You don't know what dark is until you drive thru the Everglades after sundown.
The GPS device switched to a different color orientation once it got to be a certain time. We were headed east on I 75 and it would show us the roads from a slightly airborne orientation and the destination in the farground it labled as "sunrise". With the over castness there was no stars, no moon, only the book on tape about a murder in the Everglades after Hurricane Simone the link with the world, and the other cars. The GPS would tell us how many miles to the next turn, how many miles to the destination, our anticipated arrival time, how far in the future that was and when for some reason I would not take the turn it told me to it would ask me in a non judgemental tone "Do you want to recalculate?"
Miami was a maze of asphalt, as was the road around Homestead, but beyond that was construction, a new road to replace the existing one, that dove and rebounded over different incantations of asphalt, hurling into the unknown based on what we could see in the head lights at 70 mph. Wondering, what do this look like?
Soon enough we reached Key Largo, home of the African Queen, the real boat used in the movie, and our accommodations, a two floor one bedroom two full bath condo a full story off the ground. On the back side was a canal and across it a bar with a stage and a band that played every night, drinking music. Why don;t we get drunk and screw kind of music. The bed much softer than the slab Disney provided us with.
And the next day. Saturday, the 19th of January, AD 2008, the sun came out, and it reached 86 degrees Fahrenheit, I would guess that to be some where about 25-30 degrees Celsius. In the space under the abode was a place selling snorkeling packages. I had the opportunity to try that in Hawai'i once, but not the funds, so we signed up, me still having that image in my head of the hunky instructor and his minions in a tidal pool in Kona. Naw, when we got down there at noon, noon on a perfect August afternoon in January, we were shown the boat. A three hour tour, c'mon lil' buddy.
My people crossed the Atlantic, most of them, in boats. I have crossed it by air. I have swam in it, I have been on the Chesapeake Bay, I have been on Massachusetts Bay, and seen whales. I had never actually been on the Atlantic Ocean in a boat before. It was wonderful. With about 10 others we motored our the canal, past multimillion dollar concrete monstrosities to the open water and took off. We climbed to the upper deck where the wheelman directed us to the Grecian Rocks, a coral reef about a mile off short, where waves broke over the living obstacle. Green water, tropical water, the water of rum drinks and tiki lamps. We were given the lecture, don;t panic, don;t touch the coral, and our gear was passed out.
Now if you are male or otherwise have facial hair, let me give you a word of advice, shave before you go. I had not shaved in several days and the guide told me I should grab some vaseline to put on the area below me nose to effect a seal with the mask which covered my nostrils. It was bad news as I could never get a good seal and water would leak in and flood my nostrils, and mess with me mind trying to breath thru the snorkel, that is, after I got in the water. Mask, Snorkel, Flippers.
"The sea is rough" they told us when we got there. "Much rougher than this morning" Indeed it was, and I got on the end of that boat and looked at that undulating green water and I was suddenly standing on a rock above a river in Alberta where my friends had disappeared into and reemerged. OMG this was serious shit. I eased myself into the tumult, he was long gone to the reef, with hoards from ours and another boat anchored nearby. I held onto the ladder and others could not take it and climbed back aboard. I made myself put my face in the water, made myself document with the underwater disposable camera I paid too much for, that I was there. And then I let go. I was loose, for a few seconds, adrift on the ocean, in 10 feet of water, I could see the bottom easily. I went in and out of the water a few times, holding on to the nylon line, reeling myself in and out, trying to swim away from the boat, but it was all so disorienting. All so wonderful. Putting my face into the water and seeing that world I had only seen on TV, it is real.
We all came back on board and headed in and I felt like the king of the world, salt water spraying in my face, and a guide giving me his Wendy's cheese burger, still warm.
Topic: Shakesthegrounds Rumblings (Read 2598283 times)