Notes from the Road
23/04/11 09:39
Well now. Here we are. Finally in Florida. Temperatures are in the 90's and it's steamy for sure. We're here for our bi-annual visit to see Evan's doctor. You know, the GSD guy. We hear he may be moving north soon maybe as far north as Baltimore. Seems his wife doesn't much care for Florida. It is somewhat backward from a cultural standpoint and god only knows they love their god and religion down here. They also love their grits and porridge. The continental breakfast here at the Holiday Inn Express in Laconta, Florida, boasts those delicacies and more from 6:30 to 10 each morning. I selected a couple of hard boiled eggs and a piece of sausage and took a table near the TV. News of the day is all about the royal wedding in England and the Gulf coast oil spill a year later. The morning news wouldn't be complete without one or two stories on the price of gas that is just over $4 a gallon, the suspect future of the gasoline engine and replacements of same, and one or two examples of what that future may look like. One was an electric car and the other was about the design of an engine that was revolutionary in its infancy. Since we rented a Mustang during our trip to Florida we hardly qualify as interested parties. That isn't to say that we enjoy paying through the nose for gasoline. We don't. Oh yes, and now that we're a year out from the elections, the republican front runners are the usual lot including Romney, Michelle Bachman, and others of their ilk. What is this I hear about Donald Trump? Maybe he is what this country needs. A no-nonsense fella who can wheel and deal with the oil cartels, the barons of industry, and the clowns on Wall Street. He speaks their language. He is also narcissistic enough to run and win.
I recall clearly the look on Nancy's face when I told her I rented the Mustang. At first, it was disbelief. Not that she doesn't like Mustangs but I think it wasn't her idea of a rental that we would all be comfortable with. When she laid eyes on the car I could see the horror on her face. When she opened the door the horror turned to abject horror. She may have even wondered if Evan was going to be able to fit into the back seat. He did, although a bit snugly. She had plenty of leg room and I think while she didn't admit to it she was warming up to the car in her own way. Before the day was out she and Evan were switching places. Evan loved the car and he is not one to demonstrate emotional flourish under any circumstances. But he waxed on and on about the car and loved every minute riding in it. He wanted to know how much it cost. He was more than surprised that it wasn't much more expensive than our Matrix. I will say that the car is an easy sell to a kid Evan's age. For me, maybe a midlife crisis rental. It didn't come with GPS but it did come with Sirius radio which we didn't order but seemed to work just fine nonetheless. It had just about everything but Reggae which Evan wanted. Driving at night was a pleasure as well and the interior of the care was bathed in a warm blue glow from the instrumentation lights. I did tell the family that I liked the fact that we didn't get a fire engine red Mustang since we were already on the top ten hit list for small county cops by driving a Mustang. I probably should have thought twice about getting off the backroads so the family could see the real Florida. Northern central Florida is prime farmland and cattle ranching territory and the scenery was beautiful. Even in the 90 plus degree heat of late April.
Our biggest challenge so far has been finding a decent restaurant. There are plenty of McDonalds and similar places but none that seemed to capture our fancy or imagination. We had breakfast at the airport after running out of milk and eggs at home. We ended up eating at McDonalds for lunch where Nancy had a nice unsweetened tea; Evan had a chicken sandwich and a smoothie; and I had a couple of burgers and a fry with a small coke to wash it all down. Just a waste of a day from a culinary and nutritional standpoint. Dinner wasn't much different but at least it offered more of a local flavor. We went looking for Manatees at McCraes just before dark and ended up passing on Subway but sitting in a local Italian restaurant where Evan had tortellini's and hot rolls; I had eggplant sub half of which I brought back to the hotel room; and Nancy and I split a greek salad. Granted, the place was in a mall where we wouldn't have otherwise looked for a place to eat but the patronage for a Tuesday night seemed over the top and inviting or at least more inviting than the Subway shop which had very few people inside. Nancy liked the fact that the Italian place had taken the trouble to decorate for Easter and there were these funky little plastic eggs hanging from the ceiling all throughout the place. It was a bit much but I thought to myself, ok. We're hungry, the portions seemed more than adequate, and the aroma's throughout seemed genuinely Italian. It was a nice way to end the day. We followed what looked like a drunk driver back along 44 west towards the hotel and kept a safe but observable distance. He was having some difficulty staying between the lines. Drunk, but not so drunk that he couldn't maintain his speed. I hoped that it might serve as a reminder to Evan that drinking and driving is never a good thing and I think it did just that. I didn't want to get close enough to get a look at his tags since you just never know. We didn't know either whether or not he had children in the truck but didn't want to know that either. It was a hard luck case to be sure.
We settled in and caught the last few seconds of the Celtics/NY Knicks game where the Celtics pulled their second in a row from the beleaguered Knicks. Today we will be going to Gainesville for Evan's appointment. If we can manage to get his a haircut before he has his ultrasound that would be a good thing. I guess before any of that happens, we need to get him out of bed. So, I'm off to do just that. Let's hope for an interesting day. If there's time, we'll try to go swimming with the Manatees. It's the fresh water version of swimming with the dolphins. What will they think of next?
Wednesday, April 20th, 2011
Well now. There you have it. I'm sitting poolside here in Laconta, Florida, on a sunny and warm April morning in the year 2011. We have the day off and it feels good. Good to be free of the time constraints and limitations imposed by our grueling itinerary. Not really. I'm making far too much of it. It hardly warrants the drama. Maybe it's the chlorine wafting my way from the pool which is but a few feet from my table. Maybe it's the coffee I've consumed. The cup is still half full and I may indulge by having a few more sips if it takes me down the right path. The right path would take me to the place I like to be when I write. But, I digress.
I never think that the appointments we make will take nearly as much time as they ultimately do from our day. Going to Gainesville yesterday was just such a trip. We left early for the hour ride north and made it just in time for our noon appointment. What struck me was how poorly we had planned our meals around this expedition. We never intended to end up there hungry but that is precisely what happened. Breakfast held us over just fine but back to back appointments at the hospital left little or no room for a snack in between. It was not so important for Nan and I but it was critical for Evan that he have something, anything, to eat to keep his sugars from plummeting. Fact of the matter was our collective sugars were low and I was tagged as keeper of the meals and dispatched at once to the local Subway store inside the hospital. We took full advantage of the window of opportunity and consumed our meals in the 5 minutes leading up to his noon appointment.
The ride there took us north from our hotel on route 44 through many little towns whose architecture dated back several generations. The acres and acres of farm land in between was pristine and expansive and home to horses and cattle that fed on the seemingly sumptuous grasses that grew knee high for as far as the eye could see. We passed several sections of what appeared to be very tall and thin pine trees that had been planted in precise rows reaching back into the woods as far as the eye could see. The trees were cordoned off from the road by a barbered wire fence with warning signs staggered but a stones throw away from each other for miles upon miles. Sometimes, the design of the planting changed and the rows ran diagonally through the woods. I though it might be the end result of some odd governmental program designed for god only knows what. We never stopped long enough to see what the signage was for. There were too many things to inspect and too little time to give them the proper inspection. We were left to our imaginations and that is not always a good thing.
Evan commented often on the trees and the size of the trees and the sargossa-like material that hang from them like something out of a science fiction movie from the 50's. The road might as well have been called suicide alley for all the markers along it's length many of which carried the names of the deceased and a warning to all laying eyes upon the placards to "drive carefully". One our return trip, we passed what appeared to be the end result of a rather violent accident where the air bags had gone off and the vehicles laid at odd angles to the road while laying in the ditch. We viewed the carnage at 45 MPH and had but a quick look and an obscured look at that since the emergency vehicles were there in spades and it was hard to focus the eyes on any one activity given the flurry of white coats moving in and out of the vehicles with flashing lights. Perhaps to our relief, we saw no bodies or people with injuries that appeared to be life threatening. It may have been to time of day, it was nearly dusk, or even the the length and speed limit of the road which all combined made for a very dangerous passageway.
I wanted to tell Evan that there was little margin for error when vehicles are passing so closely and at speeds in excess of 60 MPH on such roads but I did not. He seemed to be in his own little world following the hospital visit and we saw precious little of the chatty cathy we'd seen in the previous 24 hours. We just weren't sure where he'd gone. We weren't sure what put him in this alternative universe where no parents were allowed. He goes there sometimes when hunger has moved him past any ability he might have other had to make a reasoned decision about anything much less when and what to eat. My pleas for someone, anyone, to make decision about where to go to eat fell on deaf ears. The car was silent expect for the drone of music coming from the dashboard and the occasional crack of thunder off in the distance. The afternoon shower that we had been driving through for the past hour left the road darker and more foreboding and it cast an even more ominous shadow over the weary eyed travelers traversing the distances between towns. We were no different.
The doctor stated that his specific goal was to keep the E-man on track. He has done so well. His test results were all within normal limits and that alone did not surprise anyone. It is easy, though, to become complacent and not give the proper attention to things. Dosages become important. Knowing which foods to eat and which foods not to eat is critical. Learning that it is best to make decisions before levels fall below normal and one is no longer capable of making good decisions is the way of his world. It will always be the way of his world. Even the simple act of driving demands that he consume something, anything, before getting behind the wheel. Test-taking, which I had given little thought to or about, is an activity requiring adequate nourishment and that too requires that he go into the activity with the proper nourishment. While this is the right thing to do for you and me, it is critical for the E-Man. Critical to his success and critical to his health and existence. We talked at length too about the consumption of alcohol and the deleterious effects it would have on the E-Man that any thoughts Evan might have had about consuming same were hopefully and forever displaced from his thought processes. It just isn't worth it. Evan was one of 12-15 known cases in the world when he was diagnosed many years ago and now he is one of 100 in the U.S. alone. With the proper care an maintenance, he will do fine. Without the proper care an maintenance, he is a dead duck. The Dr. told Evan to e-mail him anytime, anywhere, page him if necessary. Keep in touch was the pass phrase of the day. Talk to him. Communicate his concerns. He is always just an e-mail away.
Thursday, April 21st, 2011
Hola from 30,000 feet. I think we're at 30,000 feet. And what a rigamarole it was at the airport. Nan had to get the pat down and she made the mistake of throwing her water bottle in the trash receptacle near the security area. No sooner had it hit the bottom of the can than I heard the "Hazmat" coming out of the guard's mouth. Oh, my god. Another guard scurried around to join the first guard and he was pulling on a pair of baby blue plastic gloves as he approached the bin. He pulled not one but several bottles from the trash so maybe, just maybe, the first guard had over reacted. He looked the type. I was next in line to walk through the metal detector and I emerged without a second look from anyone much less the security guard. Evan was already seated at a nearby work station and I asked if he might look after my bag while I grabbed a coffee from a nearby Starbucks. I enjoyed the quick swill I grabbed before leaving the hotel this morning around 6 but yearned for a more potent blend. I'll have a Pikes, please. A tall in a grande cup if you don't mind. And make it snappy since I have a flight to catch and we're hoping for a hasty pre-board. There are certain amenities that go along with having a child with a peanut allergy.
Nancy asked me to make sure to note that we not get a Mustang on our next trip. While it was fun for me, it was not as much fun for those family members who had to sit in the back seat. Evan bumped his head at least once. Don't tell the good people at Hertz but we let Evan get behind the wheel on an off-highway road where he got the chance to drive for a quarter mile or so. That was good because he was loving every minute of it. It was a bit of a hard sell for Nan but she relented since it was off-road. I even stepped on the gas once just to see if that little pony had any testosterone. Oh yes, and Nancy asked me to make sure that we sit on the left hand side of the plane the next time so I have a little elbow room when typing. I don't believe I've ever typed anything at 30,000 feet so this is a first.
I wanted to go to Walmart last night at the end of a rather long day. We ended up going out to Rainbow Springs in Dannelion, Florida, where we enjoyed the weather and took in a swim. The water was so incredibly crystal clear and just right for swimming so we all did just that. We were slightly put off by the "Alligators" sign but took comfort from the people already swimming with seemingly no concern about wildlife attacks of any kind much less alligators. They had obviously never heard of the death spiral. That's where the gator gets hold of you and twists and turns until you're dead from drowning or sheer blood loss. That may have explained why there were so few people in the water but, to me, it was consistent with the number of people at the site. I figured the people not in the water simply didn't know how to swim. The fauna was lush and by all appearances it was about as tropical as it gets in central norther Florida in the month of April. We walked the trails, spoke leisurely to a volunteer walking the paths about digital cameras, complained about another volunteer blowing debris from the paths with a bloody noisy machine strapped to her back, and took several pictures of owls, fish, turtles, and the like all in their native habitat. Despite the fact that it was noon and the weather was hot outside the park, it felt temperate to us and the shade of the paths added to our considerable comfort. Nancy, in typical form, regretted the fact that we didn't ask the one volunteer to take a picture of the three of us. She was so right. Not sure what we were thinking. Maybe we weren't.
We talked too about the fact that despite having spent time with the doctor in Gainesville, we still were not on the right plan with Evan. We should have, and I suppose I have a regret or two from time to time as well, brought something for the E-man to eat since snacks are good and as parents we need to enforce the 2 hour rule. That is to say, he should have a bite to eat every two hours. So what did we bring. Notta. We could sense that he was going downhill when he began to act irascible and intransigent. Time to grab to eat, Nan. We stopped down the road from the Springs at a road/riverside place called the Blue Gator. The place boasted of a nice deck, large wooden tables, a riverside marina that was obscured by the deck that ran parallel to the river, and an overall Jimmy Buffet type kind of place. Evan was ready to eat and so were we. He hates to ask about peanuts and I suggested to him that he get used to it. He'd be doing it for the rest of his life so he might as well start now. He ordered chicken wings; I ordered a Reuben and lamented the fact that this was the second Reuben I'd ordered in Florida where they didn't have a halfway decent mustard to go along with it, and Nancy ordered a nice salad with sliced chicken. Oh, and we'll have iced tea for the wife and I. What, no lemon to go with the iced tree? Jesus. Dunkin Donuts doesn't have a decent dark roast on the menu. I can't find a decent mustard anywhere, and not only that but it's hard to find a decent coffee shop.
I picked up a camera connection kit at a local Walmart last night. That place was huge. And it was a zoo to boot. I was looking at one group of yours while standing in the checkout line and commented to Evan that if he hung with that group he'd be smoking crack cocaine in no time. I'm not usually a very judgmental guy but they were pure Florida-style trailer trash. Evan looked at then with interest all the same perhaps never having seen such dereliction in his sixteen years on the planet. Perhaps it gave him comfort that we as his parents had made the right decisions along the way about schools, etc. We have no control over the friends that he chooses but we have some sense as to who they might be and we're not overly concerned with his choices to date. We rushed back to the hotel with our bag of pretzels, our other little doo-dads and tuned into Fox to see who was eliminated this week from American Idol. I guess it's finally time to say good bye to Stefano. See ya, dude. It was fun while it lasted. The love of my life was Pia and she got booted long ago. Don't know why I even care anymore. and, Beard Boy can't get booted soon enough.
Did I mention that the iced teas at the Blue Gator were refillable? And, did I mention that Evan and nancy shared a rather large portion os sweet potato fries? And, what about those bikers. We're not even sure they had anything to eat. We do know they shared a pitcher of two of beer before hitting the highway on their bikes. God help us. Where are the Florida State police when you need them? Anyhow, I'm running our of gas in this writing thingy as I knew I would sooner or later. I've cranked out quite a few paragraphs during our stay here so I'm good to go. We'll all be happy to be home although the pilot tells us that it's 39 degrees back in Manchester. Brrr. That is going to be hard to take after being in 90-degree temps during the week. Maybe we'll get a Mustang convertible next time so headroom won't be a problem. God love the ponies.
I recall clearly the look on Nancy's face when I told her I rented the Mustang. At first, it was disbelief. Not that she doesn't like Mustangs but I think it wasn't her idea of a rental that we would all be comfortable with. When she laid eyes on the car I could see the horror on her face. When she opened the door the horror turned to abject horror. She may have even wondered if Evan was going to be able to fit into the back seat. He did, although a bit snugly. She had plenty of leg room and I think while she didn't admit to it she was warming up to the car in her own way. Before the day was out she and Evan were switching places. Evan loved the car and he is not one to demonstrate emotional flourish under any circumstances. But he waxed on and on about the car and loved every minute riding in it. He wanted to know how much it cost. He was more than surprised that it wasn't much more expensive than our Matrix. I will say that the car is an easy sell to a kid Evan's age. For me, maybe a midlife crisis rental. It didn't come with GPS but it did come with Sirius radio which we didn't order but seemed to work just fine nonetheless. It had just about everything but Reggae which Evan wanted. Driving at night was a pleasure as well and the interior of the care was bathed in a warm blue glow from the instrumentation lights. I did tell the family that I liked the fact that we didn't get a fire engine red Mustang since we were already on the top ten hit list for small county cops by driving a Mustang. I probably should have thought twice about getting off the backroads so the family could see the real Florida. Northern central Florida is prime farmland and cattle ranching territory and the scenery was beautiful. Even in the 90 plus degree heat of late April.
Our biggest challenge so far has been finding a decent restaurant. There are plenty of McDonalds and similar places but none that seemed to capture our fancy or imagination. We had breakfast at the airport after running out of milk and eggs at home. We ended up eating at McDonalds for lunch where Nancy had a nice unsweetened tea; Evan had a chicken sandwich and a smoothie; and I had a couple of burgers and a fry with a small coke to wash it all down. Just a waste of a day from a culinary and nutritional standpoint. Dinner wasn't much different but at least it offered more of a local flavor. We went looking for Manatees at McCraes just before dark and ended up passing on Subway but sitting in a local Italian restaurant where Evan had tortellini's and hot rolls; I had eggplant sub half of which I brought back to the hotel room; and Nancy and I split a greek salad. Granted, the place was in a mall where we wouldn't have otherwise looked for a place to eat but the patronage for a Tuesday night seemed over the top and inviting or at least more inviting than the Subway shop which had very few people inside. Nancy liked the fact that the Italian place had taken the trouble to decorate for Easter and there were these funky little plastic eggs hanging from the ceiling all throughout the place. It was a bit much but I thought to myself, ok. We're hungry, the portions seemed more than adequate, and the aroma's throughout seemed genuinely Italian. It was a nice way to end the day. We followed what looked like a drunk driver back along 44 west towards the hotel and kept a safe but observable distance. He was having some difficulty staying between the lines. Drunk, but not so drunk that he couldn't maintain his speed. I hoped that it might serve as a reminder to Evan that drinking and driving is never a good thing and I think it did just that. I didn't want to get close enough to get a look at his tags since you just never know. We didn't know either whether or not he had children in the truck but didn't want to know that either. It was a hard luck case to be sure.
We settled in and caught the last few seconds of the Celtics/NY Knicks game where the Celtics pulled their second in a row from the beleaguered Knicks. Today we will be going to Gainesville for Evan's appointment. If we can manage to get his a haircut before he has his ultrasound that would be a good thing. I guess before any of that happens, we need to get him out of bed. So, I'm off to do just that. Let's hope for an interesting day. If there's time, we'll try to go swimming with the Manatees. It's the fresh water version of swimming with the dolphins. What will they think of next?
Wednesday, April 20th, 2011
Well now. There you have it. I'm sitting poolside here in Laconta, Florida, on a sunny and warm April morning in the year 2011. We have the day off and it feels good. Good to be free of the time constraints and limitations imposed by our grueling itinerary. Not really. I'm making far too much of it. It hardly warrants the drama. Maybe it's the chlorine wafting my way from the pool which is but a few feet from my table. Maybe it's the coffee I've consumed. The cup is still half full and I may indulge by having a few more sips if it takes me down the right path. The right path would take me to the place I like to be when I write. But, I digress.
I never think that the appointments we make will take nearly as much time as they ultimately do from our day. Going to Gainesville yesterday was just such a trip. We left early for the hour ride north and made it just in time for our noon appointment. What struck me was how poorly we had planned our meals around this expedition. We never intended to end up there hungry but that is precisely what happened. Breakfast held us over just fine but back to back appointments at the hospital left little or no room for a snack in between. It was not so important for Nan and I but it was critical for Evan that he have something, anything, to eat to keep his sugars from plummeting. Fact of the matter was our collective sugars were low and I was tagged as keeper of the meals and dispatched at once to the local Subway store inside the hospital. We took full advantage of the window of opportunity and consumed our meals in the 5 minutes leading up to his noon appointment.
The ride there took us north from our hotel on route 44 through many little towns whose architecture dated back several generations. The acres and acres of farm land in between was pristine and expansive and home to horses and cattle that fed on the seemingly sumptuous grasses that grew knee high for as far as the eye could see. We passed several sections of what appeared to be very tall and thin pine trees that had been planted in precise rows reaching back into the woods as far as the eye could see. The trees were cordoned off from the road by a barbered wire fence with warning signs staggered but a stones throw away from each other for miles upon miles. Sometimes, the design of the planting changed and the rows ran diagonally through the woods. I though it might be the end result of some odd governmental program designed for god only knows what. We never stopped long enough to see what the signage was for. There were too many things to inspect and too little time to give them the proper inspection. We were left to our imaginations and that is not always a good thing.
Evan commented often on the trees and the size of the trees and the sargossa-like material that hang from them like something out of a science fiction movie from the 50's. The road might as well have been called suicide alley for all the markers along it's length many of which carried the names of the deceased and a warning to all laying eyes upon the placards to "drive carefully". One our return trip, we passed what appeared to be the end result of a rather violent accident where the air bags had gone off and the vehicles laid at odd angles to the road while laying in the ditch. We viewed the carnage at 45 MPH and had but a quick look and an obscured look at that since the emergency vehicles were there in spades and it was hard to focus the eyes on any one activity given the flurry of white coats moving in and out of the vehicles with flashing lights. Perhaps to our relief, we saw no bodies or people with injuries that appeared to be life threatening. It may have been to time of day, it was nearly dusk, or even the the length and speed limit of the road which all combined made for a very dangerous passageway.
I wanted to tell Evan that there was little margin for error when vehicles are passing so closely and at speeds in excess of 60 MPH on such roads but I did not. He seemed to be in his own little world following the hospital visit and we saw precious little of the chatty cathy we'd seen in the previous 24 hours. We just weren't sure where he'd gone. We weren't sure what put him in this alternative universe where no parents were allowed. He goes there sometimes when hunger has moved him past any ability he might have other had to make a reasoned decision about anything much less when and what to eat. My pleas for someone, anyone, to make decision about where to go to eat fell on deaf ears. The car was silent expect for the drone of music coming from the dashboard and the occasional crack of thunder off in the distance. The afternoon shower that we had been driving through for the past hour left the road darker and more foreboding and it cast an even more ominous shadow over the weary eyed travelers traversing the distances between towns. We were no different.
The doctor stated that his specific goal was to keep the E-man on track. He has done so well. His test results were all within normal limits and that alone did not surprise anyone. It is easy, though, to become complacent and not give the proper attention to things. Dosages become important. Knowing which foods to eat and which foods not to eat is critical. Learning that it is best to make decisions before levels fall below normal and one is no longer capable of making good decisions is the way of his world. It will always be the way of his world. Even the simple act of driving demands that he consume something, anything, before getting behind the wheel. Test-taking, which I had given little thought to or about, is an activity requiring adequate nourishment and that too requires that he go into the activity with the proper nourishment. While this is the right thing to do for you and me, it is critical for the E-Man. Critical to his success and critical to his health and existence. We talked at length too about the consumption of alcohol and the deleterious effects it would have on the E-Man that any thoughts Evan might have had about consuming same were hopefully and forever displaced from his thought processes. It just isn't worth it. Evan was one of 12-15 known cases in the world when he was diagnosed many years ago and now he is one of 100 in the U.S. alone. With the proper care an maintenance, he will do fine. Without the proper care an maintenance, he is a dead duck. The Dr. told Evan to e-mail him anytime, anywhere, page him if necessary. Keep in touch was the pass phrase of the day. Talk to him. Communicate his concerns. He is always just an e-mail away.
Thursday, April 21st, 2011
Hola from 30,000 feet. I think we're at 30,000 feet. And what a rigamarole it was at the airport. Nan had to get the pat down and she made the mistake of throwing her water bottle in the trash receptacle near the security area. No sooner had it hit the bottom of the can than I heard the "Hazmat" coming out of the guard's mouth. Oh, my god. Another guard scurried around to join the first guard and he was pulling on a pair of baby blue plastic gloves as he approached the bin. He pulled not one but several bottles from the trash so maybe, just maybe, the first guard had over reacted. He looked the type. I was next in line to walk through the metal detector and I emerged without a second look from anyone much less the security guard. Evan was already seated at a nearby work station and I asked if he might look after my bag while I grabbed a coffee from a nearby Starbucks. I enjoyed the quick swill I grabbed before leaving the hotel this morning around 6 but yearned for a more potent blend. I'll have a Pikes, please. A tall in a grande cup if you don't mind. And make it snappy since I have a flight to catch and we're hoping for a hasty pre-board. There are certain amenities that go along with having a child with a peanut allergy.
Nancy asked me to make sure to note that we not get a Mustang on our next trip. While it was fun for me, it was not as much fun for those family members who had to sit in the back seat. Evan bumped his head at least once. Don't tell the good people at Hertz but we let Evan get behind the wheel on an off-highway road where he got the chance to drive for a quarter mile or so. That was good because he was loving every minute of it. It was a bit of a hard sell for Nan but she relented since it was off-road. I even stepped on the gas once just to see if that little pony had any testosterone. Oh yes, and Nancy asked me to make sure that we sit on the left hand side of the plane the next time so I have a little elbow room when typing. I don't believe I've ever typed anything at 30,000 feet so this is a first.
I wanted to go to Walmart last night at the end of a rather long day. We ended up going out to Rainbow Springs in Dannelion, Florida, where we enjoyed the weather and took in a swim. The water was so incredibly crystal clear and just right for swimming so we all did just that. We were slightly put off by the "Alligators" sign but took comfort from the people already swimming with seemingly no concern about wildlife attacks of any kind much less alligators. They had obviously never heard of the death spiral. That's where the gator gets hold of you and twists and turns until you're dead from drowning or sheer blood loss. That may have explained why there were so few people in the water but, to me, it was consistent with the number of people at the site. I figured the people not in the water simply didn't know how to swim. The fauna was lush and by all appearances it was about as tropical as it gets in central norther Florida in the month of April. We walked the trails, spoke leisurely to a volunteer walking the paths about digital cameras, complained about another volunteer blowing debris from the paths with a bloody noisy machine strapped to her back, and took several pictures of owls, fish, turtles, and the like all in their native habitat. Despite the fact that it was noon and the weather was hot outside the park, it felt temperate to us and the shade of the paths added to our considerable comfort. Nancy, in typical form, regretted the fact that we didn't ask the one volunteer to take a picture of the three of us. She was so right. Not sure what we were thinking. Maybe we weren't.
We talked too about the fact that despite having spent time with the doctor in Gainesville, we still were not on the right plan with Evan. We should have, and I suppose I have a regret or two from time to time as well, brought something for the E-man to eat since snacks are good and as parents we need to enforce the 2 hour rule. That is to say, he should have a bite to eat every two hours. So what did we bring. Notta. We could sense that he was going downhill when he began to act irascible and intransigent. Time to grab to eat, Nan. We stopped down the road from the Springs at a road/riverside place called the Blue Gator. The place boasted of a nice deck, large wooden tables, a riverside marina that was obscured by the deck that ran parallel to the river, and an overall Jimmy Buffet type kind of place. Evan was ready to eat and so were we. He hates to ask about peanuts and I suggested to him that he get used to it. He'd be doing it for the rest of his life so he might as well start now. He ordered chicken wings; I ordered a Reuben and lamented the fact that this was the second Reuben I'd ordered in Florida where they didn't have a halfway decent mustard to go along with it, and Nancy ordered a nice salad with sliced chicken. Oh, and we'll have iced tea for the wife and I. What, no lemon to go with the iced tree? Jesus. Dunkin Donuts doesn't have a decent dark roast on the menu. I can't find a decent mustard anywhere, and not only that but it's hard to find a decent coffee shop.
I picked up a camera connection kit at a local Walmart last night. That place was huge. And it was a zoo to boot. I was looking at one group of yours while standing in the checkout line and commented to Evan that if he hung with that group he'd be smoking crack cocaine in no time. I'm not usually a very judgmental guy but they were pure Florida-style trailer trash. Evan looked at then with interest all the same perhaps never having seen such dereliction in his sixteen years on the planet. Perhaps it gave him comfort that we as his parents had made the right decisions along the way about schools, etc. We have no control over the friends that he chooses but we have some sense as to who they might be and we're not overly concerned with his choices to date. We rushed back to the hotel with our bag of pretzels, our other little doo-dads and tuned into Fox to see who was eliminated this week from American Idol. I guess it's finally time to say good bye to Stefano. See ya, dude. It was fun while it lasted. The love of my life was Pia and she got booted long ago. Don't know why I even care anymore. and, Beard Boy can't get booted soon enough.
Did I mention that the iced teas at the Blue Gator were refillable? And, did I mention that Evan and nancy shared a rather large portion os sweet potato fries? And, what about those bikers. We're not even sure they had anything to eat. We do know they shared a pitcher of two of beer before hitting the highway on their bikes. God help us. Where are the Florida State police when you need them? Anyhow, I'm running our of gas in this writing thingy as I knew I would sooner or later. I've cranked out quite a few paragraphs during our stay here so I'm good to go. We'll all be happy to be home although the pilot tells us that it's 39 degrees back in Manchester. Brrr. That is going to be hard to take after being in 90-degree temps during the week. Maybe we'll get a Mustang convertible next time so headroom won't be a problem. God love the ponies.