• Home
  • Blog
  • Me. Me. Me.
  • Publications
  • That 1st Novel
  • More!
  • Contact
AMY SMITH LINTON

File Under: Head-Scratchers...

12/17/2021

4 Comments

 
Sometimes you have to stop and just wonder. 
Picture
Wait, In complete seriousness: W the actual F?

An angel in heaven is advising us to be concerned with (or possibly to find complacent self-satisfaction in) the pursuit of wealth?  I stopped going to Sunday school early, but I seem to remember the point of Christianity was -–– not this. 
Picture
I had viral encephalitis as a young person. I woke up in the ICU with my priorities rearranged (I was thenceforth incorrigible at school, since really –– what discipline could compare with the creeping onset of full paralysis and unconsciousness?) and lingering issues with language processing.

​These five words are parallel to what I sometimes hear when when people are talking.
  
Picture
I will hand it to Old Milwaukee for claiming its stake, but does this not beg the question?
4 Comments

Scouting and Prospecting...

12/7/2021

5 Comments

 
After this year's Gator Bowl in Jacksonville (light air, great food, and a trophy that includes a grinning taxidermied alligator noggin, which, as it happens, kind of freaks me out), my favorite skipper turned his attention to his other campaign –– Spawn's next race, the Ultimate Florida Challenge. 
​
Since his WaterTribe partner-in-adventure, Jahn Tihanksy (aka Moresailhesaid) was in town, the two organized a scouting mission of the north-eastern portion of the 'round-Florida adventure in search of navigational gold.   
Picture
If anyone imagines our Spawnsters take a blithe, devil-may-care, pick-up-snacks-on-the-way-to-the-beach approach to this event, they don't know the sailors OR the event.  

They started by meeting with the team's mentor, Jarhead (Bill Fite). Jarhead is (naturally) a former Marine and seasoned veteran of the event who has been generous with his wisdom and time.   

Jarhead has a witty way of telling his cautionary tales –– how he got turned around TWICE navigating one section of the St. Mary's, or the times he's had to dive for the ditch during the portage. 
Bill Site, Jeff Linton, Jahn Tihansky
He talked about the storms and heat and the nice lady who nearly insisted on calling an ambulance for him. He shared survival tips, like, if you can't get to sleep, you're not tired enough.

He lent guide books and told the guys where they might best employ a fully-rested daylight reconnoiter to save trouble later. Such as the bypass for the Class III whitewater rapids of Big Shoals. They took notes and planned accordingly.
Team Spawn of Frankenscot at Fort Clinch
Fort Clinch State Park boat ramp on a foggy December morning.
Team Spawn of Frankenscot on the St. Mary's
The scouting adventure started in the pre-dawn hours, when I dropped the fellas off at the Fort Clinch boat ramp. They headed upstream (pushed on a flooding tide) toward the Georgia border.  

Our planned rendezvous was a little boat-access beach at the Route 17 overpass –– an isolated and frankly sketchy location about 19 nautical miles* away. What is it about waterfront parks that leads to so much graffiti, used condoms, and empty beer containers?  

​Rhetorical question.  

​Discretion being the better part of valor, I betook myself to a cozy coffee shop and hitched up my trusty interwebs machine. All the better to track their progress. 
Sure enough, feeling the pinch of squeezing a lot into a single day, the paddlers ended up stopping well shy of the Route 17 bridge.

At their cheerful phone call, I zoomed over to scenic downtown St. Mary's –– where a friendly marina displayed neither graffiti nor used condoms. Hurrah!

We hustled the gear back into and onto the van and hauled butt toward the next navigational prospect.

Picture
After crisscrossing the Florida-Georgia line an estimated 294 times, we achieved St. George, Georgia. This tiny town is the southernmost named settlement of Georgia and has the happy privilege of marking the start of the Ultimate Florida Challenge's 40 mile portage.

Many of us know canoe portages from movies featuring buckskin-clad paddlers named Hawkeye or Daniel Boone.


via GIPHY

So each time I spell "40 mile portage," it seems like a) a typo, or b) an episode of Alone, wherein our heroes must carry their barque through the woods. Even to me.

But nope. It's c) a roadside slog on a country highway frequented (but not too frequently frequented) by logging trucks.
At the end of the forty miles (37 miles? Who the hell's counting?), one reaches the auspicious village of Fargo, Georgia, population 321 (as of 2010), home of the Stephen C. Foster State Park.

Which is where, naturally, you can get down (way down) upon the Suwannee River.
​  
Okay, I am going to link this song this just the once. ​

It includes racially ugly language. It's Florida's state song.

And Paul Robeson sings it as if it isn't a slap in the face.
Oh, wait, let's have a cheering palate-cleanser in the form of the great Ray Charles' revision of the whole thing.

Thank you, sir. 
Sooookay, back to the actual Suwannee river and those –– who knew?! –– a Class III rapids. Big Shoals, by name, visible on satellite maps, and, I am relieved to report, avoidable by a 150-or-so-yard portage to skip the worst of the whitewater (and rocks).

Team Spawn on the Suwannee
The guys took off from Big Shoals State Park a mile or so upstream of Big Shoals and came ashore seven or so nautical miles* downriver at White Shoals, Florida after walking AROUND the alarming rocks.  

They did locate several pieces of landscape in the lesser whitewater of Little Shoals, and the newly named (more anon!) canoe bears a minor scar or two. 
White Springs Wayside Park
Wayside Park gets a little stranger...Has Louis Sacher been here?
Team Spawn gathered enough intel to keep the two sailors chattering all the way back to Jacksonville. Not the least important bit was what culinary delights await them at the distal point of the 40 mile portage...
Jeff Linton, Fargo, GA
Hotdogs, hot bbq sandwich, hot breakfast burritos. All the finest of heat-lamp foods!


*Why nautical miles? A nautical mile is first and foremost a minute of latitude. And even though our team is almost never going to go 1.5 land miles without a change in longitude, it's navigational tradition.

 
5 Comments

    About the Blog

    A lot of ground gets covered on this blog -- from sailboat racing to book suggestions to plain old piffle. 

    To narrow the focus, select one of the  Categories below.

    Follow

    Trying to keep track? Follow me on Facebook or Twitter or if you use an aggregator, click the RSS option below.

    RSS Feed

    Old school? Sign up for the newsletter and I'll shoot you a short e-mail when there's something new.

      Newsletter

    Subscribe to Newsletter

    Archives

    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013

    Categories

    All
    Beauty Products
    Big Parks Trip
    Birds
    Boatbuilding
    Books
    Brains
    Contest & Prize
    Dogs
    Everglades Challenge
    Family Stories
    Farming
    Fashion
    Feminism
    Fiction
    Fish
    Flowers
    Flying Scot Sailboat
    Food
    Genealogy
    Handwork
    Health
    History
    Horses
    I
    International Lightning Class
    Mechanical Toys
    Migraine
    Movie References
    Music
    Piffle
    Pigs And Pork
    Poems
    Sailboat Racing
    Sculpture
    Social Media
    Song
    Subconscious Messages And Dream
    Travel
    Wildlife
    Writing

Proudly powered by Weebly
  • Home
  • Blog
  • Me. Me. Me.
  • Publications
  • That 1st Novel
  • More!
  • Contact