Titusville Part Six

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Road Trip 2015 – Part Eighteen - The State of
Florida bike riding, starting in Titusville on Highway
1 South (Titusville Part 6)
Text and photos © All Rights Reserved by Peter Tanner and Ernestartist
December 20, 2015:
Again the night is cool and turning colder by morning, with the night
that is progressing is marked by the brightness of the moon as it
marches across a clear sky.
Several times during the night I heard my owl Wwhhoooolll, once or twice
before moving on to another perch someplace else. Perhaps he has called
his mate to let her know he has a tasty field mouse to share. Owls
weren’t the only one speaking up last night; Kevin and Erick were having
some yelling matches about something, having difficulty communicating
without screaming. It was not loud enough for me to understand what
the argument was about, but it was annoying – I wonder what the owls
thought about it.
I’ve just had my friendly wake up call from the resident owl, there are
some clouds overhead that might threaten rain and the temperature is
cool, but not as cold as the night before. I’m looking forward to a hot cup
of coffee from my little Coleman Stove and a little breakfast before I ride
to McDonalds to use the internet.
It looks really gloomy out, but there seems to be a problem with the
computer; it wants to keep cutting out and going into hibernation mode
without me telling it to. That concerns me that there is something wrong.
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I don’t really think anything is wrong, just a glitch in the system,
perhaps… think positively!
Windmill
Palm Tree, with sunlight shinning on the trunk, the magic forest.
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Palm tree frond with shadows
There isn’t a soup kitchen for lunch today, only a late afternoon brunch
at 3PM, so instead I head down to Sand Point Park to work on notes,
finishing up the Damselfly section of insects of North America. When I
was done with that I headed over to the fellowship area where the bible
thumpers are hanging out.
They had a glitch in the little portable generator and for awhile we
thought that there might not be music – then is when I heard from
others that they thought it was too loud as well. After awhile and a crowd
of well wishers had gathered around the machine, the generator fired up
and viola, music – I must say, the addition of the drummer to make a trio
is nice. Kevin on drums, Daniel on keyboard and singing, Bruce on bass
(Kevin and Daniel are brother and sister)
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While music was happening and the bible thumping took front seat, I
saw a red hawk fly into a tree nearby, and for about ten or fifteen
minutes it perched there, watching the lawn around him in a wide
periphery. He then swooped down to a spot on the lawn and waited, and
then moments later he nabbed a lizard. Now there is one less insect
eater.
The unsuspecting lizard became lunch when the hawk held it in his
talons and flew back into the tree to devour it. I always wondered what
the hawks were catching in the lawn at the park and why there are at
least three that frequent the area on hunting missions; now I know why.
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While the hawk was distracted with the eating of the lizard, I did a little
hunting myself and got into close range of the bird to snap a few photos –
most of the shots didn’t work out for some internal focusing reason – I’m
thinking that the auto focus is wearing out. I need to replace this crap
camera. This is a Red Shouldered Hawk (Buteo Lineatus) and is medium
sized as far as hawks go, and can be found mostly the north to south
east from the Great Lakes to Mexico.
What I need is an SLR so I can slap on a telephoto zoom with focusing
ring, the camera will have a faster shutter release mechanism and better
response time. I can still focus better than the auto focus in changing
conditions of a complicated subject or group of subjects.
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Captain Douglas approached me today after he saw me with the camera.
Captain Douglas if the fellow that wears the white gum boots and has a
headband keeping back long hair, drives a blue pick up truck and has
his dog friend “Bruiser” He wants me to start tomorrow at the Church
under the bridge, doing videos and stills of the homeless for his new web
site. He is trying to attract attention to build or purchase a soup kitchen
and shelter, but I’m worried about the necessary permissions to
document people during the adventure.
After lunch I headed over to Marina Park to see what was in the pond
and to have my afternoon shower. There the Black Ibis is again, skittish
and moving away from me quickly – I need a telephoto lens for that one.
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A little artistic perhaps, but this is my second attempt to identify this
spider; red, yellow and brown, and orb weaver, which no one seems to
have documented so far in Florida Spiders. The closest thing is the
Happy Face spider from Fuji or such tropical place, but this one is not
that one.
I like how the sunshine plays on the web and the bottom of the spider,
giving it a surreal feel.
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An orange tree at the edge of the forest, next to the small pond – Citrus
Sinensis, one of a scarce population of orange trees here at this latitude
because of the huge killing freeze in the 1990s.
A pair of fast growing Amanita mushrooms in the forest near camp.
These mushrooms pop up and open the cap wide in the matter or two
days, then drop their spores and die by the third day. This is a beautiful
mushroom but dangerous, so don’t be tempted to eat it even if it looks
like it might be tasty.
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Later, back at the camp, daylight dwindled and my friend the owl made
his way to a tree nearby and did some unusual hooting and hawing – I
managed to record the sounds on my iPod, but they are very faint and
you have to listen hard to hear anything at all. It does show the
interesting range of voice inflections that he makes. I want to get a full
range of his speech if I can. Tomorrow I will see if I can get the thumb
drive recorder working and at the ready for next night’s language lesson,
if I possibly can.
December 21, 2015:
At least an hour before dawn and the regular Monday morning sounds
are reaching into the forest, garbage truck marching band, with stabbing
sounds of cans on metal from the houses and businesses to the west,
and from the east are sounds of heavy grumbling from motor vehicles on
Highway 1 slapping and grinding like a ball mill pulverizing rocks.
It is dark just before dawn; the moon that brightened up the forest has
since set and the hope of longer days because of the solstice passing is
on every animal’s mind in the forest I’m sure.
My friendly owl hasn’t visited this morning, and I have been trying to
ready the Olympus recording device I brought with me from my work
days at the Drug store- all I receive is a prompt that says, “Check” what
ever that means. I left the operation manual in storage when I left. I’ll
plug it into the computer later and see what is up. Perhaps that will help
shine a light on the problem, perhaps not; otherwise it is into the circular
filing cabinet.
The whole family
having brunch at the McDonalds Restaurant.
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With breakfast under my belt I have used the last bit of fuel in the first
canister, only have one left so I’ve got to be a little more selective about
what I’m using it for as I don’t know how much the refills are here in
Titusville – I’ll have to go to Walmart and find out.
I’ve just had a visit with Leon, my Veteran buddy that frequents the
McDonald’s restaurant in the mornings. He was telling me he got a dose
of Agent Orange like so many other veterans when the helicopters
sprayed the perimeters of the camps back during the war. It hasn’t
affected him too badly he says, not like some veterans.
Standing in line at the soup kitchen is interesting today as I’m the only
one here, and then the line grows and the line crashers come to the front
and just budge in, not nice, not fare, but what the hell, they must be
hungry. A whole lot of folks waited for the bag lady to arrive to get the
little lunch bag full of goodies that she hands out every Monday morning
at this time, then they were back to swarm the soup kitchen. Yes it’s
Monday and the Oprah Winfrey look-alike is delivering food to the
homeless, that’s really good of her to do that, filling up the trunk of her
car with lunch bags to a waiting crowd of two or three dozen homeless
folks.
After lunch I made a straight line to Sand Point Park to work on pages
and updating files from Butterflies, Reptiles, Predatory Birds and Shore
Birds, plus making a new page on miscellaneous insects like walking
sticks and mantis photos.
It is later in the afternoon and I am realizing that I forgot my swim
trunks at camp (they are still hanging up on the line between the tent
and the kitchen) and now I will have to make do with the shorts I have
on and wash them as well perhaps.
I must not forget the big bash tonight at the Grande Pavilion as there will
be lots of food and people there. Besides, Douglas has asked me if I could
do some videos there. It is being titled, The First Annual Community
Christmas gathering. Isn’t that exciting?
I went back to camp for awhile, mainly to get changed out of my wet
clothes and put on some dry ones for tonight. I heard my owl off in the
distance, so no visit today, he was hooting up a storm, throwing hoots
and haha’s out into the world like it was his prime function as a town
crier.
On my way back to the Sand Point Park, I am apprised of a situation: I’m
at Garden Street near the entrance to Max Brewer Bridge where
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witnesses at road side say and SUV is involved in a high speed car chase.
The vehicle was stolen, and by the time the vehicle zoomed to the west
side of the Brewer Bridge he lost control and did cart wheels into the
ditch on the south side of the parkway. On its way from the west bound
lane to the ditch wiping out a lamp pole and ending up on the roof. The
vehicle is looking like a turtle on its back with a broken leg.
From what I gathered from other witnesses and local police, there was
quite a noisy time of it, and the chase ended badly. The fellow that drove
the stolen vehicle fled on foot after climbing hurriedly out of the vehicle –
Indian River Road was lined with police cars advertising emergency with
flashing lights al bent on searching for the driver of the vehicle.
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The Bridge was closed to traffic in the west bound lane until after 6PM
while police investigated the scene and searched for the vehicle driver.
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After the excitement for the evening I went back to the Pavilion where the
excitement continued at the Grande Pavilion for the First Annual
Community Christmas Gathering for the homeless in Titusville.
I started doing videos of the set up, bringing in the food and the arrival of
Santa. I asked permission from Erin, who is one of the head honchos of
the Church under the bridge – Douglas eventually showed up and we
discussed what sort of videos he wanted for the web site, while I showed
him what I had shot already.
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The problem is, how do I get him the videos and stills? What we ended
up doing is pulling out my computer and transferring videos to a thumbdrive he had, we did a couple more videos and that was that for the
evening for video graphing. Joey saw my computer come out and
immediately came over to see what was up, and ended up staying the
whole evening as we compared notes.
Joey is a photographer and writer as well; also, a mother, and has a farm
where she raises goats in Mims, Florida – which is north of here about
fifteen miles along Highway 1. I can tell you that we hit it off famously:
She is a black and white gal, likes to take color photos and turn them
black and white and colorizes certain parts, like a shot she showed me of
Alcatraz in San Francisco, everything is black and white except for the
golden gate bridge which she has colorized.
Joey has a good eye and needs some encouragement to do great things
whit a camera; hopefully I can give her some of that and push her over
the edge into the wonderful world of photographic art.
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Festival of Lights at Sand Point Park – with the addition of a Sea Monster
Later, after I went back to camp, I heard a thundering roar: Another
rocket taking off, but I’m so deep in the forest I don’t see anything – an
8:30PM night time launch. So I missed the launch, oh well, no matter, I
was in the company of a lovely person and that’s what highlighted my
evening.
December 22, 2015:
It’s been another hot night; one of those that make you lay on top of the
bed without covering up. I think it’s awesome that the world is so warm
and friendly at this time of year, but how about the rest of the time.
I made it out of the forest by dawn this morning, enjoying the sunlight in
gold’s and orange colors lighting up the clouds to the east as I rode to
McDonalds for my morning coffee.
I’m glad that I went to the soup kitchen today, not only because the
chicken was good, but because everyone was in such a good mood,
probably because of having such a great time last night at the Sand Point
Park – I recognized a lot of people there that are here at the soup kitchen
today. Upload a bunch of stuff to face book, through the iPod, then later
at the soup kitchen I worked on uploading some to Instagram. The
facebook stuff is up there now, but I don’t know about the Instagram
stuff, and I need a lot more stuff on line before people really start to take
notice – it should be video clips as well.
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I stopped by the pantry at the Julia Street shop, grabbed a few things
and put an order in for some more gas for the little stove. I wonder if I
should talk with John about a new camera.
I’m at the Sand Point Park right now, overlooking Indian River bay and
see a couple of really brave folks out about a quarter of a mile with
paddle boards, standing up paddling. They have no safety gear on that I
can see and are either very brave or very naïve as far as safety issues.
That’s just crazy!
Right now I am recharging up the computer; I had let it get so low that it
shut its self off and put into hibernation mode while I was at the
McDonalds restaurant this morning. I caught up again on notes and
stuff a little before Steve came along to sit and yap while we sat in the
picnic pavilion. I confirmed that the Facebook photos and videos were
posted and still don’t know if the Instagram site has any of my stuff there
yet.
Steve and I talked about everything but the kitchen sink this afternoon
and we dream about installing the sink inside a house in the magic
forest this afternoon.
He is inviting me to come visit his Jehovah Witness friends who have a
garden over in a trailer park near the corner store we sometimes buy
beer at. The folks have home built hydroponics and a garden that has a
mixture of native and worldly plants. They grow their own food,
vegetables and anything medicinal that they’ve heard or read about. I
wonder if they know anything about spiders or mushrooms. We plan on
going in the morning, so I’ll get up early and have breakfast and coffee
before Steve arrives.
When I left Steve in the park to go change and have a shower in Marina
Park, it was just past 4PM – I made it back to camp by sunset but I
missed my owl so I sat in the kitchen and just watched the squirrels play
and the palm trees move with the wind. I did hear the owl in the
distance, calling out here and there, but I wanted to capture him on the
sound recorder.
Unfortunately the sound recorder is still having issues and it is probably
battery related - I thought that I had fixed it yesterday, but it is acting up
again! I think that there may be something wrong with the connection
between the battery compartment and the USB plug.
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December 23, 2015:
All night, without rhyme or reason, I hear my Hoot Owl calling out,
announcing his where-abouts to all who are in the know about predatory
birds. It seems like he is saying, “I’m here, let the hunt begin, little
creatures beware.”
The day is about to begin and darkness still reigns over the dominion
and I wonder about things: First of all, I am giving thought about spring
time, what that means and longer days to light the warm, open road.
I want to hit the southern roads across the USA to California, crossing
Louisiana and Texas, Arizona and New Mexico along the way. It still
seems distant, like a dream that is foggy, but starting to take form and
shape. The other thing is, what am I going to do to make a living? Other
than my family, I haven’t been getting any donations or piece meal work,
but I have to do something soon or suffer the consequences.
Breakfast is out of the way and I’m half expecting Steve to show up at
any time, and I’ve had enough swatting mosquitoes here in the forest,
out in the real world it isn’t as bad. These bloodsuckers here want to
suck me dry until my blood ceases to flow and my body is cold.
Steve showed up by 7:30 and we went down to the trailer park where the
(Bob & Loanee Smith) folks have a back yard garden that is second to
none. I could have probably spent all day photographing plants and
flowers, but I concentrated upon a couple of more familiar items like the
red passion flower (Passiflora Miniata), Dicentra (Bleeding Heart), Lupin
(Luffa Sponge Gourde - which is a kind of squash plant with a yellow
flower that when it matures and over ripens, becomes a back scrubber,
or sauna sponge), then a Coral Tree (Erthrina) with flowers and seed pod.
Coral Tree with seed pod
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After a relaxing morning at the garden, Steve went his way and I went
mine – I traveled down Dixie Avenue which in part is the old Dixie
Highway, to Airport Road and photographed some derelict planes and the
Sky Diver’s hanger and group learning about the jump before going up in
a plane.
Oak Tree on
Old Dixie Highway
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Private Plane –
refueling and pushing to the runway
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It is the soup kitchen next where we have stew on rice and a slice of
tasteless ham or something I didn’t recognize. People seem to like it
though, especially when they add a bunch of salt to it.
I headed for the Sand Point Park next, although I didn’t have my swim
suit with me, I did do some work on my notes and try to catch up to the
moment. Photos were worked into the notes and I feel pretty good about
the whole thing. Now I have to go back to the camp and get my swim suit
so I can have a shower at the outside spot in Marina Park.
When I picked up my suit I also had time to speak with Steve in the
forest. He is concerned about the developers and the whole tearing up
the forest idea. I showed him where the Gopher Turtle nest was and we
talked about how that might stop the developers – there is the wild life
conservation office on the north east side of Max Brewer Bridge, perhaps
I can go with the photos I made of the nest site and turtle?
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Steve also mentioned that he is going to move from his present location
by the garbage camp, we went to select a site together because he also
said that it would be a good idea that we stick close together considering
the developing going on.
We found a new site, near the office camp at the southeastern corner of
the forest. The trees here are younger and more agile, I can see them
bending and moving with the wind as it blows over the canopy. The camp
site will be difficult to see from the construction site and the road, and
from any other camp site. Mainly he wants to get away from the two sod
throwers because they are having problems with each other, not Seeing
Eye to eye on what ever it is that makes them argue and yell.
This morning the camp site of Erick and Kevin was in turmoil, chairs
upset and clothes scattered on the ground – they obviously had a spat
and perhaps fisticuffs as well.
I met our resident Gopher Turtle, photographing him as he quickly
scurried toward the edge of the forest. I stopped to watch him for awhile
as I am sometimes known to do after photographing him. The turtle
stopped for awhile to see if anyone was watching, then continued to a
patch of open sand between the road and the highway at the edge of the
forest.
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Then the turtle disappeared from site and for me this is an open
invitation to go see what was up. What I found was a trail to an open
burrow, with claw and drag marks leading into the opening. So, this is
the entrance to his next or underground den.
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With that out of the way I headed to the Marina Park for my shower, then
home. Home, if that is what I call it, a camp in the woods that I will
never, ever forget and will have such fond memories of in the future.
Home is a place where you feel like belonging; yes I believe it feels more
like home than anything I’ve had for awhile.
I played some video games at the onset of darkness, missing my owl
friend’s visit. But wait; there is a whooo, whooool, coming a short
distance from the camp to the west. Up and out of the tent, into my
shoes and off I go. It is the female this time, coming to check out the
camp site, but not allowing me to get too close before flying away. She
seems a little smaller than the male and more skittish, but I think she
will warm up in time.
The moon is bright in its fullness and with a clear sky, the forest is lit
with reflected sunlight so well that I don’t need a flashlight to see my
way.
Kevin came around midnight tonight, checking out the camp site, waking
me from a sound sleep, checking to see who’s camp this was, not
realizing that it was me.
December 24, 2015:
I took time this morning to video graph my favorite owl as he came to the
trees next to the tent this morning about a half hour after the break of
dawn. I’m worried about him and his being re-located along with his
mate.
I talked with Kevin later and he said that the wild life conservationists
are aware of the owls and the turtles and will be relocating them when
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the time comes – what does that mean? Like prisoners of war, taking
them to an internment camp? You can relocate people, but relocating
animals from their natural habitat, the place where they were hatched
from? I just don’t know, but I fear for them that they will try to find their
way back like the Incredible Journey animals and die along the way.
I’m at McDonalds feeling apprehensive about the future; will I have to
relocate?
About Midnight I had a visit from Kevin, wanting to know who was there
in the tent: I am guessing he hadn’t realized I moved my camp site – he is
concerned about more people in the forest camping.
We spoke in the morning while I was on the way out of the forest and he
told me about the developers being in this area about the 15th of
January, and that his camp site is going to be a staging site. Also he
mentioned that the wildlife conservation officers had been in recently and
they are aware of the turtle and owl concerns and they will be dealt with.
‘Twas the night before Christmas, all through the forest creatures
were stirring, Owls and armadillos hooted and sniffed, raccoons and
possums scratched and scurried, with the hopes of a good meal
would soon come to bear.
After McDonalds I am heading to the soup kitchen – it will be closed
tomorrow, Christmas, but there will be a huge get together in the park
across the street from the Sally Ann property, with a big Christmas
dinner and so on, starting at noon.
I did the soup kitchen thing, the dinner was tuna and shell shaped
pasta, rice with stew dumped over top. I suppose it was a good meal
really, considering how much I paid for it. I left for the park as soon as I
could get away from the soup kitchen, plugged everything in and
recharged computer and iPod external before moving on to the Marina
Park with a shower in mind – I didn’t forget to take my swim suit this
time, so I didn’t have to back track.
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Steve, the church guy from Church
in the park at Sand Point, stops at the soup kitchen on his motorcycle to
say hello.
I started a new Birds page for things like peacock and pheasant, and up
dated the reptile page with the new gopher turtle photos.
DC-3 is the plane that changed the world of air travel forever – flying
above Titusville. (The Douglas DC-3 is a fixed-wing propeller-driven
airliner. Its cruise speed (207 mph or 333 km/h) and range (1,500 mi or
2,400 km) revolutionized air transport in the 1930s and 1940s. Its
lasting effect on the airline industry and World War II makes it one of the
most significant transport aircraft ever made.) The DC-3 was the first
airplane that put all the modern technology together and was able to fly
enough people so that the airplane was profitable over routes that did
not have mail subsidies and suddenly, instead of each plane having two
or three stops in a straight line, they could branch out with the hub and
spoke routine and every airline now does that.
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King of the garbage can – The squirrels
have chewed holes in all of the containers to provide an on-going access
to things thrown away.
It wasn’t cold today and I didn’t have to B-line it for the camp after the
shower, at the entrance to the Magic Forest I stopped to speak with Steve
who was already intoxicated. He was going on about the police warning
him not to pan handle at the I-95 entrance any more otherwise they
would throw him in jail. I don’t know how he is going to get money now
to support his alcoholism, perhaps he will dry out and face reality now.
I tried to record my owl friend again this evening, with some success but
more the symphony of sounds of the forest with other birds, cars passing
and the long train that came and went while I held the digital recorder.
Now, when I have a quiet moment, I can play the segment back and
remember.
December 25, 2015:
Almost sunrise and I’m only half expecting my owl friend to make an
appearance to announce the end of the night’s hunt. I waited with digital
recorder in hand, sipping coffee with the other, until about sunrise, then
gave up and headed to McDonalds on Garden Street at the edge of
Titusville.
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The sun is shining and it is more than 70 degrees outside, typical for
Titusville Florida, but untypical for me, and for someone who can’t stand
the cold wet weather any more, this is wonderful.
Christmas is here, oh joy, how exciting; I’m wondering what will be open
today besides McDonalds Restaurant.
I made some well wishes to friends and family on Facebook, even though
I don’t really feel in any Christmas spirit at all. I’m just glad that the day
is heading towards some kind of completion and I can reset the
depression clocks to another 365 days till the next episode.
The day is almost over with, and it wasn’t too bad considering. There was
a get together in Branton Park across the street from the Salvation Army
Soup Kitchen. At first the folks that were in the park thought that the
sign on the door of the soup kitchen was wrong, because by 11:50 AM no
one had arrived to set anything up and the statement were for noon. It
was about noon when folks in vans pulled up and took a few moments to
set up in the pavilion there, get the food ready, and then their thing and
serve us, the homeless.
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The folks here are from north along Highway 1 near Mims and it seems
that they have been doing this, bringing Christmas to the needy, for
many years.
Later, after a nice turkey and ham lunch with mashed potatoes and
green beans, I headed for Sand Point Park to do my computer and iPod
recharging and take a few minutes to do some notes.
I had a visit from one of the nasty crack heads while I sat at the Picnic
Pavilion, trying to sell me some stupid little thing he was making out of
palm leaves, he asked me for my lap top as I sat there and I had to stand
up and threaten him to get out of my face.
He has been around here for a few weeks, and has worn out his welcome
at the soup kitchen and the Methodist Church as far as I know, now he
is panhandling in the streets, getting in people’s face and being an
intimidating drug addict.
I left the Park as soon as I could, headed for the Marina Park for a
shower then home to the forest. I stopped off at the Titusville Marina for
a few photos today on the way back to camp, at least it is sunny and
blue sky – I tried a couple days ago but the weather looked so shitty that
photos sucked big time.
Titusville Marina
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I haven’t heard anything from my owl friend and I hope everything is
okay and not sedated someplace in a transit to some unknown forest up
north. Kevin borrowed one of my battery charger cables for his cellular
phone and now that he knows I have another one, a better one, I’ll have
to watch my back because the bastards will steal it.
Steve is going over to the bipolar chick’s place tonight and that leaves me
alone in the magic forest doing my own Christmas thing with one anyone
around.
December 26, 2015:
I waited last night in front of my camp for some kind of sign from my
missing owl friend; I can hear background noises this Saturday morning,
but no Owl. The guns of Merritt Island are firing away without rhyme or
reason, and the cars are rushing by – there are also a number of smaller
perching birds in the area twittering away, acting like it is their forest.
I’m really wondering about the owl now, usually I hear him announce his
hunting before sunrise and after sunset someplace in the forest, I can
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hear him if it is distant because his hoot travels through the forest like a
bullet through butter.
The clouds are taking over the hot sunny morning now, as I sit in the
east picture window staring out over Garden street and McDonalds
parking lot and drive through entrance. Never a dull moment I can tell
you.
I missed Leon today, or perhaps he just couldn’t get away to go to the
restaurant – his wife has him on a short leash that doesn’t leave him
with much slack time to do what he needs for himself.
I went to the soup kitchen where I rubbed elbows with some of my new
found friends, there is a short African woman there that seems to be
warming up, but how can I tell her that I only have eyes for Joey?
Later, I headed down to South Street and south to highway 50 and went
to Target and Walmart to see if I could get any good deals on camera
equipment. Heaven knows I need something better than what I have now,
what with the focusing problems and shutter curtain hang ups that is
getting worse.
I found a refill canister of propane for the stove at Target, Walmart
doesn’t have any left, but they are 3 cents cheaper there than at Target. I
also bought a new 16 Gig thumb drive because one of my backup drives
is starting to show signs of malfunctioning. I’ll just keep what I need on
the thumb drive for PDF stories and photos leave the rest for other
drives.
I continued east along highway 50 to Hopkins, visiting the pawn shop to
see what they had for cameras (0 for 2 now, they just don’t pay any
attention to me there and don’t even acknowledge the fact I am trying to
show there – doing me a favor, as I don’t really trust anything electronic
at Pawn shops)
Later, when I turned north on Hopkins, I stopped at the thrift stores
there but have nothing to report – they wanted too much for anything
that might even resemble something I remotely, might want. I didn’t stop
again until I got to Sand Point Park where I am working now on notes
and transferring backup files over to the new thumb drive.
I made it back to the camp by late afternoon after a cool shower at the
Marina Park municipal shed, I settled down for a cup of coffee and to get
ready for another long night. I miss my feathered friend and waited out,
standing on the dirt road in the middle of the forest, straining to hear a
sound that might make the presence of the owls known.
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December 27, 2015:
About 11 last night I was awakened from a very sound sleep and at first I
thought I was dreaming. No dream, it is the sounds of rustling plastic
bags and something; it is the resident Raccoon come to feed on my bag of
garbage I have hung in the tree next to the kitchen. He has the bag and
was trying to drag it back into the forest away from the camp when I
shone the flashlight on him and chased the bugger away. I could see his
beady little eyes bobbing and weaving trying to avoid the light that I
shone towards him.
I quickly cleaned up the mess and deposited the bag in a different
branch, near the tree. The brazen little coon stayed in the area until I
went out into the forest and chased him with a big stiff stick, whacking
the trees as I went. Must have scared the living daylights out of him, but
he came back again at a few minutes after 4AM.
This time the raccoon climbed the tree next to the hanging bag and
jumped to grab hold of the new plastic bag, tearing into it and scattering
the old bag and contents onto the ground. Same operation as earlier in
the evening, but this time the coon was a little more desperate, he didn’t
scare that easily and he kept dragging the old bag into the forest.
I made the rescue on the bag and put all the contents and the new bag,
into a new, new bag. My next course of action is to hang the bag from a
vine branch going from tree branch to ground, with no tree trunk nearby
for him to climb.
I heard my owl this morning, off in the distance, probably in the forest
next door to the magic forest, about a half mile north of here. It is
comforting to see that the owls are still here, they have just been hunting
in another forest.
The raccoon didn’t return a third time, or if he did he realized that it was
fools folly to go for the bag in the vine I had hanging up above my camp. I
have to be extra vigilant now, making sure everything is taken away from
the camp every day and no garbage left within coon hunting reach. Thos
silly sod tossers have really started something with the garbage eating, I
know they are just ignorant bastards as far as wild animals, but come
on, get a grip guys, these are wild animals you are trying to tame.
The rifles are blazing again this morning, off in the distance to Merritt
Island, making me smile at the thought of weekend hunters and the
state of the world.
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The sunshine is trying to blast through the clouds and into the easterly
facing window at McDonalds where I’m now doing notes. The weather
looks good for the day, up into the 80s or hotter; too bad there isn’t a
beach to go cool off at - one that is closer, the closest is north toward
Mims or to the east to the Cape Canaveral Beach.
I eventually headed for my regular spot in the pavilion at Sand Point
Park, breaking out the video of BeDazzled to watch the last half from the
spot I started yesterday, then started a page on wildlife of North America,
Mammals – I don’t know if this is going to be a widely accepted book, but
it is nature through my camera window as I see it, and that makes it
unique I guess.
A new fellow in town going by the name of Chris stopped by and was
interested in finding out about what is happening in town as far as food
and resources for the homeless. I gave him a low down about sources
and people to talk with. Stave came over to say hello and wanted to know
about the folks in the pavilion – it is a Baptist Church service followed by
food.
Chris needs a bike to get around with so Steve has one on the back of his
pick up truck – it is in really bad shape, mostly rusty and tires flat, but
with a little TLC I’m sure it can be ride able.
I’m having a bad kidney day today and am in agony for the most part of
the afternoon and late morning, work must be done and I’m trying to
ignore the pain.
The service in the park at the Cross started a bit late because our music
arrived late, then we had a little bit of excitement when a fellow I’ve never
seen before, stopped by and collapsed at our table. The rescue people
were called and soon there were paramedics at our side administering
the help our collapsing man needed. It looks like it might have been a
diabetic attack or some kind of seizure, but he is in good hands now and
the church in the park continued on.
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In the checkered shirt is Douglas, behind and to the right is Chris, Steve
is with the Hawaiian shirt at right – The distressed man at center
couldn’t have stumbled upon a better, more caring bunch of people.
Chris brings the
rescue folks into the picnic area to rescue the distressed man.
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A whole crew attending to
the 42 year old man at the center.
Food was good, home made pasta and meat balls, and by the time lunch
was served, I was feeling like I might be able to eat – you would be
surprised at what a couple quarts of water will do for a person with a
kidney stone attack.
After lunch and our sermon from the bass guitar player I headed for the
change room at Marina Park then a cool shower on a hot day to make me
feel good.
I had an opportunity at the Black Ibis again, and again I was foiled
because of poor equipment, also there was a woodpecker in the park that
I just didn’t bother trying to capture because of bad equipment. The
camera is too slow and can’t get close enough, and is having problems
focusing on close objects as well. Time for a new camera, what say?
36
Self Portrait at
the camp site in the Magic Forest.
I started to play video games and sort of lost track of time, before I knew
it was almost dark: When my favourite owl came to the camp, he was
perched in a tree next to the tent and announced his arrival with a big
whooo, whhoool which caught me off guard and was so loud it startled,
making me jump in the chair I relaxed in.
I hurriedly got out my iPod to make a few videos, and although I missed
the hooting he did when he announced his arrival, I did make about
twelve short clips about 15 seconds to 45 seconds long, some which I
later deleted because they were just no damn good.
I wonder if the owl could see that I was glad to see him. He flew away to
another perch, then another and another before flying away into the
continued passing from twilight into darkness.
December 28, 2015:
The night is quiet except for the constant drone of crickets chirping,
along with the occasional car or train making its way through Titusville. I
haven’t heard anything from my owl friend since he announced his
return at dusk last night. I’ve heard the raccoon rustling around the
camp area but there is nothing for him to eat out there so he moved
along quickly.
37
It is the end of the month and the end of the year coming up in short
works, and will be what ever I make of it, and I am looking forward to it
as a healthy challenge.
The sun shines intensely bright through the east face window of
McDonalds as I work on my morning notes. I was up before sunrise this
morning, making a cup of coffee and having s bit of breakfast, hoping my
favorite Owl would return and say hello at the end of his hunt.
McDonalds was hot in front of the easterly window until the sunshine
raised high enough to stop blasting through the window pane. The
internet was slow today and uploading videos was almost impossible,
took two hours to upload 60% of one, I could’ stay any longer and had to
cut that short. Also, uploading uploaded PDF files took a certain amount
of time and could only update one file, the new Mammals of North
America file kept resetting and wouldn’t go.
The soup kitchen fare was a little meager today, a little bowl of beans
and wieners over rice and that’s all, no seconds. Oh well, not that I need
seconds, after eating I headed to Sand Point Park to say hello to Indian
River Bay, scavenging squirrels and the ground feeding birds.
I worked a bit on the Mammals PDF page and some daily journal notes
before watching Men In Black II on the DVD movie in the laptop. My next
stop is Marina Park where I change into swim suit and clean up with a
cool shower on a hot day – it is about eighty two degrees this afternoon
and I’ve been sweating away for most of the day and I feel like a little
stinker needing soap and water badly.
I saw a Wood Stork at the pond in Marina Park today, with his wings
spread like a cormorant trying to dry himself off. There were two storks
doing this actually, which seem kind of odd because this isn’t normal for
them as they are wading birds, not diving birds.
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Wood Stork Landing
39
I couldn’t get any really good pictures with the piece of crap I’m shooting
with and I couldn’t sneak up on the birds – I wish I had a better camera
to work with, one with a 100 - 300 lens on it.
I’ve just noticed a warning sign near the water tap stating that the water
is recycled and not fit for drinking. I’m wondering if that is why my
clothes smell like swamp and my eyes sting after showering.
40
Glossy Ibis (Plegadis Falcinellus) at Marina
Park Pond
White Ibis (Eudocimus Albus) at
Marina Park Pond
41
Back to the forest by late afternoon and settled in for a bit of relaxing
and day dreaming, playing video games and wasting large amounts of
energy on my iPod, during the playing of games and listening to music.
I waited for my feathered friend to make an appearance, and he did sort
of: He perched up in a tree close by and let out one big “Whhooool.” That
was it, I never saw where he was perched because his feather color
combination blends very well with the tree trunks and branches in the
forest.
I did a little exploring after sunset, to the North West corner to see if I
could find an entrance to the forest from the abandoned road that runs
along the north end. I didn’t find anything because of the waning light
and tangled underbrush in the forest, but I am determined to find
another entrance to the forest just in case I need to use an avenue of
entry and escape. I can approach from Old Dixie Highway to the
abandoned road and follow that road until I come up with something.
Darkness fell rapidly once sunset was over with, by the time I made it
back to my tent it was difficult to see where I was going.
December 29, 2015:
I must say, it seems rather odd that the little things happening in the
forest seem so serious at the time: Ants, Raccoons, slow turtles and
sniffing armadillos, seem so serious at the time. Every night there is
always a possibility that I will have to fight for survival being called out to
something sniffing or animals investigating, why do these things seems
so funny?
Just before dawn I heard my feathered friend with his four syllable call
chanting over and over like it is a morning mantra. It is the same hoots
he used almost an hour before in a different part of the forest. I wonder if
he is calling for his mate, or challenging the world, advertising he is alive,
or warning the squirrels in the neighborhood to stay away.
Here I am pedaling to McDonalds for another morning of sipping coffee
and making notes. I feel fortunate that I’m not caught up in a rat race of
early morning duty calls and musters to an all day labor pool or some
such thing. My biggest challenge of the day is to see how many
mosquitoes I can swat before heading out for coffee.
So far today it has been good. I stopped into the pantry on Julia Street to
talk with John who had an extra fuel container for the camp stove, and
also picked up some extra canned food for my own pantry which is being
42
diminished from eating at home of late. I forgot about the church under
the bridge yesterday evening, when I was having dinner at the camp I
should have been out there. Oh well, there is next week.
The soup kitchen was good except for loud mouth Roger who is trying to
start trouble with one of the people he knows. The guy just won’t shut up
and mind his own business and luckily for him the fellow he is picking
on doesn’t care about defamation of character.
At Sand Point Park I worked on my photo PDF pages; The Mammals
section is coming along well, but I still have the Circus and working
animals plus domestic animals to do. After that it will be a task to go
through the other travel photos to see if there is anything worth
transferring over to this page.
I watched the first X-Men movie and I must say that I forgot how good it
was. After entertainment and note making, I headed over for a shower at
Marina Park.
Glossy Ibis (Plegadis Falcinellus) feeding along
the shore at Marina Park Pond
43
Escaping Greater
Yellowlegs on the wing at Marina Park Pond.
It was nice to get out of wet clothes when I got back to camp, and then
put away my goodies from the pantry this morning. I am still trying to
figure how I forgot about the Church under the Bridge on Monday
evening. How could I have forgotten about Joey and the fellowship? Must
be a sign of old age, nothing seems that important any more.
I’ve done a stupid thing! I left my blue iPod external battery, cable and
charger all at the Sand Point Park Pavilion, and I’ll bet it’s gone for good.
Damn, when I went to plug in my iPod after notes and games at the
camp, blammo, nothing was there. I rode back down to the park right
away, after sunset of course, the dude that was beside me in the pavilion
next to mine is gone, so is the iPod battery and charger.
This means I have a really bad cable and a charger that I use on my iPod
and aren’t sure if it will help on the battery I have left. This is the second
time I’ve done this to the battery and charger. The first was at
McDonalds but I recovered it later in the day. Is it old age, or total
distraction?
December 30, 2015:
The night is quiet but for crickets and the occasional car going by on
highway 1, someone had fire crackers going off earlier on, and I suppose
that is warm ups for New Years Eve.
Moisture is a constant burden here, like the mosquitoes, ants, roaches
and heat; they are constantly annoying and never let you alone. I’m going
44
to have to hang my bags out to air out today, or at least one at a time as
I don’t trust the rain fall for the next few days and I don’t want my
blankets wetter than they already are.
Sunrise from the
Bike Path into Titusville
With breakfast out of the way I can head into town along Garden Street
and have my morning coffee house and the temple of soup before
heading back to Sand point Park – I wonder if that guy who was in the
pavilion next to me has the battery and charger – at least the charger,
the battery isn’t as valuable as the charger and cable.
Leon just came in for a little visit, only staying a few minutes, but we
talked about holidays and children that are disrespectful these days.
There is a fellow that wants computer help, has an Asus laptop and
doesn’t know how to connect with the WiFi network. My work is never
done. He finally got it booted up and can’t now remember his password
to log on (Richard Blackwell)
I also applied for a Commercial Photographer job on-line, submitting my
resume and a cover letter, we will see what happens, but if they want an
interview, they will have to wait awhile.
After lunch I headed for Sand Point Park again, this time I am plugging
the battery into the computer, so there is no way I can forget to pack it
as I’d have to forget the computer as well. The kind of thing that everyone
sympathizes with, but don’t care about. I was sort of hoping that the
person at the pavilion yesterday would show up today, but there is no
45
way, I am SOL as far as cable and charger – the good thing is, it only
costs $10 to replace, although the battery is a lot more I’m sure.
I am in the midst of munching through part of an apple pie, one that I
got as “sweets” from the soup kitchen – that takes the edge of hunger
and depression for the moment. I bumped into Steve down here; he just
gave me a few black plastic Garbage bags given to him from Al, one of the
park maintenance staff here at Sand Point. The bags will come in handy
for sure, and at least I had someone to vent my stupid experience with
the battery, cable and charger to.
Love Bugs, Plecia
Nearctica is a member of the family of March flies. It is also known as
the honeymoon fly, kissingbug, or double-headed bug. The adult is a
small, flying insect common to parts of Central America and the
southeastern United States, especially along the Gulf Coast. During and
after mating, adult pairs remain coupled, even in flight, for up to several
days
46
Sand Point Park is fine, I stare out at Indian Bay and work on the
Mammals page that I started a few days ago, and I must admit, I took
time out to watch X-Men 2 for awhile before going to Marina Park for a
shower after 4PM.
Marina Park Shower in the
shade of a palm tree
The forest light is fading fast and there is no sign of my owl. Perhaps the
other forest in the area is a better place for him and his mate to hunt for
awhile – the forecast is for rain starting tonight and lasting through the
weekend, but I rather doubt that much rain will fall and although there
is a front moving slowly north anything can happen with air pressure
changes and anything can happen making forecasting unpredictable.
After 5:30 it started to piss down rain, and I can hear my owl in the
background somewhere in the northeastern area of the forest. I’d like to
think that perhaps he is protesting the rain or perhaps calling to his
mate to move on to a better climate.
Later on this night, before midnight, there were fire works – I heard them
but didn’t bother to go out and see them to the west near the Veteran’s
bar or close by. The heavy explosions or major fireworks, screeches of
roman candles and bottle rockets kept the area awake for some time
before everything ended in applause and cheering from some invisible
mass audience somewhere.
I played video games for an hour or so, only giving up on it when the iPod
got so hot from the game processing hardware overheating.
December 31, 2015:
It is the last day of the year; I hear firecrackers and fire works going off
nearby in the Highway 1 direction at all hours of the night, perhaps
47
warming up for a finale tonight. The day it’s self has been wet and
miserable with torrents of showering on the forest and Titusville in
general. Although this moment I must admit the moon beams are
glowing, filling up the forest with much light and interesting shadows
from the tree branches and tops above. Perhaps the rain is through for
the night, but I see stars above, poking through the clear spots between
trees.
Before dawn the owl has been announcing with his varied repertoire of
sounds almost as if it is a monologue or sonnet to the night or perhaps
he is lamenting the last day of the year.
The light of morning has broken with orange and yellow colors scattered
in the clouds overhead. The sounds of water droplets from last night’s
rain gush and splatter in uncontrolled falls on the leaves and canvas at
the camp site.
At McDonalds I made sure I kept up with notes, and Leon came around
to say hello, stopping to sit and chat for fifteen or so minutes before he
had to go home to his wife. I uploaded a few more Wood Stork photos to
the Wood Stork Facebook page, which makes me happy – I’ve been
getting likes about the stork shot with Snagglepuss I snapped in
November this year.
The soup kitchen was a little better with food today, ham, mashed
potatoes and green beans for the most part, then some sweet cookies and
bread to add to it. Of course, the cold water is the best, and I know it
sounds a little funny, but when you spend the majority of your day in the
heat of Titusville and have nothing to drink but warm water, cold water
is real good.
I stopped by the Dollar Tree on the way to the soup kitchen and bought a
battery cable for a dollar – I’ll have to do without the charger, but I can
use my iPod charger for the battery charger, if it works, if not, there is
always the computer to plug into.
On the way to Sand Point Park I saw a red hawk perched along Main
Street near the rail tracks, putting up some kind of a fuss about a hawk
thing or two that he had on his mind – I managed to squeeze off one
photo, but only one because the camera is so damn slow – he must have
sat there for a good minute or so, but I only managed one shot. Now
that’s a slow camera.
Sand Point park is a familiar place to relax, the sun is shining and only
hides behind the clouds sometimes – I can see major cloud banks off in
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the distance to the south east and south west, hopefully we wont get
more rain today, but at night when it doesn’t really matter to me.
It is a little after sunset and I’ve had a wonderful video graph shoot with
my favorite owl and his mate, although the skittish one is perched in a
branch higher up and in a tree further away from my feathered friend.
This time my owl started preening in front of the camera, lazily relaxing
on a big branch not twelve feet above the ground which is about the
same distance away from me. He must be itchy under his left wing,
because he is paying a lot of attention to it. After a time he took off to a
higher perch, perhaps because I am making him feel uncomfortable
being so close, then flew away with his mate to go hunting and hooting.
I played video games for awhile, but even that gets boring when
repetition sets in. There are a lot of explosions and flashes of light on all
sides of the forest tonight, many pyro technicians are training up for the
big leagues or at least warming up for next year’s Fourth of July. They
are spending so much money on bright colors and bangs, enough to feed
the poor for a week I’d imagine.
I hear my owls hooting and whooling out there from time to time, and I’m
wondering if they are feeling a bit distressed about what is going on with
the war zone noise.
Text and photos © All Rights Reserved by Peter Tanner and Ernestartist