1st Day in Sarasota

We met up with Suyen's friend from the Philippines at her house in Sarasota.  Our friend, Ken, also got us in contact with a friend of his, who now lives in Sarasota -- Shannon.  We are still wiped out from last night, so the first part of the day was spent getting up and around, and going over to the house and getting re-aquainted.  I took a nap which wiped out my grogginess.  I had to spend the early morning hours fighting with the computer as an update from Apple screwed some things up that I was trying to do.  Suyen, Stella, her mother, Tima and I met up with Shannon at a nice coffeehouse downtown.  I haven't been to southern Florida since I was little in 1973.  I went to the panhandle of Florida in 1995, when I was in the Air Force Reserves doing Silver Flag training at Tyndal Air Force base.  We got visited by a nice hurricane then called Erin.

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From Nashville to Sarasota

We left the Com"fart" Inn after having brekkus at afflehouse.  Suyen and I got in too late for the free continental breakfast.  Most of those are barely worth the walk to the lobby anyway.  The afflehouse was more local color anyway.  Suyen was noticing the accent, which is really thick in this part of Tennessee.  We headed south and I looked at the clock on the dash... 11:11.  We got to the Smoky Mountains, and I thought about the Civil War, and how depressing that was.  A major battle took place in these mountains.   Like the Battle of Lookout mountain, many people pass this way every day as the gateway to Georgia and Atlanta.

Driving up the steep grades west of Chattanooga Tennessee...

Going down the steep 6 percent grade in the Smoky Mountains West of Chattanooga Tennessee...

Not much to see of Chattanooga Tennessee from the highway...

We headed south with haste hoping to beat rush hour in Atlanta, barely giving Chattanooga a glance, as it could scarcely be seen from the highway, anyway.  We did penetrate Atlanta's traffic barely an hour before the evening rush, and even at that, it was bad.  We had to pee really bad, but we waited until we had cleared most of Atlanta.

Driving past downtown Atlanta Georgia just before rush hour traffic on the interstate...

We stopped at a Quicktrip, which was surprising, because I didn't realize they had them this far south.  Quicktrip has become my favorite convenience chain because of their clean bathrooms and decent food.  We had thought we had ditched the traffic, but the worst was before us on I-75, just southeast of Atlanta -- road construction.  Afterward, we made a poor choice of getting diesel at a Pilot.  It turned out to be poor because there were only 4 pumps available for regular cars that carried diesel.  All four were filled, and people seemed to be not in a hurry to fuel up their vehicles and make the pumps available for others to use.  Most egregious was a baptist church group in a bus who were camped out at one of the pumps.   I parked behind them because I thought they were going to be done first.  Boy, was I wrong.  They finished fueling, alright, but then the driver looked up at me waiting and slooowly turned away and fiddled around flirting with his young teen female bus riders.   Suyen, who went in the store to go to the restroom said it was worse in there, as the kids had gathered around the register at once and took for ever to get checked out, thereby forcing other drivers at the pumps to wait.  A pump finally opened up.  I fueled up, then parked the truck so I could go in and use the bathroom and take Tima for her potty break.  When we left, the bus was still camped out at the pump, and kids were treating the parking lot as a playground, playing frisby and running around and gabbing with each other in large clumps, not paying any mind to anybody else tring to get in and out.   We headed south in the forever part of the trip.  We crossed the state line into Florida way past dusk.  We stopped for some KFC at 10, mainly for a break.  Around Tampa, the drivers got angry and impatient.  It was close to midnight and there were still a lot of cars on the road.  If you dared venture into the left lane to try to pass, someone would get right up on you and flash their lights impatiently.  The result of all this was that we ended up being delayed by a fatal wreck involving a van and an 18 wheeler.  The biggest offenders I could remember were a woman in a silver jeep who raced, zig zagged, flashed and tailgated her way south, an 18 wheeler who almost clipped us as he passed us, and a Florida Movers van who was blaring music and dancing in the drivers seat, then yelling threats at us when he wanted to cut in front of us at the ass ident scene.  Later, he was racing and zig zagging through a construction zone.  We arrived in Sarasota about 01:30, and found a nice Best Western with Mid-Century modern design.

Florida Trip

After a few false starts, starting out late and eating at our favorite restaurant (Vietnam Cafe) we headed out on this hot summer day. The weather up north is frightful as there was something of a tornado outbreak in Minnesota, but on our trek we had clear skies. It has been raining hard everywhere we went, so the rivers are up. Crossing Missouri seemed longer than I remember on I-70. I got the stream going and was able to record downtown St. Louis as we passed through. I had it uploaded by the time we passed out of the worst town in the U.S. (East St. Louis).

There is not much to see in St. Louis from the highways and the sites you do see are quite grim. The highways are ugly and tricky to navigate. St. Louis is best to be avoided unless you are planning a visit there. Illinois is quite boring to cross. I kept cussing every time we hit a big bump on the highway and I muttered something about how Chicago is to blame.

By the time we crossed into Kentucky, it was dark. We pooped out at about Nashville and took a motel east of the city.

Dried Up

Dried Up

Bridges

After a fight with my significant other, I had to walk. Walking is my therapy and exercise, or is that exorcise? So I walked. I left home Thursday afternoon about 13:40. I didn't know exactly where I was going at first. Later a goal, materialized, I would walk from our home north of the river to my wife's workplace. I walked first to Riverside. I wanted to cross the Missouri at the Argosy Casino bridge, go into KCK and then cross over into the west bottoms on the Missouri side. It was my first challenge, and I wanted to see if I could do it, or if a lack of pedestrian areas on bridges would hold me back. I mean, Lewis and Clark had no bridges to get across major rivers, but then they never had to deal with 70 plus mile per hour traffic. So with the afternoon sun beating down upon me, I first stopped at the casino for some water and rest from the heat. I never have been in this casino before, so I thought I'd explore. I must say, fancy, and interesting how invisible a person can really be. My experiment and experience was also one of homelessness. I mean, I didn't look like a bum, but leaving home without and ID sort of put me in an invisible status. I had no fear, but I also knew that I could disappear, and no one would know where I went. Invisibility in this society is easy, sometimes easier than existing. People are very good and narrowing their world view to a small focus and reducing everything around them to nothingness except for what their own needs and narcissism would allow. I walked through the casino once, and not a single person looked up or noticed. If I had met some foul play or an accident, I wondered even if some surveillance tape would show up to alleviate the mystery of my whereabouts. I left the casino to cross the grounds to the target bridge. When I got there, it was as expected -- no sidewalks. Pedestrians are a complete afterthought in an automobile society. I thought, what entitlement minded people dreamed up a single use crossing of a major river. How are people expected to cross if they don't have transportation? What if some calamity befell somebody in that they couldn't cross by any other means than by shoe rubber? I guess it is tough luck. The second lesson of homelessness is that you are not only invisible, you do not matter. So shame on these bridges and their designers. I turned around and went back to the casino. I was going to walk the levee around the casino and follow the river all the way to the Broadway bridge, which I knew had walkways. The levee didn't go very far though. It was only built as part of the casino complex in this area, and ended at the park. So, I walked back through the casino, after walking through some areas I'm sure would have attracted security. I came to the park, and walked to the northeast end to see if I could follow the river there. I found a nice beach, but no access beyond the beach. So I walked through the park which was being readied for the highland games, and took the outer road to another park -- Water Wheel park, which was quite busy with baseball games. I took a drink at the water fountain there, and rested my sore feet. Again, I had the sense of invisibility. People were busying themselves with the games and their families and took no notice of me or where I came from. I'm sure some sideways paranoid glances of some middle aged guy who walked into their midst were given, but other than that, I was completely ignored. I rested at a picnic bench, and walked on to take the Broadway extension south. I thought I would try crossing under the overpass, as I was sure the pedestrian situation there was just as dismal. I tried to cross the tracks which the overpass was built to fly over, but found a thicket too intense to cross without a good machete, which I didn't have. I kept thinking that I could run into some malevolent force by the tracks there, and my remains would not be found for years. It is easy to disappear. I got out of the thickets and up on the highway, and found that I really needed a detour, unless I was intent on killing myself. There was no sidewalk, and no shoulder, and the cars flew through there quite fast. Just as I thought that, my invisibilty went away. Someone stopped and gave me a lift over the bridge. I cheated, I thought. I wanted to try to walk the whole way. However, some devine intervention it seemed brought me a guardian angel. I think his name was Dominique. He was hispanic, and had tatoo's and drove a car that spewed smoke and seemed to be on it's last set of tires. I thought, here is a guy that many people probably do not look at twice, and he stopped to help me. A thought kept repeating itself in my head "Jesus is everybody you meet." He gave me a lift and would have driven me all the way into town, but I just asked to be taken across the bridge. I thanked him as best I could, but probably not enough. I walked on the shoulder of 169 south, which was ample, but seemingly not enough for the speed some people were going. Four more cars stopped for me -- two hispanic guys, someone from the middle east, and one caucasian. I thanked them all -- probably not graciously enough, and told them I was wanting to walk. I was beginning to get scarred for them, as their stopping for me could have been more dangerous than my walking alone. However, I do not recommend walking on this highway as a healthy pursuit. Again traffic wins out over pedestrians. I came to the downtown airport, and rested by the terminal. I was not harassed by the 'Barney Fifes'. By this time, I was really feeling my weariness. The temps were in the 80's and humidity was high. I felt a little ill before I rested. I trucked on, across the looming dreaded Broadway Bridge. So now I look up Broadway Bridge in wikipedia, and find....

"The Broadway Bridge is a through arch bridge that spans the Missouri River in Kansas City, Missouri, in the United States. It first opened for traffic September 9, 1956 on U.S. Route 169. It was built at a cost of $12 million dollars. It was a toll bridge until 1991.
It replaced the Second Hannibal Bridge just to its east which had handled auto traffic on its upper level."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broadway_Bridge_(Kansas_City)

I have driven, but have never walked the Broadway Bridge. I take that back, I walked it once when there was an accident scene I had to shoot on it, and it was scary then. I knew that it could be walked from that experience, plus I have seen a few pedestrians walk it regularly. However, the walkways on the bridge are not much, and people come at you fast. Some drive so fast, that in the areas where the road curves, they try to cut the corners and close as they can, which means the come very close to hitting you as you walk the walkways. I held onto the railing, and walked fairly confidently. It may not be much here, but it is something. I stopped briefly twice to enjoy the view. I'm sure as I did so, I spotted some drivers on their cell phones probably calling in a 'jumper' to 911. Some were just on their cell phones probably in deference to their safety, pedestrian safety and the safety of other drivers. I saw some hefty looking white guys in an SUV flash big doughy angry looks on their faces, like, how dare somebody be walking on their bridge. I got across safely, finally on the south side of the Missouri, which much more appreciation of rivers and what it took for pioneers to cross them without feats of engineering such as bridges to effortlessly spirit them across. By, this time, I was feeling the soreness of my feet and the churning of my stomach. I needed water. I took a break at the park on the east side of Broadway, that covers the old street car line entrance that took you out to the west bottoms from downtown. I felt sick for a little bit, and, yes, again, quite invisible. I thought about those guys who beg at the north side of the Broadway bridge. I walked to the Quaff, went in, and asked the bartender if I could bother him for a cup of water. He was really nice. He said, "are you kidding, in weather like this, I'm happy to give you some water." It was nice to reappear to someone as a living breathing human being worthy of respect. The Quaff has a new fan. I walked to Bartle Hall, thinking I could refill my cup, which I drained quickly. I walked in the revolving door, which was still open, and spotted a water fountain. I was, however stopped by a security lady, who smiling told me I could go no further without a badge. I told her I was only there to get some water, and she denied me. I said, "are you serious, even though I can see the water fountain you won't let me get a drink?" She just said, "I'm sorry sir." I said, "well I guess that's the way life is." I left thinking that my tax money supports that place, and I can't even go in to get a drink of water. So, I headed south, and I stopped at YJ's. I could go no further. I gave in and called my wife from YJ's. i drank plenty of free water at YJ's, and I know they are quite good to the homeless there, much better even than I am. Jesus is everyone you meet.

Sever Weather floods our area....

Tuesday turned into an impromtu chase day at work. We were in and documented the worst of the flooding at 103rd and State line and Wornall. During the chase, I noticed convergence on radar of a tvs marker and a meso marker which were going to cross in Cass County. We also saw what looked like a huge dirt dragging wall cloud. I even told my reporter that I thought Cass county was going to get hit. I didn't find out until I read the NWS summary a day later that I was right. A tornado did hit Cass County!









All pictures are from the National Weather Service site at Pleasant Hill, Missouri
Here's a link to a news story on the aftermath of the tornado...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YD3UxhhCriY