Cruisin' Highway A1A

I had a late afternoon appointment in Ponte Vedra today so I took the scenic route home - namely Highway A1A. It's a great ride & there's lots to see - the ocean on one side, the intracoastal waterway on the other, fabulous gated mansions, &, by my count anyway, 4 strategically placed Starbucks (between Jax Beach & St Augustine). I think they (Starbucks) did a local bladder capacity study to pinpoint these locations. If you're ever on the east coast of Florida & see this sign - jump on this road.



Here's a map. Don't wanna lose anyone on this post.



If you're going south toward our house - look left.....



Here's an aerial photo that I borrowed. If you read BAD LATITUDE, you can see lots of the places I described (sort of) in this photo - like the Matanzas Bay, the inlet, the old town, Vilano, Anastasia Island, etc....



The ocean, in most areas, is pretty close to the intracoastal - Pop & Nan live on
A1A, but on the intracoastal side facing the road & dunes, not on the ocean. I get so many emails about 'The Rackham Estate' - I'm thinkin' about listing the 10 most popular questions or comments in a future blog post. I'm sure the house is near the top of the list. I'm not posting the address.



The TPC Championship is underway this week, in Ponte Vedra at Sawgrass (also on A1A) Tiger Woods, Phil Mickleson & all of the big name PGA golf pros are playing. This is the clubhouse - not too shabby. This is the course with the famous 17th "island" green.



Here's one of my favorite local spots - South Beach Grill. Just returned from SBG about an hour ago in fact. It's on the ocean - on A1A. Me n' Deb always sit outside, chillin' out & watchin' the waves. I highly recommend the Mahi. I would mention the Key Lime Pie but sometimes Deb reads my blog & I don't wanna stir up any diet talk.



Given the choice between living on the ocean side or the intracoastal side of A1A - most would choose the ocean, because of the view & easier beach access (though we are allowed to drive & park on our beaches - which makes it easy). The Rackham's live on the intracoastal side - 'cause they have some really cool boats, a huge boathouse & they really like this view from the backyard..... Follow the clues, Chapter One page 6 is a start.



So... maybe it's not on the ocean, but, for the Treasure Huntin' Rackham clan... it'll do .....

Reckless Endeavor

Me n' Deb spent the morning hangin' out on the back porch drinking coffee & yacking about all kinds of STUFF - like adding more rose bushes & flowers, the good old days at our beach house in Delaware, baseball & all of the kids that I coached, & the new tattoo that I've decided to get (gonna be awesome - I'll post pics when it's done). Eventually, the topic of Reckless Endeavor came up, so... I started where good stories start.... at the beginning... & rambled for an hour.

Deb liked the story, laughing a lot & saying 'no way' at all the right spots. She especially liked a new character that has a major role, though the name of said character may change. I still have a few more chapters to go (then re-writes & edits) but I thought I'd blog about it via pictures & drop a few hints along the way...

Jack Rackham is 16. If he hadn't taken that shortcut near Treasury Street, he never would have ended up in jail..... of course, the homeless girl never woulda been rescued either ....




Natuarally there are supernatural elements in this story, just like in Bad Latitude, & they're not limited to the prison surroundings either ....



.... Much of the story takes place here in St Augustine, like here at The Old Jail... a real place in The Ancient Haunted City .....



.... Pop's new boat.... Reckless Endeavor... is an 82 foot schooner with a few high tech surprises... a few million bucks very well spent... treasure hunters always need reliable transportation.... & it's big enough for Bad Latitude to hitch a ride...



Reckless doesn't lack any of the Rackham-preferred luxuries...it's not quite on par with the gated Rackham Estate, but it'll do....



..... and it has all the latest gadgets...



.... you need high tech gizmos to cross through the Bermuda Triangle.....



.... and being the descendants of this guy... Calico Jack Rackham.... there had to be a reunion....



.... 'cause Pop always flies the Rackham flag...



...... just like Old Calico Jack flew in the old days....including last summer in the middle of the night when chasing Jack through the Matanzas Bay...



Jack & Kai are on another mission... they'll have to keep their heads & their bearings.....



.... so they can get here.... & hopefully .... make it home.... in one piece.

Dimwits At Work

We have our share of morons in the construction industry. I have reputation for being intolerant of stupidity & I'm never ever bashful or reserved when I have to get in someone's face to keep idiocy to a minimum. (I can be loud & scary.) These guys in the picture above are rushing around trying to clean up at the end of the day. They've just set a bunch of steel bollards in concrete, all buried at least 3 feet in the ground. Hurry up & "Git 'R Done". Wonder when they finally realized that their van was trapped? If this happened on a Friday, you can bet they left everything behind to deal with on Monday, on the boss's dime. So much for planning.

Morons can be found just about anywhere. Here's a group photo of one bunch.



I rarely get political on my blog, so you may want to stop reading this post right now. Today I get to vent. Being the capitalist that I am, & considering what I paid out in taxes this year, it's my version of the entitlement mentality at work.

The economy is teetering on the brink, so, according to the guys in the picture, the fix is to spend trillions that we don't have. "Hurry up & Git 'R Done before we encounter public awareness!"

Do sensible people take this approach with their personal finances? None that I know of. When times get tough, responsible folks cut wasteful spending & make the sacrifices needed to enable them to take care of their obligations.

Following previous disastrous economic decisions & runaway spending, our politicians are compounding the problems by passing unheard of budgets & bailout schemes, pushing through oppressive legislation which will crush business & ultimately create debt that can't be repaid. This will result in hidden taxation & penalties that most uniformed people aren't expecting (& can't afford), while business failures escalate, government dependency increases, & state's rights & personal freedoms erode. (I'm in favor of protecting the environment but I don't like the squiggly lightbulbs, won't drive a tiny battery-operated car - oh well.) These actions will trap all of us behind the steel bollards, all cemented in the ground, for us, our kids & our grandkids to deal with later, 'on our dime'. What a plan! What's really motivating these careless decisions & votes? It's gonna get ugly, especially when folks wake up & get in 'Washington's face' for this idiocy.

Fountain of Youth

I was feelin' lots of aches & pains, the affects of aging, so I decided I needed to make a quick trip to the Fountain of Youth down near the middle of St Augustine. Deb grabbed her camera & out the door we headed.



















Whew! I'm looking & feeling much better. Stuff really works. Shoulda seen me earlier.
















For awhile I thought I was headed to the Indian burial grounds - like this guy. This is a picture from the burial grounds found on the site back in the 1930s.






















The Fountain of Youth is a real place. Documents sent to the King of Spain pinpoint the location matching a marker placed in the gound designating its discovery in 1513

















This is one of the fountains, but not where you get the 'go go juice' - that's inside, near some weak displays that should have been updated (or eliminated) long ago.
















This is a statue of Ponce de Leon - During those days, life expectancy was typically 30 to 35 years. When old Ponce landed in St Augustine, he encountered the Timucua tribe. These people, the men & women, were all about 7 feet tall and lived, on average, for about 80 years, attributing their size & long life to the spring waters. Ponce was the tallest of his crew at 4' 11" and was already a shade past 30 at the time. So the little guy, after he claimed ownership of all lands for the King of Spain, (naming it 'La Florida', which covered most of the USA & part of Canada, up into Labrador) he loaded his ship with barrels of water from the spring that the Timacuans showed him. From that point on he used only the water from the spring for drinking, bathing, & food preparation. He lived to be 61, almost twice as long as most men in those days. He probably woulda lived longer. His death the result of a battle wound, an arrow to the thigh.





















The Fountain of Youth is centered in a twenty acre park. Me n' Deb get in for free 'cause we're residents, but it's pretty inexpensive to visit. They have a small display at the spring itself where you get a dose of the magic springwater, then check out a small (& not so modern) planetarium that shows how Ponce & Chris Columbus navigated from there to here. This is followed by a visit to a big lighted spinning globe showing the travel routes for all of the major land discoveries from the late 15th & 16th centuries. Roaming throughout the park grounds are about 2 dozen peacocks. (They actually fly - I never knew that.) Haven't figured out their purpose, other than making guys like me wait around while my wife gets the 'perfect peacock pose'. I don't know how she does this. Looks more like a 'perfect peacock painting' to me.

Botanography

Hands, Back, Legs, all killin me' (us). I think we need to move to a condo. We downsized the planting beds last year when we had about 4000+ square feet of sod put down - but there's still too much. Yesterday was spent planting Hibiscus, pruning Palm & Oak trees, planting new annuals, etc ... still leaving us at least a few days work for mulching (about 300 bags), & fertilizing the citrus & palm trees. On top of this, we planted new palms on the porches to replace Ficus trees that we lost during a bad frost. (We've even got trees INSIDE the house. Do ya have any idea what a pain that is?) Gettin' too old for this nonsense.

A landscape guy walked up to me in the front yard & asked if I'd be interested in getting a price from him for planting & mulching. (I probably looked exhausted. Crawling on all 4s with a shovel in my hand probably gave that away.)
Naturally, I said, "Nah, Thanks anyway. We always do this stuff ourselves."
"Looks like a lot of work" he said (& he didn't look out in the back yard!). He handed me his card & walk to his truck. (I think I heard the word 'dope' muttered.)
Deb thought I should let him gimme a price to which I replied "I'd never pay someone else to do something that I can do myself!"
To which she replied - "Does this mean you're getting rid of the lawn guys?"
I changed the subject. I ain't doin that stuff.

Here's a picture of some of what we planted. (This pic was taken just before I fell in the garage & cracked my head on the concrete.)



The good thing that comes from all this work? Deb gets to take some great photos. I think she should put her art 'out there' but she's just too shy - so I'm posting some of her pics (check out the Manatees from a post in early March). Guess you could call this post a 'nudge'. I think she's got some talent. Send letters & telegrams to tell 'er to get busy. Maybe she could make a few bucks at it & help finance this ongoing botany exercise.

The Muse Is Loose

Can't believe I haven't posted on the blog for 2 whole weeks. Well, yes I can. I haven't been able to write anything lately. After a couple of weeks staring at a blank computer screen, the Muse FINALLY returned & I'm back to crankin' away on RECKLESS ENDEAVOR, the sequel to BAD LATITUDE. My Muse, his name is Mickey, smokes cigars. He's not related to that goody-two-shoes rodent in Orlando. Okay - so he's on the young-ish side & he's probably not gonna grow up to be a healthy Muse, but right now - at this very moment - I don't care. I'm finally getting some words down & the story is flowing faster than my two fingers can type. Sometimes I use three - thumb on the space bar should count as a finger.

I don't want to be rude, but I hafta cut this post short. Pop is gettin' very impatient waiting for me to finish describing ....

What? Okay! Okay! Sorry.

He just told me to stop blabbin' & get back to work. I left the poor old guy tuggin' on a stern line & he's a bit winded. I need to finish writing this scene so he can rest up for the next chapter. He's anothe cigar smoker with an attytood.

Sheesh, I tellya if he keeps complainin' like this, I'm gonna bump him off.

My 1st Book Signing

Yesterday the St Augustine Lighthouse & Museum was the location for my first ever book signing. I was scared to death. Not sure if I was nervous about 'the pitch' or worried that sales would be dismal, like maybe even zero! The lighthouse folks opened the doors fifteen minutes early & the first couple through the doors (they were from Toronto) bought a book! What an icebreaker!!!


Deb has an eye for "stuff" - so she set up the table with lots of cool eye-catching promo gadgets - a small wooden treasure chest filled with faux gold pieces, skeleton parts made of foam & miscellaneous little trinkets. It turned out to be a kid magnet. We are in our element when it comes to kids, maybe 'cause we're kids at heart. No more nerves for JaxPop - lots of joking, laughing & teasing. We had a blast. Sales became unimportant - just let it roll. Here's a pic of Deb's set-up.



I couldn't leave the table so Deb buzzed around taking pics of the festival. The folks from Disney Radio were there. Live bands. Boat building. Plays. Lots of refreshment stands. Pony rides. Tours of the complex. Guided nature walks thru the hammock. Storytellers. Games & a coupla 5K races. It was crazy crowded. I missed all of that. The staff at the lighthouse handed out maps at the door showing the locations of the 'attractions'. Directional signs were posted on the grounds to use with the map to get where you wanted to go. Here's a pic of my favorite sign.




This is probably my favorite place to hang out. 2 Chapters of BAD LATITUDE are set in the haunted lighthouse (Ch 9 - Dead Girls & Ch 10 - Hezekia Pittee). I've done quite a bit of writing & editing in its shadow. Somehow it seemed fitting to do my first book signing in that same shadow.



The lines were pretty constant but the staff kept everything moving.



The gift shop workers kept the book near the cash register, replacing the stack as sales continued. Several times, the cashiers ran out to our table & swiped the books right off our display racks & we would have to run to the car to grab another box. (I didn't want to bring them all in & look cocky. I especially didn't want to have to carry boxes of books out to the car when it was all over.) We were supposed to be there from 11 'til 3 but were asked to hang out a little longer - 'til 5. It was a steady flow all day. In the end, the lighthouse gift shop bought more books to replace their inventory & we returned to the car, smiling like idiots, with .... all empty boxes. Truth be told.... the great day of sales was the result of Deb's slick marketing skills. 2 years of hard work upstaged by strategically placed bones & coins. (Sigh!)



There were plenty of highlights worth mentioning but I'll only include a couple. 1st was meeting a County Commissioner with a great story about his experience as a lowly Private during his time in military intelligence. I'm going to put it in writing for him. It's funny & inspiring. 2nd was a visit from 13-year-old Victoria. She read the book at school about a month ago & said she 'loved it' - then bought her own copy. How cool is that?

The people that manage the lighthouse & museum & their group of hard working volunteers were spectacular. They went out of their way to provide maximum exposure & made us feel really comfortable. Now they want me to do another signing in April for a weekday shindig for school kids. I need more books - & that's a good thing. Whew!!! What a rush!!!