A day of sea creatures, old friends and old times

Hard to believe it was four weeks ago today that we began our journey to Florida. In some ways it feels like we have been here forever and in another way it feels like it has gone very fast.

As I write this edition of Grandmas Recess on Wednesday night it is once again raining outside so I guess our sunny Florida weather is over again for another 24 hours.

This day started really early, at 3:42 a.m. to be exact. When we went to bed last night the overnight weather predictions were for temperatures to drop into the low 30s or high 20s last night. That is a little bit of a concern in the trailer as many of our water lines are exposed to the weather and frozen water lines are not something that is good.

One of the features of our trailer is an electric fireplace, which puts out quite a bit of heat and we decided to leave the fireplace on to supplement the propane system that we have. We also agreed that when we got up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom (one of the glories of aging) we would run the water both in the bathroom and kitchen for a few minutes to keep the pipes from freezing.

So when I woke up at 3:42 a.m. I heard the propane heater running, but the fan was operating at a lower speed than usual. I also immediately noticed that the fireplace was no longer on. In addition the refrigerator was operating on propane, which it does automatically when the electricity is off.

Our electric mattress warmer was also not working.

Uh oh.

My first thought was that not having electricity would not be a good thing for a cold night and I got dressed to head out and check to see if the breaker switch had been tripped outside. My brother-in-law Denny had spotted that problem last summer while we were staying in Indiana for which I will always be grateful.

As soon as I opened the trailer door it became clear that we were not alone in the electricity problem. The entire park was dark, which in an odd way relieved my concerns. At least it was not a problem with our trailer, I thought.

So back to bed I went, but I had trouble going to sleep worrying about when, or if, the power would go back on during the night.

Before I drifted off to sleep, I heard a click and realized that the power had come back on in the park. I put the fireplace back on the mattress warmer back on and went back to bed. Within seconds they all went off again, but this time it was just our trailer that was off.

Uh oh, again.

Now I grabbed a flashlight, got on my sweatshirt and headed outside. The breaker was still on, nothing appeared to be out of order, but there was no shore power in the trailer. As a last resort, I pulled the shore plug and pushed it back in again and everything suddenly came back to life.
It only cost me about 90 minutes of sleep and about five years worth of worry.

Unfortunately, I am unable to sleep in no matter how little sleep I get and I was up at my usual 7:30 a.m. Joan on the other hand slept in until 10 a.m.

Our usual morning exercise routine was finished late today.

Ever the science teacher, Joan was interested in visiting the Gulf Specimens Aquarium in Panacea, Florida. Not sure what this Gulf town is a panacea for, but that is its name. We had also arranged a dinner with my former editor Roger Van Noord, and his wife, Jessica in Carrabelle, FL.

Why Carrabelle? Because it was half way between Port St. Joe, where they are, and Tallahassee where we are. We had prearranged to meet at a restaurant called “Old Salt’s Café” which we found online.

First though Joan and I headed to Panacea to visit the Gulf Specimens Aquarium. It wasn’t the prettiest aquarium that we have seen, but it is a working research facility and as we learned from talking to some of the workers supplies gulf sea creatures to universities, high schools and research facilities around the world.

We even saw them packaging some of the crabs into shipping containers for overnight shipping.

There were several tanks where we were allowed to pick up and handle the hermit crabs and other creatures which Joan really enjoys. There were also observation tanks that had nurse sharks, turtles and stingrays where it wouldn’t have been too smart to stick your hand into.

The aquarium is also involved in the preservation of several species of salt water turtles and it reminded us of our time in Cozumel when we released some baby turtles back into the ocean.

Not sure the aquarium would have satisfied everyone, but we enjoyed the chance to see these creatures up close. It also reminded me of the many excursions my father, brother and I made to tide pools in and around Southern California when I was a child. From my fading recollection I remember that my father had this huge knife, it was more like a machete, that we used to lift and discover the tide pool animals.

We spent a couple hours at the aquarium and then headed for our meeting with Roger and his wife.

On the way we spotted a sign that said “Low Flying Plane” which we understood better when we drove on about 200 yards and found that the highway was right at the end of a general aviation runway. We could see where you might be startled to see a plane flying at windshield level if you hadn’t been warned.

So with help from OnStar we headed to the Old Salt’s Café in Carrabelle realizing we would get there about 45 minutes early.

As we pulled up to Old Salt’s we found the restaurant wrapped in plastic with a sign out front that said they would not be open until March 1. Instead of sitting in the empty parking lot waiting for our guests we set out to find another restaurant.

At a local visitor’s center we talked to a lady from the Chamber of Commerce who recommended eating at the two other local restaurants – The Pit Stop and Hog Wild. So off we went to find them. When we arrived at The Pit Stop it was apparent from the empty parking lot that we would not be eating there either. It is closed on Wednesdays.

So by default we ended up at Hog Wild, a barbeque restaurant that turned out to be pretty good and quiet enough for a very pleasant visit with my old editor.

Roger and Jessica have been at this RV thing a lot longer than Joan and I so we spent some time picking their brains for ideas and suggestions on how to overcome a few issues that we have encountered.

And no meeting between Roger and me – that would make a great movie title – would be complete if we didn’t recall that infamous assignment where he sent me and photographer Steve Kleeman to Bowling Green, Ohio for what was supposed to be one day and we ended up there for three days.

The long and short of that story was that Steve Kleeman had to talk to Roger on the phone because I was not a happy man being stuck in that town with no luggage or money for three days. I had just moved into a new Davison apartment and hadn’t even started unpacking when Roger sent me on the assignment.

A Flint twin had shot and killed his twin brother and then fled with a friend. They were found by police in Bowling Green and Roger wanted us to get a quick story on where they were hiding out and cover the juvenile court arraignment. That was supposed to happen that first day, but didn’t happen until the third day.

At one point the next day, Roger probably tired of hearing my whining told us we could return to Flint. Halfway home, about Ann Arbor, Roger learned that there was a new hearing scheduled for the next morning and he told us to turn around and head back.

To shut me up, he told me to charge some underwear at a local store for me and Kleeman. It has been a joke between Steve and I since that we had to ‘share’ underwear. On our last night in Ohio, I told Steve that while he was at the Toledo Blade developing film (remember those days) to find out where the most expensive restaurant in Toledo was so we could have a good dinner.

When we returned to Flint, I submitted a $105 dinner bill, which included calamari appetizers and other expensive courses. Roger started to question the bill and then thought better of it when I reminded him that our trip was only supposed to be for one day.

Obviously, this was back in the day when newspapers had money and were willing to send reporters on the road.

All through dinner Steve, a part-time employee at that time, kept expressing his worry that he would be blamed for the excessive expense account and I kept assuring him that I would take full responsibility, which I did.

After catching up for a couple hours with Roger and Jessica, we took a couple photos, said our farewell and headed back to our respective camps. It was a very good day all the way around.