Words of Wisdom
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Sexy Unix Commands: date; unzip; touch; strip; finger; mount; gasp; yes; uptime;
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Travels
 Well we visited the Dry Tortugas National Park again this year and while snorkeling I made a new friend. I found myself out in the ocean with a 6 foot Nurse Shark.
I always thought I would be scared to death if I ever came upon one in the wild (as opposed to the one in the aquarium), but surprisingly it was an amazing experience!
This shark was very calm and slow moving. However, I am sure if we had bothered it, he would have turned and become more aggressive towards us. We did approach it slowly and it moved to get away from us twice and finally swam out into the open ocean and away from us.
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Okay, Paula and I are planning a trip to Paris, France in 2008 and she sends me this bit of info...
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Hard Rock Cafe - Hollywood Florida
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Looks as if we are headed to the Islands again. While I keep talking about finding another island, have been looking at the Turks and Caicos, we are headed to the Dry Tortugas once again. This time with friends!
Key West - Boat Dock Light
One of the reasons we have visited the Dry Tortugas so many times is the true disconnection from the modern technical world. While on the island we have no fresh water (other than what we bring with us), no cell phones, pay phones, no electricity and best of all, after 4pm, very little to no people around the island. Usually, during the summer months, the island is not as busy and few people camp on the island to begin with.
Day Trippers. The Day Trippers are those that pay for a 3 hour cruise to the island for a 3 hour stay on the island ending in a 3 hour cruise back to Key West. Call me cheap, accuse me of looking for the best way to get the most of my money but I can't see how a 6 hour boat ride for 3 hours on a 22 acre island is getting your money's worth. However, if you want to pay three dollars per person per day and about $30 extra on your cruise ticket then you can camp on the island and wait for all the day trippers to leave before you take control of the island and enjoy it all to yourself. There are around 200 day trippers that come to the island everyday between 11am and 3pm, two different ships licensed to carry 100 passengers each to the island.
One of these days we will stop visiting the Dry Tortugas and start finding foreign cultures on another island but for now we are enjoying the amazing serenity that I have only been able to find at the Dry Tortugas.
Deep Blue Ocean
You just can't imagine what it is like being on an island that is only 22 acres in size and is 70 miles away from the nearest continent. The Dry Tortugas is a set of 7 small islands with the largest being Garden Key, where we stay. Loggerhead Island has an amazing Light House that looks as if you could swim to it from Garden key, but be warned, it is two and half miles away. The sun almost always sets just behind the light house on Loggerhead Key in the summer months.
The Deep Blue Ocean. The Summer in Florida is just as anyone would expect it, Hot! The Dry Tortugas is not really that different other than the Ocean Breeze that helps offset the sweltering heat. One of the advantages of visiting the Dry Tortugas during the Summer is the clarity of the water. The heat and sun fuels the ocean life and helps clear the waters to several feet of viewing distance, if not dozens of feet and I am talking crystal clear!
Sharks and Rays and Barracuda, Oh My! Yes, there are all of these creatures and they are all within a few feet of your tent. In the few times we have been to the Dry Tortugas we have experienced swimming with a Shark, an extremely large Spotted Eagle Ray and hundreds of Barracuda. As for the Shark, unfortunately we don't really know what kind it was because, well, we were swimming with it and your first encounter with a Shark is not like watching National Geographic's Shark Week. Actually we were not aware we were swimming with it at all. If you have ever been snorkeling or scuba diving then you know your peripheral vision is limited (field of view) and you do not always see what is around you unless you constantly look all around. An older gentleman camping near us was walking on the moat wall and he took photos of us and the shark and moments later showed them to us when we surfaced.
The Rays are beautiful and larger than you can imagine. If you have ever seen Sting Rays or Manta Rays in the petting ponds at your local Aquarium then you know they always stick one of their fins out of the water to, what seems to be, wave at you. Well, they actually do that in the wild too. Every time a ray is spotted off the island it seems the first comment is, "It's A Shark!" and then every one runs over to look. Eventually someone gets a good look at it and then come the "ooooohhhhs and ahhhhhhhs".
The Accomodations
The Barracuda are probably the most dangerous wild life you will experience in the Tortugas. They are very curious and aggressive fish with a large elongated snout with teeth. I have seen a Great Barracuda swiming just a few feet away from me that was at least 5 feet in length if not 6 feet. Just be sure not to wear body jewelry, ear rings or any thing shiny or dangling from your body. They may get curious and come take a nible.
The accommodations on the island are Five Star and luckily ratings are all about individual taste. A two room tent with a queen size, full height, blow-up mattress does the trick. Toss in a battery powered fan, some battery powered stick lights (like the ones that crack and glow for 10 minutes - but the battery powered ones last for years!) , a two and half gallon jug of water tied to the top of a seven foot poll and you have all you need. The jug makes for a great shower each time you leave the salt water ocean or just feel like freshening up!
Derek, Snorkeling At The Dry Tortugas
What do you do with all this free time? How will you ever live without MySpace, Email, Cell Phones, Text Messaging, Cable TV, CSI, The Simpsons, Microwaved Frozen Meals and the obligatory commercials that get shoved into your head every two seconds regardless of what sensory receptors you are using for work, entertainment or rest. Oh my, Oh my! There is an amazing thing that happens on the island that so many of us are either forgetting exists or have been raised without ever knowing it exists other than as a word in the dictionary, it's a thing called, "Relaxation". My Friend Tommy, who is visiting the island with us keeps talkling about a CSI Board Game or the latest Harry Potter audio book on his MP3 player as "something to do" while we are on the island. I just let him talk because when we get there, it will happen. He will float in the water, lay on the beach, sit under a tree and let it all go. Of course there is always Snorkeling. I am scared to death of the ocean but luckily I love adrenalin and considering I am too old to do drugs and never really cared for them anyway, I get my blood flowing by snorkeling! Actually once you get in and let it all consume you, it becomes a zen like relaxation experience that you start to crave when your vacation is over. My friends Andrew and Nikki are PADI Certified Divers and I am so jealous. One of these days I will take the time (and the money) and get my scuba training behind me. For now I either can't justify the time or the expense when compared to my other priorities.
So I leave you all with this little blog to know where I am and what I am doing. Please forgive me if this makes you jealous, please understand that it isn't the yearly income that takes me to this island, it's the three dollars per day per person, please accept that for the next week I will not be available via email, cell phone, text messaging, myspace or even by door bell.
Life is too short to not experience heaven on earth at least a few times. So while you are watching CSI tonight, here is what I will be watching...
The Tortugas Sunset
July 21st, 2007
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Take a hike into the woods near Soddy-Daisy, Tennessee around a mile
to a mile and a half and you can find paradise. Now, once you
have found paradise, evident because others usually find it every day
(around 20 to 50 people on any given day), hike another half a mile up
stream and then you will find your own little piece of heaven.
Do
not try and hike too much in with you and please hike out what you hike
in (take your trash home with you!). Leave about nine or ten in
the morning and plan about four or five hours of hiking and
relaxing. Take swimming shoes and light swimming clothes.
Cell phones work in roaming for the most part so if you have an
emergency you can try to call it in.
Enjoy!
Just do a search in Google for the location and then have a great hike! You can't miss it, just follow the trails.
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Scott's best friend,
Mark & his girlfriend Angela visited and we spent our nation's birthday
celebrating with a trip to the Tennessee Aquarium and the POPS On The
River event to watch fireworks and spend time with friends and family.
While listening to the Chattanooga Symphony Orchestra we enjoyed the
fireworks over Bellsouth Stadium at the close of the Lookouts baseball
game. After about three more songs the fireworks for our event
started. Watching from our folding chairs atop the Walnut Street
Walking Bridge, we had a great view of both fireworks shows along with
a nice cool river breeze that was not evident down in the crowds during
my initial search for a location to watch from. Paula was smart
enough to suggest the bridge location.
Our
friends Jim & Sue were also atop the bridge and we spent time
talking with them as well as Ricky, Scott's AA partner and, now, a
friend of the family. Scott and Ricky had been at an AA meeting
and joined us just as the concert was starting.
It was a very enjoyable and relaxing event.
Enjoy these random videos from the fireworks show and our visit to the Tennessee Aquarium.
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