CM & Brain Collision "The Sequel" - Both Albums are now Up and Running!

[brain]

Ladies and Germs! (oops, that's Garfield's line - sorry
folks!)

*** Ahem ***

Ladies and Gentlemen; boys and girls ...
Crazy Monkey and old Brainy is about to collide
AGAIN ... coming this Friday! Only this time around,
Poor CM! She and her Uncle, whom I fondly call him
Unkky has to stay under my torture, err, reigns for
the entire day and night!



But alas, what lies in store for them?

TONS OF FUN!



As of this date - when CM is able to, for a brief time,
she has been keeping me posted while they wander
"aimlessly" on the Eastern Seaboard of the United States
(*laughing*)... so far:

(MY VERSION OF HER STORY!)

• They've clobbered Statue of Liberty! (Does anyone know if she's still standing there at the Harbor?)
• They've zoomed across the Adirondacks! (And my gosh, I wondered how many wildlife has clung on their vehicles?)
• Trod alongside with the Amish in PA! (Welkommen! I have more respect for Amish - love their cooking!)
• Blew Up Gettysburg! (What did you expect from someone named "Crazy Monkey? I am pretty sure she attempted to light up one of those cannons!)
• Warned her there's no GOLD in Ft. Knox! (But I am pretty sure she attempted to raid it and only found fool's gold! LOL!)
• Wandered down in the heart of the South in 'Bammy (Alabama) - (But I have not heard from her yet ... my assumption is that she might have been lulled by the heavenly smell of southern cooking and ate so much of it until she learned what it was that she ate! LOL!)
• Well ... that was my story ... *laughing*

After 'Bama .. both of them will be heading right around
the corner from me ...



And they do not know all the good cooking that lies in
store for them as well! They are in for some real treat!
She demanded it - she getteth!



Yes, folks .... She will be online, via my computer - one
of them - either my desktop or my wireless, so I am positive
that she will have her side of the story!

[brain]

I will be dragging them to (clicking on images will
take you to the site):

To the Brooker Creek Preserve - which is HUGE!



(next time they return, it will be at Eagle Lake Preserve/Park
which has yet to open; the former Taylor Ranch - with over
38 miles of trails! We should have bicycles by then and we
would have them stored at my mother's house by the time
they arrive since I grew up right around the corner and spent
time as a ranch hand there - it is a beautiful place and will
open in November - includes everything all original including
the original settler's homestead, slaughterhouse, so much more)

We will also hit up on the famous Countryside Mall where the
Ice Rink is for a brief moment - which the Australians own now:

(These are images of the Huge Mall which ranks exceptionally
high in America & International)



Then it would be Beach & Fishing at Dunedin Causeway which
is also famous for Caledesi Island and Honeymoon Island.



And of course - after we catch the fish, I'm going to
be "southern frying them" (and yes, I am going to be
butchering them and most likely CM is going to be online,
as if ... she is going to watch me slaughter the catch?)

[brain]

And that isn't all - since Dunedin is sister city to
Edinburgh, Scotland (I hoped I spelled that City right);
we just recently had the Highlander Games - with the
Clans here and from Scotland together and some Irish
too ... loads of fun! CM and her Unkky are wanting to
check out some of the "cannery" (PUBS) - to see if they
are as if it is "back home" and I almost want to dare have
them put forth their best accent forward and insomuch
they are going to be in for a treat that people actually
understands them!



I hope I wear them out!

[Crazy Monkey]

Yes, folks .... She will be online, via my computer - one
of them - either my desktop or my wireless, so I am positive
that she will have her side of the story!

Hehe I can reply earlier then Brain thought as I have my laptop with me.

Unc and I went out and bought a case of beer and invited Sharon, Steven and Kim over for a drink at our hotel room. Sharon and Kim didn't drink so Steven, Unc and I looked after their share.

We all had so much to tell each other afterall we are practically strangers getting to know each other.

Sharon - that is quite a task list you have written above, as long as there is wildlife for me to photograph I'll be happy. Oh and as long as the day involves fishing, as this is something that I have really been looking forward too as I have never tried my hand at fishing before.

But gutting a fish = gross
and I most deffo cannot clobber one over the head I think I might need more practice to harden to this part of the fishing life.

Our road trip so far = Sharon has pretty much summed it up, we started by flying into Washington DC, we were not happy with our car so we exchanged it at Baltimore. We then spent a couple of days in Atlantic city, New Jersey before braving a night time drive through the streets of New York City, the lights of Times Square WOW. I know that Unc is currently feeling particularly proud of himself for achieving a drive through NYC. We then went and played in the snow in the Adirondacks and then drove across Pennsylvannia passing through Amish country and Gettysburg. We then drove the Blue ridge parkway in Virginia accept low cloud spoilt the fun, then onto the Smoky's in Tennessee and one of my favourite places in the USA, a small town called Gatlingburg which is the gateway to the Smoky's. After crossing Alabama I am in Sharon territory yikes.

Wear us out???? NEVER, but give it your best shot

And I am most deffo looking forward to trying your southern cuisine.

[brain]

Here I am folks!

CM and Unkky arrived here early Thursday night; whereas,
my son, his soon-to-be-wife, and I ended up cycling over
to their Motel where they were staying - chatting for a bit;
just yakking our heads off - literally!

And believe it or not ... I cannot even REMEMBER what all
was said but I sure do remember the stupid thing I did that
zoned me out where I had some problems riding home; oh,
the "royal blonde-ness" of me that shone my own halogen
bicycle lamp right smack into the mirror and looked at it!
::: smacks head :::

Those Halogen Lamps really are a problematic issue with
me!



------------------------------

Then comes Friday ... while a bit sad, due to the drought in
Florida, but we all headed out to Brooker Creek Preserve;
walked all over the place, even "off the trail" in some areas.
However --> there was a small Monarch Butterfly "playing"
games with CM as "Snap-Me If You Can". I thought it was
kind of cute as it seemed to have followed her all around!
LOL!



I am sure she will post some photos ...

Then we returned back to my home for Lunch - and "Tea
Time" for them, before heading off to fish ... and while I
left with 4 fishing poles; I returned back with 2 poles. *sigh*
*laughing* It was comical ... but nonetheless, CM caught the
most fish out there including "almost legal limit catch", but
she sure did have fun using several different poles. (Although
I did spent a lot of time having to tie up new rigs and moving
rigs to another pole. *laughing*) Loosing the other 2 poles
were no big deal, considering all those fishing poles I have in
the shed. However, it was sad that we were not able to land
anything for "din-din". I really was looking forward to fillet and
frying them up!



Nonetheless, her Unkky was wanting to hit up on Daytona
Beach, to his favorite spot ----> ZOOM ... off they went after
returning back to our home to drop us off ... before they go
and storm off to South Carolina!

I am sure you will hear from CM from somewhere ...

It was nice to see her Unkky having a nice tan to show off
when he returns home, as well as CM having a nice little sun
on her (hint of color - not southern fried) - so Florida has
left its mark upon them!



They had a lot of fun and lots of laughter!

As for me - I have no idea where I was... *laughing*

[brain]

Err - on the other hand, never mind the "Daytona Trip";
I failed to wear out CM - instead, I wore out her Unkky!

[Ruth]

Hey, that is great. You and CM on vacation together and having a great time. Wish I could be there with you and not miss out on all of the fun!!

You are telling it better than the "big fish" story. It is probably real life, but not with you two. Continue telling your fun trip, as it takes it's different turns. Put in more pictures. The more the better. I love it!!

Brain, your signature line really fits this trip. The trip to end all trips. Keep having fun. Ruth

[Ruth]

I need some beauts of pictures today. Lots and lots of more stories from you twosome. This is great!! You have me

[Crazy Monkey]

Hey Feast
I will post my full version of events tonight as long as my laptop is working, I am currently using my iPod itouch and it is awkward to type a huge story.

I need to check my laptop out in a min as I had a seizure this morning and dropped the damn thing on the concrete in the hotel car park, luckily I think it bounced but need to charge the battery up so that I can check it out, if everything is ok I'll load some pics as well

[Crazy Monkey]

Wahoo, that was lucky, my laptop is still alive, what a relief. It must be indestructible. A bright floodlight was in my line of sight this morning in the car park and I went straight off into a seizure whilst I was transporting my laptop.

Back to my version of yesterdays events.

As a lot of you know, I met Brain for the first time this Christmas just gone and I had such a good time that I wanted to find a way to visit her during this trip, plus she promised to take me fishing as this was something that I had never done and I like to experience everything at least once.

First off I got the shock of my life when Sharon informed me that if I wanted to fish I would have to be at her house for 3:30am??? but that changed over the course of the last few days and we ended up fishing in the afternoon rather then the morning.

After the drinking session we had with her son (Steven) the night before, we slept in until about 9:30 and then we went to Sharons house to meet up. First thing on the agenda was a trip to Booger Creek. Sharon printed a map for me, to save her from being a backseat driver (as I accused her of this last time) its weird but handing me the map didn't keep our backseater driver quiet, even though it was meant to

Once at Booger creek preserve we followed the wilderness trail, we were walking for a good couple of hours, but we were taking it slow as we were watching for wildlife. Steven spotted an Armadillo which had me shooting my camera off, as did the various birds, insects and wildflowers. We saw several black widow spiders, fire ants, crab spider and Salamander. Like Sharon said previous there was a damn butterfly following me about, I love photographing butterflies but this one was just teasing me, (I bet Sharon slipped the butterfly 10 bucks just to make sure I got given the run around) Just as the trail was coming to an end we saw a couple of gators, so out came the camera again. We were also not far behind the path of an elusive Florida panther as there was fairly fresh paw prints on the trail. But unfortunately the panther appeared to be camera shy and kept itself well hidden.

We then went back to Sharons where she fed and watered us, we naturally had to have a good old English cup of tea. Sharon had made us a lovely lunch followed by cherry cheesecake, scrummmmmmyyyyy.

Next was fishing, I was so excited about fishing for the first time, I am sure I must have been hopping from one foot to the other like an overexcited kid. We went and bought some shrimp for bait, then made our way to the fishing spot that Sharon had selected. Steven was fishing, Sharon was teaching me, Unkky (as Sharon affectionately calls him) was videographer and photographer, should make for some interesting viewing.

Fishing was everything I hoped for, I caught several fish, but we didn't get any keepers as they were undersized so we threw them all back. I couldn't get the hang of casting out so either Sharon or Kim done this part for me, I am still learning, thats my excuse anyway. The fish seemed to have a new technique called "lets steal the shrimp off Crazy Monkeys hook without getting caught" the fish are very good at this game. Steven and I ended up in competition with each other on who could catch the biggest fish, I won, but that was beginners luck. We also had 3 dolphins playing in our vicinity and the pelicans were hanging around waiting for freebies.

I had so much fun, I didn't want the day to end. But I needed to get to Daytona Beach for the night. So we went back to get our bags from the hotel room which was currently being held for us on the rewards points scheme, but the first thing that happened as soon as Unc walked through the hotel room door was he collapsed on his bed and started snoring. Which left me in Sharons neighbourhood, I know that she was trying to wear me out, (this didn't happen) but at least she achieved wearing Unkky out

I then stayed up nearly all night talking to Sharon online, I think we were chatting until 3ish??, I had to be on the road at 4:30am to make it to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina at a reasonable hour.

Now for the seizure stuff - it was weird for me to be in the vicinity of someone that knew what my seizures were, Sharon spied me having several, apparently Steven and Kim did as well. I am not used to having people around me that notices them and as a lot of you know I try to hide them from people but obviously it was different with Sharon and her family. Between the 2 of us we had a right seizure party happening.

Now all that is left is to plan another roadtrip on which I can tag Florida onto. Next time I am going to catch a marlin

P.S. I will load some pictures into a new album, but I might not be able to do it until I get home on Tuesday, just depends on time.

[brain]

Booger Creek? Big Foot? etc ...



NOW I know CM has spent wayyyyyyyy too much time
with my son, Steve!



That is BROOKER Creek Preserve!

[Crazy Monkey]

Nope it has been rechristened Booger Creek Preserve, in my photobook it will be announced as Booger. There is a good reason why I think Booger creek is a good name for it, but I will leave out the gruesome details

[Ruth]

Crazy Monkey, I want the gruesome details. Must be fun!! You 2 argue out the details. Have a lot of fun before the fight begins.

Sharon, Big Foot exists in CA where I live. We know he's real.

Booger and Brooker, sounds fascinating. I cannot wait for the pictures in the albums when you get back. CM, I am sorry you had seizures. I know you have had fun though. The maps sounds like me and my husband. That is why we got a GPS. It made for peace in the family, uh what peace?

CM, you will get the hang of fishing. Aim to catch a dolphin. Then you will get a big fish. When I was a teenager, I started fishing at 5 a.m. I always caught lots of fish. Everyone else was wondering how I was doing it. I told them the truth, "the same way you are fishing." I don't know the difference between the worms. Sharon, do you know? Don't worry CM, I never got the hang of casting either. I always messed up the fishing line. I just put a worm on the end of the line and put the line in.

I love your trip. Please tell me more!! I cannot get enough of this fun trip. I will be back for the next episode.

[brain]

I just put a worm on the end of the line and put the line in.

I love your trip. Please tell me more!! I cannot get enough of this fun trip. I will be back for the next episode.

Umm - Fishing where I fish, worms won't work, 'cause the
fishy here will be left with huge ...



over their heads ...

They eat --- Shrimps, Oysters, Squid, Other Fishes, etc ...



*laughing*

[brain]

About the DOLPHIN .... those were bottleneck dolphins
aka porpoises - not mahi-mahi (the ones you can eat);
that they saw playing out there in the Gulf of Mexico
waters!



Think of "Flipper" - you wouldn't want to eat Flipper
would you?



But we call them Dolphins - regardless...

[Ruth]

Hi Brain

I would not want to eat a whale or a dolphin of any kind. I know you cannot catch one. I was just saying to aim for the largest, then you will catch the smaller ones you want to. Sharon, how many fish did you catch?

[Crazy Monkey]

An update for you Feast :o)

I have had just about the most boring day possible, we drove from Myrtle Beach to Washington DC, the day started alright, there was a storm that had potential for me to chase through the Carolinas, but after watching the internet and its development I decided it wasn't strong enough to be worth our, so from then on the day went downhill, we spent most of the day sitting on the I-95 and I always thought that the London circular was the biggest car park in the world.

I remembered a tip that Sharon told me to change to route 1, which was good for a while, but we had to change back to the I-95 as the 1 was pushing us in the wrong direction.

The gruesome details about booger creek, when I load the pics you will see the gators in green gunge so I think that Stevens nickname for it is very fitting. I have been bitten several times on my legs, Sharon thinks that it was the fire ants nibbling me, apparently Steven got some bites as well. The bites are going to drive me nuts on the plane tomorrow as they are really itchy.

I can't remember how many fish we caught, I think I got 4 and Steven got about the same. I don't remember if Sharon caught any, she was so busy helping me and telling Steven off for leaving the bait box out of the water.

[Ruth]

Hi CM and Sharon, I am sorry you had a boring day. Some days on a trip are not as exciting as others. I cannot wait to see the pictures you bring back and put in the album.

Fireants will give you a problem, that is for sure. You say you are taking a plane. Does that mean you are on your way home?

[Ruth]

Hi, I just noticed that I could click on the pictures and be there. I just now clicked on the pictures. They are awesome!! I am slow. I read about your trip again so I would not miss anything. I will be reading it again and clicking on the pictures again. This is great!! I am glad I have not missed out on your trip.

[brain]

CM will be posting the new pics in the album
when she returns; the ones I will be posting
won't be up until May ... as I still have film in
the camera and have not yet used them all up,
but will be scanned and an album will be put up
as well.

As for the fishing goes -- CM caught the most fish
with 6, Steve caught 4, and his wife-to-be, caught
3 - I caught 3, but mostly turned the rod over to
CM to let her reel it in although I did reel in one;
to check on the hook. I spent most of my time with
the tackle and lines; rigging them up - and letting
CM and Steve and Kim have all the fun. I've fished
far too many times in my life so it was a pleasure.

I did a lot of casting out the lines, since the baro-
metric pressure was so unstable; which meant good
fishing, however, the winds kicked up - which made
it kind of a bad news as "the big fish" won't surface
up for their "lunch"..." - which was why I kept work-
ing on the tackle - trying to work with the unstable
weather here (it's great for fishing but can be a PITA
with the tackle rigging).

What caught me totally off-guard was the sudden
swiftness of the tides which was off the chart, which
meant I had to revert to even more heavier weights
but not so heavy so that one isn't able to feel the
"hits" (fish bites).

This is why I love the area so much as the tide is
very swift, great for Spanish Mackerals, Snooks,
Redfish, Black Drums, Jacks, and other fast and hard
hitting game fish.

In fact, I let CM fish with my pole, the big bad boy!
She nailed down a Mangrove Snapper (due to new
Florida laws, her catch fell shy of legal limit). I warned
her that my reel is purposely set for that manner, it
does not "lock", for obvious reasons - see above
paragraph --> I land those bad boys (fishes), and
I do not use "drags", I know how to use the forward
and reverse on the reel, so I have that disabled; so
I had to stay by her side in the event if she nailed
one down and to keep my hand on the pole there
because if she even nailed one down, she would be
in for a real treat and I would have to give her all
the instructions of what to do - play-by-play.

The main reason why I have the reel (and the other
one back at home) set in this manner is - I never lose
a fish, those drags - people tend to loose them this
way. Drags are fine if you are on a boat, but not so
from a sea-wall - you have to work and play with that
here and that can be utterly tricky!

Steve, my son, had been telling her the stories of
the big ones we've landed, including the ones he's
landed, from right there - you just have to work with
it and it is very difficult; easier said than done. But
CM - she was just laughing and all smiles and so
was her Unkky ... snapping and firing off the video!