Meeting A Friend I Had Never Met.

When I was telling my friends about my Florida trip, I always said that I was going to see the ocean and going to Tallahassee to meet a friend that I had never met. I got a few strange looks from that comment. Several times I have mentioned in this blog that I belong to the Captain Comics Board. There are several people on the board that I have always considered friends, even though the only way we know each other is through what we have posted there. Most people on that board post under an alias, however, I am not one of them. One of my friends there posts under the name Dagwan. He is one of the followers of this blog, and has commented on it several times. He also is the owner of a comic book store, which is called The Secret Headquarters. Since I know that he reads this and I wanted to surprise him, I didn't post much before I left on vacation. That way he didn't have a chance to leave town.

His store was very easy to find. All I had to do was take exit 199 off I-10 and go south. It wasn't very far down that road. I didn't park directly in front of the store because I wanted to take the picture that you see and didn't want him to see me taking it. When I entered the store he asked if he could help me. I told him that I was the ambassador from the Centauri Republic, and I had a question that I wanted to ask him. (On the Captain Comics Board we gave ourselves titles. If you been reading this blog long enough you know that the my title comes from the TV series Babylon 5 and the line was said by the Centauri ambassador, Londo Mollari. I have been the Centauri ambassador on that board for years.) He gave me a look like, oh my, the lunatics have escaped the asylum and I forgot to lock the door. Then he asked me to remove my hat and he knew who I was. Up until that point I didn't even know his real name, which is Brian. His daughter was also in the store with, and he is always affectionately referring to her as Baby Bean. She is a delightful little girl.

We had a very nice visit, and I did buy a couple of books from him. He also gave me a couple of books, one of which was a copy of a Godzilla book which shows Godzilla destroying his store. While he is running away from a carrying his daughter. Here is that cover.

The question that I had for him was how can you call your place The Secret Headquarters and then tell everyone where is at? He told me about once a week someone comes and says that they didn't know he was there. He tells them that's why it is a secret headquarters. Brian is a great guy and has a very good comic book store. If you want to know more, you can go to his website here. Incidentally, Brian, I am planning next year to go see the Gulf of Mexico. I will drop in again when I go there. I'll try and let you know I am coming this time, so you can leave town if you'd like. All kidding aside, Brian it was great to meet you and your daughter. I wish you the best luck in the future.

One of the things that we talked about was my feelings about the changes that are coming from DC comics. Closer to the time that those changes take place I'm going to be devoting a blog post to it. Brian knows how I feel about it, but thanks to him I am changing my stance just a little bit. That, however, is a discussion for another day.

After leaving Tallahassee, I went to Albany, Georgia, where I spent the night. What I did on the return trip I will talk about Wednesday. I am making a slight change on my Tuesday posts. Instead of it being Baseball Card Tuesday, it will now be New Release Tuesday. New movies come out every Tuesday and since I am now the one putting them out I will tell you what is available.

Visiting a Swamp.

When I left Fernandina Beach, I was heading for Tallahassee and then on to the Gulf of Mexico. I pulled into a rest stop on I-10. While there I saw a sign that said there was a nature trail at the back end of the rest stop. According to the sign, the trail ran over a mile and led to a swamp area. The swamp area part of the trail was about a quarter of a mile long. The trail, which you can see in the picture above, was supposedly wheelchair accessible. You could get a wheelchair on it, but I really wouldn't recommend it. What you see was the nice part of the trail. It got a lot worse before you reached the boardwalk. It would've been a very rough road for someone who was wheelchair-bound.

These are some of the trees running along side of the path. I was surprised to find that I was the only one walking on the trail. The scenery was beautiful. Unfortunately a lot of the pictures that I took didn't turn out. Most of them were too dark to really tell what you are looking at.

This is the start of the boardwalk. There were signs showing what wildlife you could expect to see. They mentioned alligators, lizards and snakes and warned you should not get off of the boardwalk. It has evidently been very dry around that area because I do not see any standing water. Outside of a small blue lizard, a few birds, and a few spiders, I didn't see any living creatures. I really expect to see at least one snake, but they evidently took the day off. It still was a fascinating walk.

This is where the boardwalk ended. I spent over an hour walking through this and admiring the scenery. You can see the rest of the swamp pictures that I took here. Before I left here I made the decision that I was not going to go on to the Gulf of Mexico. I still want to see the Gulf, but that will be a trip for another time. I can make that trip on one of my  "weekends." My next stop was Tallahassee to see a friend that I had never met. I will explain all that on Monday.

Seeing the Ocean.

I left early Sunday morning with the only plan being to be in Kingsland, Georgia, by Sunday night. I took I-75 to Tifton, Georgia. At that point I got off the interstate and enjoyed the scenery, leading to Kingsland. When traveling, I am not one of those who gets behind the wheel and doesn't stop until you get to your destination. I try not drive more than an hour without stopping for a few minutes. I headed east until I came to Waycross, Georgia, where I turned south.  I considered making a little detour just south of Waycross when I saw the entrance to the Okefenokee Swamp. However, by then I was tired from driving and Kingsland was only about 20 miles away, so I went on. At some point I will go back there.

I asked at a gift shop in Kingsland, where the best place to go to see the ocean was. The lady there told me to go to Fernandina Beach, which is just across the Florida state line. I arrived at the beach at about eight o'clock in the morning. The sky had been overcast when I left Kingsland, but that was clearing up when I arrived at Fernandina Beach. There were not a lot of people there at that time. I spent a few minutes, just gazing at it, taking in as much as I could. Then I walked to where the water was rolling in. At that point I took my shoes off and stood in the water. The picture you see above was taken while I was in the water. I didn't go very far out, just enough to where the water was around my ankles. I really enjoyed doing that, and at some point will try and go back again.

The picture you see here is something that I didn't expect to find. Some poor crab out there in the ocean is missing one of his claws. Actually he's probably missing a whole lot more than that.

I never thought about people walking their dogs along the ocean, but I saw several of them there.

I believe the picture here is some kind of crab. I saw a couple of them on the beach. I spent about an hour there and was getting ready to leave when I checked the pictures that I had taken. The first picture that I checked said, the file wasn't formatted so I assumed that that the memory card that I was using was defective.
The card I was using was given to me by a friend. He'd given me two of them, so I inserted the other, and went took some more pictures. I checked and those came out fine so I went on. When I got home I checked the card that I thought was defective and found out only that last picture had been so I have plenty of pictures of the beach. I have opened a Flickr account and you can see all the pictures that I took here. If you notice when you see them that the date the pictures were taken was January 2005, ignore that. I have never set the date on the camera. When I left the beach my goal was to go to Tallahassee, and then on to the Gulf of Mexico. That plan was changed when I stopped at a rest stop on I-10 before I got to Tallahassee. I'll tell you about that tomorrow.

What I Did on My Summer Vacation.

For a long time, I have been talking about traveling. There are a lot of places that I want to see, but when the time comes to go I can usually find an excuse not to. The time has come to quit making excuses and get out and see things that I really want to see. Sunday I started making that a reality. Normally when I take a vacation, I will take three days off, and combine that with my two regular days off so that I get a five day break from work. The only exception to that is the week that Labor Day falls. At that time I take a full week because I go to Illinois.

For the last few years I have said I was going to go to Florida because I have never seen the ocean. When I talked about it, the intention that I had was to make it a two day trip. After thinking that through, I realized that basically all I would be doing was driving. I decided to add an extra day to the trip ended up enjoying it more. I am now really glad that I decided to do that.

When I left I had intentions of doing four things while there. I was going to see the ocean, the Gulf of Mexico, meet a friend that I had never met, and see the Little White House in Warm Springs, Georgia. I achieved half of that list. The two things that I didn't do, will be achieved later. My posts for the next few days will be covering the trip. I took a lot of pictures, and will be showing a few of them here. Later today I will be starting a Flickr account, and when I do I will post a link to it. I didn't mention going to Florida before I left, because I wanted to surprise someone who I know reads this blog. That worked really well, and I will probably be talking about that on Monday. Tomorrow I will talk about the trip itself, and seeing the ocean for the first time.

Traveling Prologue.

I am a great procrastinator. Last year I had planned on doing a lot of sight-seeing and I ended up for the most part just staying home. I am changing that this year. I have already made a list of places I want to see. I have two lists, one for short trips that can be done on my days off, and one for longer ones that I will do when I am on vacation. There are 13 places on the short list, 10 on the long one. I will probably add a few more before the year is out. I have decided to blog about each place when I go. I will also take some pictures when I am there and I will post the best of those here. The majority of them will be Civil War related, but not all. I enjoy Civil War battlefields, museums, zoos, and off beat tourist attractions. An example of one of those is a trip I am planning to Corbin, Kentucky to see the first Kentucky Fried Chicken, which is now a museum. I was there about eight years ago and couldn't go in because they were renovating the place.

I get two weeks vacation but the way I take it I get one full week off and three five day vacations. The five days I take from Saturday through Thursday. I am taking one of those on Easter weekend, the second the first week in June, and the last the first week in August. I will take a full week around Labor Day, which is when I visiting in Illinois. Next month My Lady and I are planning on spending the day in Chattanooga, but we haven't finalized our plans yet. My dad told me to do whatever traveling I could when I had the chance. He always wanted to and planned on doing it when he retired. Unfortunately his health prevented him from doing much. Now I will get off my lazy butt and see some things.




On the Captain Comics Board there is a thread called What Made You Smile Today? Every post I will mention something that made me smile the previous day. I have been planning on doing this for about a week but as I said, I am a great procrastinator. Yesterday I posted something there. I am going to put it here, but this will be a longer version because a lot of you don't read comic books and wouldn't understand what I am talking about. (What do you mean that would make it just another post here?) Some days that may be the only thing I post.

I was reading The Human Target number 2 today. The Human Target is no super hero. The character was created in the 70's and has appeared in two TV series, on of which is now playing on Fox. Basically he protects those who have been targeted for death, usually by impersonating them, but not always. His name is Christopher Chance.

The basic story is Christopher Chance is bringing back an elderly criminal from Europe who wants to reveal some mob secrets before he dies. Before they return they have to retrieve the written records that the man has secreted all over Europe. In this issue they have to retrieve a book from a crypt in the Vatican. The mobsters daughter is concerned about their going to hell for their actions. Chance thinks to himself "Definitely going straight to hell". When I turned the page there was an advertisement for the video game Dante's Inferno. I laughed out loud.