup truck parked looking east, but didn’t think anything of it. Curator Jessica got out to shoot the clouds turning orange on the north side of the lake. When I went to swing the van around to get it out of the road, I froze.

Flashback to January 28, 1986

In the rearview mirror, I saw a contrail that brought back that cold morning on January 28, 1986, when I climbed on the roof at The Palm Beach Post to see the corkscrewing smoke left over from the Challenger explosion.

I called Wife Lila in West Palm Beach to ask if she knew if there had been a rocket launch at The Cape. She said one was supposed to have gone off at 8:03, but she didn’t know if it had any problems.

My photo was taken at 8:07, assuming the time programmed into my camera was correct.

It wasn’t until I got home that I read that a United Launch Alliance Delta 4 rocket carrying a $245 million Global Positioning System satellite was launched into space Friday after a 24-hour weather delay.

Shortly after I turned my attention away from the rocket trail, the sky came alive.

Warriorettes are leaving me

Anne Rodgers, Texan, former newspaper colleague and bike riding partner, is moving back home to Texas early in June. Curator Jessica Cyders, from the Athens Historical Society and Museum, will be heading back to Athens, Ohio, next week to her husband and cat. She hopes that neither has starved to death in her absence.

I hope the pictures they shot at Nubbins Slough this afternoon will bring back fond memories of our meandering.

Y0u can click on the photos to make them larger.

May 16, 2014

Warriorettes Hit Florida

I got Road Warriorettes Anne and Curator Jessica over the Florida line without too much difficulty. I’m tired enough, though, that I told ’em the best gift would be for us to check into a joint without a WiFi connection so I’d have an excuse for not filing

Anne suggested we name this the No Bad Food Tour, because we haven’t had a single bad meal. Part of that is from stopping at places I’ve discovered over the years, and part is from our rule of thumb: stop only at locally-owned restaurants that have a bunch of cars in front of them.

Cypress Inn Restaurant

It’s been at least 20 or 25 ars since I ate at the Cypress Inn Restaurant in Cross City. I don’t remember if I was covering a flood or a hurricane or if it was on a vacation trip with the family.

I had the seafood platter that was every bit as good as the shrimp and oyster combo I had at a fish camp in Gastonia yesterday. The oysters weren’t quite as big, but everything on the plate was tasteful. Anne had a ribeye that was tender and had good flavor. Jessica was craving a big, greasy burger, and got her wish fulfilled.

It won’t be another 25 years before I go back. This moves up to a prime spot on my list.

We’re going to try to get into West Palm Beach early enough for Anne to wrap loose ends before she leaves Florida for her home state of Texas. Gonna miss her.