Being Tom Hanks

   Weird title, right? Remember a few years ago there was a strange little movie called "Being John Malkovich"? It's okay if you don't because I think about twenty people saw it. The premise of the movie centred on the discovery of a hidden door that, upon entering, placed one in John Malkovich's mind. Well, I may have found the one that works for Tom Hanks.

  It hit me while walking on the deserted beach across the street from us this morning. I turned around and there was no one for as far as I could see. The waves were crashing onto the beach and all I could see was water, sand and foam. "This reminds me of Castaway", I thought.

  Okay. Crazy thought, right? I mean, just because the beach looked like a desert island and I'd been out in the sun for a bit too long doesn't equate to the Hanksian equivalent of the Vulcan Mind Meld... or does it? Follow along as I take you on a journey of weird coincidences.

  It started back at the end of May, when we started this whole housesitting odyssey. There we were in Uranus, MO, laughing at all the bad puns and craziness of the place when what did we happen upon?

  Yep. The Zoltar machine from Big. I know there are many of these around but be patient. I didn't make a wish because I was already big. In fact, maybe a bit too big. Time to cut down on the BBQ and pizza.

  If you followed our adventures over the summer you'll remember we hit Route 66 out of Seligman, AZ on our way to San Francisco. If I didn't mention it before, Seligman is the inspiration for the town of Radiator Springs in Cars:

  Of course, Hanks was a "woody" wagon in Pixar's production, a take-off on his "Woody" character from Toy Story. Speaking of Pixar, there was this while touring around San Francisco:

  Not convinced yet? Keep following. It will become clear soon. As we prepared to leave San Francisco our car was broken into and our luggage was stolen. If you know your movies you'll know The Terminal was based on a real account of a man whose luggage, containing his refugee papers, was lost preventing his entry into France. As a result, he spent the next eighteen years living in Charles de Gaulle airport. A stretch? Maybe just a little bit.

  Remember Sleepless in Seattle? Well, we were Tireless Near Seattle. Now that's a stretch. C'mon, work with me here! Also, don't forget the yuge dog we took care of in Vancouver. Turner and Hooch anyone? Joe and the Volcano? Yellowstone is a supervolcano. The coincidences are myriad... and tenuous.

  Finally, there was Mobile. And Jennie. And Forrest. And Bayou La Batre. And too many Bubbas to count. And a box of chocolates. Well, a box of chocolate covered shrimp. Don't ask.

  You're starting to see it, aren't you? I'm living in Tom Hanks' mind! Really. Don't tell him though. When John Malkovich found John Cusack in his mind he dumped him out beside the New Jersey Turnpike.

  I think I need to spend less time in the sun.

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.

Y'all Come Back Now

   We're into our last two days here in Mobile and we've had a full week of sightseeing, food and golf. Let's get started!

  When the last episode finished we'd just returned from hitting Florida and Mississippi in the same weekend and the news that we were headed to Cyprus for the month of February. That meant Mike The Travel Agent was kept glued to his laptop for the next three mornings organizing flights so that we could get to our housesitting assignment and have some time in Greece at the tail end. Penny and I are looking forward to getting off the North American continent, finally.

  Well, I was only partially glued. We did manage to play some golf Monday then head out to see the USS Alabama WWII battleship Tuesday. We left this guy at home and he didn't eat anyone's shoes, like he did with Sandi's sandals last week:

  The Alabama was a member of the second-largest class of US battleship, about 70% the size of the Missouri, so it ain't small. After a quick tour of the accompanying submarine, USS Drum, we embarked on a marathon of exploration through most of the decks of the massive ship.

  Our first stop was an exhibit describing the various exploits of the ship and the battles it took part in. One of them featured a ship that's familiar to Torontonians:

  It's a bit weird to encounter this in the Deep South after seeing the ship moored at Ontario Place for decades. After some wandering through some of the interior spaces we hit the deck where we got a true sense of the ship's size. And I shot down some kamikaze pilots. Just another day the the office.

  With the upper decks tour completed Ben and I headed below to check out the technical spaces, like the Engine Room:

  Given there were usually around 2,500 sailors aboard it was fascinating to see the inner workings of what amounts to a floating city. We saw the surgery, kitchens, shoemaker, laundry, post office, print shop and even a soda fountain! This was the first class of battleship that was equipped to have ice cream on board which became a valuable commodity when trading with smaller vessels.

  With the tours done we headed out to Wintzell's Oyster House in downtown Mobile for some local seafood. Apparently, they cornered the market on salt before we arrived as some of the food was inedible and the rest made us all thirsty for the rest of the evening. So much so that ice cream was required!

  During the drive home we stopped to check out some neighbourhood streetlights the residents strung up.

  It's something we've seen quite a bit here with lights tied between the houses and the roadside trees. It certainly livens the place up at night.

  Speaking of the roadside trees, you don't see many people walking at night here and it's not because they're worried about crime. Those same beautiful trees with Spanish Moss hanging from them have very shallow roots and they dramatically heave the sidewalks so much that walking in the dark can be dangerous. No exaggeration!

  Upon our return home Ben and Penny (and Willie) were plum tuckered out. Eating ice cream can certainly sap one's energy 😳.

  Wednesday morning brought the completion of my airline ticketing nightmare so we decided to head off to the Eastern Shore in the afternoon, checking out Daphne, Fairhope and Point Clear. It's a very scenic area with pocket beaches, shopping and lots of restaurants. We found a little deserted beach to hang out on for an hour then decided to head down to Gulf Shores to catch the sunset over the Gulf of Mexico and Mobile Bay:

    That brings me to today's event, the second of our two food tours, this time during daylight. Well, the two tours were like night and day. Where last week's evening stroll was uninteresting with largely disappointing food selections, today's was a five-star feast! We spent the afternoon hitting all the iconic Mobile eateries where we had friend green tomatoes with biscuits at the Ruby Slipper, followed by bao buns at Squid Ink, three kinds of oysters at Wintzell's (no salt this time), terrific BBQ at Moe's and completed the adventure with deep-fried deliciousness at the Mo'Bay Beignet Co. All the food was wonderful and more than made up for our earlier misadventure.

  Tomorrow is our last day in Mobile. Ben and Sandi will be taking off for home after spending the past two weeks sharing our exploration of this interesting neck of the woods. They're been wonderful houseguests and their companionship has made our stay here so much more fun. We wish them safe travels as they make their way north while Penny and I work our way south and east.

  Mobile has been a different kind of experience for us. Willie is another dog we'd happily take home with us (that makes three) but this wasn't a beautiful house in a scenic location. We sat for a young family in a working-class neighbourhood. No gated community, this. No spectacular views of city and ocean. No mountains. No limitless vistas with nary a house in sight. It wasn't anything like all our other sits but we enjoyed it just the same. I know we'll garner another excellent review and we'll once again receive requests to come back. I'm not sure we would but we've added a new place and new memories and that's why we do this.

  On Wednesday we start our next assignment on Hutchinson Island, FL, midway between Daytona Beach and Miami. We're looking forward to sun, sand, sea and waving buh-bye to Alabama where everyone likes to say, "Y'all come back!"

Into The Wild Blue Yonder

  With Ben and Sandi's arrival a week ago it was time for us to resume our explorations around Mobile. Unfortunately, the day after they arrived the weather went into the shitter with temps hovering in the low teens for three days. I know those of you in cooler climes are thinking that's not much of a hardship but, when you've become accustomed to 30ish and hot sun, 12 feels like mid-winter. Enough whining.

  The first order of business, of course, was food. I decided to cook up some seafood gumbo, y'know, deep south fare. That required us to head off to the local branch of a Nawlins-based supermarket for the fixin's. Now, this place is called Rouses but I like to refer to it as ROUSes... see The Princess Bride if you're not clued in. With ingredients in hand the gumbo was successfully prepared and enjoyed by all. Paul Prudhomme, watch out!

  The weather continued to be uncooperative until Friday so we did a lot of nothing, other than freeze. On Thursday night we went out for the first of our two food tours in downtown Mobile. We started at a restaurant on the top floor of one of the three tall buildings. Mobile is no Metropolis. Here's the view from the restaurant:

  The evening took us to four other establishments where we were treated to some local culinary treats, some more treat-like than others. There was drinking as well.

  'Nuff said about that. Our guide was not very impressive and didn't impart too much of the local lore but it was a fairly entertaining evening just the same. We'll be doing it again, in daylight, on Friday.

  Friday's warmer temps meant Ben and I could head off to Florida, a one hour trip east, for a round of golf while Penny and Sandi engaged in some bird watching around Dauphin Island. Ben and I hoped to engage in birdie watching also but I think the ladies were more successful.

  With the weather steadily improving we decided to head off to Pensacola Naval Air Station first thing Saturday morning to catch the Blue Angels Homecoming Air Show. And what a show it was! With everything from biplanes to an F-35 we were treated to an amazing display of aerobatics and sheer brute power.

  Since it took place on a military base it was obligatory to play the Star Spangled Banner... but not just any old rendition:

  Then we saw a formation of Stearman trainers. If you remember, Penny flew in one of these six weeks ago:

  One of the more impressive displays was wing-walking:

  After five hours in the sun it was finally time for the Blue Angels (crank up the sound on these 😉)

  It was all very impressive. And loud. Although I didn't manage to get any video of it, there was a pass by a new F-35 that just about blew my eardrums out. The Blue Angels also managed to scare the crap out of everyone by "sneaking" one of the F-18s past us at about 500 mph while we were looking the other way. Funny guys.

  Sunday took us in the opposite direction, heading to Ocean Springs, MS for a giant craft show featuring over four hundred vendors. Because our bit of Alabama is tucked into this little notch between Florida and Mississippi it makes it easy to take these little jaunts into the neighbouring states.

  There's a wooden carving of Crooked Feather's head here. He's not on a stick so I have no idea why we took a picture of him, but here it is:

  In my last report I mentioned we were trying to figure out our plans for next year. Well, things just fell into place. We're booked into a house sit with two cats in the southwestern part of Cyprus from the end of January until early March. Problem solved!

  This week promises to be loaded with Mobile-y things with golf on Monday, a trip to see the USS Alabama, some strolling through old Mobile, another food tour and maybe some beach time before we head out next weekend. Ben and Sandi will leave Saturday and Penny and I will head to Florida Sunday. Stay tuned!