Day 9 - Tracing a T to Tampa Again at DennyGibson.com
Tropical storm Eta reached Florida's west coast early this morning then
rapidly moved toward the state's northeast corner. The threat of wind and
rain in the Jacksonville area prompted the closure of many schools and
businesses and delayed the planned early morning departure of this Ohio
traveler. Lisa worked from home while I watched weather reports with Tyler
and listened to his advice about when travel appeared safe.
I hit the road about 11:30 which meant, even though it is my first stop of
the day, it was past noon when I reached this spot I knew from yesterday
and found it open. It indeed looks like an English pub on the inside and I
helped the illusion by moving aside a Samuel Adams bottle on the bar when
I photographed my beverage. Sadly, I didn't notice the Budweiser coaster
until I was editing the picture. In case the fox on the glass is more
misleading than helpful, here's a look at the
other side.
Yesterday, when I was an undistracted passenger, I looked for the Old
Spanish Trail Zero Milestone without success. It was much more visible
than I thought and I spotted it rather easily today. It was the old
hiding-in-plain-sight trick.
Granny didn't see the OST marker because it didn't exist until 1928. The
Castillo De San Marcos, Alligator Farm, and lighthouse did exist in 1920
and she talks about all three in her letters.
Sometimes I do something the stupidity of which is only revealed after
much time. Here's a place where I've done something stupid that became
apparent almost immediately -- twice! In
2008, I started
driving the Old Brick Road north from Espanola in a Corvette. The car's
squirming in the deepening sand soon prompted a prudent turnaround. In
2012, I returned in
a Subaru and drove the road, on a nice dry day following other dry days,
easily.
I knew things wouldn't be dry this time and was prepared to skip the road
if it was flooded. I decided that, even though there appeared to be even
more sand over the bricks than before, it didn't
look too bad. I set off to drive the road north to south as I believe
Frank did in 1920. Wet sand and mud and some serious ruts made this one of
the touchiest drives I've ever made. As is often the case, my photos do
not support my words about slipping, sliding, bouncing, and churning
because I took no pictures while doing any of those things. I had looked
into acquiring a dash camera before this trip but decided it would just be
one more complication. This is a spot where I kind of wish I had one. But
I made it through, obviously, and the car doesn't even look that dirty --
unless you zoom in.
From Espanola, I headed directly to a friends house that I'd overshot a
bit on the Old Brick Road. After some relaxing from my tight grip on the
steering wheel, we headed on down the coast to Flagler Beach. At the
Funky Pelican
we sat outside and watched surfers (those tiny dots in the picture) as we
ate. We stopped on the way back for some live music (only my third such
since the arrival of COVID-19) at a place it did not get the name of.
Throughout the evening, I failed to get a picture of Dave. In the morning,
neither of was was very photogenic and we were now sober enough to realize
it. So there's no selfie of Dave and me and no photographic evidence that
we were together.
ADDENDUM: Dec 12, 2020 - The live music was at
Hammock
Wine and Cheese.
democrat
