Snorkeling in Florida

Ok so the gigs went real well. Sorry to leave you all hanging for so long for that last one. But yeah, my grandfather is fine, my mom is fine, the bike is fine (he is still riding, he is hardcore) and we all had a great time down in Fl. I got to try para-sailing, jet-skiing and snorkeling all for the first time, which were three of the most exciting things I have ever done in my life. I recommend that everyone go out at least one time in your life and snorkel if you get the chance. Don't waste your time in the Chesapeake bay trying with the dead seagulls and jellyfish stinging you in the face; on top of its completely bland aquatic life, we've polluted that bay so bad its like snorkeling in a Porta-Potty. Next time you are on vacation somewhere where the water is clear and the fish are bright make sure you snorkel. We were snorkeling on the 3rd largest barrier reef in the world, so it seemed surreal the whole time having never seen blue water in my life and then seeing that. When you get to the real deep areas its a terrifying, beautiful experience. Watching the sea floor drop down about 50 feet and thinking about the sluggish leviathans that rule the deep will probably get your heartbeat going. Of course if you spot a shark that will work wonders, too. I actually didn't see any sharks, although I tried by swimming about 300 yards away from the group away from the barrier reef, but I saw a ton of fish I have never seen before and a couple monster size fish that were just wandering around in no particular direction. Maybe a song is in order? Oh yeah I can hear it now...."you're my sexy little fish lady swimming around with your big empty eyes and shaking your fin my way, oooo la la la"

Adventure to Key West (Part 2)

As we pass the scene of the accident by the off-ramp to a rest station, and now in a state of panic my mother picks up her cell phone, her hands shaking violently. She dials Poppop's number to make sure it was just a coincidence.......ring..............that the bike on the tow truck is another bike just like his.....ring.............and that he is safely riding his look-a-like bike a few miles ahead of us......ring.....his phone picks up. "Hello, mam, my name is Trooper Bonner with the Florida State Police". All our worst fears were confirmed in that moment. We cut across the 75 MPH traffic to the far left lane where we made a u turn a few miles down in the "Ambulance Only" U-turn through the median. We then had to pass the accident in the opposite direction and make another U turn to get back. We pulled up and all jumped out quickly. I walked over to the tow truck and started investigating the damage on the bike and the marks it left on the asphalt. My mother ran over to the squad car and started talking to the officer inside. From the scratches it looks like he must have been going 50 when he crashed...not a good sign at all. The officer told us he was at a nearby hospital, so we hopped back in the Lincoln and followed him to the hospital.

We stepped into a small room where Poppop was laying on a sterile looking bed with white sheets. He looked up at us with an exhausted smile and said something to the effect of "well, that was fun". It turns out, according to the doctor, he had no major injuries. A bruised buttock and a concussion were the only damages he incurred. For a 50 MPH crash on the side of a major highway, it was nothing short of a miracle. Trooper Bonner (almost bone-er, heh heh) walked into the room after his diagnosis and said "Hey Paul, Im going to need to ask you a few questions". As a short interrogation ensued, we stood in the room, pensively engaged at the dialogue between the officer trying to find who was at fault and our concussed Poppop. After the questioning, officer Bonner, with a slight air of patronization, made a strong suggestion to Poppop that maybe he should consider purchasing a smaller bike, as the Honda Goldwing is one of the heaviest bikes available. Poppop, even as he lay there in a hospital bed from his bike, stubbornly dodged the suggestion and retorted with something to the effect of "yeah, maybe Ill think about it"...

We met up with Zip out in the lobby of the hospital and got Poppop into Lincoln, where he instructed us we had to go back to the place where the bike was towed to inspect the damage. Im pretty sure by that point, we were all a little ready to be done with the bike, but we drove about an hour back up the way we came to see the damage. (Keep in mind we haven't even gotten to our destination yet and we had been on the road for almost 19 hours in the last two days). So after some old man grumbles and off the wall ideas of how to get it driving again, we convinced Poppop he must accept defeat and leave it. And we did. We high tailed it out of there, put him on a plane back home and we finally got to Key West at about 2:30 A.M.

I would tell you how the gigs went, but Im sick of writing.