Beach Life

  Since we last talked we've moved to Hutchinson Island, FL. We left Mobile last Sunday on our way to Panama City Beach (PCB), FL. Along the way there were the usual oddities we love to document.

And this, with the owners not really understanding the concept of keeping the horseshoe upright to keep the luck from running out:

  As we approached our destination I had an idea of cutting over to the beaches against Google's advice to make the drive more interesting. Well, I'm sorry Google, you were right. After crossing the bridge we found it was at the end of that particular island and there was nowhere else to go without returning to the mainland. But, we were there so decided to explore a bit, encountering these guys at the park at the island's end:

  After our little detour we made it to PCB and spent two nights in a hotel with a balcony overlooking miles of deserted white sand beach for the princely sum of $75 US/night. That's a deal in any currency! Here's the view from the balcony:

  Although the weather wasn't great we did manage to spend some time on the beach and indulged in the best oysters and fried green tomatoes before we took off. Oh. And beer. Also the best 😛.

  Apropos of nothing, here's a little food tip for your next trip down here. When you're without cooking facilities and want to avoid expensive mediocre chain restaurant food, Publix supermarkets make some damn fine ready to eat meals. I mean, who expects to find lobster bisque next to the rotisserie chicken? We had a tasty dinner and a wonderful breakfast and I'm pretty sure it didn't exceed $40. Score.

  On Tuesday we packed up and headed to Florida's Atlantic coast to meet the homeowners at our next stay. This time we're looking after a Havapoo (sounds horrible... Havanese and Poodle) named Mickey and a Siamese cat named Cheech.

  Oh, and two beta fish that may or may not have names. I don't think it matters as they won't come when you call them anyway.

  The house is small but very comfortable and fully equipped with all the things we could possibly need... including a golf cart. The house is located in, what started out as an RV park, but has morphed into a more permanent community which includes a significant majority of real housing, ie, not mobile (not mobeel either).

  We're a five minute walk to a miles long beach, also largely deserted due to the time of year. Until today we've had no use for the aforementioned golf cart as we're able to walk but Penny decided it would be a good day to go for a spin so she's out riding around in it as we speak. BTW, Mickey loves it so I suspect we'll make more use of it as we go along.

  The weather here was crazy when we arrived with torrential rains and gale force winds for our first two days. No real damage occurred, other that some potted plants upended, but it was a bit concerning for a while as we were buffeted by 60 mph winds.

  Since then we've settled into much more pleasant weather with temps in the high 20's and a fair bit of sun. We were out exploring yesterday, ostensibly in search of gelato, and hit the Manatee Research Centre. No manatees to see but there was this guy:

  I expect we'll get out to play some golf soon and it looks like there are a lot of good spots for kayaking as soon as I find someone to rent us watercraft. BTW, Penny just returned with beer. I guess the golf cart will be useful 😀.

  This all assumes Mike gets some sleep. Although the animals are well-behaved and generally a pleasure to be around, Mickey and Cheech are needy. Mickey needs to sleep on, sometimes in, our bed. Cheech seems lonely all night and would sleep on our bed if we weren't in it. The net result is being awoken at unwelcome times of night by either a) Mickey licking my toes, b) Mickey getting under or out of the covers or c) Cheech meowing incessantly because he's bored/lonely/an asshole/a Siamese (typical). Anyway, because I've been staying up late the past two nights and the sleep-disturbing events occur around 6 am not a lot of sleep is coming my way. Things will improve, hopefully sooner than later.

  Now, some geography and history. Between the island and mainland lies the Indian River, which is really more of an estuary for the Indian and St. Lucie rivers. Since it connects to the Atlantic and is part of the Intracoastal Waterway the water is brackish, supporting a multitude of aquatic'ish animals like manatees, dolphins, sea turtles and countless birds. The area is also the heart of Florida's citrus-growing region although we've seen little evidence of it so far.

  Here's a little-known fact for you. For thirty years, until the 1920's, this area was known for pineapple farming. Unfortunately, successive years of poor weather destroyed the crop and put the farmers out of business. Oranges were seen as a hardier crop that could be more profitable so that was the end of pineapples. Factoids like this keep you coming back, right?

  Our location is about 200 km south of Cape Canaveral and a little research showed there was a rocket launch scheduled for last night at midnight. SpaceX was launching another batch of StarLink satellites and I thought there was a chance we could see the rocket as it's trajectory passed just offshore from us.

  Off we went, walking across the street a few minutes before the Big Event, intending to see something from an unobstructed spot on the RV park's beach. That's when we discovered they close the gate to their beach at dark. And all the other nearby beach accesses are owned by hotels and condos who don't want riff-raff walking through their properties.

  Cue the Mission: Impossible theme.

  Disregarding gates and hedges and fences, Penny and I strolled down to the neighbouring condo's beach access like we owned the place. The only things we were missing were clipboards and hardhats so we'd look official enough should we be stopped by some rent-a-cop for trespassing. "We're here to measure the beach!", we'd exclaim, as if they should know that, of course, the beach-measuring team always come out at midnight. We'd explain how the beach can only be measured in the dark as the sunshine causes the granules of sand to expand, thus rendering our measurements meaningless.

  Alas, no security personnel accosted us so we found a spot with a clear view on the deserted beach and awaited said Big Event. Well, we weren't disappointed. Two seconds after the launch the sky lit up to the north-northeast of us and we watched with fascination as the flare rose up into the sky, almost overflying us on its way to orbit. A bonus, added feature... we also saw the expended booster's retro rockets flare as it settled down on SpaceX's at-sea recovery barge a hundred miles out to the east of us. Cellphone camera video doesn't do it justice but here's what we got:

  I know. It's a dot. I said cellphone camera video sucks. What we saw was the rocket and it's tail, all quite spectacular in the clear night. When you're sitting on a dark, deserted beach listening to the ocean rolling in and you look up to see a rocket fly over your head it's pretty cool. I also saw a meteorite crash into the ocean a few miles away. Lots of cool.

  We're here until December 4 and then we'll likely head straight home as the weather will likely suck. Until then we'll get lots of beach time and that's never a bad thing.