Meeting people along the way

 

Joanna was the lady in green on the left.
The chair at the bottom of the photo
was Earnest Hemingway's
original chair when he ate at the 
dining room

   I rag on my friend Sue constantly because of her ability to talk to new people. She will chat with anyone and within fifteen minutes she will know their life story. Sometimes, the problem is, the rest of us (me specifically) don't want to wait that fifteen minutes. Many times while birding with her I've walked away to continue birding. Laurie saw this first hand in Florida. At the first stop at Ding Darling, Sue started up a conversation with a volunteer. Laurie and I were already to move on to the next stop. Sue did learn a couple good spots to bird in the following days from that conversation. Meanwhile, Laurie and I walked back to the rental as a signal it was time to go. Though it was only a bluff, we were at Sue's mercy because we carpooled in her rental. 

   Despite the above true story, Sue will be proud of me when she reads this. I consider myself a traveler and not a tourist. I certainly do not want to be mentioned as a touron (a tourist that is a moron). When I vacation, my main goal is to find things I am in awe of. Put me in Independence Hall and all I see is the history, Put me in front of a bear and I can sit there for hours watching it and taking photos. Talking and meeting other travelers or locals has never been a priority. Seeing wildlife, scenery and history are the things I want to do.

   However, this trip, I decided I was going to converse with people I met along the way. If I knew I was having a good conversation I would purposely introduce myself so I could get their name. I considered it a social experiment on myself. I wanted to see if meeting people added to my experience. I wasn't going to force myself into a conversation, but if it happened naturally, I would invest my time into getting to know/listening to/ learn something from people I met along the way.

   This experiment started off with a bang. We had to take two flights to get to Ft. Lauderdale. Our first flight from Providence went to BWI. Sitting next to me was a large black man named Terrence. Terrence and his girlfriend were on their way to the Dominican for four days. The main goal was to drink and relax. He is a Providence Police Detective Supervisor. We discussed everything form Midnight Basketball to the Florida Keys. Since we were trapped thirty thousand feet up, this was my longest conversation with anyone I'm going to write about. There was no question that Terrance is a stand up guy. As I like to say, usually to be annoying, he's a good egg.

   Next up is Gordon. Gordon was staying at Bahia Honda a few sites up from us. He is a retired man that may be nearing seventy, but is in the shape of a forty year old. He lives near North Hampton, MA, which is about two hours from my house. Gordon's favorite hobby is wind surfing. He was staying at Bahia Honda alone (he is married) for twelve days. We went wind surfing almost every day. He pointed out that on breezy days its fun to go fast. On calmer days its fun because he can see in the water. One day he went out he saw tarpons and a huge Manta Ray.  Gordon gave us a bunch of tips on where to snorkel, eat, and how to get camping reservations last minute. He was a talker and every time he saw us he struck up a lengthy conversation. His knowledge was very useful on our trip.

   The only person I'm going to write about that I didn't really converse with is Joanna. She was a tour guide at the Hemmingway House. She was from Poland and had a very strong accent. However, she was an amazing tour guide. Because of her accent, she pronounced every syllable and word slowly and clearly. She was very articulate. Because of her slow speech and pronunciation she was very easy to listen to. She knew everything about the house and Hemingway. She was asked ten to fifteen questions and had answers for all of them. For sure, she enhanced our visit. Our tour guide at the Truman White House, Kirk, was just as knowledgeable and a great guide.

   One of the rangers at the gate at Bahia Honda was a woman named Mona. She was over the top enthusiastic. Like really over the top. However, I think she was genuine. Though our conversation was limited to us checking in, she was extremely helpful with advice. She told us where to look for sea turtles. She explained every detail of the campground map. More than a half hour with her would probably be all I could have taken. But she was nice and caring.

   While I was looking at the sunning Crocodile at Flamingo, we were talking to a guy named Michael. He was in his late fifties and walked with a cane. We was a little off of his rocker for sure. There was something a little odd  about him. None the less, the guy likes learning and wasn't afraid to tell you what he knew. I know this is coming off as he was a know-it-all, but it was more like he enjoyed sharing info. He told us a lot of stuff about crocs, gators, and the Everglades. Though I already knew seventy five percent of what he said, I didn't interrupt him.  I did pick up some useful tidbits from him. Also, we were twenty feet from an eight foot crocodile, and I knew I could outrun Michael, so there's that. 

   As I said before, Corkscrew Swamp was a big disappointment. After we finished the boardwalk Laurie went inside to use the bathroom. I stayed out where the feeders used to be. There were two kids that had just graduated college outside as well. Their names were Connor and Nick. Connor liked to talk, and Nick, true to his name, was the quieter one. Both boys live in the area and they both had done work at Corkscrew. They agreed that they didn't see much of anything either. Connor then told me a place to go that had thousands of birds. There is an abandoned tomato farm twenty minutes from Corkscrew that was loaded with birds because of the rain the previous days. Thanks to Connor's info, we saw Limpkins, Wood Storks, every heron in Florida, and Roseate Spoonbills. I owe these boys big for that tip.

   Lastly there's Harvey. Harvey was the flight attendant on our trip back to Providence. I learned nothing of value from him. Instead, I just enjoyed talking to him. He was the flight attendant for the back third of the plane. We had last row seats so we had multiple brief conversations. He was from Texas. After leaving Providence he had another connecting flight before a third flight back home in Ft Worth. He had a wedding in Oklahoma the following day. Since he had to be on the road at 5 am Saturday, and they were scheduled to land at Ft. Worth at 1 am, he wasn't going to get much sleep. 

   So there you have it, my social experiment in writing. To be honest, when I got home I really hadn't thought they added much to my trip. I probably would have enjoyed the Crocodile as much without Michael there. However, there is no doubt that Gordon, Connor,  and Harvey added to my experience. Just by writing this, I have realized they will be part of the memory of Florida 2021. And did I mention how great the tour guides were?