Point Washington - Conquered!

After my "mishap" in Point Washington I haven't been able to stop thinking about getting my coin back.

I WANT to find Mile Marker 7. I WANT to find my pirate coin. And I want to do this without injuring myself or getting lost in the woods.

There is no map of the roads and the trails in there but we know from my excursion that the trail crosses many roads, many times.

Which led the Island King to believe that we could drive close to the mile marker and then hike in a short distance to find it.

He studied topo maps and my breadcrumb trail and this afternoon off we went to Point Washington. Him sure we would have no trouble finding the marker and me a little nervous but knowing that between the Island King and the truck there wouldn't be a repeat of my last trip into the forest.

We're going in.



But this time I have a truck



And a husband with a map. A husband who is very good at navigating.



We're off to find Mile Marker 7 and my pirate coin.



We get to the first trail sign and after studying it for a while the Island King said he knew right where we needed to go.



We drove down a rode, pulled over and hiked a short way down a trail.

Where we found this.



Hmm.

He wants to go back to the sign.

But on the way we pass another sign.



He studies it for a while, declares the first sign to be wrong and that we now need to go East.

Which we did and that's where we found this.



Which caused some serious cussing and the declaration that BOTH signs had to be wrong.

We hiked back to the truck and although it was completely dark he was determined to find marker 7.

Obviously, somewhere, somehow, we'd missed marker 7.

Which is when he turned around, looked at me and said "You can stop beating yourself up about getting lost out here. I have a GPS, a map and navigational ability and I'm not sure where the damn marker is either."

It made me feel better to know that this was confusing, even to someone who knows how to navigate.

So we turned around and started back towards marker 8 as slow as we could go, knowing that somewhere out there in the woods had to be marker 7.

And then we saw it. Another marker we'd missed before.

We stopped and walked down the trail about 100 feet and there it was.



TaaaDaaa!!! It was like finding Jimmy Hoffa's body. We did it. IN THE DARK!!!!

Now all we had to do was find the cache the boys hid.

We had a flashlight and looked around a couple of trees and then we saw it.



Hidden at the base of a pine tree in a palmetto bush was the cache.

Surprisingly, everything inside was bone dry.



But...

The pirate coin? Turns out I didn't use the really cool, expensive coin for this travel bug, I used a trinket coin from the Billy Bowlegs parade.



The Island King looked at me and said "So all of this hullabaloo has been about a trinket from the parade? I thought we were after one of the good pirate coins."

Uh, well, now that I think about it I didn't use that coin.

But I did get my $5 travel bug tag back and can now send it out into the real geocache world on an adventure.

In the end, it didn't matter. We found mile marker 7, we found the cache and we retrieved my travel bug/pirate coin.



Mission accomplished.

Wordless Wednesday

Big Shark

This video from Panama City Beach was in our local paper the other day.

I like sharks but I would not have wanted to be the guy in the kayak.

Check it out.

I'm sure that shark looked like a submarine coming at him.

Exploring an MC 130E

The Youngest Island Boy's Cub Scout Den got invited to Duke Field which is home to the 711th Special Operations Squadron.



One of our Dads is a pilot who flies the MC 130E and was going to give them a tour of the plane he flies as part of one of their electives.

This guy always looks real casual (almost frumpy) and seems to be extremely laid back so it was surprising when we walked in the building and there he stood in his flight suit - looking like an Air Force Pilot instead of a beach bum.

We were taken in a transport van out to the runway.



And introduced to his plane.







He explained a lot of things about the outside of the plane









It was cool to be out on the runway with all of those MC130's lined up and ready for take-off.



The inside of this plane is amazing.



He explained how the back opened and vehicles can be driven in, how cargo is stored and then dropped into target areas, and of course the boys were the most fascinated with how men parachute out.



The MC-130E was the first Combat Talon and was developed to support clandestine special operations missions during the Vietnam War. Eighteen were created by modifying C-130E transports, and four lost through attrition, but the remainder continue in service more than four decades after their initial modification.

This particular aircraft is one of the original 18.

He pointed out the many modifications that have been done inside over the years, giving this plane today's technology.

They fly a 7 man crew. Two men sit at this panel behind the cockpit



And 5 men sit in the actual cockpit.





The shear volume of switches in this plane is mindblowing. I can't imagine how hard it must be to learn to fly one of these things.

I asked our pilot/guide/dad if we slipped him a little cash would he take us for a ride. The other parents all agreed to chip in but he said "It would need to be a suitcase full of cash because I could never come back!"

I didn't think we'd be going for a ride but it never hurts to ask.

After our tour of the plane we rode our transport van back to the main building and went into the Briefing/Debriefing room.



The walls are lined with photographs and patches from the Squadron





This picture is my favorite.



If these walls could talk imagine the stories they would tell.

The boys got a final treat when the Major broke out the night vision helmet.



The room was pitch dark when I took this picture of the Youngest and he said he could see everything just like it was daylight - only green.



The parents got to try them too and let me tell you - I want night vision goggles or a helmet. It was so cool and I can imagine how much fun it would be to go in the woods at night with these.

We all had a really interesting afternoon and the boys, as well as their parents enjoyed seeing and learning about the MC 130E.



Thanks, Major!

Silent Sunday

Not The Glasses For Him

As the Island King has gotten older his eyesight has deteriorated some.

He squints at things, holds something he's trying to read as far away as possible and uses a magnifying glass a LOT lately.

I keep telling him that he needs reading glasses and that if he doesn't want to go to the eye doctor he can buy a pair from the drug store.

They have racks and racks of them with different magnification so he could try them on and find some that are the right strength for him.

He saw this picture a while back and admitted that maybe he does need glasses.



But he's got this vanity "I'm not getting old" thing going on and so far has refused to buy himself a pair.

So we're hiking along a trail at the Marianna Caverns and he spots a pair of glasses on the ground. All he saw were the inside of the frames and he picked them up and put them on.

Then he starts looking at the GPS he's holding and telling me that he doesn't have to hold it as far away from his face to read it and that maybe these glasses would work great for him.

As he's saying this the boys and I are laughing so hard that we can barely stand up, which makes him think we're laughing because he's finally admitting that he needs glasses.

He tells us that it's not nice to laugh at a man because he can't see very well and that I should stop taking pictures of him.

The Oldest Island Boy managed to stop laughing long enough to tell him to take the glasses off and look at them.



Once he saw the outside of the glasses he agreed that these might not be the right pair for him.

But he has agreed to look for a more "manly" pair at the store.

All Is Well

Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers!!

The Youngest is hurting quite a bit but he came through surgery just fine.

They had to put a pin in his elbow to stabilize the growth plate and he still has a soft, temporary cast so we have quite a few more doctor's appointments ahead but the hardest part is over.

We got to the hospital at 6:30 this morning and before we knew it had drawn a crowd.

He had 3 pre-op nurses taking care of paperwork, the anesthesiologist, the nurse anesthetist and the OR nurse standing there and they were all talking to him about how he broke his elbow.

He likes to tell the tale and of course the women looked horrified and the men all smiled and nodded like they'd been there too.

The pre-op nurse asked if he had any cuts, scratches or bruises and I just started laughing.

"His entire body, starting with the big scratch on his forehead all the way down to his toes."

Which caused a lot of laughter and the words "He's a boy" to come out of most of their mouths.

And again we heard that they don't see many of those anymore.

I'm either doing something right or something really wrong as a parent.

In the end I don't guess it matters because I'd have to tie him to a chair to keep him from bushwacking through briars, climbing trees, jumping off of things or going as fast as he can with no hands on his bike.

As Native Mom put it, he's one of those "free range" kids and there's not much I can do about that.

After hearing stories from my Dad and the Island King about what they did as boys I guess it's in his DNA.

I could spend the next 10 years wringing my hands but I've decided to go with FC's statement that real boys grow up to be real men.

We're Going In

Please say a prayer for my boy today.

All will be well, All will be well, All will be well...

More Complicated

We took the Youngest Island Boy to the doctor today and after he reviewed the X-rays he determined that the crack near the elbow has cracked the growth plate in his elbow and that has to be reset.

It's a non-invasive surgery but he has to be put under general anesthesia for the 10 to 15 minute process.

So, Thursday morning he's having surgery at the hospital.

When we got to his appointment I thought they were going to put his arm in a cast, take a shocking amount of our money and send us on our way.

I should have known that it's never that easy.

And the shocking amount of money I thought I'd be paying? That's only about a quarter of what I have to pay now.

He isn't upset or scared but he's extremely unhappy that he can't have anything to eat or drink when he wakes up Thursday morning.

He wants a red cast and he's lucky that he's not his brother because the Oldest pulls pranks on me ALL of the time and I'd be tempted to tell the doctor to put a nice pink cast on him.

But the Youngest isn't much of a prankster so he's getting a red one.

And I'm staying calm about the whole anesthesia thing - even though I'd like to freak out a little.

Instead, I'm chanting "All will be well."

It's Broken - Round 2

The Youngest Island Boy has been really sick with a bad cold and has been trapped in the house for over a week.

Saturday morning he woke up feeling much better and because it was a beautiful day he threw his clothes on and out the door he went to play.

I asked if he wanted breakfast and he said "Not right now, I just want to go outside."

So off he went. He stayed within his boundaries and he was with his brother and several other friends - out doing whatever it is that boys do.

They checked in a few times through the day and I'd ask if they wanted something to eat but they'd say no and be gone again.

About 4:00 the Oldest Island Boy came running inside yelling that his brother was hurt.

The Island King went flying out the door and came back a minute later with the Youngest who was crying that kind of cry that tells you something is really wrong.

His arm is broken. It wasn't an open fracture but his forearm was bent in a really odd way, leaving no doubt that we were going to the ER.

The Island King made a splint for him and off to the ER we went.

We got the story on the way to the hospital and it seems that the Youngest was about 10 feet up in a tree, saw another branch and decided to jump over to that branch and use it to swing to the ground.

He says he caught the branch but then something went wrong on the way to the ground.

We got to the ER and I realized that my son was FILTHY. He looked like an urchin who hadn't had a bath in a month.

Of course that's the way he looks every night when he comes in from playing but the ER people don't know that - and I do make him bathe - but not with a broken arm before we go to the ER.

And he's all beat up. He's got scraped up knees and elbows, bruises and scratches all over him - which is pretty much the norm for him.

So the triage nurse asks him what he's had to eat today and he says "Nothing"

Which caused her to look at him with pity and then glare at us.

I'm sure Child Services will be along shortly.

Once they got to examining him good the doctor and the new nurse asked what all of the scratches on his arms and legs were from.

He tells them "Well, to get to the tree I wanted to climb I had to bushwack through some briars."

Yes, my hasn't been fed, filthy child has been bushwacking through the park behind our house.

They x-rayed his arm and his radius is broken in 2 places. Right in the middle of his arm and it's chipped at the elbow.

So they set it in a temporary cast, gave him some pain meds and sent us on our way.



We'll go see an Orthopedic Doctor this week for a permanent cast.

The nurse who'd been working with him was a man and as he was giving us our discharge instructions he said to the Youngest "You've given me hope for the world, dude. It's rare we see a REAL boy in here anymore. The ones we see trip or slip but they're inside all day and you're out doing what boys are supposed to be doing."

Which made the Youngest smile and me feel like maybe Child Services weren't coming after all.

And you know what? This was the first day of our Spring Break - which the doctor thought was funny in a black humor sort of way.

I guess I'll think that's funny later - maybe.

Silent Sunday

He's A Smart Boy

The Oldest Island Boy and I were talking the other night while I was cooking dinner and he was telling me the things he wants in a wife.

He rattled off a bunch of stuff and then said "Basically, I want someone just like you."

My heart swelled and I felt so proud.

Until he finished his sentence by saying "Except I want my wife to be hot."

Okay.

He saw the look on my face and immediately started trying to backtrack by saying "It's not that I don't think you're hot but I want a wife that's skinny and has big boobs."

I continued to say nothing and he babbled on "Not that you are fat - you're beautiful but you don't have big..."

And then he went silent.

I was looking at him and he was looking at me and he finally said "I'm going to shut up now because I'm just making things worse."

I couldn't hold it in any longer and started laughing.

"It's ok Son, I know what you mean and I'm flattered that you would want to marry someone like me - but I'm more impressed with the fact that you realized shutting up was the best way to go in this situation."

And then he made the most brilliant statement any man could ever make.

"I need to learn not to say exactly what I'm thinking around girls - it could be a problem later on."

If he can remember that he'll do quite well with the ladies.

The Aftermath

Wednesday's "mishap" in the woods has really caused a backlash of problems.

The first was that about 30 minutes after I woke up the next morning the phone rang and when I said "Hello" my Mother started yelling at me like you wouldn't believe. She was FURIOUS at me after reading my blog post and actually ended the tirade with "If you ever do something like that again I'm going to come over there and Whip Your Ass!"

Which was shocking because my Mother doesn't yell, doesn't cuss and even as a kid the closest she came to saying she was going to whip my ass was when she'd say "Just wait until your father gets home"

Then she says "Your Father wants to talk to you..."

I think my Dad may have been as shocked at my Mother's outburst as I was because he said "We'll talk in a few days when you're feeling better".

Whew.

The second problem is that I am almost completely incapacitated. I can walk but can only drag my right leg and cannot lift it without causing tremendous pain.

My shoulder doesn't hurt much unless I move that arm too fast.

The surprising thing is that I walked 22 miles and my left leg is a little sore but certainly not what I expected. If I hadn't hurt my other leg I think I would be a little sore today but perfectly able to move around normally. Weird.

The third and fourth problems are ones I have with myself.

Why did I need to be rescued? I like to think of myself as a capable woman who can take care of herself.

But on Wednesday night I was sobbing into my husband's chest like I'd been lost in the woods for a week and one more day would have killed me.

And why in the hell can't I FOLLOW DIRECTIONS? I'll have a compass in my hand telling me that this way is North and I automatically turn around and head the opposite direction. What is that?

I also can't seem to read maps. The map at the trail head? Looked perfectly explanatory and yet I was lost within minutes of leaving the sign.

I pay attention to my surroundings, being a slightly paranoid person I'm aware of what's going on around me all of the time.

But I can't spot a marked trail head?

And guess what? I took a picture of the trail sign but then later on couldn't figure out how to make the camera show me the pictures I took.

Sigh.

I tried to find some positives and I realized that I had a lighter and I know how to build a fire so if I got really cold I could have easily, State Forest fine be damned, started a fire to rest by.

I also know that with no help at all I would have reached my car eventually. My estimate would have been in about 5 or 6 hours. I don't think I could have driven home but I had water in the van and I knew I could turn the heater on if I got cold and slept until morning.

At which time I could have figured out how to drive myself home.

Obviously I have a family who cares about me and that didn't happen but why was I in that predicament to start with?

Because I was once again wandering the world lost.

It's like that part of my brain just doesn't exist.

When I was talking to the Island King on the phone he asked for my bearing.

What?

I have a bearing screen on my GPS so I flipped to it and read him what I saw.

Which he said had to be wrong. Except that I was reading exactly what I saw.

He later explained that while the bearing thing says one thing you're supposed to read it differently.

Ok.

I've come to the realization that if I could find my way around I wouldn't end up in situations like this one.

The Island King says he can teach me.

I'm certainly willing to give it a try - and I hope it works - but my confidence level isn't very high.

I'm very disappointed with myself.

Lesson Learned

Even though I'm getting older and wiser on a yearly basis, I still have to learn most lessons the hard way. You'd think that years of learning lessons the hard way would have taught me something by now but apparently not.

Two years ago the Oldest Island Boy and his scout troup placed a geocache in Point Washington State Forest.

Each boy was to bring something special to put in the cache and then the coordinates would be posted on the Boy Scouts Geocache page.

I gave the Oldest a REALLY cool large Pirate Coin that I attached to a brand new travel bug to put in the cache. I thought it would be cool for the Scouts to move it around.

But then the kid who was in charge of placing the cache never listed it with the Scout Cache site and then promptly lost the coordinates.

All the boy can remember is that it's hidden behind the #7 mile marker on the 10 mile trail.

Which means my cool Pirate Coin Travel Bug has been sitting in Point Washington for two years and will never be found.

I've been trying to get to it for over a year but something always came up.

Yesterday was a beautiful day and because all three of my kids are sick with horrible colds we wouldn't be having school.

Sounded like the perfect opportunity for me to go get my coin.

Except that I'm sick too. But I got it in my head that a walk in the woods would rejuvenate me and make me feel better.

What was I thinking? Another learn the hard way thing.

The Island King and I had an argument about me going. He felt I should stay home because I'm sick and he also felt like I should wait until he or the boys could go with me so I wouldn't be alone.

Which kind of pissed me off. I'm an adult, I've been to Point Washington many times and frankly I can handle myself in the woods.

So even though there was a nagging voice in my head telling me he was right - off I went.

Driving out there I came up with another of those lessons learned the hard way.

I decided that if I started at the end of the trail and worked my way backward I would only have to hike 3 miles to the 7 mile marker.

While this may sound like a great idea for some, it's not so great for the directionally challenged like myself.

I got to the Forest, ready to spend what I thought would be about 2 hours in the woods, alone with nature.





As soon as I entered the Forest I saw this.





Very cool.

I started down the trail, sure that this was going to be a wonderful 2 to 2 1/2 hours of solitude and since the kids weren't with me - being noisy - I might see some deer or maybe even a bear.

I've always wanted to see a bear in the wild. Not an up close, pissed off bear, but one off in the distance or up in a tree.

This is going to be glorious.



As I rounded a curve I saw this.



Soft sand and no shade.

About halfway down this trail I started feeling really bad. My chest hurt, my throat, nose and ears hurt and I felt like I'd already walked 5 miles.

I really should turn back. The Island King was right - hiking is not a good activity for sick people.

But I'm stubborn and decided that I was perfectly capable of hiking the three miles to the cache, resting a while and then hiking back to my car.

So onward I went.

Halfway down the sandy, no shade trail I see this.



Seriously? I've only come one mile?!

I'm feeling really, really bad by now but again, I'm stubborn, so I continued on.

I crossed a beautiful little creek,





And continued on through the woods.

I came across this little pond so I walked off the trail to have a better look.



When I got back on the trail I saw this.



It's no secret that I have a true phobia of snakes but I've been working pretty hard over the last few years to overcome that.

Not that I plan on touching one but being able to see one and not run away screaming in terror is what I'm striving for.

I stood there looking at the snake and then something miraculous happened.

I took a step closer. His head was pointed away from me and I wanted a closer picture so I took a step in his direction.

And then I took another one.

My little point and shoot camera doesn't have much of a zoom so I was standing shockingly close (for me) to this snake - and I wasn't scared!!



Then he turned his head and hissed at me so I took 4 giant steps back and he slithered off into the woods.

It wasn't until I got home and got a good look at the picture that I realized he was a Pygmy Rattlesnake.

I was so impressed with myself that I decided there was no way I was turning back.

I had a snake encounter and I was going to find my Pirate Coin.

Shortly after I came to this.



I've only come 2 miles? I still have to get to mile marker 7, the adrenaline from the snake has worn off and I feel terrible again.

This is really turning out to be a bad idea.

But, damn the torpedoes and full speed ahead.

A little later I came to a fork in the trail with this sign.



Marker 7 doesn't look that far away and I've come too far to turn back now.

Except that somehow I must have missed the trail marker and I ended up on this road.



These are big rocks and even though I have on thick soled hunting boots the rocks are killing my feet.

I have no idea how far I walked before I turned around and went back to the sign but it was a long way.

I tried another road (because I never saw a trail head here)



But ended up here.



And I haven't seen an orange trail marker for miles.

I stumbled upon this which gave me hope that I was on the trail again.



The bridge led me here and this looked like a trail so I continued on.



Then I ran into the 5 mile marker.

Where in the hell are 6 and 7?

At this point the sun was just slipping behind the tree tops and I knew I only had about an hour of light left so I decided to end the mission.

I sat down under a tree and pulled out my GPS - because I did have the good sense to mark the location of the car in case I got lost.

OH NO!!!

I am 8.9 miles from my car!

I've read that the average person walks about 4 miles an hour and I realize that it's going to take me at least 2 hours to get back.

Then I realize that I seem to have wandered off the trail and have no idea where it is.

My car is to the North West of me so I look at the compass on my hiking stick and start off in that direction.

For about 100 yards.

Where I run smack into a swamp.

Knee high water, busted logs, no obvious way around it kind of swamp.

I took one last step forward and my boot sunk in the muck up past my ankle - which stopped my body immediately. Too bad the forward momentum that I was using to move ahead didn't stop too.

I realized that in about 1 second I was going to be face down in the swamp.

So I reached out with one arm and caught a tree behind me.

Which torqued my leg and I felt a searing pain right where my leg connects to my pelvis.

At the same time my shoulder twists in the opposite direction which causes a searing pain in my shoulder.

I extricated myself from the bog and stumbled back up onto some higher ground.

And realized that walking is almost impossible.

I limped to a clearing and sat down. The sun is just above the horizon but it's dark in the woods, I can't find a damn trail, my leg and shoulder are killing me, my cold is making me feel weak and horrible, I'm cold and don't have a jacket, hungry and almost out of water.

But obviously I need to get moving. I started limping through the woods and after about 20 minutes I stumbled onto a road.

This was good news. The car was still over 8 miles away but at least I knew I could get to my car if I followed the road.

I was limping along at a snail's pace when my phone rang. The Island Girl wanted to know when I would be home.

I told her I would be there as soon as I got to my car.

I guess she could tell by my voice that something was wrong but I assured her everything was fine and that I'd be home soon.

Which was a lie and I knew it. She did too.

But I kept telling myself that I can handle myself and don't need to be rescued.

I Am Woman - Hear Me Roar and all that jazz.

About 1 minute later the phone rang again and it was the Island King.

He said "Where are you and what's wrong?" and I lost it.

I started crying and telling him that I didn't know where I was, my leg and shoulder were hurt and that I was finally on a road but that I couldn't lift my leg and I kept tripping on the rocks.

I Am Woman - Hear Me Fall Apart seems to be more like it.

He asked how bad I was hurt so I told him about my leg and that I could barely walk and that according to my GPS I was still almost 9 miles from my car.

He tells me to give him my GPS coordinates and that he will be there as fast as he can.

I had a flashlight and a lighter and there was plenty of kindling around so I debated making a small fire on the side of the road and sitting there until help arrived.

It occurred to me that there's probably a ginormous fine for starting a fire in a State Forest and as I debated this I kept limping along.

It's completely dark by now and the noises in the woods were starting to freak me out a little. Now is probably when I'll see a bear because of that whole 'be careful what you wish for' thing.

I normally love the woods at night but I've never been out in them alone, unprepared and hurt before either.

I'm trying to remain calm because I know my husband is coming for me and that if he has trouble finding me he'll call the Sheriff's Department and someone will find me before morning.

I know I won't starve to death, die of dehydration or hypothermia but for some reason I was pretty scared.

And hurting like you wouldn't believe. Every step was agony.

About 30 minutes (we live at least 45 minutes away)later I heard the Island King's truck and a wave of relief hit me like a ton of bricks.

He stopped the truck and when he got out I literally fell into his arms, sobbing.

He let me cry for a little bit and then helped me into the truck and headed for my van.

The Island Girl was with him so she could drive my van home. Which was a good thing because it's my right leg that's hurt and I honestly don't think I could have worked the acclerator or the brake.

And the Island King has not said "I told you so" one time! Amazing.

I did ask him not to tell his brother because I'll never hear the end of this if he knows but the Island King tells me that this is just too good not to share but that he'll wait a few days so it's not as painful when my BIL teases me.

We got home and found out that my BIL called while the Island King was on his way to get me and the Youngest Island Boy told him that Mom was lost in the woods and Dad had to go save her.

I'm sure I'll hear from him first thing in the morning because I will never live this one down.

But, the good news is that I learned a VERY important lesson tonight.

NEVER GO HIKING ALONE!

I suppose for some people it's fine but when you're as directionally challenged as I am it's not a good idea.

We looked at my breadcrumbs trail earlier and I managed to walk almost 22 miles today.

22 miles of wandering around lost in a Forest.

And I never did find my Pirate Coin.

But, now that it's over and I'm home I can say that it was one hell of an adventure!