The Creature From The Black Lagoon!

And now that I have a half way decent Internet connection, and have reinstalled our camera software, I can catch up with the goings on these past few months.

Well... winter is behind us, now we have to wait for the weather to catch up with the new season. Becky and I spent most of the winter in Citra, Florida which is in the North Central "horse country" part of the state. I certainly mean no disrespect to the folks that call that part of the state home, but other than a fancy RV Resort and a tired 9 hole golf course on premises, there isn't a thing to attract us back next winter. We did meet a really nice guy while there - our next door neighbor, George. Our first day in the park I was setting up my satellite dish and he came over to help. Four hours later we were receiving HD images. Thanks again George.


We moved up to Tallahassee towards the end of February and have spent the last month scouting out digs for this coming winter's campsite. We found it a little South and West of Tallahassee, in a small coastal community - "Holiday RV Resort" in Panacea, FL. But more of it later. I will describe it, and the next community South and West of it - Apalachicola, FL only to say that if you're looking for really inexpensive, sweet, tender, sea fresh oysters, either of those two towns is where you need to be. Apalachicola Bay Oysters in the shell can be had for little more than 10 cents a piece when ya buy a half bag. Depending on the size of the oysters that means anywhere from 7 to 12 dozen. Best dang oysters I have ever had.


Just outside of Tallahassee, in Crawfordville is the Joe Ball Wakulla Springs State Park. The picture below is taken from one of their tour boats, just after clearing the boat dock. Beautiful and in a sense, errie scenery like this drifted by for the entire 1 hour ride. The springs water is crystal clear and the state park operates glass bottom boats when the conditions are perfect. The day we were there the water was too stained but we were still able to see the bottom 10 feet down crystal clear. We are told that when the waters are optimally pristine, you are able to see down as deep as 120 feet.

Missed it by a nose! I would imagine we saw 100 alligators both on land and in the water. Our boat was filled to capacity so it was very difficult to get the pictures you really wanted but I did manage this one, and really dozens of others but I'll spare you. Actually there are two alligators in the picture - you can see the second half of the other one's tail pointing in the other direction.




It's an automatic reaction to jerk your arm back into the boat when you see alligators swimming along side.




We also saw quite a few Manatee's as well. Honestly, I didn't get to snap any pictures of them so I am borrowing this picture I took a few months ago further south. Well, I never claimed to be a photographer... all those dark colored bumps in the water are the Manatees... use your imagination.

In the following picture, you can see the curved, broken off trunk of a palm tree. The rest of the tree was cut off by lightning some years ago. But when the tree was in its whole, it hung over the middle of river, or "The Jungle" as the operator referred to it. It is the same tree from which Johnny Weismuller was seen swinging across the river in the original movie Tarzan. If it isn't that same tree, well, it's a nice picture of a quarter of a palm tree isn't it! Various scenes from the TV series "Flipper" were also shot in these waters.

Ahhh, at last! The claim to fame - the "thing" that put Wakulla Springs on the map! I know you know the name of this pool of water - it's The Black Lagoon. And we all know who, or what came from The Black Lagoon right? Absolutely, this is where The Creature From The Black Lagoon terrorized all that came too close. the boat pilot paused for a few minutes at its entrance hoping to catch a glimpse of it but to no avail.


So if you ever find yourself in Tallahassee, take a short ride to Crawfordville and visit the State Park. The boat ride is probably the best "paid attraction" I've been to in a long while.

Uncle Henry's Rocket Ship

(a reluctant rewrite)


A bit of a preface………….

Several years ago I wrote a very short story with this same title (less the parenthetical comment). It was published on one web site or another but for the life of me, I cannot find it. And so I will attempt a rewrite – reluctantly!

Back a few (well, a lot of ) years my immediately family included Mom & Dad, Sister Sheila (aka “She-She”), Brother David and yours truly. Remembering as best I can, She-She was 11 or 12, I was about 5 or 6 and Brother David – 3 or 4 years old. Pardon all the numbers. Sorry Brother Tom, you were a few years away yet and when you finally entered this life we were living in a duplex on 1st street along side Uncle Henry and his family. Does anyone remember the “Uncle Henry Club” initiation ceremony that took place in his half of the basement of that house? Already digressions, I wish I could learn to keep on task! OK, enough for first notes.
…………………………..

Before getting specific, let me tell you about Uncle Henry from a little boy’s perspective. He was drafted into the US Army early WWII time frame. He was an ambulance driver and did serve in several war theaters. As far as I know, that part of his accounts of those days is true. All else, like being wounded, and the hand to hand combat with the Japanese General, whom he beheaded in a sword fight, and the capturing of a Japanese Command Headquarters single handedly are all figments of his wonderful imagination. Have you ever met a man who, no kidding, never had a enemy? In his post war life, that was Uncle Henry, or Hank as I called him many years later. He, my Dad, and Uncle Tommy, along with my Grandma and Grandpa ran the Rainbow Restaurant. Uncle Henry was the Lunch and Dinner cook and ran that kitchen as if it were the stage in the Comedy Club, 40th St., between 2nd and 3rd Ave., New York City. And he had plenty of customers to practice his jokes, tricks, gags, and pranks on. Most of the “regulars” of the restaurant’s tap room entered the building at the back door, through the kitchen, down the hall, and into the tap room.

I promise I will get to the rocket ship but first must convey what I consider to be the most ingenious prank he ever pulled in the kitchen during a supper rush hour. Keep in mind, through all of this Uncle Henry was preparing literally dozens of food orders simultaneously. I was a bit older (14) when this happened and so my memory of it is exceptionally clear. The restaurant was located right next to “The Berkshire Eagle” building - the local newspaper and Uncle Henry had many, many friends that worked there. He had a couple of the guys print up a phony front page and put it on top of the rest of the next days paper. It looked as real as any newspaper ever published by “The Eagle”. I was working in the kitchen making pizzas at the time of this prank and was privileged to watch him work his magic on at least 15 poor souls that chose to walk through the restaurant that night..

A mark would walk through the kitchen and say hi to him. Typically he would shout back “HI LUCKY” - he called just about everyone that. But this night, the game was on. He just stood there, folded newspaper on the serving table, head lowered, sobbing and actually CRYING. Oh my God Henry… what happened!? Without saying a word or looking up, he handed his mark the folded paper. They opened it to read the headlines….

President Eisenhower Assassinated!

Their face would turn white, their eyes glazed over and as they returned their look to Uncle Henry they would see him standing there with the widest, most infectious wise guy, gotcha smile you can possibly imagine. I won’t repeat the comments from there on! And don’t forget, he put this show on at least 15 times that evening - tears and all! Well anyway, that gives you a flavor of his personality.

There are (still are) two apartments on top of the Rainbow Restaurant. Mom & Dad, She-She, David and I lived in one, and Uncle Henry and his family lived in the other. I suppose that through some years beyond, many of the Sacchetti clan lived in those wonderful apartments. They shared a common “back porch / patio from which you could sit and watch the trains go by. And that was pretty cool for a 5 year old. Some 60 years later I still have many memories of my life back then, and many involve, to one degree or another, my favorite Uncle - Henry! It would be very easy at this point to run into tangent stories (again) of him and so I will do my very best to stay on the theme of this one particular story - of Uncle Henry’s Rocket Ship!

Well, having said that, I do need to digress only to mention that Uncle Henry was very close to my Mom & Dad. As such he was always in our apartment having a cup of coffee or whatever, and telling one tall tale or another to anyone else that happened to be visiting. And there was always someone visiting. Uncle Henry was “the family character”! I mean to say, this guy was unbelievably believable, even though you know better than to believe anything he had to say.. He could remove his thumb and put it back again, make water glasses disappear before your very eyes, rub a quarter into his arm and make it reappear in your ear, poke a toothpick through one cheek and make it come out the other.. You name it, Uncle Henry could do it. Well crap! I managed to digress again after all. Sorry - back to the rocket ship.

Uncle Henry’s Rocket Ship was in, of all places, my Mom & Dad’s kitchen - right there between a side cabinet and the back door to the apartment. To most everyone, the rocket ship looked incredibly like an electric top loading, wringer, clothes washing machine. From recollection, it was one of the very first manufactured for home use. You know the type right? A cylindrical body standing on four cast iron legs, removable top, a set of rollers with a crank to wring out the clothes, and a long silver handle with a black ball on top on the side. The long silver handle with the black ball on top was there to operate the clutch which, when engaged, would cause the agitator inside the machine to begin swishing the clothes back and forth. And if I were asked “what’s that machine called Johnny” I would answer simply, it’s a new washing machine! That is, until the day that Uncle Henry opened my eyes to the truth behind it.

That day, my Mom and Dad were both home along with David. She-She was off somewhere and in walks Uncle Henry in his typical mischievous mood. I can remember Uncle Henry giving me a “psssttttt” - and in a whispered voice saying “wanna go for a ride in a rocket ship Johnny?”. Well sure enough, what 5 year old wouldn’t want to.

Where is the rocket ship Uncle Henry?

Why it’s right over there, disguised as a washing machine.

But I see my Mom using it to wash clothes all the time.

Sure, that’s why it’s such a great disguise. Besides, if I didn’t disguise it, everyone would want to take it into outer space.

All of this was making perfect sense to a 5 year old with an imagination almost as wondrous as his. Mom & Dad were just sitting there at the kitchen table with blank looks on their faces. David said “well I wanna go too”. Uncle Henry says OK, plenty of room for both of you.

Are you ready?

And with that he removed the cover and hoisted David and I up into the machine. Stand right there for a minute and I’ll be right back. He disappeared out the back door and came back a minute later with a WWII German helmet. Uncle Henry had a whole museum of war artifacts including several Japanese rifles, a German Lugar, art, various other ill gotten nick knacks and a Samurai Sword (with which he beheaded that Japanese General I mentioned).

He put the helmet on my head. I asked what it was for. He explained that when we took off, I would need it to protect my head when we went through the ceiling. With that, David started crying. What’s wrong David? I want a helmet too so that my head won’t get banged when we crash into the ceiling. Well, Uncle Henry only had one helmet so my Mom went over to a cupboard and produced a pot, just the right size for David’s head. With pot on head, David was all smiles.

OK here’s how it works. Since you’re the biggest Johnny, to lift off, all you have to do is pull that long silver handle with the black ball on it. The rocket ship will do the rest and you will be off into outer space. I think it was then that my Brother began to cry again. With that he put my hand on the black ball on top of that long silver handle and said… “whenever you’re ready Johnny just pull the handle”. But wait Uncle Henry, what’s that crank and those roller things for? Well he says, when you get to the moon, there isn’t as much gravity to hold you down. So you’ll throw a rope over the side and put the other end through the rollers and when you turn the handle, it will crank you down to the surface and hold you there. David was crying a little louder. The fact that we didn’t have a rope didn’t occur to me. I had too many other things on my mind.

So there we were, standing in the washing machine, my hand on the long silver handle with the black ball on top, David crying and I, just a little hesitant to give it the pull to launch us. I don’t have specific recollections but cannot believe that my Mom and Dad weren’t holding back bursts of laughter. The longer I stood there, the more nervous and scared I got. David started yelling “don’t do it Johnny don’t do it…mommy mommy let me out of this thing, I don’t wanna go I don‘t wanna go”. Mom lifted him out and I said, well… if he’s not going I won’t either. It is strange how some images stay with you, like the tears streaming down my Dad’s face as I scrambled out of that contraption. And I’ll never forget the sound of that helmet hitting the linoleum floor. I don’t remember Uncle Henry’s reaction when all was said and done but I am sure it was one of complete satisfaction!

Some thirty years later I was back in my hometown driving down a residential street. I noticed a “yard sale” sign and there on that front lawn was an electric top loading washing machine. It looked identical to the one I remembered from my youth. I couldn’t help but stop - the memories of Uncle Henry’s Rocket Ship were alive in my mind. I pulled over and went up on the lawn to talk with the resident, somewhat younger than I. He was friendly enough and we started talking. The washing machine belonged to his Grandpa and had been in his garage for many years - it was finally time to get rid of it. I told him the Rocket Ship story. He listened attentively, smiling occasionally and when I finish he said….

Well this is NOT a Rocket Ship, my Grandpa told me long ago that it was a TIME MACHINE. You pull the long silver handle with the black ball on it and you go back in time… and if you push it…………..



Uncle Henry 1920 - 1990
“ I miss you Hank!”
(picture courtesy of my favorite Cousin Carol)

Only One of Hundreds

Welcome to a Florida Key.... beautiful downtown Cedar Key, Florida. In back of the camera is a rather modest port & marina. Cedar Key is the second port to open in the state. It is located just 1/4 mile off the Gulf Shore, probably 75 miles North of the Tampa Bay area. Cedar Key is a very quiet island town of 750 full time residents and as you can probably guess, the "downtown" businesses are either restaurants or souvenir shops. Other than tourism on a small scale, the town's main business is the harvesting of various shell fish, Stone Crab Claws (yum), Little Neck Clams (double yum) and Oysters (triple yum). A pound of Claws will cost you $6.00. 100 Clams $15.00 - do the math, that's 15 cents a Clam. I didn't get to sample the Oysters... YET.

The 750 full time residents I mention does not include the pelicans and various other shore birds that seem to be thriving everywhere. I would guess the locals call this "Pelican Pier".

The tide is out and everything, everything on the bottom is absolutely covered in Oysters.

The day we were there we had mostly sunny skies, a 15mph wind off the Gulf, and 58 degree temperature. It was very cool making it a pleasant to walk around. Hey! We're in Florida, on the coast, in a tourist town. So what do you do? Well, if you're Becky... even though you have goose bumps, you eat Ice Cream!

What's Florida Without An Orange?

So... here in Citra, the last of this year's orange crop is yet to be picked. As I understand it, the trees get a 2 month vacation before they begin to blossom again in February. We have only been in Florida for a week or so - I couldn't tell ya if the "The Orange Shop" in Citra is a small, medium or large orange producer but here's a quick look at the behind the scene's operation. The bins in the background are all slam full of Navels.

The Navel oranges in their orchards are bigger than the grapefruit they produce. The fruit in these gift boxes that are covered in paper are grapefruit.

When you buy one of these bags of Navels (for about $14.00), you get a second one free.

Most of their crop is transported out of state. Now I know that the oranges you buy at your local supermarket are really fresh and juicy but have to tell ya... there's nothing like picking oranges from the tree, having them squeezed, bottled, and chilled on premise, and drinking fresh orange juice on the spot.

I don't know how companies like Minute Maid, Tropicana etc. can claim "fresh hand squeezed" orange juice because it doesn't taste anything like the fresh picked, squeezed, chilled orange juice we have been drinking.

We can't wait for February when the trees begin to blossom with the 2010 crop. I'll make sure to include a post of that - too bad I can't include the fragrance.

Home Sweet Home - Florida Style

Last entry to my blog was from the lake house in Swanton, MD.... and 4 inches of snow. We headed South on December 1st. Our first stop was in the Raleigh NC area to visit one of my Daughters, Cari, my two Grandkids Haylee and Nick, and my future Son-In-Law Jeff. We will see them all again pretty soon as the Wedding Bells are about to ring. And Jeff, there are a few things about your bride to be that I thought you should know.

When Cari was about 8 months old, I had her lying on her back on the bassinet as I changed her diaper. Well, I had things all cleaned up and was ready for a new diaper which was on a shelf under the top of the bassinet. In the two seconds it took me to look at, reach for, and get a diaper, Cari managed to PUSH herself right off the head end of the bassinet, and head first onto a tiled floor. Fortunately, she was mostly wedged between the wall and the end of the bassinet, so her fall was slowed considerably. But she did land on her head. The other thing you should know is that Cari NEVER crawled on all four - FORWARD. Instead, she preferred to crawl in REVERSE, and she was very good at it. I wonder if those two revelations are somehow connected? Hummmmm. In any case, exactly on her first birthday, she stood up and walked across the room (FORWARD thank God) as if she had been walking for a couple years!

Our next stop was "an overnight er" in Point South, SC pictured above. Pictured below... Spanish Moss anyone. We started seeing the moss here, through Georgia, and into Florida.

And here is where our trailer will spend the winter. Grand Lakes RV & Golf Resort in Orange Lake, Florida. This is the largest RV Park we have stayed in so far. Must be 100 acres. Very well manicured and maintained. RV sites are typically about 30 feet wide, these sites are easily 60 feet across. There are several large club houses with plenty of table for bingo or Texas Hold'em tournaments etc.. There are pool tables, ping pong tables, lounge areas and an activity schedule that fills each month should you care to indulge. The North end of the resort is on the shore of Orange Lake. There are boat slips and fishing pier but it must be the time of year - the lake level is low, hardly enough to float a boat. Perhaps some winter rains will fix that problem. And just like every other park we have spent time in, we have terrific neighbors - so far we've shared a meal with Joe and Lynn, and have met several others. Thanks George! He spent 4 hours with me trying to dial in our HD DirecTV dish.

We'll take a walk through and take some night pics of the decorations some of these folks have. I am sure ours will expand before too long.

We have been here about a week now and really haven't gotten around too much yet, but will. Our air card doesn't do a very good job out here so bear with me. I don't know if I can post this thing or not. I'll find out right now!

Do I Still Fly?

........that's a question a friend of mine asked recently. The short answer is YES to private flight, NO to commercial flights except in dire circumstances. That was the short answer. Here's the long one....

When I was 10 or 12, and bored out of my mind in mid summer, a friend and I would occassionally ride our bikes to the local airport and watch the little airplanes take off and land. I leave it to your imagination what fantasies filled our minds as we hung on the chain link fence at the end of the runway. On one of these trips we rode over to an old, abandoned, empty hanger. Not much to look at in there, but around the back of the building was the find of the summer.

picture courtesy of Boeing Aviation

What we found was the fuselage frame of a "taildragger". Aircraft you might be familiar with, like the Cessena, are classified as "trike gear", that is, two main landing gear and a nose wheel. Taildraggers have the two main landing gear and either a "skid" or a very small wheel under the tail - hence the name. Taildraggers were widely used earlier in aviation, and were the aircraft of choice for the barnstormers of that era. Got away from the story there... sorry. I use this picture just to give you a flavor of what we found and what became my favorite toy.

The engine, wings, landing gear, and skin of the airplane were all gone. All the instruments were missing and all that remained of the seats was a rotting plywood base. But the throttle control, "stick" and rudder pedals were all there. And that was all a 10 year old boy with too much imagination for one person needed. Sitting in the cockpit, I couldn't see over the instrument panel - well I could because there was no fabric, cowling, or engine blocking the view. Well, you know what I mean, right? So my first job was to fix that seat and I did that with bits and pieces of lumber, sheet metal scrap and an old tarp I found. Now, sitting there I could reach the rudder pedals with my feet and the stick with my right hand, and the throttle with my left hand. A broom stick became my machine gun. I wanted some "instruments" to help me when I was in the clouds and definitely wanted to know just how fast I was going. So I measured the the openings with twigs and snapped them off at just the right diameter, later that night at home, I drew an air speed indicator, and a couple of gauges with an arrow on them. Don't recall what they were suppose to be but I hated those holes in the panel - so I filled them up.

Next time at the airplane I was by myself. I got my instrument panel fully equipped, propped the tail up with an old gas can, got my machine gun tied down and was ready for takeoff........

And I could fly... as fast as one could imagine. That was pretty darn fast. I had brought a lunch with me that day because I knew it was going to be a long flight. I'll never forget sitting there in that WWII fighter of mine doing loops and spins and shooting down the Red Baron. I also remember how good the ride back to the base was, eating my peanut butter and jelly sandwich. I ate it with one hand never letting go of the stick with my other hand.

That airplane and I shared many flights together and I was sure that if it had feeling, it would really have appreciated its second life with me in the air.

My love of flight continued for many years. I joined the Air Force and spent four years accruing over 2,000 flight hours mostly to and from Viet Nam - but that's another story. After discharge, and four years of college, I took flying lessons and once I had my "ticket" signed up for aerobatics training. I trained with one of the best in the San Francisco Bay Area - Amelia Reid (no kidding on the name) at Reid Regional Airport in San Jose, CA. My qualifications for aerobatics opened a whole new life in the air and over the next several years, I spent more time in the air flying inverted than I did straight and level. Each type of aircraft a private pilot wants to fly requires a "check out". In total I was checked out in Cessina C-150's, C-152, C-152 Aeobat, C-182, Beechcraft Sundowner, (all trikes) and a number of taildraggers - namely the Citabria, Decathelon, Super Decatheon and my absolute favorite, the Great Lakes 2T-1A-2 open cockpit bi-plane.

I haven't flown in years now and between then and now, have lost track of my flight log book. I believe I logged about 370 PIC (pilot in command) flight hours. Whether I was flying aerobatics solo, or had a passenger, those earlier days of static flight in back of the dilapidated hanger would come vividly to mind and yes... that's exactly how Immelmans, Loops, Aileron, Snaps and Barrel Rolls felt then... and now!

So... to interpret the long answer for you... YES I still fly (wink wink).

Can't leave the lake without showing ya this.....

Popcorn anyone? Now how many folks do you know that have their own Popcorn Machine in their own Home Theater Room? Well, here's a few pics of some folks I know that do. By the way, the screen is roughly the same dimensions as the 9:16 aspect ratio of wide screen 1080i HD projection system. The units of the ratio are in FEET! Yes, the screen is roughly 16 feet long by 9 feet high.

And here's what the "theater" looks like. All 12 seats are full leather recliners with foot rests and cup holders. Only 12 seats? No problem, this theater has room for expansion. Here's a little better view of the seating. This is the tier with 5 seats. The tier above accommodates 7 seats... with a double wide "love seat" in the center, Does it look comfortable? You bet it is!

The theater is equipped with the latest technology in HD projection and the sound system will rock your socks. I watched a NFL football game here today. When a pass is thrown you can't help but put your hands up to catch the ball. This is really a great addition to a fabulous home.