Memories on the lake - Putting In

My love for the water started when I was a boy. My father bought a 1989 22’ Sea Ray, in the spring of 1989. My family took it out on the lake every summer, and we loved it. I think as a child I just took it for granted. I didn’t realize the work that was put in to afford such a nice toy. I didn’t realize the expense of owning and operating a boat either. For me, and I suspect my siblings, it was sheer fun.

Even now, at family reunions, as legendary stories are recalled aloud, stories of our boating days are brought up. Some stories bring uncontrollable laughter while others make my mother tense up in her seat.

For my dad, my youngest brother, and I, backing the boat down the launch ramp and into the water was a lot of fun. This process is often referred to as “putting in” or “launching”. So the task is multi-faceted. You have to put the boat in the water, dock the boat and have the family come aboard, park the van and trailer, and finally the driver (who was also the Captain) would have to make it back to the dock and board the boat. But with my family, things were seldom so smooth.

Many times the launch ramp was so busy, we would have to actually wait in line before we could back our boat in. Then we were under pressure to launch the boat quickly and move the trailer out of the way so the next person could launch. – I seriously doubt most people were as courteous and aware of others as my father was.

A favorite memory that has now been made legendary was actually not even about us. Our friends who owned a boat and went out with us a lot, forgot a critical boating element, and nearly sank their newly purchased boat. In case you don’t know, every boat has a removable plug that when the boat is taken out of the water, can be removed to let any onboard water come out. Well at some point they must have forgot to replace this plug.

 

 My friend, who was in the boat prepared to maneuver it back to the dock, suddenly started yelling out to his dad who just launched him into the water. He was frantically telling his dad that there was a lot of water coming into the boat, while onlookers on shore started screaming that the boat was sinking. So, my dad started running down the ramp, then down the dock, and dove into the water, all while instructing the “captain” to cut the power. My dad swam over to the back of the boat, which was now sinking even faster due to the extra water weight, and plugged the villainous hole with his finger!

Yeah, my old man is a bad ass.

At this point they navigated the boat back to the trailer where they pulled it out of the water, drained the onboard lake water, and then properly plugged the whole. No lives were ever in danger, but a brand new $25,000 boat would have been at the bottom of the lake. Luckily no boats sank that day, just maybe a few egos.

Remember your transom plug!

Don't forget your parking brake either!

 

Introducing Broward B-Cycle

B-Cycle is a bike sharing program in select cities around the country. Luckily, Broward county/Fort Lauderdale is one of those cities. I was able to buy an annual membership for $35 and ride this bike around the city.

The bikes are rented out of an automated kiosk with bikes electronically secured to the bike rack. The rental fee per day depends on how long you have the bike out. For annual membership holders, the fee for a bike trip from one kiosk to another – under 30 minutes – is FREE.

So I discovered that as long as my starting point and destination are near to one of these kiosks, I could ride a bike and get there faster. Even if it takes me an hour to ride there, the rental fee is only $1.00.

Here is a map listing of current rental kiosks.

 The concept is solid, however I wish they had more rental kiosks scattered around. It’s a program in cooperation with county governments so the kiosks are usually in parks or other government property such as a library.

I wish they had something like this in Nashville. I’m not sure my lazy ass would have taken a bike if I had a car, but nonetheless, I wish Nashvegas had this program. *Hint-Hint, B-cycle!

The First Trip To The Beach

Believe it or not, it actually took me a few days before I could get to the beach. I worked a lot the first week. Finally my schedule allowed me to take a 1-hr lunch break and go to the beach (Note: my office is one mile from my house, and the beach is one mile from my office). Without a car and a limited amount of time, I need fast transportation. Luckily, I had B-Cycle!

So, in order to maximize my time and minimize the bike rental fee, I ran out of my office and headed straight for the B-Cycle kiosk across the street. I selected the bike and off I went.

Along the way, I have to cross over the Intra-Coastal Waterway on this bridge on Sunrise Blvd. While going over the bridge I stopped to admire the boats docked along the intra-coastal hotels and shops



. 

While looking over the edge I noticed what looked to me to be a colored statue of a lizard set on top of one of the channel markers in the water. As it turns out not only was it not a statue, it was also not small! After closer inspection and a quick eye-ball comparison to the size of its surroundings, I determined this Iguana was in fact 4 ½ feet long. Bloody Hell! That was a first for this Tennessee boy.

Ah the beach!

After coming off the bridge I was able to see my first sight of the famous South Florida water.

Arriving at the intersection of Sunrise and the world-famous A1A, I was able to see more clearly how beautiful this place was.

Here I stood – barefoot in the sand – on my lunch break! This was something that was not possible ever before in my life.

Immediately I noticed a few differences from the South Florida/Atlantic coastline and the Gulf Coast which I remembered from childhood vacations. First, what are the big ass ships on the horizon? Fort Lauderdale is home to the Port Everglades. Out of this port international commerce and leisure travel come and go. Large cruise ships depart from this port several times a week.

The sand is different from the gulf coast I was familiar with. South Florida sand is something between a tan color and a light golden color. It’s softer than the beaches farther north on the Atlantic coast, but not powdery like on the Gulf Coast. Additionally there is an abundance of seaweed that washes up at high tide and is left behind as the tide recedes.

 I only got a taste of the beach on this first visit, but I knew I was coming back…

Planes, Trains, and Automobiles

WARNING: This story is long and dreadful. Get out the bottle now…

On January 31^st I left Nashville and headed to South Florida. How I got there, is the subject of today’s post.

Destination: Fort Lauderdale, Florida. ***Note: At the time of departure I had not secured housing arrangements, as my first two plans fell through.

The original plan was to pack all my things including my bed into the back of my pickup truck and drive the long 18 hour drive to Fort Lauderdale, Florida. This plan quickly changed when my truck broke down on the side of the interstate three days before I was going to leave. After the mechanic told me the price to fix my locked-up motor, I decided to sell it to him and find alternative travel plans. With the wide availability of public transportation options in South Florida, I decided to make the adventure even more exciting by moving down without a car. So now all I had to figure out was how to actually get there. 

I looked at airfare and because of the short notice, it was going to be about $350 for a one-way air fare. Yeah…”one-way”! I had never bought one of those! New experiences are already happening. Haha. So, no car, and no plane, I decided on a Greyhound bus. To go from Nashville to Fort Lauderdale was only $125…I was in! 

Immediately, the next challenge presented itself. How do I condense my whole life into two duffel bags and a backpack? Well, clearly my bed was out of the picture. The I decided on some clothes, a laptop, and a tent – again, no housing option secured. The rest I either stored with friends, tossed in a dumpster or sold.

I bought a one-way Greyhound bus ticket, set to leave Nashville 1/31/12 at 5pm Central time and arrive in Fort Lauderdale 2/1/12 at 12:20pm. By the way, I was scheduled to start work at 1pm the same day…40 minutes after arrival. Two days before I left I asked my friend if she would drop me off at the bus station, and of course she agreed. Then while driving her car back from my going-away party, her car (which had been overheating the week prior) died on the side of the road. Splendid! My journey had not even started yet and the obstacles were stacking up. So, we shared the cost of a rental car and made it through the next day. After a nice lunch at Margaritaville, and a brief cameo by two friends randomly walking down the sidewalk next to our table, we made it to the bus station. 

The ride on the bus was not bad. We had two legs to our trip. The first was to Atlanta; the second to Fort Lauderdale. The bus held about 75 people but thankfully there were only 30 on this trip. Once in Atlanta, things got difficult. The Nashville counter-agent must have read some Zig Ziglar and sold me on a “Priority Boarding” upgrade. This upgrade allowed me to sit in the nice (not at all) waiting area and gave me front-of-the-line access prior to boarding. The ATL bus station was packed, noisy, and smelled bad. The armed security guards, when kicking people out, had trouble deciphering the passengers from the homeless. So, there I sat…one of the only white people in the building, dressed well, carrying three bags, and sitting in the “elite” section. Not feeling very good at this point, but I had my eyes set on the prize. All I had to do was get on the bus and the next thing I knew I would be on the beach. Well, it didn’t go quite that well. My elite status was meaningless to the boarding attendant, so she thought it would be fun to send the bus on without me. Yeah…I missed the bus, but somehow this didn’t feel quite like it did when I missed the bus to elementary school.

So here I am stranded in Atlanta at midnight, carrying two bags at 30lbs each, and a 22lb back pack. Once the counter agent told me the next bus would leave at 9 am and get me to my destination by midnight, the next day, I sought other options. I immediately got on the phone with a friend in Nashville, and asked her to find the next flight out of ATL heading to FLL. Simultaneously, I was offering the employees cash in exchange for a ride to the first stop of the bus that I missed. My plan was to reconnect with the bus and go from there. No joy.

So, I went with the flight option. I headed to the airport. One of the ticketing agents, who apparently felt sorry for me, tipped me off to the expensive taxi fare to the airport from there, and advised me to take the train that was leaving the station in 15 minutes. So, I threw my backpack on, grabbed my bags, and walked to the train station 200 yards away, and 50 stairs up…it was an elevated train. After fending off two crazy people and 3 bums on the train, I made it to the ATL airport. 

 Once in the airport, I lugged my 82lbs of bags another 300 yards to the ticketing area that was completely empty (it was now 1:30am). I reconnected with my friend who was researching the flights for me; she told me the earliest flight would get me to FLL by 2pm (already 2 hours late to work on my first day). I decided to go with that option until this next genius idea came up: I could rent a car! I would rent the car, drive 83 miles an hour for 10 hours, stop twice for fuel, and arrive in FTL with just enough time to get to work on-time. So, I asked the local TSA agent where the Rental Car area was at the airport and he informed me that they no longer have the rental cars at the airport that they are at local Atlanta spots. I got the number to a few rental outfits and called. The second one, Hertz, had a car available for me and if I could get there by 2am, I’d make it to FTL on-time. So, I had to hurry!

I couldn’t wait on the train to come back through so I got a cab. Mistake! I told the cab Hertz rental car. He said, he didn’t know where it was, so I gave him the address which the Hertz agent on the phone gave me. He told me it was all the way downtown. I told him I could only give him $30 if he could get there. He accepted, and away we went. After arriving at a deserted and closed Hertz location, I called Hertz back to rip them a new one. They told me the first guy was wrong and the correct pick up location was actually right next to the ATL airport. $%@#!!!!!!!!!!!! Oh well, bring on the huskies…away we went.

 After driving around the entire Atlanta International Airport, the cabby couldn’t find the entrance to the rental car place, so I got out, strapped on my bags (which I cursed quite a few times by then), and walked a mile to the encamped Hertz counter. Once there, the agent kindly informed me that they could not accept my type of credit card. Bloody @#$%^&* hell!!!! I then offered $300 cash to anyone who would rent the $200 car for me. All declined. I told the agent that I was all out of options (and hope) and needed to get back to the airport. I hid my complete outrage when she kindly informed me of the FREE Tram that runs back and forth all day and night to and from the airport and their location.

3:30am

Back at the airport…a glimmer of hope.

Although the flight my friend suggested was on Delta, I was curious about other options. So, I went around asking all of the opening ticketing counters if they had a flight to FTL earlier than noon. Much to my surprise, both airlines (who were opening at that time) had flights as early as 6am!!! I determined the cheapest and most direct was with an outfit called Spirit airlines and I bought a one-way ticket for $180 that had me arriving in FTL at 8:30am!!!! Sweet! But wait! I packed my bags for a bus ride; there’s no way I would clear security with the stuff I had. So, after reorganizing my bags and dumping certain items, I was ready. 6:45am…Wheels up!

8:15am – Fort Lauderdale International Airport. 

At this point I had gone 26 hours with no sleep and lost 4lbs. So, I got on a bus to take me to the apartment I had found on Craigslist while sitting in the back of an Atlanta cab. Unfortunately I got on the wrong bus and had to take a cab back the opposite direction towards my new found destination.

I called the landlord and arranged to meet him at 11:00am to sign the lease. At this point, I had no clue what the place was like; I just liked the location. My cab dropped me off, I carried my bags inside, dropped them on the floor and handed the landlord $900 cash. He laughed and told me he had never done a business transaction that fast in his entire career. I told him I was desperate. Very nice guy, too…an Italian. I showered, changed clothes, and after bringing me the key and the lease, my landlord drove me to work.

Closing Thoughts: A person can achieve anything he sets his mind to.

950 Miles Traveled

40 hours with no sleep

Going Coastal!

I was only 24 hours into the next chapter of my life when I realized that journaling this adventure would be a good idea. So, instead of pulling out my old Hello Kitty journal or my Lifetime Channel Diary, I figured I’d just blog about it. That way, my friends and family can follow me throughout this new experiment of sorts.

So, let it begin!

I guess I should start with what this journey is all about for me. In a nutshell: for the first time in my life, I moved away from my hometown of Nashville, TN and headed to South Florida. But as most of my friends know and all of my ex-girlfriends know, things in my life are never that simple, but rather quite complicated. 

So let me explain…

First…a little background. Every summer when I was a kid my parents would pack up our big white van with us six kids (along with the much-needed massive amounts of food and drinks), hook up the boat, and head to the lake. In Tennessee, if you want to play on the water you have two choices, a river or a lake. Wisely, my dad chose not to put his 22’ Sea Ray into the shallow, murky waters of TN rivers.

 We would frequent Center Hill Lake, Tim’s Ford Lake, and J. Percy Priest Lake in the Middle/East TN area. The fun of the day for me began when my dad let me help him hook the boat up to the van. Then we were off to the marina…where many stories of “putting in” were made legendary in my family (More on those stories in later posts :). On the lake we would ski (or in my case…try to ski), swim around a lot, and ride the inner tube – which for some reason we called the “ski biscuit”. We would do this routine over and over and we loved it! We even had our favorite neighborhood family join us in our boating adventures. Eventually, they bought a boat and we made a tradition out of it. We loved it!

So, naturally I developed a love for the water, and all things related. I love lakes, rivers, and oceans. I love boats. I love marinas and even today I have fond flashbacks at the first whiff of dead fish (spend any time at a marina and you’ll know what I’m talking about…although the same affection may not develop). Well, as it happens, when you move out from under your parents’ house, you are rudely alerted to the fact that your parents may have money and toys, but you do not. Well at least that’s what happened for me.

I have spent my entire adult life chasing this unrequited love of mine. When I moved out of the rents’ house, I moved to the nearby city of Nashville, where I courted the Cumberland River. The river, especially on the east banks in downtown Nashville, had become my place of peace. The spot I frequented, sometimes monthly - sometimes daily, was on the east bank of the Cumberland River looking towards the skyline of Nashville. From this spot I could hear live music that drifted across the water from the many “honky tonks” that lined the streets. I could hear the sounds of cars and trucks racing up and down the interstate just behind me, and I could see people walking up and down the opposing bank of the river. 

Many nights I sat there for hours, just thinking about my day, my life, and what I wanted out of life. Eventually, after being asked so many times why I enjoyed the water so much, I came to a realization that for me, water represents possibilities and new beginnings. And after the past ten years of my life, I needed both.

My life has not been horrible by any means. I was raised well, and had everything I wanted as a kid. My adult life, was not as easy. I’ve had quite a few girlfriends, twice as many jobs, and I’ve even been homeless before. From get-rich-quick schemes to developing, writing, and pitching a business plan for a multi-national conglomerate, I failed at every business endeavor I touched. After losing my faith, finding love, re-discovering my faith, losing the love of my life, and a 2-year international crisis with my family, I wanted a break…I needed a break, or else I was at-risk of going postal. More than just a break, what I really wanted was a new beginning, and with water representing possibilities, I decided instead…to go coastal!

So put on your life vest, and follow me on my journey. I expect it to be fun, exciting, a wee difficult at times, and even a bit lonely, but I’ll try and write with some humor…

Anchor's Away!