Sea base trip 1999 unfinished

I felt very independent, mobile. The sun was shining bright, everything here was so bright. I stepped off the bus and smiled.

Only that morning I had been in Alanta visiting with good old Mark Wyssbrod. A quick flight to Miami, a shuffled haist, to the greyhound and I was here. It was bright so very bright. The bus had drove past my stop but it was just as well. Hiking in was the only proper way to enter a scout camp anyway. Good friends were there. People who had arranged the trip where there, old friends of twelve years or more. The boys. The sun was purifying. The blue foreign smells of the sea fill my nose. I had all I needed, back pack on, duffel bag slung with a pillow tucked under the sling. It was Saturday just the beginning for this adventure.

Most of my class mates were studing for a big exam for this coming Monday. Got that over with early. Did well on that test and I knew it. Open sky spanned out before me. They don’t have sky like this in Kentucky. They don’t have sky like this anywhere. I started across the bridge facing the oncoming traffic. Ya hiking into a scout camp. Now that’s the only proper way. This is the Flordia Keys, blue sea spanned out before me. It was all here. The water was clear as air. Brown patches of sea weed splotted the water. A school of fish lay hovering just below me. I was wearing that hat that good old Butch (my grandfather) used to fish in. That was special some how, he had passed on about a year before.

I thought of the fish, the seaweed, my classmates crammed in some libray. That made me smile. I had beaten the system somehow and I felt pretty good.

I thought of the first time here, the key dear the salty water, the fish. It was a good heat that warmed my skin, life rolls on. So many things have changed, all was bright so unbelievably bright. I was here. It was unbelievable. In the midst of graduate school, I had made it to the Keys, good friends ahead and a whole week to be down in the sun hanging with the fish.
Special thanks to Nadim, Nathan and Pooh for setting up that trip for me. Fun was had by all.