The drive to the Brinton Environmental Center ("Sea Base
West") was pleasant. It was fun watching the change of scenery,
especially once we got out to the keys proper. The traffic was light, so
we weren't held up much. Today we head for Sea Base. We got up slightly early, checked out, and stopped at a McD for breakfast, then hit the road. Except for a slight bit of confusion at one point (I didn't realize that there are two Florida's Turnpikes), the drive down was uneventful.
The drive to the Brinton Environmental Center ("Sea Base
West") was pleasant. It was fun watching the change of scenery,
especially once we got out to the keys proper. The traffic was light, so
we weren't held up much.
I enjoyed the interesting bridges in the Keys, old railroad trestles that had later been turned into roadways. Apparently, a railroad was built to Key West in the 1930's, but it was fairly quickly washed out by a hurricane. The bridges were later converted to a roadway before they were eventually replaced by the "new" bridges. The old bridges are still there, sometimes open to foot and bike traffic, but more often cut off at the ends. Because they were originally railroad bridges they are narrow. On some of them, I don't see how two cars, let alone two trucks, could have passed.
After a quick lunch stop, we arrived at the Brinton Center just
after our 2pm planned arrival. We met Adam Meister who will be our
Island Mate for the week. He gave us a tour of the facility, showed us
our bunk room, did our swim test, issued us our snorkel equipment, and
did a snorkeling shakedown.
Adam ran and I ran into Key West to drop off the rental van. Adam drove one of the Sea Base vans to bring me back. We got back just in time for "flags" and dinner. It was good getting to know him on the drive. (The Brinton Center is just about 20 miles from the Key West airport.) I was particularly impressed how he maintains his enthusiasm after a long summer being an Island Mate.
After dinner, Max had a crew chief meeting, and then we all saw a
slide show about the Keys and some of the unusual flora and fauna. We
learned how to do the Big Munson shuffle, and why they don't allow
skinny dipping any more. (Don't ask.)
The guys had a bit too much free time in the evening and started to get a bit fractious. I don't expect that this will be a problem for long.
 Previous Page |
 Back To Index |
 Next Page |