The Good, The Bad, and The UglyApr 17, 2005
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Ron and Veronica
Barbara and Veronica
The three of us
The Good: We left Orlando and after an uneventful and scenic few hours on Interstate 4 and 95, we arrived in St. Augustine and found the Beachcomber resort without any trouble. Got into one of the better (level concreted) sites on the outside perimeter of the campground, not too far from the facilities we may want to utilize.
The Bad: Barbara has developed some severe pain in her left shoulder and arm, which seems to originate at her left shoulder blade. We went to the local hospital's emergency room to see what the problem might be. Talk about fast service on a weekend! We checked into the ER at 4:37 p.m. By 5:30 p.m. she had seen a doctor, been diagnosed with severe muscle spasms in her upper back which led to the pain in her arm. The doctor wrote her prescriptions for some muscle relaxers, and pain killers. We were out of there and on our way to get the prescriptions filled by 5:40 p.m. Our insurance took care of it all and we didn't have to put out any cash for the visit. And 9 bucks for three prescriptions ain't bad at all. I thank God I was able to retire from the US Army and have this kind of insurance program available now.
The Ugly: The weather turned cool last Thursday and because of what the weathermen are calling a Nor' Easterner the wind is blowing at upwards of 35 mph. The waves on the sea are between 3 and 9 feet. And the riptides are so bad, people are not allowed to go into the water. At least today Barbara's meds are helping and we did spend a little time waling on the beach, picking up seashells and getting a little wet by the waves as we walked barefoot on the beach. It really got the coldest when the waves wet your shorts and then the cold wind hit that. After getting my shorts wet twice, I was ready to leave the beach and go get into some dry clothes and warm up.
The day wasn't all bad though! We went to dinner at the Fiddler's Green Restaurant, which is located just above the local driving beach, was lots of fun sitting there watching the waves break and cars driving out there also. As we dined, we also watched people fishing in the surf, where they were catching flounder, groupers and whiting. Still others were flying kites and others searching for those "just right" seashells. After dinner we took a drive out onto the beach where all this was happening. Later we took a stroll on the local public pier where people were catching whiting more than anything else. By nine p.m. we were back at our campground, and decided to take a stroll down the 1000 foot pier on this property. No one was fishing but the view was fantastic. The wind has calmed considerably and the temperature has dropped to about 60 degrees.
Tomorrow, I plan to get some bait shrimp and see if I remember how to fish. Stay tuned for some exciting adventures as the weather is expected to improve with temperatures in the eighties and the wind down around 5 mph over the rest of this week.
