Road Trip

"OOOOHHHHHHMMMMMMMMMM"

This is my college roommate Dave absorbing knowledge from the "All Knowing Orb" in Dorm 68 at the University of West Florida ... circa 1979. It was SciFi night in the campus theatre and an assortment of science fiction movies were showing back to back. We bought some toy (or were they?) rayguns and these cool space helmets to wear to the show.

As I recall, after we sat down, a group of mentally disabled adults from the local Pensacola assisted living center came in and sat all around us. The guy next to Dave was pretty taken by his get up and kept telling him he had a nice hat. They were lots of fun and we all had a great time being nerdy SciFi fanatics.

So why am I blogging about a college roommate from long ago?

Be patient.

Left to right, Dave, Tina, FC ... 1979

When Thanksgiving came that year, Dave was too broke and too far from Kansas City to go home. Likewise, our wacky dorm buddy Tina (an Air Force) brat, was too far from Washington State where her parents had moved. So, I invited the two of them home to St. Augustine to have Thanksgiving with my family.

For 400 miles, trapped in my green Gremlin, they endured my Florida monologue.This was pre-internet so I had to expound about the wonders of Florida in person and to whoever I could corner. The two of them got an earful of why Florida is magical. Oh, every once in awhile, Dave would counter with some wonder of Kansas, like the Flint Hills or a river, but mostly I heard, " flat, dusty, blah, blah, no ocean, ..."

We went out in the boat, went to the beach, ate turkey, and toured my hometown. I took them to a place called Fish Island and they both immediately found flint spearpoints on the shore, so I ushered them back into the boat before they found all the cool stuff. Rascals!

I've lost touch with Tina, she was in Alaska the last time I had an email from her. Dave is married to a wonderful wife, Lightnin, and is a senior scientist for a really big company. He and I have remained fast friends through the years, so when he called me months ago and asked me to go on a road rally with him, I had to say yes. It just sounded like too much fun to pass up.

Below: Not Dave's car ...

HIS Solstice is silver.

I did not say yes immediately when he called me last spring and said, "Hey man, you wanna go to a Solstice rally called "Tail Of The Dragon?"

I thought, " Dang, ol Dave has gotten into Druidism or some new age crystal rubbing aromatherapy yogastretching HP Lovecrafty thang."

That was not the case, however.

It turns out, his sporty little car is a Solstice and Tail of the Dragon is an insanely curvy road rally of fellow Solstice owners.

Whew! I can handle 318 tight curves in eleven miles of skinny mountain road, but that new age stuff just boggles me.

So tomorrow morning, I'm heading down to Tampa International for a flight to the fabled midwest, where Dave and Lightnin will pick me up for a brief tour of the golden city of Cincinnati and then he and I will head out for the Tail of the Dragon in the ultra cool Solstice.

After the rally, we're driving back to Pure Florida HQ so Dave can board with us for a few days while he shops for a piece of land nearby.

If I get up early enough, there will be a Thursday post, but Pure Florida will probably be quiet until Sunday evening at the earliest. I don't think I'll be able to post from the road, but who knows?