A day of friends - Day Thirteen - January 28, 2016
Today started off with a phone call to my older brother Dan, who lives in Illinois. I always love chatting with Dan, I think because we disagree on so many things and have never been afraid to voice our opinions and call each other names and tell each other just how full of crap we are. He got all over my case for even going to Ron Jon's because it is not 'a real surf shop' like he used to go to in California (1968) and the east coast waves aren't real waves so the east coast surfers aren't real surfers so apparently I wasn't even having any real experiences here. . . love this guy, just because he is just so full of it. . . But i will agree, Dan, Cocoa Beach, Florida in 2017 is just not the same as your foggy damn memories of Ocean Beach, California in 1968 as I am sure things there have not changed a bit in the intervening 49 years. As we drove north along route 1 we soon came to Port Canaveral which
Port Canaveral
was full of cruise ships as we passed through. Our friend Captain Bobby sometimes stops here with his tanker, sorry he wasn't here at this time, but I know he is currently some where between Port Arthur, TX and Tampa. Along the route we could see the Vehicle Assembly Building at Kennedy Space Center. Carol sent our grandson an iPhone snapshot of the building and after an exchange with Ben we were committed to find him a NASA T-shirt so off we went to the KSC. We got the car parked in Lot 5, which is about 500 miles from the entrance...and walked down to the find a place to buy a Tee for the
Entrance At Kennedy Space Center
future pilot. The crowds were amazing, it is good to see so many folks interested in our space program. We chatted a bit with the folks that parked next to us and the live in the area and visit often.
NASA NANA
We found a gift shop outside the entrance so we didn't have to pay the $50 admission which would have made for an expensive t-shirt. With the shopping done we headed the 500 miles back to the car and had another great conversation with another visitor to the space center. I am thinking that Benny and I need to come down here for an extended stay sometime. This is really a very large part of history. From here, Carol and were headed to Daytona Beach to look up a childhood friend, someone who I have not hung out with since I was 17 years old, Mike Shewmaker. Now those who know me well, know I like to tell wild stories about my childhood hanging out with the Shewmaker Brothers, Mike and Brud, and I am sure that many of you think I am a damned liar telling such tall tales but I assure you they are true and with little embellishment as embellishment is unnecessary. And as serendipity has it, even
Me and Mike
not knowing where he was in Daytona beach, we ended up parking just two doors down from his shop.Although we didn't blow anything up or set each other on fire and no animals were harmed, we had a wonderful catching up and retelling tales of our childhood back in Illinois. Carol once again sat there just shaking her head in disbelief as we recounted the days of so long ago. We had lunch at the neighborhood pizza-sandwich shop and chatted and chatted, rekindling a friendship that had never really left, but was just on the back
Speedway
burner. After lunch we were on the road again heading for Deland to visit Carol's friends, Marie and Ernie. Along the way we passed the Daytona International Racetrack where the 24 hours of Daytona was running. As we passed we could hear the roar of the cars. Carol texted back and forth with our son (who is a big car nut) and he was very jealous of us being here as he was watching this race on TV and claimed 'This is the first real race of the season!' Serendipity once again. We arrived in Deland in the afternoon and the man with the calm voice directed us right to the door of Marie and Ernie. Marie made a magnificent pasta supper before we headed out the door for an evening of karaoke... Ernie is a very good singer. This day had a lot of twists and turns. Here is a short sampling of karaoke..this was my first time ever where there was karaoke..turned out to be a great time and some of these folks have real talent.
No comments:
Post a Comment