Favorite Theme Park Thrill Ride in Pasr 23 Years

 Today, 23 years ago back in 2003, I proposed and took Will and Rebecca down to Wild Adventures theme park in Valdosta, Georgia.  My aim was to provide the kids a fun thrill ride experience and to face my fears about the effects that gravitational shifts and inversion made on my body and sense of well-being.  As it was, we all went on Pharoah's Fury, Double Shot, Boomerang, Hangman, and Cheetah.  Seems like they enjoyed themselves, and so did I.  After leaving the park late that afternoon, we got on I-75 south where a concentrated thunderstorm hit us, impeding my vision as I struggled to keep a clear field in front of us.  This experience opened the way for us all to boldly go on as many thrill rides as we could in the two years ahead, including Busch Gardens, Walt Disney World, Universal Studios, two more visits to Wild Adventures, and Cypress Gardens.  My favorite destination was Busch Gardens, with Montu, Kumba and Gwazi being my favorite coaster rides( add Scorpion for Busch Gardens).  The Hulk coaster, along with Ice and Fire, were my favorites at Universal, and we got a kick out of going on the Jurassic Park boat/slide ride. Doctor Doom's Free Fall terrified Melissa and made me quite uneasy.  From 2005 forward, our theme park visits slowed down and henceforth so did our venturing out on thrill rides.  When I drove to Hollywood to visit my father, I took pains to stop off at Boomer's on Stirling Road, where I went on their Dania Beach Hurricane wooden coaster until they finally shut down the ride.  My all-time favorite wooden roller coaster was Thunderhead at Dollywood in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, which we enjoyed on our summer 2006 visit there...Boomer's Hurricane was runner-up.

My all-time favorite roller coasters are Montu, Kumba, Thunderhead and Gwazi, but, speaking solely of thrill rides, my favorite in that group has to be Power Surge...found mainly at Wild Adventures and Cypress Gardens.  Well, we'll see if, on any future visit(s), we discover one or more of these fine rides.  The only remaining thrill ride I've gone on in recent years is the Royal Caribbean's Abyss dry slide, which plummets the rider quickly ten levels, from 16 to 6.  Well, maybe I'll try it again should we go on that huge boat again. Oh, and if you see it, put me on Wild Adventure's Aviator again..

Early Rising, Optimistic About Day to Come

 Here I am on yet another earlier early morning, pre-dawn wakeup...it's 6:33...having run in place on the rug for about 11 minutes so far with a nice mug of hot flavored coffee in my hand.  I'm envisioning some meaningful, purposeful study ahead, particularly about foreign languages.  Melissa wants to begin my next cycle of enhanced TMZ treatments after a pharmacy visit. Then we should get to see Anita and Jim a little before they head on homeward.  Study, interaction, exercise and rest, each in good measure, should all do the trick for me (and us) today as I am more careful about what I eat.  Also, keep Pewee from licking me (like she loves to do) to protect her from the toxic (to her) medicine seeping out through my porous skin.  Oh, and some TV time is in store as well. And since I won't be scratching off any lottery tickets, then it's good fun, never could stand those tv commercials.  Now let's have some "good fun" surfin' them channels. Just don't forget to listen to that great music. How Soon is Now, by the Smiths, has my Song of the Month easily, followed by the metaphysically intense Zebra piece Who's Behind the Door?.  My favorite line from it: How much more do you think you really know about who's behind the door?. Yes. I'm also thinkin about sitting in a comfortable cloth folding chair in the front yard looking casually through one or more Shaum's math guides, checking for patterns to notice. No pressure and it's nap time whenever I choose...

New Day Beckons New Direction

 Here we are again, at the start of a new calendar day. It is nearly five, and back in 2/71 I would again be waking and rising before sunrise to get a head start on things.  I just brewed a pot of nice-flavored coffee, sitting here to write this.  I have some ipf running to do.  Anita and family are to begin their long drive here from Austin, planned arrival some time late Friday...looking forward to seeing her.  I'm holding back on my invective against certain media figures...maybe I'll give them a chance to be more reasonable.  Were this 1998 att the post office, we'd right now be finishing up our incoming Gainesville scheme mail.  Since I'm not planning on going anywhere today, let's just see what the day brings without fanfare...

Back in Town from Cruise

Back in town from our week-long Caribbean cruise, I am adjusting to "regular" life here in Gainesville.  First things first: my Toyota car battery is dead, so I'll have to work on getting the vehicle running again.  Also, the final few mornings on the cruise had me waking up with headaches, some of them slow in going away as the day progressed.  This morning my headaches were difficult and I'm still experiencing them to an extent...they've been interfering with my sleep quality.  I think the reason for the pain is most likely due to side effects from my recent (oncologist-prescribed) hormone shot.  The cruise itself was a mix of fun and annoyance.  For one thing, each day I had to work on "getting through the day" by being at certain places by certain times.  Whenever the ship docked into port somewhere, the question was whether Melissa and I would go ashore and possibly even take up on one of their excursions.  In CuraÇao we paid for a trolley tour of the capital city of Williamstad.  It was miserably hot and muggy, not a breeze anywhere among the searing sun.  We did step out the next day in Aruba, walking a bit down the streets and doing a little shopping.  For the final stops at Cabo Rojo in the Dominican Republic and at CocoCay in the Bahamas, we remained on our boat.  The Dominican excursion turned out to be nothing more than a slipshod, cruddy reduced theme park and CocoCay happened in the middle of a prolonged rainstorm.  I thought the people working the cruise were helpful and friendly.  We liked the food and I enjoyed the Starbucks on board for their caramel macchiatos and chai tea lattes. I did use the ship's fitness center treadmill for some speed-walking training.  But I never tried its rock climbing feature, nor did we ever venture into one of the usually-packed swimming pools.  I'm happy to be back home again...

Excursion About to Start

And now has come the time for Melissa and I to embark on our planned Caribbean excursion.  First we stay overnight at a hotel near the dock (after driving down there) and then, on the 3rd, we board our ship and "set sail".  Looks like we dodged a tropical storm by a week, although there is another system hanging around off the Florida east coast while the boat is still in port.  I'm looking forward to reaching both hotel and ship, and taking time at each stop to take a good rest...

Enjoyed Some Time at Daytona Beach

 

Melissa and I made a somewhat spontaneous decision to go to Daytona Beach for a couple of nights...we just got back this afternoon.  It was pleasant to see the ol' Beach again...nice to be able sit out on our oceanfront room balcony and take in the scenery.  Since we're talking Wednesday check-in and Friday check-out, this stood as the last full weekday stretch for a while in which kids weren't going off to school.  Hence there were a lot of families with children everywhere...and especially in the hotel's swimming pool.  We did avail ourselves of it Thursday...I think our local pool is a lot more convenient, though.  I went on a couple of walks along the beach, each in a different direction.  The weather was a mix of rainstorms and sun.  The tides seemed to come in a bit too strongly, impeding walking paths along the beach...I timed my walks to coincide with receding sea levels.  We also ate out at a couple of our favorite area restaurants.  The whole experience was fun...except for the sometimes exasperating drives from Gainesville to there, and back.  And it's good to be back...

Back From Our Little Cruise

Yesterday morning our three-night cruise returned to Port Canaveral and Melissa and I embarked on our sometimes harrowing ride home to Gainesville on the long stretches of interstate and turnpike roads.  Late morning today we're both recovering...from both the cruise and drive home.  The cruise was on Royal Caribbean's big boat, Utopia of the Seas, and it was likewise packed with a big concentration of travelers, spanning generations.  These cruises try to accommodate diverse interests, and they have a heavy emphasis on making alcohol available for adults...along with a casino and opportunities for night clubbing.  The pools on this boat didn't fit the bill in my estimation, nearly always overcrowded to the point that when you're just standing in one spot (maximum depth 4 feet), you stand a good chance of others carelessly colliding with you...which is what happened to me.  Our itinerary on this short trip had us stopping Saturday at Nassau, capital city of the Bahamas, and then on Sunday at Coco Cay, a little island owned by Royal Caribbean and transformed into a beach/pool/water park destination for its clients.  When we docked at Nassau, we noticed that there were, in plain sight, four other cruise ships there.  And the businesses we encountered after we left the shop that morning were nearly impossible to navigate, with so, so many people crowding around us and the shop owners/employees nearly always employing an aggressive sales strategy whereby they would approach one of us and feign interest in what we're doing but waste no time in switching over to what they wanted...which of course was our money.  It got very old very quickly out there in this little tourist trap corner of Nassau and we were only too happy to return to the ship after just an hour or so ashore.  For Coco Cay, we decided to avail ourselves of our ship's swimming pools...without all those people who we assumed went out.  Still, it was hard to swim to any degree there because, well, kids being who they are, just don't look out for others and were constantly getting in the way.  We did, though, enjoy some time in the pool and the whirlpool as well.  Utopia of the Seas boasted several water slides, none of which I went down...but I did go down their dry slide "Abyss", which shot riders quickly in a twisted tube down ten levels...from 16 to 6 where I slid out of a chute, climbed out and slowly walked away.  The above photo is of me at the entrance to the ride. There was also rock climbing, which I'd like to try out closer to home, but didn't this time around...although I observed how others were doing it.  For Melissa and me, we enjoyed just hanging out on the ship, walking around together exploring the different levels dining at their nice restaurants and cafes, and sitting on our cabin's oceanfront balcony.  I also used their fitness room once, walking a brisk 5K on one of their many treadmills that featured a nice virtual video to accompany my activity.  We were a little disappointed in the ship's adults-only Solarium section after enjoying it on our previous cruise ship, the much smaller and older Enchantment of the Seas. Solarium's pool was basically very small and just for standing around in...why bother!  I also liked Enchantment's little open snack bar, which I though would surely be available on the larger boat but wasn't.  I did like the free ice cream cones served on Level 15, just outside the Windjammer (the large indoor buffet cafeteria).  Upon returning to Gainesville, we've been adjusting back to our "regular" life...which is pretty doggone good as well.  Speaking of "doggone", it was also very nice to see our own dog again, Daisy.  I'm also interested in more travel opportunities with Melissa (facing me below at the Windjammer), including more cruises as well...

Enjoyed Our Brief Stay at Daytona Beach

Yesterday Melissa and I took an overnight trip to Daytona Beach at our favorite hotel and got back into town (Gainesville) earlier this afternoon.  Nothing planned out of the ordinary: sitting on the oceanfront balcony, walking up and down the beach, swimming in their fine little pool, eating both our dinner and breakfast on site...and of course our room was very comfortable as always.  Sometimes I wish I had a little closet I could enter and step back out of, into a completely different location...this beach would be high on my priority list of such places.  Being there was great and being here at home is great...it's the tedious driving back and forth among the often distracted or overaggressive fellow motorists that I could do without...

Recently Assembled Jigsaw Puzzle of Mount Rushmore

 

Mount Rushmore, near Rapid City, South Dakota, is one of the places I'd like to visit some day.  Situated in the state's Black Hills, the huge faces carved in granite depict four historically-significant US presidents: George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln.  This National Memorial was sculpted, after US government authorization, by Gutzon Borglum, but the use of federal lands whose ownership is disputed by Indians has made the project, starting in 1927 and completed 14 years later, somewhat controversial.  My experiences with Mount Rushmore are tightly connected to the climactic scene in the great 1959 Alfred Hitchcock movie thriller North by Northwest, in which hero Cary Grant and Eva Marie Saint flee there to escape the murderous bad guys, led by James Mason and Martin Landau.  The irony of it all is that the actual "Mount Rushmore" footage was done on models created for filming in Southern California!  Yes, I'd dig going over to South Dakota to check it out, as well as the nearby memorial to Crazy Horse that has been under construction since 1948 and still is far from completion.  Anyway, Mount Rushmore was the setting shown in one of my seven Americana jigsaw puzzles, pictured above...

My Jigsaw Puzzle of Hoover Dam

 

In the box of assorted jigsaw puzzles of Americana that I got a few weeks ago is one of Hoover Dam, the giant engineering project during the Great Depression years in the early-to-mid 1930's connecting the Herbert Hoover and Franklin D. Roosevelt administrations.  Bordering Nevada and Arizona, it takes the Colorado River and functions as flood control, irrigation and a source of hydroelectric power.  Many lives were lost during its construction, but it stands as a "can do" symbol of American know-how and potential.  I've never been to Hoover Dam...have you?  I'm guessing that most visitors have other places on their travel agenda as well, the Grand Canyon probably one of them.  Thanks to Wikipedia for the information about this dam...

My Jigsaw Puzzle of Stature of Liberty with Manhattan Background

The above image is yet another jigsaw puzzle I've recently assembled, this one a view of the Statue of Liberty in the Hudson River with Lower Manhattan...highlighted by the New World Trade Center skyscraper in the background.  I've been to New York City only once, back in 2010 with Melissa and Rebecca, and that time was very special to us.  We focused on Manhattan with our visit, staying at the Marriott Marquis hotel on Times Square, touring the whole area and building wonderful memories of the place.  Of course, back then the World Trade Center site was closed off to the public, with construction of the new building just in its fledgling stages.  If you go back on this blog to April of 2010 you'll find a few articles and photos pertaining to that four-day stay.  Some time in the future I'd like to go back, but then again there are also other places I'm looking forward to seeing in person...

My Cloud Gate, Chicago Jigsaw Puzzle

 

Cloud Gate, or as it is commonly known, the "Bean", is situated at the northern end of Chicago's Millennium Park.  Made from stainless steel to resemble mercury, it was designed by sculptor Anish Kapoor and completed in 2006.  Melissa, Will and I visited it in 2019...click HERE for a link to that article on this blog.  I recently enjoyed putting together this jigsaw puzzle, not only for the beautiful work of art it shows as well as the background of Chicago, but also for the personal memories of being together with our son as we enjoyed the sights of the Windy City... 

Recent Done Jigsaw Puzzle of Washington Monument

Here's another recent jigsaw puzzle I've put together...this one depicts the Washington Monument off in the distance in our nation's capital, from the vantage point of the Lincoln Memorial looking over the pool at the west end of the Mall. Melissa and I visited there back in October, 2018.  We saw a couple of Smithsonian museums, the Capitol (sitting in both the Senate and House chambers), Library of Congress, Lincoln Memorial, Martin Luther King Memorial, Vietnam Memorial and Arlington Cemetery.  It was a memorable visit, and I put this puzzle out on my blog since not only is tomorrow Martin Luther King, Jr, Day, but it's also the day that our next presidential inauguration takes place.  Because of the frigid cold weather, this ceremony has been moved indoors, to the Capitol Rotunda. But I'm only going to be celebrating the legacy of our late civil rights leader, not the return to power of the convicted felon...

Back from Visit to Daytona Beach, Which Has Deteriorated Considerably

It's Monday afternoon and Melissa and I just returned to Gainesville from a two-night stay at Daytona Beach.  It was a good time for us, but I was more than a little dismayed by the deterioration of the beach.  There was almost no sand, and the level of the beach was around two feet lower, causing the ocean to come crashing against the walls for most of the tidal cycle.  The stairway access from our hotel to the beach was blocked since the stairs themselves were damaged from the tidal onslaught...we had to walk a distance down the street to find the next nearest beach access.  Apparently, this all came to pass a couple of years ago when a hurricane washed away the beach sand...now the ground there is hard and rarely dry.  We still enjoyed our stay, but I also noted that it seemed that virtually every hotel or condo on the ocean side of A1A had some extent of construction work going on the property, often with piles of building and electrical material just sitting out in the open...very ugly looking.  It was a little depressing seeing how this once thriving tourist community, once known for its beach that cars could drive down, had come so far down in such a short time.  One of the hotels we would often stay at in Ormond Beach seemed to be permanently shut down.  Looks as if we're going to be exploring a new place to stay on our next visit.  Hopefully the politicians will see the value of sand restoration and fund building the beach back up again.  As of now, you have to wait until low tide to walk down the beach and even then it's ugly, with rocks and debris strewn over its surface... 

About Our Recent Cruise

After writing recently about Melissa and me scheduling another cruise this year, it occurred to me that I hadn't much discussed the one we were just on. It was a March 2-8 Royal Caribbean Western Caribbean cruise, and our stops had us in Mexico (Costa Maya/Mahahual, Cozumel) and Honduras (Roatan). Our ship was called "Enchantment of the Seas"...it is reportedly an older model and smaller than the "Allure of the Seas" we took in February, 2020 on the eve of the COVID era. I wasn't thrilled about the foreign excursions we took this time, but I guess they do bear discussing in some future article. I liked more the time we spent on board the ship, with our outer balcony overlooking the water, as well as the food, pools, and generally relaxed ambiance. My favorite destination was the 9th Deck Solarium, restricted to adults...although truth be told I liked having the kids on board this cruise. Since the Royal Caribbean ships have similar structures, I'm interested in comparing the one were just on to our next one to Alaska...necessarily so since it will be moving through a much colder climate...

Alaskan Cruise Planned for July

Melissa and I have decided to have another go at a summer Alaskan cruise after last year's came to naught when both of us fell ill just before leaving.  The itinerary is similar, with Seattle, Washington figuring heavily into the travel as well as is stepping onto Canadian soil, in British Columbia.  It's the same line as our last two cruises, and we're looking forward to hashing out the final details of on-shore excursions and hotel reservations.  We really enjoyed our western Caribbean cruise at the start of this month...that ship was much smaller, though, and with half the passengers of the one we're taking in July.  Having never been to the American west coast, that should be an experience as well...and I've always wanted to visit Seattle...

Dutch is My Improbable Third Language, In a Manner of Speaking

As we were finishing our cruise from last week, Melissa and I explored other cruise destinations available from our line, Royal Caribbean.  One course takes the ship to the southern Caribbean Sea, off the coast of Venezuela with visits to the "ABC" islands, formerly colonies of the Netherlands: Aruba, Bonaire and Curaçao.  Together with Sint Maarten and two other islands in the eastern Caribbean, they comprise the Netherlands Antilles, which was dissolved in 2010.  Now in 2024, Curaçao and Sint Maarten are autonomous territories of the Netherlands, Bonaire is under that country's direct administration...and Aruba is an independent nation...correct me if I got that wrong. Anyway, back in 1967 when I was eleven and listening to the radio at night, I picked up on AM-800 kHz the powerful station PJB2, which broadcast out of Bonaire with 500,000 watts, a staggering amount of power (U.S. clear channel AM stations are limited to only 50,000 watts).  About mid-evening the station, which called itself Trans World Radio, featured English-language evangelistic Christian programming, Back to the Bible, Unshackled and the TWR-produced Music and You being the shows I regularly listened to. Earlier in the evening the station served as a relay for Radio Nederland's evening programming from Hilversum, Holland, which included the English-language Happy Station Program as well as news in Dutch.  With English being my first language and Spanish lessons starting in my fourth grade (1965), in retrospect it was this funny-sounding national language of the Netherlands that was my third language, although I didn't understand any of it and hardly ever studied it in the ensuing decades of my life.  Yet Dutch is supposedly the closest distinct language to English if you discount the Frisian tongue that very few speak.  I wonder how many in the former Netherlands Antilles speak it...the prominent language spoken on the ABC islands is Papiamento, a creole based on Portuguese. I'd like to visit Aruba, Curaçao and Bonaire...most probably on a cruise...

Back in Gainesville from Cruise

For the past week, Melissa and I have been on an ocean cruise on our vacation break.  We took the Royal Caribbean ship Enchantment of the Seas out of the Port of Tampa on a Gulf of Mexico/Western Caribbean cruise with stops in Mexico and Honduras before coming back.  It was the first time in my life that I actually set foot on land outside the United States, although the two excursions in Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula and the island of Roatan in Honduras were largely under "cruise control"...still, they count and I'm now up to three countries...whoopee!  I took a break from a lot of things during this outing, including this blog and my cell phone...and especially social media.  I'm guessing that from time to time in the days to come, I'll be discussing some of my reactions to this thing or that from the cruise.  By and large, I have a positive take from it and some pretty interesting memories.  But for the time being, I'll just let it go at that...good to be back!

Super-Constellation of the Month: the Good Ship Argo

 

I'm planning on viewing the ancient Greek super-constellation Argo on my cruise trip down to the western Caribbean, at a latitude where hopefully I can capture the full scope of these interesting star patterns of which I knew from childhood but never had the opportunity to just go out and observe.  Because Argo was so big, it was later divided into the "official", smaller constellations of Puppis (the Deck), Carina (the Keel) and Vela (the Sails). My only real connection with Argo has been with Canopus, my favorite star of the night sky and the second brightest after Sirius.  There are also four stars on the above map, two in Vela and two in Carina, that if you looked at them a certain way you could make out a cross...it's the "False Cross" that for centuries has fooled observers looking for the Southern Cross, which is far east of Argo and constitutes the constellation Crux.  My success in observing Argo will depend, of course, on the cooperation of the weather: fog and overcast skies, or annoying shipboard lights for that matter, could present issues...but I'm remaining optimistic...

Contemplating Weekend Travel Adventures

I'm still contemplating some weekend adventures this year, where Melissa and I take off by jet to some distant location and come back in time for work on Monday.  Most likely such a scenario would involve visiting a city instead of going out in the countryside, something that would necessarily involve more time.  My first idea was to find a distance race being held at a specific city on a Sunday morning and then we'd spend Saturday traveling, getting settled and visiting...and after the race make a point of visiting some areas we'd like before heading back. Then again, there doesn't have to be a running race involved, either.  In any event, it's always fun to check out the possibilities...I'm also keen on visiting Canada sometime this year...