Goodbye to The Sunshine State

Goodbye Tallahassee. Goodbye Florida. Goodbye stupid hospital! There are a few things we never got around to writing about. There is the green patina that forms on everyone’s cars here in spring, there was a curious incident involving Asher getting inside our box spring, and we have made much note-worthy Indian food recently. Alas, there is no more time to tell these tales. We have, in fact, already left on our epic journey (this post was set to publish automatically). We’ll be following the bright circle to the place where it touches the Earth for a few days so there won’t be any news here for a while. Wish us safety on the road! We leave you with this map: Matt made it and it shows the various places we’ve been here in Florida. If you’ve followed the posts, you’ve read about all these places already. If you are just joining us, then stay tuned for all the news from California!

It Drives, It Steers, It Tows - It's SuperCar!

Since moving to California will involve a lot of driving we decided to bite the proverbial bullet, as it were, and take our car in for some major service before we get on the road. Matt called around to some places and we ultimately decided on the for-real Toyota dealership. Matt took Maya to work one day and then took himself to the dealership where he sat for 10 hours. They gave the car a good shake-down. They sure seem to have anyway because the car drives a lot better now. We got new spark plugs, a transmission system flush, an oil change, and a new timing belt. In addition they certified our AC and water pump. Great!

They also found that the bearings in the front left wheel were all seized. That explains the horrible racket that has always been part of driving our car. Well, this is apparently a really bad situation. So they replaced the part. The horrible racket is gone!

The dealership also recommended new tires. The treads on the inner edges of the front tires was worn almost entirely way. Maya’s aunt, from whom we got the car, had some big all-terrain tires on it. We have always suspected that we are getting a lot of road noise from those tires. Since the closed thing to off-roading we have done has been to drive down a gravel road to the wilderness camp site at All-Saints (which a Ford Probe can also handle!) we have no need for all-terrain tires. We had new road tires put on. Again, the noise level had dropped! Also the car handles so much better. It turns on a nickel (not a dime, but better than the quarter it used to manage), is easier to steer, and just glides down the road. Maya says she is actually looking forward to driving long distances now!

The last improvement we’ve made to the car is to have a tow hitch installed. Not everything we brought with us fit comfortably in the car on the way here – and we’ve gotten more stuff since then! After looking at the options available we decided to retrofit our car with a tow hitch and rent a trailer. We had originally planned to go with U-Haul because they always advertise that they install hitches. However, when Matt called to set up an installation the guy said, “It says here if your car has an M10 fastener, serious injury of death may result. You need to call the dealer and see if your car has an M10 fastener in the carriage situation.” So he called the dealer and the parts guy there said, “That’s all Greek to me too. Don’t use U-Haul anyway – they don’t know squat.” Apparently not. “Call Capital Hitch.” So he did. They didn’t ask anything about the car – they already knew it all. They set us up with a nice class 3 hitch which means we can tow up to 3,500 pounds! That is, the hitch itself can support that much stress. Whether our little 2WD Rav4 could handle that much weight is a whole other question (Matt just shakes his head). In addition to the standard tow ball, we could someday get other fun attachments like a bike rack or one of those baskets for camping stuff. We did get a lock to keep the ball on the hitch and one to keep the trailer on the ball. It’s really exciting to see the hitch sticking out of the back of the car! Every time we walk up to it Matt exclaims, “Look, a tow hitch!” Not that any of you are likely to be in need of a tow hitch in Tallahassee, but if you are, we can recommend Capital Hitch.

All told we’ve spent about $2,000 on car stuff in last two weeks (not including the trailer rental). That’s a big chunk of change! Hopefully, it will extend the life of our car and help make this move (and all the rest we have coming up) easier. We leave in just two days!

The Not Deserted Island

Firstly, since today is Memorial Day, here is a coda to the pervious post on war memorials: Strange Maps recently posted a map of the world made from cut-out images of various types of soldiers. The map was made by Amnesty International as part of an add campaign, but isn’t terribly interesting in and of itself. More interesting is the collection of famous and not-so-famous quotes about war the blogger posted with the map. If such things interest you, please check it out.

In one last attempt at fun before we leave Tallahassee we went last week to St. George Island. This is right next to Dog Island but it much, much larger and considerably more developed. There is a bridge out to the island; they have banks there, restaurants and hotels. The welcome center of the island is also a lighthouse museum. Although the museum part is really understated (one cabinet of artifacts) and the lighthouse itself in still being built, the whole project has an interesting story. St. George Island is 45 miles long. This long island and the mainland coast form the edges of Apalachicola Bay. The only way into the bay from the sea is around the east or west end of the island. On the western end of the island there has been a succession of three lighthouses. The most recent one was damaged by hurricanes and eventually topped by waves in 2005 despite a large-scale effort to save it. It produced an impressive pile of rubble when it fell. The overhead shot is scanned from a newspaper we picked up. The “museum” has a large wall-mounted photo of the same shot. Since the Coast Guard had decommissioned the light in 1994 official powers were not really concerned when it fell over. The local St. George Lighthouse Association, however, literally picked us the pieces and has arranged for the tower to be rebuilt in the main developed area of St. George Island as a tourist attraction. Some of the original bricks are being reused for the interior-most layer. When it is open again, one will see the original 150-year old bricks while climbing.

The eastern end of the island is a state park and we had intended to rent kayaks and paddle around in the ocean. The kayak rentals were by cash or check only so we were unable to rent one when we first arrived at the park. We did not bring out check book and didn’t have enough cash on hand. We were hungry right then so we decided to eat first and then worry about the kayaks. We ate our Subway on the beach then took a walk. It looks the same as Dog Island, except there are lots of other people walking, sitting, reading, swimming, crisping, sandcastleing, and kite flying. After a walk on the beach we decided to head for an ATM to get the cash we needed for the kayaks. Unfortunately, there was some rainy weather moving in by then. We did get some cash and then moseyed about in the shops on the island hoping the rain and dark clouds would go away. They never did. Eventually we just gave it up and went home. We drove a ridiculously long way just to take a walk on the beach! It was a very anti-climactic end to our travels here in the Sunshine State.

Now, we focus on packing up the 14 boxes of stuff we have for the next move…

Remembering Wars Past

Since Tallahassee is both the State Capitol of Florida and the County Seat of Leon County there is some overlap in jurisdiction. One way that this can be seen is that in the downtown area there are four war memorials. There is a Leon County WWII memorial and then Florida State memorials for WWII, the Korean War and Vietnam. One day last week we went to see them all. This was mostly Matt’s interest, since he’s the big history and political science guy. In addition to the historic value, they are an interesting expression the interplay of human sacrifice, political authority, and the passage of time.

The Leon County WWII Memorial was dedicated in 2001 and it has a very sentimental feel. The bronze statue of an old soldier on a bench is the centerpiece of the memorial. This is a nod to the age of veterans at the time of the monument’s construction. The old man on the edge of the bench invokes the idea of remembering both those lost in the war (whose names appear on the bricks of the walkway surrounding the monument) and those who have already died of old age in the decades since the war ended. The choice of brick makes the monument feel warmer and more down home. It feels more like a backyard patio. This is likely the intended effect because of the smaller and more connected community making the remembrance.

The Florida WWII Memorial was dedicated in 2005 and also has a sentimental feel, but much less so. The main part is a concrete pillar hung with two bronze wreaths at the center of a circular space. If the wreaths have any special significance (beyond a general symbol of commemoration) is not made clear. The walls of the central space are white, polished concrete. The feel is overall more somber and more official. This seems appropriate in the context of a state-level monument. There are no inscribed names, rather each county was allowed a small plaque to “detail the contributions and sentiments” of its people. These plaques line a walk-way to the pillar and express all kinds of contributions and sentiments. Some list individuals who were killed, others comment on the war industries or training centers located in the county one shows a picture an airplane with the words “on patrol” and one county even advertises itself as the “home of the Four Freedoms monument.” Matt’s favorite is Osceola County which simply says, “To honor those who have borne the battle.” This can be interpreted in lots of ways and thereby commemorates those killed, the many more who served and the even greater number that sacrificed on the home front.

The Florida Viet Nam Veterans' Memorial was dedicated in 1984. Like the famous national memorial, which proceeded it by two years, it has the names of the dead carved into black granite. It takes the form of two upright panels with a huge flag hung between them. The list of names is headed by the text of Isaiah 2:4 – “They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore.” The panels are positioned so that when one sits on the benches nearby and looks between the panels the dome of the old capital is centered between them. Below the huge flag are the smaller (and much further away) flags on the capital dome: the American flag, Florida’s state flag, and an MIA/POW flag. It is nice positioning. One sees at once the lives that where lost and the symbols of the ideas they died to protect.

The most striking of the memorials we saw was the Florida Korean War Veterans' Memorial. This was a very complex monument was dedicated in 1999. It includes a map of the Korean peninsula laid out like a courtyard, a timeline of the battles circling the courtyard with major battles represented by rough stone blocks in the middle of the path, and a large circular stone monument on the DMZ line with a broken-out section that lists the names of those who died. The ring is inscribed with “Duty Honor Country.” These three are mentioned in a quote by General Douglas McArthur about knowing the dignity of his troops’ deaths. The broken-out section is inscribed “Life” and it lays upside down nearby with the names on its (upright) inner surface. Walking around the monument, passing through the years of the conflict and being forced off the path by the “battles” one is invited to look at the map and see just where the battles were fought. The symbol of the circle broken by death is very powerful. There is a subtle reading to the monument that points to the circle remaining broken because there are still two Koreas. The conflict is not officially over. The DMZ still exists as a huge impediment to normalized relations (not to mention the impact on relations of rival economic systems and alliance structures). Overall, it is a very complex and thoughtful remembrance.

Florida's Tallest Waterfall

There are fewer and fewer things in the immediate area to go and see on Maya’s days off. One of the last ones we were interested in was Falling Waters State Park. It is a hill that is deeply pock-marked by a collection of sink holes. The biggest of these sink holes also has a small creek that runs into it. Thus, it is a waterfall and at 73 feet is apparently Florida’s tallest.

We went there with a picnic lunch and enjoyed the day a bit before going on the trail to the sink holes. The picnic area is very nice and there is camping available and even a lake to swim in. We checked out the lake and the camp area but we were just there for the waterfall. There is a very safe-feeling set of wooden stairs that are built partway down into the main sink hole. They end in an observation area to view the falls from. There is also a boardwalk area around the edges of some other sink holes nearby. In addition, the area was one of the first in Florida to be drilled for oil and the old wooden derrick is still there. We did not go see this as it involved more hiking then we were ready for. That will have to be something we save for later if we camp our way across the country someday.

Our Island Adventure

For of those who were beginning to wonder, we did in fact return from Dog Island. A report is long overdue! As befitting a nice, relaxing vacation there is not a lot to tell of our time there. We mostly just sat around. In the sun. Doing nothing. Maya read about 2.5 volumes of Stephen King’s The Dark Tower. Matt made a sandcastle, flew a kite, read a bit, wrote some and did stargazing at night. Together we took walks on the beach, swam in the ocean (waded, actually), and cooked supper each night. Asher mostly sat in the kitchen. The few times we took him outside he really didn’t seem to like it. Some combination of the bright sun and the powerful winds made him actually fight to go back in his cage when we tried to take him out! We knew about the sun. We brought lots of sunscreen to keep burns away and aloe in case we failed. The wind was something new for Matt. Not ever having spent any significant time by the ocean, he did not expect the constant nature of the ocean breezes (and constant is not an exaggeration). It was almost too cold! The intense heat compensated for it but he felt weird to be in a sweater (which he had only brought for night-time star watching) on the stereotypic white sand beach where people are stereotypically scantily clad. Maya knew about the winds, but it slipped her mind to mention them to Matt. She’s been to the island like 10 times and packing is kind of automatic.
For those of you that don’t know, this place is quite isolated. According to the Inn’s caretaker there are only about 14 people that live on the island all the time. There are a fair number of homes, but mostly, they are empty all the time. There is one hotel called the Pelican Inn. We were the only ones in the hotel at the time. Not counting the caretaker, we saw less then 20 people the whole time we were there. This is including passing boats and areoplanes which were presumably piloted by someone. The Inn itself is a bit “rustic,” but it’s perfectly serviceable. Maya says it is looking even more rustic these days then it used to.
That isn’t much to say about what is probably our big vacation for the year, but there really isn’t a lot that happened. We went there to be in a place where there is no such thing as wasted time. Sometimes gazing out at the ocean is an end unto itself.