Ayla

The big excitement for the day was I took Ayla to get her nails cut at the PetCo in Melbourne. Kame and I had tried cutting them ourselves but she is way too squirmy.

Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge

I drove out to Titusville today to go to the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge with Colby. I made a couple stops on the way to get two letterbox stamps, one of which was a really neat jungle scene, and the other one I was the first to find it with a new log book so I have a little certificate that says first finder.
At the reserve we drove down Black Point Wildlife Drive which is a 7 mile gravel road that has spots that you can stop to check out animals. We saw tons of birds including great blue herons, little blue herons, Louisiana herons (aka tri-colored herons, roseate spoonbills, reddish egret (I think), snowy egrets, brown pelicans, turkey vultures, red-winged blackbirds, mourning doves, and probably lots of other things that I had no idea what they were. On the way out of the reserve Colby spotted two medium sized alligators and then we drove to a manatee signing location. We had to wait for a little while but eventually a manatee swam up right alongside the bank we were sitting at. I was super excited to watch the manatee; unfortunately, it was too dark for me to get any good pictures.
For dinner we stopped at the Waffle House (my first time) and I got free hash browns.

UU Church

This morning I went to church (bet you never thought you’d see me write that) at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Brevard. It was a very welcoming place with a small congregation. The service was about schools teaching Intelligent Design. After the service they served coffee and I met some really nice people. I was talking to someone who is a software developer for games (right now developing the GUI for a golf game) about Epic and someone asked if I was referring to Epic. I said yes and asked how they knew of Epic. They said that Epic did a lot of recruiting at their college, Bradley, so I told him that I am also a Bradley alum (small world) and then met his wife who also went to Bradley.

After church I met Colby, another person I met online, for lunch at Taco Bell. In Florida, the Taco Bells have an actual bell at the door that you can ring if your service or food was good; I am sooooo amused by this. I met his friend who has some really awesome WWII pictures his father had taken and we talked about digital versus film photography for a little bit. Then we walked on the beach up and down the beach and picked up shells. After that I went and searched Craigslist for jobs and applied for a vet tech position.

Life's a beach

Today I read my book on surfing and watched the DVD that came with it. Then I update my budget spreadsheet. After searching for more jobs and applying at Toys R Us I headed to the beach. The waves didn’t look that great for surfing so I put on lots of sunscreen, laid out and started reading another book. Later I went for a quick run, man am I out of shape.

Surf's up!

Today was awesome. Even though I was up late last night (at least late for me) I don't feel like crap today. It was soooo gorgeous out today, nice and warm, cool breeze, bright blue skies with a few of the bright white puffy clouds. I decided that I could spend a few hours enjoying the lovely weather so I went to I Dream of Jeanie Lane. I took pictures of the boardwalk and beach and unsuccessfully went hunting for another letterbox. They have a nature trail which I walked part of; I think it will become one of my new favorite places. I heard and saw lots of birds and lizard scuttering while I walked along the trail. I then dropped of my job application at the Cocoa Beach Surf Company and since I was there I rented a 7’ surfboard for 2 hours. I only managed to stand up all the way once but it was awesome. The surfers around me didn’t seem to be faring much better so I didn’t feel too bad. I did see a couple small man-o-wars in the water while I was surfing which made me a little nervous but so far I have not been stung by anything (knock on wood). Afterwards I filled out applications for Hallmark, 5 different positions at PetCo, and Taco Bell.

The Job Search Begins

So today wasn't extremely interesting. I went to the Melbourne Beach Library to use their free internet and I wrote out postcards and job applications. After doing all that writing it felt like my hand would never move again. I never write anything, why don’t these places have online applications? I finished the applications for Barnes & Noble, Ron Jons, PetSmart, and Starbucks. Tomorrow I can look forward to another day of application filling out. I did take a break to figure out the walk from my new house to the beach. The water was pretty cold but I really don’t think I could ever get tired of listening to the waves. This beach also had a lot of foam and I was watching the wind blow it around. That night I went to a pool hall in Melbourne to meet up with Devin, who is someone that had a post on Craigslist (and of course I had my pepper spray handy). It was nice hanging out with someone here since it’s lonely having all of my family and friends half way across the country. He likes hiking, playing pool, being outdoors, and is a restaurant manager. He also showed me pictures on his phone of a 3 Days Grace concert he went to which made me really jealous. The bars around here do allow smoking which is unfortunate but they are way less crowded then around the Chicagoland. I got home around midnight and happily crawled under my covers ( I was freezing in the pool hall – even in Florida I’m cold).

I Have a New Home!

I went walking down the beach when I woke up in the morning which was nice. I love having the ocean nearby. There aren't as many shells as the last time I was here but there are still quite a few man-o-war's washed up on the beach. There was a great blue heron chilling on the beach and it let me get close enough to take a couple of good pictures. I had another house visit today. This time it was a mom, Kame, with her 7 month year old son. Her son made me think of and miss Joshua and Jakob. I'm sure they are going to be HUGE the next time I see them, they grow so fast. She also had the sweetest Chihuahua (and I don’t even really care for that breed) but he is going to leave soon since her son is allergic to him. I really liked the bedroom (it had purple curtains) and it since there are baby toys scattered around I figured she wouldn't mind if I wasn't a neat freak. So I spent Sunday afternoon carrying all of my things from my car upstairs (room is on the second floor). There wasn’t a dresser so I also made a trip to Target to pick up a cheap shelf which I put together that night. While I was at Target I applied for a job since I now had an address to put on the application. Yay! It was nice to sleep in “my own bed” even as unfamiliar as it was.

My new address is: 3054 Scallop Lane ~ Indialantic, FL ~ 32903

Finding a Place to Live

Saturday I woke up refreshed (hotels are pretty close to home sweet home for me) and checked my e-mail to see if anyone had responded to my inquiries about housing. I visited three different places, all of which were very nice and in walking distance of the beach. One was the home of an elderly lady who organized people’s homes for a living and she was very specific about not having high levels of noise in the house. The next was a college aged guy who worked and went to school. The house was the one he grew up in and his mom moved out so he was moving all of his belongings in. The last for a the day was a women who worked in IT and had 3 adorable cats. She had an absolutely gorgeous view of the river from her backyard which had a pool and hot tub. It was very nice except that I am allergic to cats and the room was kind of small. Since I had more places to visit I stayed the night in a Courtyard in Cocoa Beach.

Made it to Cocoa Beach

In the morning I walked around the aquarium in Chattanooga and found another letterbox stamp. Then I started my long day of driving. I stopped in Atlanta for gas but I didn't really do anything there. Somewhere Tennessee I stopped at a nature park to take a break and I found another letterbox stamp. Then I spent some time sitting by the pond and stretched my legs out.

When I reached the state of Florida I stopped at the Visitor’s Center to pick up some maps of Florida and I sampled some free orange juice. Then I drove the rest of the way to Cocoa Beach. It was too dark to go to the beach when I arrived so the first thing I did was stop at the Ron Jon Surf Shop and Cocoa Beach Surf Company to look at surf boards and the giant fish tank with sharks. Then I turned in for the night at a Residence Inn in Melbourne.

Mammoth Cave

I woke up early in the morning and ate a yummy breakfast of leftover blueberry bread that Mom had made. Then I headed out toward Mammoth Cave. The park is surrounded by a gorgeous wooded area and I saw deer and wild turkeys while driving. Unfortunately an ice storm came through a few weeks before and many of the trees were fallen. Since I had time before my tour I hiked the Sand Cave Trail (with my pepper spray). Sand cave is a 75 food high sandstone overhang that has a small waterfall that flows over it. This cave is famous because caver Floyd Collins became trapped in this cave when a rock fell on his leg and rescue efforts continued for days, attracting much media attention, before eventually they reached him too late. I saw his grave in the Mammoth Cave cemetery.

At 10:00 I took the Grand Avenue Tour of Mammoth Cave. We walked 4 miles through the caves and went approximately 300 feet underground. The caves are a constant, cool 54 degrees. We entered through the Carmichael Entrance and some of the areas I saw were the Snowball Room (where we had lunch – I had a very delicious vegetable soup), Boone Avenue, Grand Canyon, the Drapery Room, and we exited at Frozen Niagara. The tour guides, Jerry and Richard, talked about the natural and cultural history of the cave as we wandered through. Jerry’s great-great grandfather was actually the slave of the owner of one of the caves in the area and he gave tours to wealthy people who would come through the caves in their tuxes, and fancy dresses. Jerry had many wonderful stories from his family that he told about the caves. The majority of the cave is limestone but there are also many gypsum formations that are fantastic to look at; my pictures don’t do them justice. The only animal I saw was a cave cricket
(Hadenoecus subterraneus). My favorite parts of the cave were the snowball room (which got its name for the white snowball sized gypsum formations), and the very end which was the Drapery Room (that’s where I am in the picture). That part of the cave had oodles of stalactites and stalagmites.

After the tour was done it was time to continue on the drive. I drove out of Kentucky and through part of Tennessee. I stopped in Chattanooga for the night.

First day on the road

Wednesday began my fun adventure of driving down to Cocoa Beach, FL. Luckily, the traffic was pretty good the entire day. I stopped at the College Avenue Library in Indianapolis to stretch my legs and to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for lunch. I also found the letterbox that was hidden in the library. (Letterboxing is where you go on a “treasure hunt" style quest to find a hidden box that has a rubber stamp in it. When you find it you place your stamp in the box’s book and the box’s stamp in your book). I also took pictures of a house that had a menagerie of metal sculptures in the front yard. Indianapolis was a little shady but don’t worry, I take my bright pink pepper spray with me whenever I get out of the car. Then it was back on the road again and I drove until I reached Mammoth Cave. I stopped by the visitor center to get my ticket and to find out where I needed to be for the tour in the morning. Then I went to one of the local “hotel” establishments to check in for the night. I stayed in a little cottage that belonged to a set of cottages owned by a nice Indian woman. Each cottage had a Disney character on it (mine had Tigger) and flowerboxes filled with fake flowers. Luckily for me, they were sold out of the one room cottages so I got upgraded to a nice cabin with a bedroom, living room, and bathroom. Sadly, there was no internet and the nearest Panera was 80 miles away and Starbucks 25 miles away, which is why I am already a day behind on posting my travel activities.