Tuesday Spontaneity

We thought we might head southwest towards Mobile, Alabama.

But as the mood struck we decided to head southeast toward Apalachicola National Forest in the Florida panhandle.

What a day it was.

The day started with an e-mail from my estranged brother.  It culminated in not only hate and anger, but accusations that my failure to be cordial at the age of 18 forced him away from our family, and that after he left, it should have been my responsibility to track him down.

How inconsiderate of me.

That e-mail made me sad.  But he’s done worse before.  I haven’t talked to him in five years, but responded to him now because I’m trying to be a more loving person and I wanted to give him a chance.

As heartbreaking and biting as his words were, I was prepared.

People are jerks sometimes.  Nonetheless, as his words poured through my head and I rationalized and forgave, stammered and ranted we took off down Route 231.

After hours of driving, passing literally dozens of closed gas stations, we made it into Florida and finally Panama City.

We took a look at the long awaited gulf.

Our birth pains were over, and there she was.  Smashing and soaking the cement block of the pier and gushing out in rivers to the sea.  The great body sipped up the wounded, only to send them back into its relentless winning war of attrition with the concrete.

Lucy was nearly swept away and we were back in the car headed for calmer waters.

Panama City is a maze of residential streets that quickly ascend and descend income levels.

As we were drving around a corner, a speed hump suddenly loomed in front of the car.  I tried to slow down but it was too late.

As the rear end of the car met the hump, I looked in the mirror and saw our bikes fly 4 feet into the air.

They crashed down from their flight and began to skid along the roadway.

Crap.

I slowly pulled off to the side of the road.

The lines that hold the rack to the trunk had literally snapped.

20 minutes and 16 bungee cords later we had a rig that would work for a few miles.  We headed to Target and bought a new bike rack.  Before long, and $40 later, everything returned to its pre-speed-hump state, except the trunk lid, which shall forever more be 1/4” longer.

Back on the road, we headed east to Mexico Beach.

As cold and depressing as the day’s events had been up to that point, standing in the cold and wind and trying to cook seemed worse.  So we found a cheap local seafood place.

It was delicious.  Not the Captain D’s ushering your arteries into the sweet sleep of death kind of good, but actually good.

We left but soon pulled off of the road because we found a cornucopia of unsecured networks nearby.

15 minutes later the popo showed up.

Crap.

But like no police I’ve ever had the pleasure to be interrogated by before, they were very nice.

Given that it’s the Florida beach around spring break time, they were probably happy that we weren’t trashed out teenagers or coked up college kids.

After they ran my ID and left, Melissa and I found a spot to park along Mexico Beach.

The wind had picked up and the moon was overhead.  The waves were tall and white.  We pulled out a few beers, and we sat and we talked, and we watched the waves break.

We drank beer out of a plastic water bottle and we enjoyed each other’s company.  And the wind blew and the waves crashed, and it was beautiful.

We’ve been through a lot the past couple of weeks.  Yesterday just seemed to pile on top of that.

All day I asked, when do the spontaneous good things start happening?  All the spontaneous thins up to that point seemed bad.

But as I sat and poured another beer into the water bottle, she touched my hand and she looked at me, and the waves washed ashore.

Comments

wow, guys - at least you’ve got your health ....
I’m glad you’re not giving up and are continuing to press on in your adventure.
Seems like every possible form of discouragement is being thrown your way, but you’re handling it with dignity (and beer).  We continue to pray for you and continue to be proud of your determination and dream.  We love you!

Hi Melissa & Brad… we have been following your adventures, your Grandpa gave us your web site.  Sounds like it has been up and down.  You are handling it so well.  We are thinking of you and will keep checking on you, you can call or e-mail us if you want, or if you need anything.  Our phone 800-282-1062 ext 123.
Take care and have a great time!!  Francie & Bobby

I just wanted to tell you guys that I have to do a powerpoint project for one of my classes and I couldn’t figure out what to do...but I decided I’m going to do it on you two and your latest adventures.  I love you guys and I think that it is very courageous, and most people would never dream of doing such a thing, especially at your age....well except me. but thats probably because i’m stuck in school...errrr i hate school.  I could always drop out and get married and hope for the best...it’s seemed to work for a lot of pple. haha.. j/k i wouldn’t do that. 

No but really I just wanted to make sure that it was alright with you! e-mail me @ thomasht@email.uc.edu and let me know.  Thanks again. love you and God bless!!

i enjoyed ur comment on the maze of streets in panama.

you guys have been through a lot. weird but today i was by the water as well. it was beautiful out. so i decided to take a walk along the Vlatvta river. i don’t like water but i walked right alongside of it and there were dogs running up and down the walk along the water. it was beautiful and i got really sad for some reason. i miss u guys and everyone but i kept walking.

then i went to this supermarket and was in line to check out and i hear this guy bitching in another line. this old guy in front of me turns around and starts talking to me in Czech. i look at him and go “angliscky?"(english) he said “you do not understand me”
im like no but i do understand that guys pissed.
he laughed. and i laughed.
i don’t know him but it was nice that random strangers can still connect over observations.

keep looking out. maybe its like being addicted to something. u have to hit rock bottom before things start to get better.
just hope no one tosses u a shovel.

Hello Brad & Melissa
Heard about your send off the other week.
No one told me to look up your blog/website. I figured out all by myself that you would have one.
HA!
Listen I got something important to tell you.
And I think that you are gonna like this:
I have a friend, Karen, who has lived in New Orleans,LA for almost 20 yrs.  She can tell ya and show ya Katrina, daylight, nightlight, meet bill murray the cat, and listen to her radio show on college radio
She has worked for FEMA
and knows alot about a lotta things… really.

You can sit around and masticate a few hundred topics with her. You can manipulate, puncuate your sentences the way you want, Karen won’t care. Why?
She’s a OSU journalism major!
So if that info sounds interesting, lemme know and I will send it off line.
BTW, did you sell the solar panels? If not, and you got some time, tell me about them.
Blessing to ya both,
patti g
Anyway

Patti,

That would be spectacular.  I don’t have your e-mail address, could you e-mail us at simplyonelife@gmail.com?

I gave the solar panel to my dad to experiment with, if he doesn’t put them to good use soon I’ll let you know.

Thanks again.