Family cars long drives Mom's Mustang and AMC picture

First the VW bus for the school Three bears kindergarten
There was the time I ripped the windshield wiper off of this one at 5(?)
West Palm beach FL company van for the school

Here is what the AMC sort of looked like

It has a push button shift on the dash. I even got to drive it once with her.This may have been the newer model it is sort of like this and could have been different.

The car held up good we had some long road trips and did allot of travelling with the car.

Another car we had was Mom's Ford Mustang same color it was not the "boss" but a nice car.

I remember taking this one out for a late night ride when in ninth grade with my best friend in 

St Louis Missouri at around 130 am in the morning

The stripes were cool, when we brought it back we had to put gas in it too.

Dad had one of these Chevy Chevelle 's 305 motor automatic transmission

Pretty good cruiser

He used to ride the brakes allot too not good for the linings

Drove this thing all over Tallahassee back in the day (77?)

Family 67 Impala *(less rims and nice paint)

When the car died I got it to tinker on, It sat in the orange grove near our house.

 I was unable to repair it, lack of funds and more, parts were expensive 

I learned how to take the heads off and dis assembly was a lesson. Off to the scrap :(

Okay not to be left out I later ended up with one myself  some 10 years later a 26 window, it was hardly looking this nice but what the heck. No roof racks either.
We rally-ed it coming down a mountain .and survived a fence encounter too
Not very great cab heater but it had a gas heater add on, when it worked kept you nice and toasty.
Somehow this one made it to Michigan from Florida and back ...true story

I had one of these 26 window vans. It was one of the first cars (van) that I owned that ran
I was maybe 16 at the time and learned how to fix it a little, part of the joy of owning an old classic
Check the points, fix the gas heater and dress warm in case

YMCA Lifeguard and scuba classes

I guess that mom wanted me to learn how to be a certified scuba diver.
Her and my dad were both avid swimmers water skiers and divers at one time.
We watched Jacques Cousteau and Sea Hunt like it was a religion.

The order of these stories of course is off but what the heck.

I went to the YMCA and took a lifeguard class first and it was fun, we rescued each other and did allot of swimming in the pool.

The diving class was more information we learned about nitrogen and saturation tables more swimming more gear and more techniques as well.

I was happy to get to use the diving skills later on, because a pool is not very much like real didving in the elements.

Once, later on I even got to use my newly learned skills to bring a panicked kid back from a swimming pool deep zone.

Too many stories? so it is a reflection so far 11-6-14

Life is full of experiences and stories so many that after a while you start to realize that maybe you could never write every single thing down that happened all of your life.

Maybe I should stick with the best things and work to the end staying focused on them over the rest of the mundane and boring stories?

Not sure now as I have tried to remember most of the ones that stick out in such a long and lively childhood and adult life. I wonder if I will get to the present and stay there.

This is a journey one that I find myself thinking about even when I am not writing about it.
I hope that one day I can use this to remember the things that I will forget in happier times as I go on or leave for my family and friends to read if they dare.

8th grade science fair project and "Problem Propulsion"

For my science fair project that year (think that it was the eight grade(?)

Decided to go over some of the different methods of propulsion. I had some steam engines some gas engines and then a nuclear powered moon rover model.

I had steam gas ramjet turbine and nuclear engines on the project. Maybe covering more items just wanted o go over them as they were developed.

My downfall was not having more data for this project that is what the judges want I think. I was asked what the statistics were and other questions that should have had more information about but the whole process was good learning and of course allot was done at the last minute.

The state science fair is looking for innovations, one of the projects that I remember winning one year was the pointed car because it was safer and bounced to the side if it hit something. Nice idea.
A few major car companies already have side panels that come off so that the car is more pointed if it collides with an object.

I went to the University of Florida science department to do a little research for the nuclear moon rover and learned a little about how they measure radiation and had to wear a badge at the small reactor there.

I also saw a small hybrid car project that they were working on. I thought the design was a good one.
Basically an electric car but it had a small gas engine battery charger and power supply so that it could also run on the gas as well. I forget exactly but it was very good one gas and probably more suited for urban short distances.

I did not win the science fair that year but did okay and learned allot from working on and studying different propulsion engines.

Chris Craft joyride and Boathouse and the quiet river marina

So at this marina here in Palatka town we were near some super nice yachts
Crystal Cove Marina (?) looks like it on Google maps.
This is where the sunfish we had got stuck in front of *(or I think it was).

The 30K joyride
I'm really not sure what mom paid the old Chris Craft but it was probably close to what a house was.
It was always needing something but otherwise floated.
I really don't want people thinking wow he was a spoiled rich kid, because this boat was one of the "oldies" wood construction and at one time state of the art but now everything was fiberglass or aluminum or even concrete.These older wood boats may be fine in a lake or in a inland river but not to be trusted on the open sea due to the age of the boat and of course possible poor maintenance.
We had looked at a concrete boat too, strange how it would even float.
Getting back to the joyride.
I decided one afternoon out of boredom to start up the engines and get them running warm them up. Good to start them once and a while, this let to the not so bright idea to go out to the open water just to cruise then come back.After the engines were warmed up, I got some help with the last dock lines and taking about 5 tacks with the engines as steering made it out of the marina.

There were some far more expensive boats surrounding us and people were all out checking to make sure that I was not going to hit any of them. I made it backed out and heading out, now to cruise up the St. John's a little,as I got just a little bit out of sight of the marina, I started worrying about if the boat had a problem or developing a leak and got stranded how I would get in allot of trouble. This thought or thinking led me to a reality check and started turning back to the marina.

Getting back into the tight slip was much more difficult than leaving it, and took about 6 or eight turns to finally get it in there. Our "neighbors" came and threw a line and helped me get it secure after gawking that I was going to get too close coming in, making the adjustments to get back into the slip.
When mom got home I did not mention anything, wonder if she found out but never wanted to say anything...instead of a latch key I was a hatch key child, she was at work I think.


"City" Marina
The Boathouse Marina is in Palatka town and we were docked here I think then later moved to the Georgetown Marina on Lake George.

Georgetown Marina Bass pro's
They had a big Bass fishing contest here when were there. The fancy high speed pro bass boats were everywhere and after each day they would fill the swimming pool at the hotel next to the marina with bass which was cool to see all of them swimming in the cement pool.

2 hp lost
I had a small dinghy here and it was a clear bottom Plexiglas. While playing around with a fairly new 2hp motor one afternoon. It sped up in reverse "reared up" and unhooked itself from the transom, lost to the St. Johns river.
Divers came a day later and took a look but the drop off outside of the marina it was gone and the water a little murky here.

Rainbow Springs
We had been here before on the "bottomless boat" tour it was cool, you can see very deep even through the bottom of the boat. There was a certain time of the year that the park closed at the time, maybe manatee mating season not sure.

I took my dinghy up the crystal river and then to rainbow river. The cool spring water was clear and there was fresh water grass on the bottom. You can see fish everywhere. They are protected (no fishing) in the preserve.
As I got closer to the Rainbow Springs State park, the water got deeper in some sections and some manatee were at the sides. You can only go very slow in here due to the manatees, I'm sure now that you can probably only paddle a canoe and no outboards.

The manatees are slow and peaceful, eating grass and hanging out together swimming and hanging out with different species of large fresh water fish as well.Are they from here or are they our ancestors of a sort?They have been around long before us and now are endangered in numbers.
Perhaps humans have something to learn from these creatures, no war living life being happy.Will we ever?

As I write of this I want to have my daughter see them but it may be sort of sad , I mean an endangered animal now a spectacle of a circus show of sorts.

Cruise to Palatka FL and the marinas there.

Stuart is quite a distance from Palatka where we were going.

We took the inter coastal waterway to get there.
It would have been closer on the open seas but because of the age of the boat and the rougher water in the Atlantic better to go the inter coastal. And you have more scenery to see.

Most of the time we traveled at daytime so that we could see the route better.
The channel was marked pretty good with poles and buoys. There was one turn though that had a mud bar on it at low tide and we got stuck.

A boat came but we were on it pretty hard, I got out and sank in the mud passing the rope.
We spent the night and the next morning the tide was better and got off of it with a little help.

On the way again we made it to the marina, it was in the middle of Palatka FL town which is small.
So things were okay,


The joyride
Mom had her VW beetle there, it was bright yellow.Something like this.

So being the teenager I was I would have to at least drive this one time on a night run.
 I got the keys and took it out by myself, it was pretty late. I drove around the town at around 130-200 in the morning. I decided though that my ride was not that discrete, I mean how easy would it be to sneak around in a bright yellow beetle. I returned to the marina.My adrenaline rush was complete.Or maybe so.

The Sunfish

So one day at the marina I decided to take out the sunfish. Okay what is a sunfish? No it's not just the salt water fish or opo, it's a small sailboat that has one sail on it and is fiberglass with a wood rudder and a centerboard. The sail is at an angle and there is just about enough room for one or two small people to squeeze on to the deck cockpit.Like this one, wait did not have that girl with me though?
And no fish on my sail either this picture is so 70's ...ahhh still cool

The stuck sunfish....
So one day it was very gusty winds, excellent for the sunfish pilot myself to challenge. So for about the first 45 minutes I was quite a sight for entertaining the marina people if they looked out there.
I was flying very fast in the 25+ winds and then things went badly. The boat turned over and I could not get it back up. I tried to swim down the mast was stuck in the mud. Then I swam down again and as I was pulling the mast out of the mud, my feet were getting stuck in the mud up to my knees.
So giving up I was laying across the sunfish deck feeling the chilly wind and rain. After a while I saw a small boat come out. A guy in a dinghy was nice enough to help me out, he threw a rope and we pulled out the sunfish to better waters, back to the safe haven of the marina. By that time I was chilled pretty good.

Stuart Florida and the Chris Craft and Stuart inlet dive

Well when I was super young we had a small wood cabin cruiser yest this is the one that survived the gulf stream and possibly the Bermuda triangle route to Free port Bahamas.

Before the Chris Craft we had rented a place down off the inter coastal waterway in Stuart Florida.
It was actually "off of" the main waterway and more on it's own canal. I was told that Perry Como had once owned a home across from this. I may have been too young to know who he was just that he was a singer. Since my mom reminded me of this several times I would have to assume that she had a swoon or crush for him as well.

There were allot of mosquito and worse the sand gnats would eat you alive here. The humidity was pretty high as well. We were right on the water or canal.
At fourth of July I launched fireworks (stick and bottle rockets) out of a fiberglass sliding tube that was a military surplus launcher, how cool. I wish that I had the real practice flares to launch.

Possibly mom was having you know one of those mid life crisis again and decided that owning and living aboard a Chris Craft would be much better than living in a home.

So getting back to the Chris Craft Mom bought this 40 foot double cabin cruiser. First thing it needed was dry dock so we had it hauled out. The picture is not the actual boat but close to our boat, most of the teak was painted over for easier upkeep.

We were putting varnish on the rails and I had a cup of mountain dew mom had a Dr pepper and a cup of varnish. After a while Mom accidentally sipped the varnish but she did not swallow it. Varnish tastes terrible. Right away I saw that the owning of a boat especially a large one is allot of maintenance.

After the dry dock we took the boat to another marina and had some exhaust manifolds replaced.
The exhaust is usually water cooled and they were probably corroded.
The engines were gas and they were Chrysler motors 318 cubic inches two of them.The mechanic was pretty glad to get done since both of the engines were under the living room (Saloon?) and not very easy to work on.

The boat okay "Yacht" was big. In the front or the bow was one bunk bed storage and then a small bathroom. Next was a kitchen and stove refrigerator and cub bards. Then up the steps to the living room and there was furniture just like a house,

In the "living room" was also a helm to control the boat, steering wheel and two throttles with transmission control. Then in the back was the stateroom or the "master bedroom" and then a small after deck.A set of stairs led to the fly bridge.
On top of the bedroom was the bridge or the upper helm with controls and radios and everything to drive the boat.

Not sure how much gas cost back then but those two engines had to of had a big gas tank and gas bill if you wanted to go somewhere.Think that they were Chrysler 340 or 318' V-8 engines

Stuart Inlet Dive
I guess this dive stuck out as it was probably one of my first "open water dives" after taking the scuba class at the YMCA. I could not get my "c" card or certification because I was not 14 yet.
I was possibly 13? at the time.
 I went on a scuba dive trip in the Stuart inlet. The visibility was really good and dove with a dive master and a group of divers.
I saw fish and we drifted with the current at up to 80 feet. I saw a school of sharks swimming and they were cruising not aggressive just going to get some lunch somewhere.
Because the water was so clear and there was lots of marine life too it was a dive that stuck out in my mind, of course the first good dive that you get will always stick out.

Off to "greener pastures" Mom decided to move but now it was much easier... we could just drive the boat there. Palatka FL bound.