My First Car

My FIL just passed around an email showing some automobiles from the 1950s.  I replied with the following:

My first car, inherited from my grandmother, was a 1966 Chevy II (AKA Nova).  This is her with her new baby.

4-door, straight-six engine with the vaunted 2-speed Power-Glide automatic transmission.  On the highway it was like driving in passing gear.

I got a lot of offers from mechanics-- even a sedan was valued for racing.  I learned to work on cars on it: it was dirt-simple, power nothing, no A/C and you could climb into the engine compartment.  It was considered a compact car, but I could roll my 10-speed bicycle into the back seat.  I can only get my bike into my current minivan if I take out all the seats.

I remember when I took out the AM radio and put in a AM/FM stereo cassette player.  No way could I get it to fill the gaping hole left by the radio, so I just braced it and it hung there in the dash.  To put in the speakers on the deck behind the rear seats was an adventure: nowadays the deck is plastic, or cardboard with a few metal braces.  In this car it was thick sheet steel, with a zig-zag fold from one side to the other to stiffen it.  I had to use a jigsaw from underneath in the trunk, with the shavings falling in my face, through the fold, and then file to fit.  What a chore.  Sounded nice, though.

When I traded it in on a used 1982 Trans-Am, it was at Valenti's in Mystic.  As I was driving it into the dealer for the last time, someone was leaving-- in a 1966 Chevy II wagon!  He gave me a big grin and wave, and I felt like a heel, a traitor.  I got over it, though: mmm, but that Trans-Am was nice!

Florida, Take Two

We left on a Friday evening, last weekend in September. Same drive routine, but we first went to Boynton Beach this time to visit my uncle. We stayed, reluctantly, at a Holiday Inn Express; our last experience with them, in Albany about 2001, was not a good one. They have vastly improved: this one was very nice, and the free breakfast was decent as these things go. We'd stay there again.

My uncle is getting old. Very old. He tries to stay active but he is not as vigorous as he'd like to be. We first came upon him as he was working in the yard and he looked like hell, exhausted. He was much better when we met him next day for lunch.

On (or up) to Orlando. We stayed at the Radisson Resort Orlando-Celebration, which is just the other side of I-4 from the 192 Disney World entrance. Our history with hotels is spotty: we like Hampton Inns, and Sue is rather picky otherwise. We have stayed at various places she disliked, and picking anyplace is a crapshoot. This place she liked: likes so much, in fact, that she wants to go back there.

The season helped: it was still hot, but being September-October not too many tourists were around; the hotel was not close to full. We just hung around one of the pools, tried a drink or two from the pool-side bar, and just bummed around the area. A visit to the Disney Marketplace was enough to satisfy Sue's Mickey jones. We were ready to leave for home, and Sue hadn't actually been *in* the pool yet; she went in finally the morning we checked out. They have a waterfall, and a small waterslide, and Sue went down it several times. When I tell this to people that know her, they refuse to believe it; luckily I have photographic proof.

We swung by Daytona Beach on the way north, got a bit of sun and some Wally Wings and so to home. A much better experience this time around.

Pop Century

I wasn't expecting much; I figured it would be clean, reasonable, and without too many frills. Boy, was I right. We had come to expect certain amenities: in-room coffee-maker, Internet, refrigerator (for my drugs). None of that here. Well, they did have Internet, for a steep fee. I kept my drugs in my insulated lunchbox with ice. For coffee, off to the cafeteria. It was a basic, bed-shower-TV motel, with a vague 80's motif: wall art and linen had images of old toys and movies and such. The complex is divided in to decades: 60s, 70s, 80s, and 90s. We had a huge Mickey Mouse phone outside our room; opposite was a giant Big Wheels trike. Under construction between was a super-sized foos-ball court. One of the three pools was shaped like a computer (in the 90s section). I was not too impressed, but then I must maintain my cynical air at all times.

The cafeteria was bleah. It was basically a food court, with uninspiring selections at a high price (surprise!). I watched them make an omlette from fresh eggs, and it still was bland and rubbery. The bacon cheeseburger wasn't up to McDonald's standards. And so on. And the stupid drinks-- go and figure out the stupid coffee dispenser. Nothing at Disney, I exclaimed in frustration, can be simple: not content with just a nozzle with a flip-handle, it has to be some pressure-driven thing where the delivery lags the handle by a few seconds. Flip-- nothing. Flip-- nothing. Flip and hold, hold, hold: finally it starts pouring. Let go: it's still pouring! Arrrgh!

We did the Magic Kingdom; due to the season and the weather, it wasn't too busy and we didn't have any monster lines. We don't do the thrill rides, so the Haunted Mansion and Small World got our business. We were in line with a British family; I'll bet they were happy to get out of the soggy United Kingdom to Sunny Florida!

The drive home was uneventful (we stage from Jacksonville and do the rest in one shot, getting home at about 3:00AM), although again it rained most of the way. The next day, Memorial Day, was actually nice and I was able to cut the grass. Yahoo. Altogether, a fairly disappointing trip. So, we went back again!

Wet 'N Not-So-Wild

We took a trip to Florida in April 2009.

I have relatives there, and as a kid made regular summer trips with my father to visit everyone, staying with my grandparents in Hialeah (a Miami suburb). I routinely got a severe sunburn in the first visit to the beach. If I wasn't smart enough to learn to protect myself, I now wonder why my father wasn't, either. I resignedly await my melanoma.

While in the Navy, I was stationed in Orlando for two and a half years. I hated it. It's hot, it's flat, it's boring. I went to the beach maybe four times while I was there, and to Epcot once when a friend visited. I was very happy to go back to New London and to sea duty again.

Then I married. Where did Sue want to go on our honeymoon? You guessed it-- Disney World. After that we went regularly-- while in the service, and for three years after, I was able to use the military resort at Disney, Shades of Green-- and now we stay with my uncle in Boynton Beach. We drive from Connecticut, because I like to, and we have friends and relatives everywhere from Kingsland, GA (just north of the Florida border) to Hollywood (just north of Miami). Flying down and then putting those miles on a rental doesn't seem as much fun.

So, in 2008 we didn't go: saving money. In 2009, we had enough saved up, and were able to realize Sue's ambition: staying at a Disney resort again. We lost access to Shades of Green in 2000, and since then stayed outside the park, when we stayed there at all. We didn't go to the theme parks every year; just going to the "no admission" Disney Village / Marketplace was enough to satisfy Sue most of the time. This time, we decided to go to the Magic Kingdom; it had been a while. We made reservations at one of the "value" resorts, Pop Century.

We usually will start our vacation on Friday, so that we can leave Thursday evening and get a head start. We drive six hours plus traffic to just south of Washington, DC. that night. This gets us past all the traffic in one shot. The next day it's an easy twelve hours or so to Jacksonville. This time the trip down was okay; we were able to go a bit early, 1:00 PM, to overnight at a reasonable hour, and Friday stayed in Jacksonville. We visited with a friend in Fernandina Beach, who was my neighbor in both Orlando and Groton.

The next morning, we drove to Daytona Beach where we hoped to visit my cousin, and stay overnight Saturday while waiting for our check-in time at Disney on Sunday. My cousin was not available: something had come up. Fine, we can go to the beach instead; or not, since it was about to rain. Oh, yeah, the rain: it rained when we left. It rained all the way down the coast. And now it was raining in Daytona Beach. And then Sue was hit by a bug that took her down for the count. The hotel let us check in before 3 PM, and she went to bed and stayed there. I was ready to take her to the emergency room to be looked at. I was thinking we'd have to cancel our reservations and just go back home, she was so bad, and wouldn't she be disappointed.

Little did I reckon with her ambition: she'd crawl out of her deathbed to get to Disney, and in truth she felt better in the morning with a solid 18 hours of sleep. Off we went to the resort.

Posting For The Sake Of Posting

Yes, I am still alive. Since last spring, we have gone to Florida. Twice. I guess I will post on that soon. In the meantime, I have today started a Facebook page, mainly to drive home to myself how few friends I really have.