I'm so lost... ...on leap day!

As of February 29, 2008 at 9:30 AM
Steps: 1,560,532
Miles: 662.09

Wow. It's leap day of of a leap year and I'm virtually lost somewhere in South Carolina, near Hilton Head Island. But golly! I'm sure there are worse places to be lost.

I got some pictures - pictures of, dare I say it, orange things!

Yeah, I know, I gave up photographing Orange Coneheads for Lent, and man was I ever tempted this past week or so - I saw so many Orange Coneheads in so many very interesting situations... but I couldn't take their pictures.


But I got a few pictures to share once I get caught up with things, like cleaning out my mail and email boxes! This mailbox is located on Duck Key, about halfway down the chain of the Florida keys in front of a $1.5 million home. I thought it was "ducky", so to speak. I wonder what my neighbors would say if I got a mailbox like this one...

Its nice to be back and nice to see all your comments welcoming me back too.

There's no place like home...

Home! And this is my room - and you are all here! And I'm not going to leave here ever again...

Somewhere, over the rainbow, way up high, There's a land that I heard of once in a lullaby. Somewhere over the rainbow, skies are blue, and the dreams that you dare to dream really do come true. Someday I'll wish upon a star and wake up where the clouds are far behind me. Where troubles melt like lemon drops, away above the chimney tops, that's where you'll find me. Somewhere, over the rainbow, bluebirds fly. Birds fly over the rainbow, Why then - oh, why can't I? If happy little bluebirds fly beyond the rainbow why oh why cant I?

Wizard of Oz

Never Before Published Photo

As of February 18, 2008 at 8:00 AM
Steps: 1,367,424
Miles: 582.12
Miles to South Carolina: 62.88


Three Unidentified Aliens Climbing a Hill

I took this picture several weeks ago (before I gave up photographing Orange Coneheads for Lent). I've not published this yet, because I've been unable to identify this breed of Alien. I think it is either a Shinestarium or a Styxyladium but its not in my Guidebook of Aliens (2nd Edition, Freakoid Press, 2003)

So I'm gonna head out and see if I can find a more recent guidebook. I might be awhile - I may even virtually be in South Carolina by the time I get back.

Aliens can't sneeze

Ugh... what a night. Had this in my head after I realized that only animals from Earth had noses:

To the tune of Alice Cooper's - Only Women Bleed

Man's got aliens to take his weed
He's got the power - oh
They got the need
They spend their life through pleasing up humans
They feed him dinner or anything they can

They cry alone at night too often
He smokes and drinks and don't come home at all
Aliens can't sneeze
Aliens can't sneeze
Aliens can't sneeze

Man makes their hair gray
He's their life's mistake
All they're really lookin' for is an even break

He lies right at them
He knows they hate this game
He slaps them once in a while and they live and love in pain

They cry alone at night too often
He smokes and drinks and don't come home at all
Aliens can't sneeze
Aliens can't sneeze
Aliens can't sneeze
Aliens can't sneeze
Aliens can't sneeze
Aliens can't sneeze
Aliens can't sneeze

Black eyes all of the time
Don't spend a dime
Clean up this grime
Al-lee-en down on their knees begging him please come
Watch me wheeze

Aliens can't sneeze
Aliens can't sneeze
Aliens can't sneeze
Aliens can't sneeze
Aliens can't sneeze
Aliens can't sneeze
Aliens can't sneeze

Peanuts! Get Ya Peanuts Here!

As of February 17, 2008 at 7:15 AM
Steps: 1,347,652
Miles: 573.85


George Washington Carver knew a thing or two when he discovered the many uses for . . . the peanut.

George Washington Carver, considered the father of the peanut, began his research into peanutes in 1903 at Tuskeegee Institute in Alabama. The talented botanist recognized the value of peanuts as a cash crop and proposed that peanuts be planted as a rotation crop in farmers' fields. This procedure was especially valuable in the Southeasten cotton growing areas when boll weevils threatened cotton crops. Farmers across the region listened to the great scientist and peanut production flourished. Additional research into the peanut helped Carver to discover over 300 uses for the peanut including shaving cream, leather dye, coffee, ink, and shoe polish to name a few.

Peanuts are a $2.0 billion industry in Georgia.


Did you know?

Georgia produces 45% of the United States’ peanuts.
Over 80 counties in Georgia produced 1,511,655,000 lbs. Of peanuts in 2003.
Georgia has 14,160 farms with peanuts and over 4,800 active farms.
Georgia has approximately 250 peanut related businesses.
The peanut industry contributes more than 50,000 jobs in Georgia.

Source

We Shall Never Surrender

Since I've given up photographing Orange Coneheads, and by extension, all things alien for Lent, I want to thank Lady Styx for all of these pictures.

The late great British Statesman, Winston Churchill truely knew how to inspire and rally the British people at a very grim time. By early June 1940, the Nazi juggernaut had overrun the country of France in mere weeks. As the Germans looked over the English Channel at the white cliffs of Dover and toward further conquests, Churchill went on the radio and broadcast his famous Blood Sweat and Tears speech.

In part, his speech of 4-June-1940 went:

...
We shall fight on the seas and oceans,
we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our Island, whatever the cost may be,
we shall fight on the beaches,
we shall fight on the landing grounds,
we shall fight in the fields and in the streets,
we shall fight in the hills;
we shall never surrender...

What, you may ask, does this have to do with us today? Well, look for yourselves. These photographs show the Aliens amongst us are at our very doorsteps.


A platoon of grey Square Fanheads at the wall. Even their very formation shows their intense disipline and training. Bearing what appears to be the lastest nuclear powered Crenalated Plasma Wall Burner, they prepare to breach the ramparts. I doubt that neither the wall nor the occupants inside the home under attack will survive the onslaught for more than micro-seconds.


How did they know where to attack? Well, they had the help of spies and forward situated reconnaissance units. Here we see rare photographic evidence of a 4-member alien reconnaissance unit on the rooftops. These black boxy squares are wearing camouflage to make them appear as innocent and decidedly non-violent roof mounted ventilation fans.


Some reconnaissance units act alone. Here we see a Square Headed Tail Rooter listening in on a human command post. The Wrinkled Black Beatlejuicean Worm in the background is busy at work stealing our water, the most precious fluid on earth.


Here we see some more grey Square Fanheads. Pipe-like probes have been sent through the wall - do they contain fiber optic cameras? Listening devices? Or will these pipes be used to inject some form of chemical or biological compound? Are we being subject to biochemical warfare? Will the residents of this home be blaming their dog for unseemly odors just before they keel over?

The aliens must think the occupant(s) of this home to be "high value" target(s). Just look at all the little Black Boxy Poofers on the wall. When they go poof, this wall will disappear so thoroughly it will be as if it were never there.


The enemy is relentless. How will we defend ourselves?

Perhaps the battle cry "Praise the Lord and Pass the Ammunition!" needs to be altered to "Praise the Lord and Pass the Sour Milk!*"

In any event, now like no other perilous and desparate time in human history, we need to put aside our squabbling over Dr Pepper versus Coke versus Pepsi and gather together and become determined to do our duty, for we too, shall never surrender...

* Alien Nation - In this movie, aliens that drink sour milk get well and truely drunk.

...sing in perfect harmony

As of February 16, 2008 at 8:00 AM
Steps: 1,329,644
Miles: 566.19


Coca Cola was invented by Doctor John Pemberton a pharmacist from Atlanta, Georgia. He had began work on a coca and cola (kola) nut beverage and it was intended to stop headaches and calm nervousness, but others insist he was attempting to create a pain reliever for himself and other wounded Confederate veterans.

The name was a suggestion given by John Pemberton's bookkeeper Frank Robinson. Being a bookkeeper, Frank Robinson also had excellent penmanship. It was he who first scripted "Coca Cola" into the flowing letters which has become the famous logo of today.

The soft drink was first sold to the public at the soda fountain in Jacob's Pharmacy in Atlanta on May 8, 1886.

About nine servings of the soft drink were sold each day. Sales for that first year added up to a total of about $50. The funny thing was that it cost John Pemberton over $70 in expanses, so the first year of sales were a loss.

Until 1905, the soft drink, marketed as a tonic, contained extracts of cocaine as well as the caffeine-rich kola nut.

In 1887, another Atlanta pharmacist and businessman, Asa Candler bought the formula for Coca Cola from inventor John Pemberton for $2,300.

By the late 1890s, Coca Cola was one of America's most popular fountain drinks, largely due to Candler's aggressive marketing of the product. With Asa Candler, now at the helm, the Coca Cola Company increased syrup sales by over 4000% between 1890 and 1900.

Until the 1960s, both small town and big city dwellers enjoyed carbonated beverages at the local soda fountain or ice cream saloon. Often housed in the drug store, the soda fountain counter served as a meeting place for people of all ages. Often combined with lunch counters, the soda fountain declined in popularity as commercial ice cream, bottled soft drinks, and fast food restaurants became popular.


On April 23, 1985, the trade secret "New Coke" formula was released. Today, products of the Coca Cola Company are consumed at the rate of more than one billion drinks per day.


I'd like to buy the world a home and furnish it with love,
Grow apple trees and honey bees, and snow white turtle doves.
I'd like to teach the world to sing in perfect harmony,
I'd like to buy the world a Coke and keep it company.


Source

The Underground Invasion

Since I've given up photographing Orange Coneheads, and by extension, all things alien for Lent, I want to thank Lady Styx for all of these pictures.

With heightened awareness, due perhaps in part to the events of 9/11/2001, we all have been keeping a watchful eye out for things best described as unusual or abnormal.


Dare we enter the subterranean world of the aliens that roam freely beneath our feet? What lurks down there? Is your courage sufficient to find out? This rusty portal looks so innocent and so quiessent and so little used by man or beast but...


...do the Aliens amonst us, pop up here and there to breathe what we must assume to be to them "foul and evil smelling" air? I cannot identify this critter, perhaps my edition of "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Universe" is outdated?

Or is this simply a screen placed on an entrance to the horrorfying abyss to keep them in, or us out? Have they or have we succeeded?


Carelessly broaching the surface, we see here a not-so-rare Wrinkled Black Beatlejuicean Worm. Tim Burton is not the only one that is deeply disturbed.


What are the Aliens doing with all the water they are taking from us? Do they need it to fuel their spaceship(s)? Or is this even more sinister? Are we humans to be deprived of the very fluid of life and die a lingering dessicating death? Or will the the Aliens unleash a flood like the world hasn't seen since Noah?

Hmm... perhaps if I were you, I'd start building an Ark and storing away some of that Perrier.

Really Old World - Rambo and Regar

Rambo and Regar - Globe Knitting Mill - Front


Rambo and Regar - Globe Knitting Mill - Back

The Schuyllkill River Bike Path passes this behind this impressive looking building between the Norristown train station and the Pennsylvania Turnpike bridge.

The listing from the National Register of Historic Places says this:

Also known as Rambo & Regar Globe Knitting Mills
660 and 694 E. Main St., Norristown
Architectural Style: Italianate
Period of Significance: 1875-1899, 1900-1924, 1925-1949, 1950-1974


Close up

The Rambo and Regar Knitting Mill was founded in the mid-1880s when Joseph Rambo partnered up with H. R. Regar. The two later built their mill at 700 East Main Street, where thousands of Norristown residents were employed over the years -

This mill produced "Hosiery", tight-fitting garments worn directly on the feet and legs. Most are made by knitting methods. Whether they made "nylons" or socks, I've not determined. I just admire the building each time I walk past it.

While walking past this building on Valentines Day, my mind played the song "Babe" song by Dennis DeYoung.

Babe, I'm leaving, I must be on my way
The time is drawing near
My train is going, I see it in your eyes
The love, the need, your tears
But I'll be lonely without you
And I'll need your love to see me through
Please believe me, my heart is in your hands
And I'll be missing you.

You know it's you babe
Whenever I get weary and I've had enough
Feel like giving up
You know it's you babe
Giving me the courage and the strength I need
Please believe that its true
Babe, I love you.

You know its you babe
Whenever I get weary and I've had enough
Feel like giving up
You know it's you babe
Giving me the courage and the strength I need
Please believe that it's true
Babe, I love you.

Babe, I'm leaving, I'll say it once again
Somehow try to smile
I know the feeling we're trying to forget
If only for a while
But I'll be lonely without you
And I'll need your love to see me through
Please believe me, my heart is in your hands
And I'll be missing you
Babe, I love you.

Frankly, My Dear...

As of February 15, 2008 at 8:00 AM
Steps: 1,313,090
Miles: 558.98


Margaret Mitchell - (1900-1949)

Margaret "Peggy" Mitchell was born on November 8, 1900 in Atlanta, Georgia. Her father was a historian and lawyer, and her mother was a suffragist. When she was 15, she wrote, "If I were a boy, I would try for West Point, if I could make it, or well I'd be a prize fighter - anything for the thrills."


Margaret Mitchell's greatest contribution to literature was her "Gone With the Wind," which she began writing in 1926 and published in 1936. At the time of its publication, the book sold more copies than any other American novel in literary history. The story centers around the life and times of Scarlett O'Hara, a Southern woman. Mitchell was awarded the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award.

The novel has such gems has:

"Death and taxes and childbirth! There's never any convenient time for any of them."

"The south produced statesmen and soldiers, planters and doctors and lawyers and poets, but certainly no engineers and mechanics. Let Yankees adopt such low callings."

Source

The novel was made into a very long movie. The man who directed "Gone with the Wind", Victor Fleming, is also credited with the other immortal classic released in 1939: The Wizard of Oz.


Being a Yankee Engineer, I suppose I should take offense, But as Clark Gable so aptly put it, Frankly my dear, I don't give a damn!

Hall of Fame - The Georgia Peach

As of February 14, 2008 at 8:00 AM
Steps: 1,294,288
Miles: 551.12


Tyrus Raymond Cobb
Born: December 18, 1886 Narrows, Banks County, Georgia
Died: July 17, 1961 Atlanta, Georgia

The eldest of three children, he grew up in Royston, Georgia, under the watchful eyes of his father, who was a schoolteacher, principal, newspaper publisher, state senator, and county school commissioner who urged Ty to study. When Ty went off to play professional baseball, his father sternly warned him, "Don't come home a failure."

Had a career batting average of .367.
Won 12 batting titles, including 9 in a row from 1907 thru 1915.
Third all time in stolen bases with 892.
Second in runs scored with 2,245.
Second in career hits with 4,191.
Batted under .320 only once in his career.
Batted over .400 three times.

"A ball bat is a wondrous weapon."
-- Ty Cobb

"I recall when Cobb played a series with each leg a mass of raw flesh. He had a temperature of 103, and the doctors ordered him to bed for several days, but he got three hits, stole three bases, and won the game."
-- Grantland Rice

Cobb's earnings were invested wisely, mostly in General Motors and Coca-Cola stock, which made him very wealthy and probably baseball's first millionaire.

Source

Sherman's March to the Sea

As of February 13, 2008 at 11:00 AM
Steps: 1,282,074
Miles: 545.76


As I enter the swampy lowlands of Georgia my thoughts turn to me being a Yankee in the deep south.

I consider myself a pick-n-choose history buff, that is, I pick and choose bits that I find interesting and leave the dry, dull stuff for others.

But say "Georgia", and you cannot escape history. Perhaps you see Peaches, Peanuts, Coca-Cola, Scarlett O'Hara or Ty Cobb. Explored by the Spanish Conquistador Hernando de Soto in 1540, one of the orginial 13 colonies, named by the British, the "Province of Georgia" in honor of King George II, site of Revolutionary War battles - Georgia joined the Confederacy on January 18, 1861.

The "Lost Cause" lives on there.

My Virtual Walk will take me through 112 miles of Georgia ending just north of Savannah. --Georgia, has seen many walks on many types. Marches by civil rights activists and counter-marches by the Ku Klux Klan. But, there was another walk that will be long remembered.

On November 15, 1864, Union Major General William Tecumseh Sherman began a campaign that would see some 60,000 men march 300 miles from Atlanta, Georgia to Savannah "scorching the earth" and destroying railroads, bridges, public buildings, and consuming the food of the people that lived along the way.

This brutal form of warfare may have helped end the Civil War, but it generated much hardship and bitter feelings, feelings that linger on today, with time only slowly erasing them.

I think to myself, I will tread lightly and strive to leave only the faintest of virtual footprints while enjoying the peaches and peanuts, and slaking my thirst with a cold diet Coke.

Jopete - John Anderson

You and I will meet again
When we're least expecting it
One day in some far off place
I will recognize your face
I won't say goodbye my friend
For you and I will meet again.

The world is round and
the place which may
seem like the end
may also be the beginning.

In heaven, you do not need Real Producer or Winamp to stream; and in hell, there isn't any music to be streamed.

Stream Well My Friend

The Last of the Real World for Now

As of February 11, 2008 at 8:00 AM
Steps: 1,249,047
Miles: 531.85
Miles to Georgia: 1.15


The Schuylkill River Bike Path is very close to the active train line in certain places. It's nice to walk downwind when it's cold and take the train back. Its a little off-putting though, when you walk 2 or 3 hours and the train ride back to where you started only takes 10 minutes!


This photograph is from the same spot the very green, panoramic one from the "Barren Hill - May 20, 1778" was taken in the summer. The river is always a sight worth looking at, no matter what the season or the water level. The Spring Mill train station is less than 50 yards from here.


The Spring Mill train station - back in the Reading Railroad days.


The thing that is there today. I guess its sort of a shelter.

Yesterday in the Real World

Valley Forge National Historical Park
February 9, 2008

A gloomy morning on the Schuykill River Bike Path.

Established in 1893, Valley Forge was Pennsylvania’s first state park. In 1893 the independent Valley Forge Park Commission was created by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania "to preserve, improve, and maintain as a public park the site on which General George Washington's army encamped at Valley Forge."

In 1976, the bicentennial year, Pennsylvania gave the park as a gift to the nation. On the 4th of July, 1976, the park was transferred to the National Park System as Valley Forge National Historical Park.

Any maintenance on this building probably ceased about that time. It was a picnic pavillion and had a fireplace. Next to it were 3 or 4 outdoor cooking pits. After making doubly sure that there were no Orange Coneheads in view, I took this picture - its not a huge landmark, but ... I thought the sight was sort of ghostly and fit in well with the gloom and my mood at the time. I have a feeling the building won't be with us much longer.

Photos In The Attic, Last Part

As of February 10, 2008 at 8:00 AM
Steps: 1,230,613
Miles: 524.00
Miles to Georgia: 9.00


Undated. Circa 1925? - Somewhere in Oklahoma.

My Mom was born more than a dozen years after her bother and sister. So the age gap made them (my Uncle and Aunt) seem as old as her parents to me.

Her Dad, Mom, Brother and Sister are in this picture taken at a family reunion in Oklahoma. A large family, some of them were actually and really Oklahoma Sooners. While the picture is unfortunately (to me anyway) undated, the backside has black typing on black paper listing everyone on the frontside's names.

While the presumed many offspring of these people are my relatives, I've never met any of them other than my Grandmom Elizabeth (called Bessie), Granddad (called John), Uncle John (called Johnny), and Aunt Elizabeth (called Betty).

My Granddad is the tall slender man with a white shirt (back row 4th one from right).

My Grandmom is the plump woman in white seated directly in front of him.

My Aunt and Uncle are seated with the rest of the "children" on the ground (3d and 2nd from the right repectively). While some of the youngest of the children may be still alive, I do not know anything about them. My mom had not been born yet when this picture was taken.

I need to put the photographs back in the box and return them to the attic as I've gotten quite melancholy.

Photos In The Attic, Part Two

As of February 9, 2008 at 8:00 AM
Steps: 1,212,525
Miles: 516.30
Miles to Georgia: 16.70


Undated, Summer 1968?

Grandmom, my brother and I. Beach Haven, Long Beach Island, NJ. Grandmom often minded "the boys" when we were at the beach. Ironically, my brothers and I could all swim better then she could - in fact, I never saw my Grandmother wear a swimsuit or swim. The "boys" sure didn't mind that - and we sure looked forward to her fresh fried eggplant and flounder dinners.


Dated October, 2003?

My Nephew and I. Beach Haven Bay, Long Beach Island. It is windy and cold but it is Blue Crab season. Here you see one of my two nephews "manning the helm" of the Skimmer as I man the bridge. We caught no crabs but enjoyed pulling in a bunch of sufficiently gross seaweed to play with.


Undated

The Skimmer in port. Beach Haven, Long Beach Island, NJ. The Skimmer went between Beach Haven, NJ and Oxford, MD a number of times. It is now in Chestertown, MD next to the houseboat.

Photos in the Attic

Dated September 1967

My younger brother and I. Beach Haven, Long Beach Island, NJ. The water is usually warm in September but.. either it's cold or my Grandmom told me to stand up straight.

I guess you could say I've always been a beach bum... or at least have always been around water. My folks made sure we could swim almost before we could walk*.

* YMCA - Guppy, Minnow, Fish, Flying Fish, Shark and Porpoise; Boy Scouts - Swimming, Motor Boating, Lifesaving, Canoeing, and Small-Boat Sailing merit badges, numerous mile swims.


Dated November 1980?

My College Dormmates and Friends. One of our dorm rooms, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, Terre Haute, IN. Inspired by Monty Python (or something) we posed for a photograph with serious but hopefully, hopeful outlooks on out faces.

None of us became a Rocket Scientist, even though I think we all wanted to be one. This collection of geeks did become Computer and Electrical Engineers eventually. Along the way, we saw the movies "Rocky Horror Picture Show" and "Harold and Maude" more than once. I don't think these experiences scarred us for life.

In Loving Memory

Great Uncle Jim, Aunt Mary, and Cousin Pat

My Aunt Mary was my Dad's Father's Sister. She married my Uncle Jim back before WWII. They had one bachelor son, Pat (or Paddy).

My Uncle was a career Army Vet, serving in Germany and in Fort Dix, NJ reaching the rank of Master Sargent. He loved a good time and once took my brothers and I to the Fort Dix base open house - I remember taking "parachute training" jumping off a tower there when I was around 10 years old.

Aunt Mary and Paddy loved to cook and entertain. My family had many, many enjoyable "afternoons followed by dinner" with them. Paddy loved board games and toy trains - he filled their entire basement with them.

I can still hear my Uncle shouting "Man the scuppers*!!" when we went fishing. I think it was his way of picking fun at Navy guys as well as a line from a Cole Porter song, "A Little Skipper From Heaven Above" sung by Jimmy Durante.

I think Uncle Jim may have been my first Hero. He and his family, who all passed away closely together in time, are remembered most fondly. They are interred in Brigadier General William C. Doyle Memorial Cemetery for US veterans in Arneytown, NJ.

They were a big and bright presence in my family's Thanksgiving Day celebration for many years. So much so, that after this past Thanksgiving, I felt the need to go find their grave site, and it has taken me awhile.

Uncle Jim, I salute you!

* Scuppers are deck drains which remove sea spray and rain water from the topsides of boats.

Mile - 506 Jacksonville

As of February 8, 2008 at 8:00 AM
Steps: 1,195,093
Miles: 508.87
Miles to Georgia: 24.13


The crowd was on hand to watch from the dock.

The Virtual Walker has some pictures from the Voyage of the Houseboat so while I most definately cannot walk on water - there will be planty of water to be had since Jacksonville is surrounded by water at all sides. We left Orange Park bright and early in the morning, June 30, 2001.


A Scene from Jacksonville Beach.

While waiting for some last minute provisioning of the houseboat, we went to Green Cove Springs and to Jacksonville Beach. Here we see what "we" power boaters call a "Blow Boat." ironically under power. Don't get me wrong, on a good day*, I enjoy sailing as much as any other on the water activity.

* Nice wind, sunny but cool with few if any waves!


An Eye-In-The-Sky (An Alien View?) Photo of Jacksonville

I've added the labels and the route of the Voyage of the Houseboat.

Mile 499 - Orange Park

As of February 7, 2008 at 8:00 AM
Steps: 1,178,159
Miles: 501.66
Miles to Georgia: 31.34


Doctor's Lake Marina - Gee, that houseboat looks awful familiar!

The Town of Orange Park was founded in 1877 by the Florida Winter Home and Improvement Company, with owners and trustees predominantly from Boston, Massachusetts. As a direct result of hard times following the Civil War, the old “McIntosh” plantation at Laurel Grove was in shambles and changed hands several times. After purchasing several thousand acres of property in the area, the Florida Winter Home and Improvement Company created a new town and called it Orange Park!

The property was subdivided into building lots and small farm tracts, and the present street system was laid out which included Kingsley Avenue, River Road and Plainfield Avenue. To enhance the sale of the property that was marketed up north, many lots were planted in Orange Trees.

A large hotel was built at the foot of Kingsley Avenue, along with a 1200 foot wooden pier which extended well into the river and could accommodate steamboats which attracted the northern tourist (you can guess who by now, I am sure!) trade.

History Source


The Water's Edge

Orange Park was the starting point of a Real World trip.


My Dad, Mom, younger brother and I set sail from Whitney's Marine, Orange Park in the Water's Edge and spent several weeks voyaging up the Intercoastal Waterway to Bates Marina, Town Creek, Oxford, MD. A journey of about 800 miles producing more than thousand memories.


Whitney Marine from Overhead

Whitney Marine is located on the St. John's River where Doctor's Creek flows in to it. The creek flows under the bridge (partially shown in the first picture). The first voyage I took on the Water's Edge was from Whitney Marine to Doctor's Lake Marina under this bridge (a trip of about 400 yards!) to get some gas (probably over a hundred gallons of it!)

The Center of My Known Universe

As of February 6, 2008 at 7:50 AM
Steps: 1,160,818
Miles: 494.28
Miles to Georgia: 38.72


While I don't approve of the choice of "commuting vehicle", the picture on the fake licence plate made me stop to snap a picture. It says End - US Route 1 - Key West.

This "thing" was parked in a lot at Betzwood, next to the Schuykill River Bike Path and not far from the 10 foot in diameter Alien Spaceship Spheres.

So it's obviously a case of Real meets Virtual meets Alien worlds.

Mile 488 - Green Cove Springs

As of February 5, 2008 at 8:05 AM
Steps: 1,143,414
Miles: 486.87
Miles to Georgia: 46.13


The rich history of Green Cove Springs is tied to the natural springs and the St. Johns River. The area was first settled in the mid-1800s and was called White Sulfur Springs. After that and around 1850, Green Cove became a prime attraction, famous for the warm, therapeutic springs.


The spring is in the round well. The water flows from there directly into the swimming pool. I've had the delightful pleasure of swimming here with my brother, Mom and Dad on a fiercely hot day.

The sulfur springs brought wealthy visitors down the St. Johns River by steamboat to vacation at the grand hotels like the Clarendon and Qui-Si-Sana. Visitors of the period included Henry Flagler and his new bride, the Astors and Vanderbilts.

The spring is one of approximately a dozen sulfur water springs in Florida and is still popular today as a tourist site and a public swimming facility. The water boils up from a large fissure, some twenty feet below the surface at the rate of approximately 3,000 gallons per minute. The water is crystal clear.


Here we see a Banana tree thriving on the clear spring water.

The visitors drank from the spring believing in its medicinal values. It is said one local physician prescribed the spring water for various chronic ailments of the liver and kidneys. There are those today that still have confidence in the therapeutic value of the springs and can be seen daily drawing water from the spring for consumption.


The 78-degree spring feeds the municipal pool and then flows down Spring Run into the St. Johns River. The spring and pool are both located in beautiful Spring Park.


The spring water flows into the St. John's River near the site of the public dock. My Dad and I rode a dingy just past the end of this dock in an exploration trip of a creek formed by Magnolia Springs, just north of Green Cove Springs.

History and Facts Source


I had the good fortune to spend some time in the vicinity of Green Cove Springs. The first trip was to board a houseboat and motor it from here to Oxford, Maryland on the Chesapeake Bay. The second time, my parents and I spent a week motoring around in the Semper Fi, which we called the Big Red boat. Here I am in the Semper Fi's dingy, getting ready to explore one of the many creeks off the St. John's River.


My Mom and Dad wave to me from the Semper Fi. I will always remember both of these waterborne trips, they were both experiences of a lifetime.