I love Florida

[mat 60]

:cheers

Do you want one We can find one for you pretty easy

Sounds good jack...

 

[shaker]

Thanks for your post - I like Florida, have ever since I was a kid. Being a northerner, there's never a winter that goes by without me thinking of your state.

 

[R_W_B]

Actually RWB the thieves that stole the truck found my $700 stash. They cleaned out all of my personnal contents plus the 5th whel hitch, cb radio and XM radio plus tools and a fuel tank and a spare battery. They painted the rear door windows and the back window black and removed the dome lights. Also missing were the owners manuals, the wheel nut locking socket and the spare tire locking socket, prescription glasses and expensive sun glasses a cell phone plus numerous other items.
Ken

Ugh, that's horrible. Sounds like some of the drug traffic related stories I've heard about in Arizona. You would have to chain everything down there I guess, and stand guard over it. I think if I lived there I would definitely get my weapons permit. It's a shame what human's are capable of sometimes.

Just come on down to Florida next time Kemo, at least the Ocala area is still fairly docile. Some of the larger Cities like Tampa and Orlando have some gang issues. There have been 3 cops killed on duty this year in the Tampa - St. Pete area.

There is also some great riding and things to see (just not quite as many) up near where Don lives around White Springs, Jasper and the Suwanee River area. I worked up there out of town years ago for a few months. You would probably need to stay in nearby Lake City though since there aren't many motels in the White Springs area last time I was there in 1999.
Take care my friend.

 

[sharpscuba]

Hey All here is what Dave is talking about. There was great Bass fishing here and if you look close you can see one swimming right in front of the Gator. Took this picture a few weeks ago when the granddaughter and I went to visit the family. This is a place we call gator pond out behind the folks house.

 

[R_W_B]

Thats cool and you have had a very intersting life sir....I have never even seen a gator in real life...

It has been fairly interesting, but I would have to say from what I've heard of Lorne's life traveling far and wide working on oil rigs would have to be far more interesting. The nearest thing I could come to that would be working hi rise construction years ago. But I've seen some of oil rig crews documentaries on the History channel and that is some serious, dangerous work and hard working guys. And then also having his 'main' home on Margarita Island off the coast of Venezuela, how cool is that. I'll bet he wastes away in Margaritaville every chance he gets. I'll bet even Jimmy Buffet would like to come visit Lorne.

What about that Lorne don't you have a good story to tell about some time back on the oil rigs, etc ? Glad you weren't on the last one to blow up in the Gulf !

 

[lorne]

It has been fairly interesting, but I would have to say from what I've heard of Lorne's life traveling far and wide working on oil rigs would have to be far more interesting. The nearest thing I could come to that would be working hi rise construction years ago. But I've seen some of oil rig crews documentaries on the History channel and that is some serious, dangerous work and hard working guys. And then also having his 'main' home on Margarita Island off the coast of Venezuela, how cool is that. I'll bet he wastes away in Margaritaville every chance he gets. I'll bet even Jimmy Buffet would like to come visit Lorne.

What about that Lorne don't you have a good story to tell about some time back on the oil rigs, etc ? Glad you weren't on the last one to blow up in the Gulf !

a little bit too much traveling at times and also where people love to visit :nosad places like Nigeria, Somalia , Yemen Algeria for a start. i do agree with kemo on the area he was in. i am working a little North of where he was and the wind is constantly blowing (i am starting to get flash backs of North Africa) not real nice for riding and the roads are in horrible shape that i i have seen so far. although i have talked to some of the local rides and they tell me that there is some very nice rides in the area so i am looking at those. Hill country is only 1.5 hours away so will be taking advantage of that when time permits.

you want a story or two, i would get ban for sure

although here is one that will work. we were working on a job south of Lake Maracaibo in Venezuela. the instruments we moved via helicopter to help not bounce them around on the rough roads. we would then drive out at 4 am set them up and go to work. these area was full of farms so the farmers would run large irrigation pipes across the little two track roads. my helper was driving to the new location since he knew the way, the truck stopped so i was about to get out when he grabbed me, and pointed at the road. looked like another farmer had put a pipe across the road. i started cursing the farms under my breath (usually this would cause us to detour and extra hour or 2) then i noticed it was moving. my first anaconda!!!!!!

FYI i am on the exploration side of the oil business. Seismic we are the ones who get to sleep in the desert and cook over a fire. was young in those days and it was and adventure, not just a lot of work.

 

[R_W_B]

a little bit too much traveling at times and also where people love to visit :nosad places like Nigeria, Somalia , Yemen Algeria for a start. ..... .. ... .... ...

you want a story or two, i would get ban for sure
although here is one that will work. we were working on a job south of Lake Maracaibo in Venezuela. .... ..... ... ...
when he grabbed me, and pointed at the road. .. .. ....
then i noticed it was moving. my first anaconda!!!!!!

FYI i am on the exploration side of the oil business. Seismic we are the ones who get to sleep in the desert and cook over a fire. was young in those days and it was and adventure, not just a lot of work.

That sounds even more interesting. Kinda like a continuing tough camping trip with highly techical stuff going on. We have those big snakes wild now in Florida due to them getting out of their cages etc. I would imagine in some of those places you listed you guys had to carry weapons for protection. Glad we did not see you on the hostage news ! Imagine you guys get paid well. I will be thinking about you next time I get down to Key West and visit the Margaritaville there. Thanks for sharing guy, and if you think of another story later post it up. (or some pics)

 

[lorne]

It has been fairly interesting, but I would have to say from what I've heard of Lorne's life traveling far and wide working on oil rigs would have to be far more interesting. The nearest thing I could come to that would be working hi rise construction years ago. But I've seen some of oil rig crews documentaries on the History channel and that is some serious, dangerous work and hard working guys. And then also having his 'main' home on Margarita Island off the coast of Venezuela, how cool is that. I'll bet he wastes away in Margaritaville every chance he gets. I'll bet even Jimmy Buffet would like to come visit Lorne.

What about that Lorne don't you have a good story to tell about some time back on the oil rigs, etc ? Glad you weren't on the last one to blow up in the Gulf !

and the waiting away again in Margaritaville. i am 5 min away from the beach and the suds are cheap down there. it is a rough life, but i get to go home on the 28th of this month after 3.5 months, good thing my wife has a photo of me (not taken by Jack) so she know who to pick up at the airport.

some pics from Margarita Island

 

[lorne]

That sounds even more interesting. Kinda like a continuing tough camping trip with highly techical stuff going on. We have those big snakes wild now in Florida due to them getting out of their cages etc. I would imagine in some of those places you listed you guys had to carry weapons for protection. Glad we did not see you on the hostage news ! Imagine you guys get paid well. I will be thinking about you next time I get down to Key West and visit the Margaritaville there. Thanks for sharing guy, and if you think of another story later post it up. (or some pics)

they never let us carry weapons although all are labor did in Yemen. we were getting shot at daily, and the military that looked after us was stoned on Gat which makes them paranoid. all that for $1,800 a month back then :newsmile07::newsmile07:

 

[lorne]

I wanted to share this video of Florida with the song Seminole Wind, by John Anderson. I love the song and I love Florida. I am about as Florida as they come. I was born in Orlando in 1950. All my Uncles, Aunts and all us cousins camped on the St. John's river every year on vacation. Back then it you didn't see many humans on the river. Now days it's kinda like Interstate 4.

My cousins and I would dive for fresh water muscles to use as bait on trot lines for turtles and catfish. My Dad and my Uncles would catch gators, shoot swamp rabbits and cut swamp cabbage to eat. We didn't have to bring much to the river back then. There was plenty to survive well on if you knew where to find it.

We used to hook a small fish to a cork line up high to the top of the water and sit on the bank waiting on the big Aligator Gars to come after it. If you aimed just right below the cork you could kill him with a 22 rifle. We've killed many of them over 6ft long. The look kinda like a huge Barrarcuda. We always figured it was better fishing to have them gone since they eat a lot of fish. When my wife and I got married in 1980 we took our honeymoon on Lake Hatchineha for a week. We fished all day and fried them at night.

Now years later I have given up fishing for some time now, just got tired of it. But I still love getting out in the woods. This state has a lot of history, I had Seminole Indian friends on my street growing up. The Seminole's were done wrong during the settling of Florida but that was a long time ago. When I saw a photo of Chief Osceola at the Old Fort at St. Augustine it made me sad, since he was imprisoned there. You could almost read a story in his eyes. The Seminoles do fairly good now with the Casinos etc. The engineers got it wrong the Okeechobee Canal the first time but yrs later they have fixed their misjudgement and the wetlands have started to return.

Anyhow I could go on and on about Florida while you get even more bored.
Hope you enjoy the song and the scenary. Wish I had time to do my own video because I could show some much bigger gators than the few in this video.
Here is the link.
YouTube - John Anderson - Seminole Wind

[/I]



I have never been out of the miami airport before but would love to take the time to see Florida. a few of us were planing a trip down there this month but it just didn't happen with our work, so we might try in the fall if we get the chance. Wife says if we move to the USA we are living in Florida, so how am i to argue