This is the scenic route. The unpaved road surface is overexposed, but it accurately portrays the blinding white reflection off the coral roadbed. This is the fifteen mile side trip JZ and took y’day, on the way to Corkscrew, Florida. It is characteristic that the trees don’t provide much overhead shade. There picture, about noon, shows how directly overhead the sun beats down.
Strangely enough, there was traffic on this single-lane dozer track. To pass, each vehicle has to nudge into the bushes which are easily sharp enough to scratch the paint jobs they put on these days. I had to chuckle when we walked back to the truck later in the day. JP was startled at all the fingerprints all over the truck, palm prints, too. I informed him they were mostly his own; he had never seen road dust sticking to a vehicle before.
I used his Vivitar camera to record these shots, which also explains the lousy quality. It turns out the camera is so bad, even Vivitar tries to pretend it does not exist by not supplying the driver on their web site. That is a totally scumbag thing to do, and I reviewed the product accordingly. That entire camera package, the Vivicam55, is messed up. I advised people to keep their money because “Vivitar obviously doesn’t need it anywhere near badly enough”.
Overall, there is a sad statistic to this last weekend’s adventure. JP and I travel mainly because it is more fun than going alone and it is equally difficult to find people who naturally want to see new things without spending a fortune. Are you with me here? Even when Wallace was here last time, the single most expensive thing we did was an airboat ride ($20 each and Wallace paid because I was out of work at the time) but the idea was we got there. If we’d had anybody else along, they would have wanted the rides that were $45 per person. You get the idea.
It is a 66 mile round trip to JP’s place from here. In how many years now, he has only been out this way once. That alone may count for the fact that we always travel the 100 miles from his place. There are exactly four roads possible from his address without doubling back this way. The Keys, Flamingo, Okeechobee and Naples. Those are the only places we have ever gone, accordingly. The statistic says once Wallace is here and there is a mentally aggressive, enthusiastic fellow traveler, what are the odds I would go get JP? My guess is the same odds as him driving up here, I am afraid.
Isn’t education wonderful? Somebody once said it lets you worry about things on the other side of the world. I’ve been having people I barely know knock on my door trying to sell their computers. It is all junk, but the quality of the junk is improving, if you get my meaning. Times are bad. If I see an iMac, I’ll let you know. Also, the French Canadiens are all gone. They got together and left a note on my door with all their addresses up in Quebec, asking me to keep them informed of my new address. Names like Picard, Perron and LeFleur. Hmm, there are a couple lady’s names on the list I am sure I don’t know. (Hell, except for Norman the guitar player, I don’t really know any of them, and he only knows five words in English.)
It’s been a while since I mentioned the bicycle, yet these days are perfect cycling weather. A slight breeze and 78 degrees. The Jamis now has 3,125 miles and is showing definite signs of wearing out. It requires a major tune up and a new internal hub for the pedals, for it is wobbling and clicking slightly on each rotation. It still draws serious attention from strangers because it is so well used and adapted for getting around. The paint is permanently tarnished and the racks double the weight of the bare bicycle. Put another way, ten percent of the travel I have done locally in Florida since I got here has been on this bicycle, and according to my tax return, I now put (slightly) more miles on the bike than the car on a monthly basis.
Last, I heard someone pronounce the word “dishevel” as in “dis-hevel” instead of “dish-evel”. The Big Dictionary says that is definitely wrong, but is it now? All the nearby words in the book followed the convention that the prefix did not alter the pronunciation of the root word. So is it a prefix? I’ll stick with popular option. I don’t want to cause any dish-armony.
