![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lionkingcmslStill more on the trip and Megaplex.
Sunday, 3/13/05 - Travel Day: The three of us (Tony Ringtail, Smrgol and myself) slept in a bit later than normal. Smrgol and I had to get ready to leave, as I wanted to leave no later 1p to make the run to my parents' place to get there at a decent hour. It normally takes about 3 hours to get from Orlando to my parent's place, but figuring the vagaries of Orlando area traffic and the fact I would be taking a back way, to show Smrgol some of Florida that the usual tourist doesn't see, I wanted to leave early.
We packed my car and then headed over to the con to see what was going on. Granted I still had me "Saturday only" wristband on, but most of the con staff knew I would be leaving shortly and I wasn't hassled about getting in to con areas. In fact I even helped move the puppet stage around to where it belonged.
So after settling up with Tony for the room. We headed of to the wilds of Southwest Florida at around 12:15p. ;=3 It is important to note that I got gas just as we left, for this will be important later.
We got on I-4 west and traveled about 5 miles and we hit the first back up. Yes, Smrgol, FLDOT does work on Sundays. It was a construction delay, which unfortunately added about a half hour to our drive time. I got to the exit I was looking for and noticed there has been major changes on U.S. 27 in the 10 years or so since I last drove it.
Smrgol was amazed on how "non-Florida" the area looked. At one point he remarked that if you just plopped him down in this area he would have a hard time guessing he was in Florida. I smiled and said, most people, when they think of Florida, think of Miami, Daytona, Orlando, etc. Florida has some very interesting areas away from the beaten path. We then turned onto U.S. 17 that would take us into Punta Gorda, the town that got slammed by hurricane "Charley" when it came ashore. This was another reason I wanted to go this way. I wanted to see how the area recovered.
At first we'd see some signs twisted up, small buildings blown down, but as we got closer, the towns of Winter Haven and Arcadia still showed signs of major damage. There were still plenty of "blue tarp roofs" 6 months after the hurricane. This area was really only hit by "Charley" and neither of the two other hurricanes. It was apparent that this area got hit, and hit hard. There was a funny moment when we were passing a cattle ranch and Smrgol remarked, "You know, I don't think of cattle ranches when I think of Florida." I told him that was one reason we came this way, to show him the "other side" of Florida. I also told him in the Ocala area there are horse farms as far as the eye can see.
We were approaching Punta Gorda and the damage was getting more severe. We passed the Charlotte County Medical Center and I told Smrgol this had its roof blown off. Right next to it was a professional building that was very heavily damaged and was still being repaired, or possibly demolished.
We approached the main intersection in town, U.S. 17 and U.S. 41 and to my far right I saw something that I only saw in my dad's pics of the area. An entire shopping center was gone! I mean this shopping center had a large supermarket (Publix), and other stores and was close to a quarter mile long! It and the gas station that was next it were totally gone! The hotel (Holiday Inn, IIRC) that was next to the gas station had mostly been wiped away, but there was still one building that they were in the process of tearing down.
I explained to Smrgol what had been there and he was amazed/shocked. I then headed deeper into town so I could make a left hand turn so we could get to the Punta Gorda train station. It was depressing to drive through that town. I had known that town since 1966 when we first visited my grandparents who moved there. This town had a direct strike by a Class 4 hurricane and it was not even close to recovering. Sure things were mostly cleaned up, but to see empty places that I knew had buildings, the still damaged, but un-repaired buildings was hard. My heart goes out to those in Punta Gorda.
I made a couple of left hand turns and I saw the top of the front of the train station. My heart leapt, as I knew this building didn't get damaged heavily, and it is my favorite mission style train station. We pulled into the station parking lot and I was overjoyed to see, other than missing roof tiles and a couple broken windows, this station shook off Mother Nature without problem. Across the street was an interesting sight. There, sitting like it was built after the storm, was a pre-fab metal handcar shed. Right behind it was an old "Scotty's" home center, which was heavily damaged. The handcar shed was there before the storm, but was not damaged. What had happened, in my best guess, is that the handcar shed was in the "wind shadow" of Scotty's. Scotty's took the full brunt of the storm while protecting the handcar shed from the wind.
After admiring the station, and how it fared, we got back into the car and headed to my parents' house. After crossing the Peace River and crossing into Port Charlotte we noticed less and less damage. I explained that the worst damage occurs to the south of the hurricane's eye and the eye went right up the Peace River. After about 10 miles or so we stopped noticing any overt damage. Here again Smrgol was somewhat surprised. Here was a part of Florida that he didn't know existed. It was a fairly heavily traveled small town highway with stuff you'd see anywhere, save for the palm trees. I told him that was typical for this part of Florida, though it was getting heavily built up as more people "discover" the laid back attitude of this part of the state.
I made a left hand turn onto the main road that would take me to where my parents lived and breathed a sigh of relief. I was in the "home stretch" and I would be there in under 5 minutes.
We pulled up to my parents' house and quipped, "Small house." Smrgol just said, "Nice."
We walked in and found my parent's had friends visiting. After they left we settled down after the long drive. I decided even though I hadn't brought a pair of swim trunks (I couldn't find them), I'd go swimming. My parents have a nice heated swimming pool with bubbler jets. ;=3
I coaxed the Kirin in to the pool, he had brought trunks at my urging, and I thought he'd never leave the pool, as it was that relaxing.
It was then he said something that surprised me. He remarked that he didn't see me as being the swimming type. I remarked that I have plenty of things about me that most people don't know. As much as I'm open about my life, there are things people only find out by really getting to know me. It happens when people see me with a beer or other alcoholic beverage for the first time. They don't see me as the drinking type. I will drink, but not heavily.
After that relaxing swim we had dinner, much, I think, to Smrgol's surprise. My parents laid out the feedbag and kept urging Smrgol to eat. Although my mom is of German heritage, she can act like an Italian mother - Mange! Mange! :=3
We also fixed a few problems they were having with their two computers. And, once again, Smrgol and I ended up trouble shooting model trains, this time my dad's N scale layout.
Smrgol was interested to find out that my parents have a wireless net in the house and promptly tapped into it with his palm pad to get on the net. I quipped that my parents were charging him $5 a minute for access. :=3
Monday, 3/14/05 - Travel Day: I awoke a little later than I wanted. I wandered to the kitchen to see my mom already up, as is her habit, and I grabbed a cup of coffee. Smrgol showed up a bit later as did my dad. A big breakfast of scrapple, bacon and French toast were the order of the morning. After that I told my father I wanted to look at my car, because of the returned miss and poor gas mileage. You remember that I filled up when I left Orlando, right? Well, I had gone only 179 miles and burned 3/4 of a 16-gallon tank!!! 8=0 That's no better than 15 miles per gallon! At that rate it would take me 5 tanks to get home, not the usual 3. We pulled the plugs and noted that once again #2 plug was oil fouled, though the other three looked fine. My dad had the proper compression tester so I ran a compression check in all four cylinders. The result: 150 psi (+/- 2 psi) straight across the board! I don't know what it is supposed to be, but 150 psi in all cylinders is good and shows even wear.
This was troubling. Why was #2 fouled and the other three not? My dad told me to spend the couple of bucks it would cost for a new plug and just replace it. It might just be bad. So Smrgol and I headed out in my dad's '68(?) VW Thing to the local auto parts store.
Funny thing is that I haven't driven a VW stick in quite some time and I was grinding gears a bit, much to Smrgol's amusement I think. ;=3
I picked up the plug for $1.98 and headed back. After re-assembling the car I started the engine and not a miss was to be heard. Such a sweet sound, or non-sound as the case may be. :=3
I took it out for a spin and got it up to speed and "trounced" the pedal. Sweet running. No noise other than a slight tap, which I've had for a while. With that I called the problem fixed, but vowed to keep an ear on the engine.
I then took Smrgol out to Manasota Key where the local gulf beach is. I also drove him down the length of the key to show him some of the sights.
We headed back for lunch and to get ready to leave. I had actually got all that done before 11:30a. ;=3
After lunch we said our goodbyes and headed out the door, but not without my mom and dad urging Smrgol to take a donut to munch on at the airport. Like at my place, if you leave my parent's house hungry it's your own fault. :=3 I think he was bemused at my parents' urging, but he did not grab one, but I grabbed two for myself.
We got gas and headed out. For once I-75 and I-4 were not too busy. We passed a major accident going westbound on I-4 though, with truck overturned. We remarked that we were glad that we weren't headed west that day, for people were actually out of their cars walking around. They weren't going anywhere for a long while.
We made it back into Orlando, as I had to drop him off at the airport, in plenty of time. We decided to go to that railroad exhibit we had seen on Friday night. They have a narrow gauge trolley that runs around the place, though we didn't go for a ride.
When we went inside we were shocked, at least I was, that the cost of admission was only $4.99 plus tax. So there are some bargains in the Orlando area, if you know where to look. They have a very large G scale layout with numerous trains running. We noticed that there was a train stopped on the upper level, sans locomotive.
While we were watching and trying to figure out how the tracks were connected a guy came out with a loco for that one train. He tried to start it, but the two motors were going in opposite directions. ;=/
He got that fixed and the train started moving. While we were watching the other trains we noticed the same train stopped on another portion of the layout and told the person we saw before about it. He grumbled and climbed up on the scenery to get to it. He said it gotten stuck. He backed it up and Smrgol and I heard a "Thwack" as the pilot hit the scenery. The guy got it past that point and we said we would keep an eye on it as it passed that point again. Sure enough it came around a "Thwack" it hit and stopped dead. Smrgol also noticed that it seemed to "leap" a bit before it exited the hobby shop portion (you can open a door and watch as it exits the hobby shop just before it gets to the layout proper).
The guy re-railed the loco and we watched it again, it hit this time, but kept going. He stopped the train, removed a bit of weight from a car directly behind the loco and then re-started it at a slower speed. This time it went through without a hitch.
As this was going on the owner came in and we started talking and I said it was surprising that they didn't have a train running on the inner loop of the lower level. He then noticed that it had stalled right in front of us, with the nose of the loco just emerging from a tunnel.
The repair guy came over and got that moving again, but it seemed to stutter at that point until he turned the throttle up a bit. He, Smrgol and I surmised there was a voltage drop there and he needed to run wires directly to that point.
I also pointed out that the trolleys weren't running (that guy is going to kill me :=3 ), And he got them running again.
While we were there the owner expressed his gratitude that Smrgol and I were there to help an offered us both jobs right there on the spot. It seems that the guy that was doing the trouble shooting was the only one that had any idea what was going on, and he needed help. If I have to move it is a tempting part time job offer. ;=3
It was time for us to go and we left to go to the airport. We went past the hotel one last time and it was weird to see it empty of cars. ;=/
I dropped off Smrgol and headed up to my brother's. Now let me tell you that as well as I know Southwest Florida, I don't know the Orlando area quite so well. I wanted to avoid the possible traffic on I-4 and figured I'd head north and pick up U.S. 301, which I know quite well. To make a long story short I ended up going ~50 miles on back roads to go ~10 miles on I-4. That's right, I ended up back on I-4. :=/
The traffic was relatively light and I made good time, getting to my bro's place at about 9p or so.
Next up: Tuesday and summation
Sunday, 3/13/05 - Travel Day: The three of us (Tony Ringtail, Smrgol and myself) slept in a bit later than normal. Smrgol and I had to get ready to leave, as I wanted to leave no later 1p to make the run to my parents' place to get there at a decent hour. It normally takes about 3 hours to get from Orlando to my parent's place, but figuring the vagaries of Orlando area traffic and the fact I would be taking a back way, to show Smrgol some of Florida that the usual tourist doesn't see, I wanted to leave early.
We packed my car and then headed over to the con to see what was going on. Granted I still had me "Saturday only" wristband on, but most of the con staff knew I would be leaving shortly and I wasn't hassled about getting in to con areas. In fact I even helped move the puppet stage around to where it belonged.
So after settling up with Tony for the room. We headed of to the wilds of Southwest Florida at around 12:15p. ;=3 It is important to note that I got gas just as we left, for this will be important later.
We got on I-4 west and traveled about 5 miles and we hit the first back up. Yes, Smrgol, FLDOT does work on Sundays. It was a construction delay, which unfortunately added about a half hour to our drive time. I got to the exit I was looking for and noticed there has been major changes on U.S. 27 in the 10 years or so since I last drove it.
Smrgol was amazed on how "non-Florida" the area looked. At one point he remarked that if you just plopped him down in this area he would have a hard time guessing he was in Florida. I smiled and said, most people, when they think of Florida, think of Miami, Daytona, Orlando, etc. Florida has some very interesting areas away from the beaten path. We then turned onto U.S. 17 that would take us into Punta Gorda, the town that got slammed by hurricane "Charley" when it came ashore. This was another reason I wanted to go this way. I wanted to see how the area recovered.
At first we'd see some signs twisted up, small buildings blown down, but as we got closer, the towns of Winter Haven and Arcadia still showed signs of major damage. There were still plenty of "blue tarp roofs" 6 months after the hurricane. This area was really only hit by "Charley" and neither of the two other hurricanes. It was apparent that this area got hit, and hit hard. There was a funny moment when we were passing a cattle ranch and Smrgol remarked, "You know, I don't think of cattle ranches when I think of Florida." I told him that was one reason we came this way, to show him the "other side" of Florida. I also told him in the Ocala area there are horse farms as far as the eye can see.
We were approaching Punta Gorda and the damage was getting more severe. We passed the Charlotte County Medical Center and I told Smrgol this had its roof blown off. Right next to it was a professional building that was very heavily damaged and was still being repaired, or possibly demolished.
We approached the main intersection in town, U.S. 17 and U.S. 41 and to my far right I saw something that I only saw in my dad's pics of the area. An entire shopping center was gone! I mean this shopping center had a large supermarket (Publix), and other stores and was close to a quarter mile long! It and the gas station that was next it were totally gone! The hotel (Holiday Inn, IIRC) that was next to the gas station had mostly been wiped away, but there was still one building that they were in the process of tearing down.
I explained to Smrgol what had been there and he was amazed/shocked. I then headed deeper into town so I could make a left hand turn so we could get to the Punta Gorda train station. It was depressing to drive through that town. I had known that town since 1966 when we first visited my grandparents who moved there. This town had a direct strike by a Class 4 hurricane and it was not even close to recovering. Sure things were mostly cleaned up, but to see empty places that I knew had buildings, the still damaged, but un-repaired buildings was hard. My heart goes out to those in Punta Gorda.
I made a couple of left hand turns and I saw the top of the front of the train station. My heart leapt, as I knew this building didn't get damaged heavily, and it is my favorite mission style train station. We pulled into the station parking lot and I was overjoyed to see, other than missing roof tiles and a couple broken windows, this station shook off Mother Nature without problem. Across the street was an interesting sight. There, sitting like it was built after the storm, was a pre-fab metal handcar shed. Right behind it was an old "Scotty's" home center, which was heavily damaged. The handcar shed was there before the storm, but was not damaged. What had happened, in my best guess, is that the handcar shed was in the "wind shadow" of Scotty's. Scotty's took the full brunt of the storm while protecting the handcar shed from the wind.
After admiring the station, and how it fared, we got back into the car and headed to my parents' house. After crossing the Peace River and crossing into Port Charlotte we noticed less and less damage. I explained that the worst damage occurs to the south of the hurricane's eye and the eye went right up the Peace River. After about 10 miles or so we stopped noticing any overt damage. Here again Smrgol was somewhat surprised. Here was a part of Florida that he didn't know existed. It was a fairly heavily traveled small town highway with stuff you'd see anywhere, save for the palm trees. I told him that was typical for this part of Florida, though it was getting heavily built up as more people "discover" the laid back attitude of this part of the state.
I made a left hand turn onto the main road that would take me to where my parents lived and breathed a sigh of relief. I was in the "home stretch" and I would be there in under 5 minutes.
We pulled up to my parents' house and quipped, "Small house." Smrgol just said, "Nice."
We walked in and found my parent's had friends visiting. After they left we settled down after the long drive. I decided even though I hadn't brought a pair of swim trunks (I couldn't find them), I'd go swimming. My parents have a nice heated swimming pool with bubbler jets. ;=3
I coaxed the Kirin in to the pool, he had brought trunks at my urging, and I thought he'd never leave the pool, as it was that relaxing.
It was then he said something that surprised me. He remarked that he didn't see me as being the swimming type. I remarked that I have plenty of things about me that most people don't know. As much as I'm open about my life, there are things people only find out by really getting to know me. It happens when people see me with a beer or other alcoholic beverage for the first time. They don't see me as the drinking type. I will drink, but not heavily.
After that relaxing swim we had dinner, much, I think, to Smrgol's surprise. My parents laid out the feedbag and kept urging Smrgol to eat. Although my mom is of German heritage, she can act like an Italian mother - Mange! Mange! :=3
We also fixed a few problems they were having with their two computers. And, once again, Smrgol and I ended up trouble shooting model trains, this time my dad's N scale layout.
Smrgol was interested to find out that my parents have a wireless net in the house and promptly tapped into it with his palm pad to get on the net. I quipped that my parents were charging him $5 a minute for access. :=3
Monday, 3/14/05 - Travel Day: I awoke a little later than I wanted. I wandered to the kitchen to see my mom already up, as is her habit, and I grabbed a cup of coffee. Smrgol showed up a bit later as did my dad. A big breakfast of scrapple, bacon and French toast were the order of the morning. After that I told my father I wanted to look at my car, because of the returned miss and poor gas mileage. You remember that I filled up when I left Orlando, right? Well, I had gone only 179 miles and burned 3/4 of a 16-gallon tank!!! 8=0 That's no better than 15 miles per gallon! At that rate it would take me 5 tanks to get home, not the usual 3. We pulled the plugs and noted that once again #2 plug was oil fouled, though the other three looked fine. My dad had the proper compression tester so I ran a compression check in all four cylinders. The result: 150 psi (+/- 2 psi) straight across the board! I don't know what it is supposed to be, but 150 psi in all cylinders is good and shows even wear.
This was troubling. Why was #2 fouled and the other three not? My dad told me to spend the couple of bucks it would cost for a new plug and just replace it. It might just be bad. So Smrgol and I headed out in my dad's '68(?) VW Thing to the local auto parts store.
Funny thing is that I haven't driven a VW stick in quite some time and I was grinding gears a bit, much to Smrgol's amusement I think. ;=3
I picked up the plug for $1.98 and headed back. After re-assembling the car I started the engine and not a miss was to be heard. Such a sweet sound, or non-sound as the case may be. :=3
I took it out for a spin and got it up to speed and "trounced" the pedal. Sweet running. No noise other than a slight tap, which I've had for a while. With that I called the problem fixed, but vowed to keep an ear on the engine.
I then took Smrgol out to Manasota Key where the local gulf beach is. I also drove him down the length of the key to show him some of the sights.
We headed back for lunch and to get ready to leave. I had actually got all that done before 11:30a. ;=3
After lunch we said our goodbyes and headed out the door, but not without my mom and dad urging Smrgol to take a donut to munch on at the airport. Like at my place, if you leave my parent's house hungry it's your own fault. :=3 I think he was bemused at my parents' urging, but he did not grab one, but I grabbed two for myself.
We got gas and headed out. For once I-75 and I-4 were not too busy. We passed a major accident going westbound on I-4 though, with truck overturned. We remarked that we were glad that we weren't headed west that day, for people were actually out of their cars walking around. They weren't going anywhere for a long while.
We made it back into Orlando, as I had to drop him off at the airport, in plenty of time. We decided to go to that railroad exhibit we had seen on Friday night. They have a narrow gauge trolley that runs around the place, though we didn't go for a ride.
When we went inside we were shocked, at least I was, that the cost of admission was only $4.99 plus tax. So there are some bargains in the Orlando area, if you know where to look. They have a very large G scale layout with numerous trains running. We noticed that there was a train stopped on the upper level, sans locomotive.
While we were watching and trying to figure out how the tracks were connected a guy came out with a loco for that one train. He tried to start it, but the two motors were going in opposite directions. ;=/
He got that fixed and the train started moving. While we were watching the other trains we noticed the same train stopped on another portion of the layout and told the person we saw before about it. He grumbled and climbed up on the scenery to get to it. He said it gotten stuck. He backed it up and Smrgol and I heard a "Thwack" as the pilot hit the scenery. The guy got it past that point and we said we would keep an eye on it as it passed that point again. Sure enough it came around a "Thwack" it hit and stopped dead. Smrgol also noticed that it seemed to "leap" a bit before it exited the hobby shop portion (you can open a door and watch as it exits the hobby shop just before it gets to the layout proper).
The guy re-railed the loco and we watched it again, it hit this time, but kept going. He stopped the train, removed a bit of weight from a car directly behind the loco and then re-started it at a slower speed. This time it went through without a hitch.
As this was going on the owner came in and we started talking and I said it was surprising that they didn't have a train running on the inner loop of the lower level. He then noticed that it had stalled right in front of us, with the nose of the loco just emerging from a tunnel.
The repair guy came over and got that moving again, but it seemed to stutter at that point until he turned the throttle up a bit. He, Smrgol and I surmised there was a voltage drop there and he needed to run wires directly to that point.
I also pointed out that the trolleys weren't running (that guy is going to kill me :=3 ), And he got them running again.
While we were there the owner expressed his gratitude that Smrgol and I were there to help an offered us both jobs right there on the spot. It seems that the guy that was doing the trouble shooting was the only one that had any idea what was going on, and he needed help. If I have to move it is a tempting part time job offer. ;=3
It was time for us to go and we left to go to the airport. We went past the hotel one last time and it was weird to see it empty of cars. ;=/
I dropped off Smrgol and headed up to my brother's. Now let me tell you that as well as I know Southwest Florida, I don't know the Orlando area quite so well. I wanted to avoid the possible traffic on I-4 and figured I'd head north and pick up U.S. 301, which I know quite well. To make a long story short I ended up going ~50 miles on back roads to go ~10 miles on I-4. That's right, I ended up back on I-4. :=/
The traffic was relatively light and I made good time, getting to my bro's place at about 9p or so.
Next up: Tuesday and summation
