On the 3rd of June, we packed up my aging Subaru and began our adventure to the southeast. For two years, I poured over maps and googled hundreds of places, stared at the map, looked up crime statistics, and Zillowed til my eyes bled (figuratively).
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Everything pointed me to this one small city that at one time was a bustling, growing community with one singular mission. Now it is growing again, but, it has the hometown feel and is seeing a revival that brings hope and promise to the once abandoned people.
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I am talking about Titusville, Florida. The people here are people whom I want to interact with, they are sweet and down to earth, even though many have their heads far above the beautiful palms and many and varied waterways, where dolphins and manatees swim peacefully and alligators sometimes roam the streets.
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Thanks to Elon Musk and SpaceX, the town seems to have a new lease on life after the seeming total shutdown of NASA"s space program.
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Our trip here was mostly uneventful, with the exception of my car having a catastrophic battery failure. I have never in all my years of working on cars seen a battery literally explode. I have seen them blow the caps off, but, never have I seen one completely come apart. I was actually more excited to learn a new thing than I was upset about the setback. Two hours tangling with really bad phone service and no useable WiFi, we got the money transferred from savings to checking so we could purchase the battery at the O'Reilly auto parts store I had gotten us to after the explosion.
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It started when we stopped for gas at an out of the way station in Arkansas and the car wouldn't restart. We got a jump from a nice man and his family and headed down this obscure highway towards the nearest parts store. After five minutes of driving, the car began to cut out and then pop-start itself. April was trying to talk to AAA, but the phone kept losing signal. I knew better than to stop. We were in the middle of farm country and we were the only people for miles, I had to press on. Then BOOM!!! the battery exploded and the car smoothed out and started running smoothly. April asked what had happened, and, after a minute, I told her that I thought the battery had exploded. The car was now running on just the alternator. The shorted cells in the battery had blown the case apart and drained all the acid, ending the short condition. We only lost those two hours or so the entire trip. Not bad for a car with 226 thousand miles on it.
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When we arrived in Florida, we went to April's mother's temporary house in The Villages. We stayed three days there before continuing southeast to Titusville. Her mom is waiting to close on her house in Hernando, Fla, about two hours from here near Tampa. One of the reasons we came was because her mom is her only close family. Both of April's aunts moved to different places in Florida in the last few years. I have no close family left, so, I wanted her and the kids to be able to be close to hers.
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I have seen many beautiful creatures and met quite a few super nice people so far. I also witnessed a crime and had contact with quite a few of Titusville"s finest on our first night here. We had run low on money due to the sharp rise in gas prices and the unexpected battery purchase, so, we decided to camp for a few days until I could get working and get us into a hotel. The campsite we chose, the Manatee Hammock campground was booked, so, upon the advice of a Walmart security guard, we were going to sleep in a Cracker Barrel parking lot where some truckers and other unhomed people stayed at night. The guard said that the police came through and checked on people pretty frequently, so, it would be a safe place to go for the night.
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We hunkered down in the parking lot and the girls and April went to sleep. I stayed awake, though I was exhausted, for a little while longer.
Just as I was fading off to sleep, however, I noticed a car come down the road and do a strange U-turn between the two hotels that were next to the Cracker Barrel. It then pulled into the lot with us, made a weird series of turns, then backed into a dark spot next to the hotel lot. Three men in hood jumped out and, turning on flashlights, they proceeded to the hotel lot and methodically checking in the windows of the cars parked there. The driver soon joined them.
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I called 911 immediately, because I knew exactly what was happening. The 4 hooded people were looking for things to steal. I hung up with the police dispatcher, then observed the people crossing to the other hotel lot. I called the dispatcher again and updated them on the theives' new location. I no sooner hung up then the police came roaring into the hotel I had told them the second time. April was awake by now and we spotted on of the hoods running back across the road away from the police. We had no idea where the others had gone. More police cars began showing up, and then even more, even a few Brevard County Sheriffs had joined the chase.
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The whole area surrounding the restaurant and hotels is a huge marsh. I called the cops at about 1a.m. By 1:30, the area was swarming with police and the helicopter was circling the area, trying to spot the suspects with infrared. The helo was up so long that it had to leave and refuel before coming back to try to spot the felons.
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One officer was parked in the middle of the street between the two hotels, and, I went and told him about the car they had arrived in. He immediately moved his SUV into our lot and blocked the car in. I figured if they couldn't catch the crooks, at least they might be able to track them down through the car info.
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April said it was probably a stolen car, and she turned out to be right. The cops called the rightful owner, who was in Orlando (about an hour away) and by 3:15 ish, they arrived to pick it up. I believe the police fingerprinted the car before letting it go, but, I'm not sure. By this time I was punch-drunk from lack of sleep.
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In the end, an officer came to interview me on body cam and showed me the cuts on his arms obtained from chasing the hoods through the marsh. The vegetation is insanely thick in these places and is not to be taken lightly. There are gators and panthers and other various creatures that might give you a bad time as well. He told me about the stolen car and the fact that they didn't catch any of the bad guys. I hope they eventually get caught. He thanked me several times and told me that I had come to the right place, there is lots of work here
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So, I learned that the police in Titusville take their jobs very seriously. That makes me feel good about being in Titusville, despite the whole 3 hour manhunt thing. It let me know that we would be watched over and gave me respect for the badge here about. The cost of living has risen a bit, but, it is still far better than Colorado's skyrocketing prices.
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I have gotten a few decent photos of the local wildlife that I will share soon. I have attempted to get some good pictures of the dolphins that frequent the Indian River, but, it has been cloudy every time I have spotted them and it is hard to photograph grey on grey. I will leave you for now and get back to you soon with more on our wonderful Florida adventure on the Space Coast. I have seen two Falcon 9 launches in the last three days. I was amazed both times. I shared the night launch with you. I didn't film the day launch because it was pretty cloudy and it wouldn't have shown up very well. Enjoy!
Go Lightning!
