December 1, 2000
I'm at the remote gate all bundled up with the heater on! It was 52 degrees when I got up at 4 AM to be here by 5. And that's cold for down here. We're spoiled. And we love it!
Yesterday was fun. We went to a neighboring town to help with a Future Farmers of America competition. That’s an organization for high school kids. In this case it was a competition between several different high schools and several of the schools had more than one team. Most the teams were comprised of 6 kids each and there were about 200 kids plus staff. We were at a gorgeous facility called the “Leadership Center” and it was much like a mountain lodge with the huge common area with sleeping rooms upstairs and small conference rooms downstairs. There was a sizable dining area inside, and an expansive deck complete with rocking chairs. The lawn sloped down to the lake with it’s large pier, and lots of picnic tables under the trees. Across from the parking lot in front of the building was just natural central Florida brush, trees, and what they call “sugar sand”. As the name implies, it’s white and very fine. Difficult to walk in, as the sore muscles on my shins will attest to. There were eight of us volunteers. Two helped with the registration, two were “runners” and the rest helped set out the food for lunch. I was one of the runners, and Barb helped with the food. The runners job was to …… but I’m getting ahead of myself. The object of this exercise/competition was for each team of kids to answer questions regarding different topics. Each of the topics had their workstation someplace on the facility. Aquatics, Forestry, Ecosystem, Wildlife and Soil were the topics. These stations were scattered around the facility and the teams would need to do something like plant identification, or tree height/age estimates, scat and track identification, and other scientific/environmental measurements and tests. They were given ˝ hour at each station and then a 5 minute period for moving from one to another. The “runners” picked up the graded tests from each station and took them to the Board Room for tallying on the larger reader boards. The top three teams will now compete in a regional meet, and then those top teams will compete at the state level.
It was refreshing for us to see a bunch of teenagers like this. Sure, there was some typical goofing off and horsing around, but these kids gave us the assurance that the next generation isn't all about drugs, sex, and crime. They treated each other with respect, and they were quick to follow the instructions of the leaders and staff. They easily made eye contact with us and asked permission to snitch a cookie before the "official" meal time. They applauded the winners, albeit some with more enthusiasm than others. Very encouraging to us, and well worth our efforts. Free food and T-shirts besides.
The day before we'd gone to Cypress Gardens. Now you've heard me grumble about taking pictures of scenery and you know I don't like to do that. However. On some occasions it's unavoidable and this was one of those occasions. It's an incredible place, as I hope the pictures will show.
We'd hardly made it through the opening portal for the garden when Barby spotted some fox food. Funny little rabbit. Really short ears and not much in the way of hind legs either. This entire area is suffering the worst drought in 10 years, according to some people. The lower water levels can be seen all over. The canals that normally would have electric powered tour boats are too low for the boats. But the great blue heron didn't seem to mind.
Take note of the picture on the left. I went to the top and took a picture of where we're standing. On the right, Barb's imitating the frog who is thinking "Heavy Thoughts" as the plaque indicates.
While I was shooting Buddha, Barby saw a beautiful fox. I could hear the squirrels scolding something, but paid little attention. Wish I'd seen it.
While I've never seen a humped horse before, I suppose some artistic license should be tolerated. These trees show just how low the water level really is. They also are classic Cypress tree trunks.
Fascinating tree trunks all over the place. In this case a Banyan tree.
The trees next to Barb have some pretty interesting growths on them, as the next picture will show.
Now you've got to admit. Those will probably keep the cat from going up after the birds, eh? And on the right is where I took a picture of where we were standing in the picture above when I told you to take note.
Hey! Surely you didn't expect us to go to Cypress Gardens and not take in the water-ski show, did you? It's the longest running show in the country! 65 years it's been going on now. On the left, the guys are using harnesses rather than holding the tow rope, and on the right is a guy who just did a flip off the jump. The fellow in the foreground is the announcer.
The guy with the hang-glider takes off from the back of a boat, and never even gets his feet wet. And the picture on the right is one of the reasons we HAD to see the show. You see, way back in July or August of 1959 I was working at Lake Tahoe for the summer. My roommate Jay, had a ski boat up there with him. We'd been to a drive-in movie with a couple of girls, and one of the shorts included portions of this Cypress Gardens show. And there was a guy who was doing some barefooted skiing. And naturally, we thought we'd give it a try. As memory serves, I somehow ended up on the end of the rope, and to make a long story short (somewhat) everything went awry as soon as I stepped off the ski. Jay was going pretty fast and I skidded on my backside giving myself a real burn. As I climbed back aboard I realized that not only had the force of the water taken off my ski belt it had also removed my shorts. At least that's how I remember the story. And unless Jay or one of the young ladies happens to be reading this and makes corrections, "that's my story and I'm sticking to it" as the song says. And the guy in this picture is a local boy, 17 yrs old, who not only takes off with a deep water start going backwards, he does a 360 during his run --- all without any skis!
On the left we have proof that the young ladies are much better water-skiers than they are dancers, as shown by the picture on the right.
The picture on the left is sort of self explanatory, but the one on the right might need a little help. This is the corner of the roof over the spectator area, and I wanted to share with you a couple of things. Those "smudges" or spots you can see are really nests of a huge wasp. They look like and act like the mud-daubers I'm used to from both California and Washington. They're just about twice the size, and their nests are even bigger then twice the size of the nests we're used to seeing on the West Coast. Apparently they have the same characteristics regardless of their size. When I was cleaning up the area around the gate here, I knocked down several of the nests, and just like the wasps I'm used to, these guys stuff the nest cavity with spiders for their larvae to eat. The other thing I wanted to point out is the funny moss. Along the lower edge, particularly toward the outer edge, you can see what appears to be a rough sort of surface. Well, that's a moss kind of growth. Much like a smaller version of the Spanish Moss we're so fond of. We see this moss (at least that's what I'm calling it until I learn more about it) growing on power and telephone lines as well. Just a little bunch of it here and there.
The guys in the air both landed perfectly after coming off the jump together. Amazing. And the discussion between the announcer and the clown went something like this. Announcer: "Hey! You've got your life jacket on upside down". Clown: "What'd you mean, upside down?" Announcer: "Well, a life jacket in addition to helping you float is designed to protect your chest and ribs in the event of an accident". Clown: "You protect what you want to protect, and I'll protect what I want to protect".
And of course, the gran finale of the half hour show. The six guys and six women all at once. Classic. We didn't see but about 1/2 the place and will be going back. We did take in the "sky island" ride after it was too dark for pictures, and the butterfly house as well. More pictures will be coming in the future. You can count on it!