Icewind's Ramblings

Cocoa Beach, Florida Somewhere on A1A Johnny and I made our way up to the Kennedy Space Center and spent the day doing tours and looking at the exhibits on the grounds.  The tour bus excursion included going out to the launch complex 39A & B where the Apollo moonshots would lift off.  The complex of roads leading the rocket crawler from the Vehicle Assembly Building to the launch pad was massive.  The last section on each pad was a ramp to the pad tower.  It took over 24 hours to move a rocket the 3 miles to ready it for launch.   The tour took us to the old Mercury/Gemini control room where one building housed all the computers for the lift-off.  Today’s computer or iPad could probably handle all the work of the many computers during those launches.  In another building was the control room where men sat giving commands and communicating with the spacecraft during its flight.  It was amazing seeing the consoles we had only seen...

Hollywood Beach, Florida US A1A “There’s somethin’ about this Sunday It’s a most peculiar gray Strollin’ down the avenue That’s known as A1A.” — from Jimmy Buffett’s Trying to Reason with Hurricane Season  There is the old Florida, that of Highway A1A, where the sunrises and sunsets are spectacular and there is no such thing as “in a hurry.”  It is best enjoyed slowly.  On our trip coming from Key West, Johnny and I were heading up the east coast to visit Cape Kennedy and the Kennedy Space Center.  From my car window somewhere along Highway A1A, between the towns of Miami and Fort Lauderdale Beach, the Atlantic Ocean and its sugar-soft dunes glide by in a dizzying landscape of colors and textures.  There is the beach, its sand polished to copper and ginger by billions of fragments of coquina shells, and beyond that the Atlantic Ocean, luscious in pastels of green and blue, and beyond that only the curvature of the earth. Johnny and I mean...

Key West, Florida US Highway 1 - Mile Marker 0 After making our dives in Key Largo we wanted to really get to know the area. Johnny and I had never been down to Key West.  So, we decided to drive down and spend a couple of days walking all over town.   Along the sidewalks were artists displaying their artwork; one guy was showing his paintings of old time sailing ships, sailboats and speedboats in the Keys.  This was the old Key West with Hemingway's house and Sloppy Joe’s bar.  I am glad we got to see Key West and the Keys before it became more populated and modern.  I guess after 1990 the tourism in the Keys really increased and the population grew.  Key West became a real tourist town.  Margaritaville was established and Duvall Street became known for the coolest place to hang out in the Keys. There seemed to be people gathering at “The Southernmost Point in the Southernmost City – Key West” each afternoon in Mallory Square to...

Life Observation # 197       New Year’s Resolution - Learn how to pour coffee          Coffee is a very important first thing to start off the day properly but you have to pour it in the cup and not spill very hot coffee on your hand like I did yesterday.   Start the New Year off right, drink more coffee and do not make silly mistakes get the best of you! Ice

Seven Mile Bridge Pigeon Key, Florida US 1 - Mile markers 40 to 47 Johnny and I drove along US 1 across the original Seven Mile Bridge several times on our trips and it was usually a scary but beautiful ride.  Other cars or makeshift campers coming at you on the narrow roadway were difficult to navigate.  Each one seemed to pass inches from the side of our car.  People tended to drive in the middle until getting ready to go past the approaching car then would swerve into their lane to pass you. Completed in 1912, the old structure, initially a railroad bridge, was known as the “Eighth Wonder of the World’’ because even attempting to build something so ambitious over miles of open water and a soft bottom in a harsh tropical climate seemed a bit nutty. This amazing ribbon of steel and concrete forever changed the history of the Florida Keys and linked the mainland of Florida to Key West. The original bridge crossing was less friendly, narrow and harro...

Swimming with Flipper Grassy Key US 1 - MP 59 Florida Keys Johnny and I also swam with Mitzi the bottle-nosed dolphin (from the television series Flipper) on Grassy Key, a subtropical island in the heart of the Florida Keys at the training facility on Highway 1.  It was called Santini's Porpoise School back then but is now known as the Dolphin Research Center.  It was run by Milton Santini, a pioneer in dolphin husbandry and training.  Mitzi, who was Santini's first pupil, was picked to star as Flipper in the original movie. At mile marker 59, on the Gulf side, stands a 30-foot concrete statue of a mother and baby dolphin. This marks the entrance to the Dolphin Research Center, a serious-minded facility devoted to education and public awareness.  It is also the final resting place of the most famous dolphin ever - Mitzi, better known to the world by her stage name, Flipper.   There were multiple “pens” that housed several dolphins a...

Christ of the Abyss John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park Key Largo, Florida Off US Highway 1 – Mile Marker 100 John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park was America’s first underwater preserve, where ocean life abounds with brilliant tropical fish as far as the eye can see.  One of the highlights besides the beautiful reefs, ship wrecks and colorful fish is a 4,000-pound bronze statue that stands just beneath the ocean’s surface off the island of Key Largo at the head of the Florida Keys.    In shallow water within the John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park, “Christ of the Abyss” rests at a depth of approximately 25 feet at a site called the Key Largo Dry Rocks in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary. Donated to the Underwater Society of America in 1961 by Italian scuba entrepreneur Egidi Cressi, the statue is the third bronze casting of sculptor Guido Galletti’s “Il Cristo Degli Abissi,” translated in English to Christ of the Abyss and also called Chr...

Key Largo Florida Keys US Highway 1 - Mile Marker 100 Key Largo Diving Headquarters was Carl Gage’s dive shop.  Carl was a colorful local character.  I recall he even had "Dive Instructor" in large letters down the arms of his wet suit.  There were lots of characters in the diving business in those days.  He was an interesting guy and I guess you would call him a "Man's Man".  If I recall, he was ex-marine and kept his head shaved.  He was physically fit and I think he must have been about 35 at the time.  He had a deep voice and really barked the orders out when he wanted things done.  He had two good sized wooden boats that he took out for reef dive trips - one was called the "Reef Queen" which we went diving on. I don't recall the name of the other. He kept them both backed into the end of the canal that comes in on the ocean side of US 1, right next to the Holiday Inn in Key Largo. Johnny and I were diving with him one day and...