By LAMAR THAMES

There are more than 300 photos in a collection that will adorn an album that Harry Eagle (yes, that is his real name!) plans to put together.

Sort of a legacy, if you will, of the special journey that Eagle took in September 2009.

Accompanied only by his dog Max (short for Maximilian, the explorer), Eagle traveled more than 8,000 miles in a 20-year-old Dodge truck to see for himself what writer and historian Wallace Stegner called “the best idea we ever had” — our national parks. His agenda included Yellowstone, Yosemite, Redwood Forest and the Grand Canyon, among others, all in about 22 days.

To say that it was memorable would be an understatement.

“Absolutely spectacular,” Eagle said, emphasizing that he would do it again in a heartbeat. But probably not right away. First, he has to finish the album and record his memories for his wife, children and grandchildren.

HOW IT ALL CAME ABOUT

Eagle, 63, and retired for nine years following a lengthy career with AT&T Yellow Pages, became interested in a “walkabout” when a friend suggested they take a trip by themselves.

His friend, a former Navy SEAL who lost part of an arm and hand in combat, had never been to the national parks out West, so that became their destination. The friend eventually backed out and Eagle, with his wife’s blessing, decided to go it alone. Camping is just not her thing, Eagle said.

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NOTE TO READERS: Former Clay County, Fla., school board member Wayne

Bolla is on a sailing trip to the Mediterranean Sea, along with a couple of friends. He will chronicle his adventures in an occasional article on this web site. This is the second part of his stopover in Bermuda.

By WAYNE BOLLA

While on the island of Bermuda, we either walked or used the bus to get around on land. For about $10 Bermuda you can get a weekly bus ticket from the local internet cafe. The bus is also a great way to get a feel for how the regular folks live on the island. You get the feeling that everything is neat and buttoned down in Bermuda. I did a double take when I noticed a well-dressed, older gentlemen walking toward me on the sidewalk. He was dressed in a blue, buttoned-down dress shirt, blue blazer, reddish school tie and whitish Bermuda shorts, with knee-high blue socks and black dress loafers. I noticed

similar combinations in other parts of the island. I was ready to buy a pair of the shorts and some knee socks but then pictured myself in my old Boy Scout summer uniform . . . in public!

The quest for refrigeration parts, and a new VHF antennas took us to Hamilton, the capital city of Bermuda. It was about a 20-minute bus ride from St. Georges, accessible by boat from St Georges, but only through a fairly complicated series of channel passages best left to the locals.  Getting off the bus we navigated our way to the Bermuda Chamber of Commerce to find out where the best boat store in town was located. I was greeted by a most knowledgeable and friendly woman who bent over backwards to recommend the best of the two possible boat stores on the island, a place for lunch, and a couple of don’t miss sights along our walking route. After marking all the recommendations on the map of beautiful downtown Hamilton she gave us, we were off and running. I asked a ‘chap’ with a distinct British accent at the boat store if I should buy a Bermuda courtesy flag. These are small flags flown from the starboard yardarm (right side midway up the mast) that prove you were courteous enough to at least get through customs.

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By LAMAR THAMES

ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. — There is a photo on the World Golf Village Hall of Fame web site of Bob Hope breaking a golf club (obviously in jest) after a particularly bad shot.

The photo captures the way I felt  about my game after a recent round at the resort’s Slammer and Squire course for the Spike’s & Mikes Tournament. I was awful.

The feeling only last a few minutes, however, as I contemplated my mood. Then I said to myself, “Hey, you just played a round of golf for free on a beautiful course with three great partners. What have you got to complain about?”

And I was right. The course was in spectacular shape, it didn’t cost a dime (thanks to an invitation from Clay Today managing editor Greg Walsh) and the camraderie was delightful. So what if I’m just not a very good golfer.

The tournament was a media junket for print and electronic journalists, staged for the sixth straight year by World Golf Village to promote the upcoming Golf Hall of Fame inductions on Nov. 2. More about that in a few minutes, but first more about the course.

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NOTE TO READERS: Former Clay County, Fla., school board member Wayne Bolla is on a sailing trip to the Mediterranean Sea, along with a couple of friends. He will chronicle his adventures in an occasional article on this web site.

By WAYNE BOLLA

Some of my favorite sailing stories can be found in the Horatio Hornblower series by C.S. Forester. Most of the yarns are set during the Napoleonic Wars between 1800 and 1815. Forester does a great job researching history, sailing lore, and geography. Visiting some of the places he writes about is not a bad way to plan a present-day sailing adventure. England, however, is tough to get to on a sailing boat.  There is only about a two-month weather window for what I consider recreational sailing, and unless you are sailing to test your storm gear or the toughness of your crew, it is not the best of cruising grounds. The next best thing to sailing to England might be Bermuda.  It is only about 650 miles off the U.S. coast, they speak English there, and thanks to the gulfstream, it is warm most of the time.

The 20 square miles of the Bermuda islands was the first leg of our 4,000-mile cruise to the Mediterranean. It was discovered in 1503, settled around 1612 and is the oldest overseas British territory. In fact, it was a strategic naval base during much of Britain’s colonization of the Americas.  Spain had already become well established in much of the southern Americas and Britain made the strategic decision to focus on the northern parts of the Americas. Besides, it was all that was left as Spain had gotten there first and decided it was inhabited by devils – likely the call of a native blue jay type bird. Bermuda was an ideal base for northern points in the new world. The only drawback being it’s small size and relatively low land mass profile, which made it a feat of 1700’s navigational technology to find.

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By LAMAR THAMES

Not to brag, but I am somewhat of a world traveler.
I’ve been to Aruba (Jamaica, oooh, I want to take ya! — oh, sorry, I forgot where I was there for a minute.)
I’ve also been to the Bahamas, Puerto Vallarta, Germany, Guam, Hawaii and the Philippines.
The last four were courtesy of the United States Air Force and my dad, all by the time I was 15 years old.
Those early travels could be part of the reason I still have the wanderlust to explore the unexplored, go where no man has gone before, yada yada yada. Of course, mankind (and womankind) has always had the desire to see what is on the other side of the mountain, so to speak.
I used to bemoan the fact that we moved every few years of my father’s military career. I now look back with fondness on those trips to foreign lands, each one of which afforded me new and different experiences that I will cherish for the rest of my life. They helped shape my personality and allowed me a view of the world that few people get to see.
If you don’t mind, here is a snapshot of them in the time-frame of my visits, in order of their occurrence.
1. Germany — Dad was stationed in Weisbaden just after World War II, 1948 and 1949. I was 4 and 5 years old a the time, but the memories are still with me. I am the only one who has these memories because both of my parents are deceased and my sister
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During this lull in travel opportunities for my wife and me (she is back in the classroom and very BUSY at this time of year), I thought I would share some memories of my favorite vacation destinations and solicit some of your ideas for the site.

FAVORITE DESTINATIONS

Aruba
My all-time favorite travel destination was Aruba. Despite the pall cast over the island because of the issue over Natalee Holloway’s disappearance, my wife and I still have very fond memories of the week we spent there a decade ago with her brother Ron and our sister-in-law Judi.
I enjoyed the visit so much that I wrote a lengthy article about it for The Florida Times-Union. Some of the editors for the TU Lifestyle section must have liked it too because they featured it on the front page of that section on a Sunday. I think I still have about a couple hundred copies of the article if you want to read it. Just kidding.

Like I said, except for the snafu over the passport, the trip was remarkable from start to finish. Probably the two things I remember most about the former Dutch colony are the weather and the friendliness of the residents. The temperature year-round in Aruba is a refreshing 80 degrees due to the southern trade winds and tourism officials proudly point out that it is “one happy island.” Tourism is the island’s chief source of revenue and visitors are made to feel welcome. As an example, a retail store manager spent more than an hour helping me find the location of a local Rotary club meeting. And I didn’t even buy anything in his store!

I have to admit that I had been smitten with the idea of Aruba ever since the Beach Boys came out with their classic song, “Kokomo.” Remember the line “Aruba, Jamaica, ooooh I wanna take ya to Kokomo?” The island experience certainly lived up to my expectations. I wholeheartedly endorse a visit there if you get a chance. Just don’t let your young sons or daughters go there alone.

North Carolina Mountains

We have been to the mountains on several occasions and always leave there eager for

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By LAMAR THAMES

Let me say up front that fishing is not really my sport. Like a lot of people, however, I enjoy it from the standpoint of a challenge.

There is an engaging cat-and-mouse game that comes from having a fish nibbling on your bait until he either steals it from you or you are able to set the hook in his mouth and haul him out of the water. I am not very successful at it but it is one reason I readily agreed to spend a week in the Crystal Springs, Florida, area in July 2009 with our son Jeff, his wife and their children, (aka, “our grandchildren.”) That, and the fact that Jeff “lured” me with the promise of a tasty bay scallop dinner and my wife “reeled” me in by saying I could play as much golf as I wanted.

OK, I knew the latter ploy was just a come on. She knows I can’t play as much golf as I want to because, A) I don’t have that much money, and B) I don’t have that much energy.

Why did we choose Crystal River for a vacation? There are several reasons from our perspective.

1. COST: Rental prices were very reasonable and as long as that nuclear power plant is sitting dead in the middle of Crystal River as it empties into the gulf, they will likely remain so. We paid $100 a night for a 3-bedroom condo that sleeps six on a canal with easy access to the river and Gulf of Mexico. Also, it had a pool, tennis court, locked gate and a handy boat dock within 100 yards of our quarters. Be sure to shop around because good deals can be found in the economic conditions of the late 2000s.

If you are interested in a condo rental in Crystal River, go to www.thecrystalrivercondo.com.

2. THINGS TO DO: There is a variety of activities nearby, from golf, to fishing, to scalloping, to bird watching, to dining, to shopping at gift and antique boutiques and swimming with the manatees, if you really want to do that. There is also the Crystal River Archeological State Park and Homosassa Springs
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By ROBERT THAMES

Airplanes, subway rides, taxicabs and a journey home.

I know it sounds like a James Taylor lyric, but for me these are all things I’ve only just recently experienced. Somehow, though, I find it more romantic to have flown in a plane, ridden in a taxicab or navigated a big city on a subway train for the first time at 40 than at 10. When we are 10 we don’t have a sense of time and place. We don’t have a feel for where we’ve been or where we’re going.

“I was born in Lakeland, Florida,” doesn’t resonate in the heart until one gets older and more appreciative of the meaning of words like heritage and background. I was, in fact, born in Lakeland, but it wasn’t until recently that I began to have a curious fascination with the city in which I was almost born. In other words, I was born in Lakeland but I was conceived in Cicero, Illinois, and my mother carried me for the first seven months of her pregnancy in that historic Chicago suburb. Then my father put her on a plane to Florida and half jokingly said, “Ain’t no son a mine gonna be born a Yankee.” (No, this isn’t going to digress into a “save your confederate money” manifesto, I promise). So
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ST. AUGUSTINE — There are many attractions to visit in the nation’s oldest city and some of them are easily overlooked. Like the Legacy Tour of Flagler College, Henry Flagler’s monument to opulence and grandeur.

Located near the main attraction area on King Street, Flagler College began life in 1888 as the plush Hotel Ponce de Leon, a staggeringly beautiful edifice built in Spanish Renaissance style by railroad and oil magnate Flagler. Flagler also built the Alcazar Hotel across the street, which was later turned into the present-day Lightner Museum and used as St. Augustine’s City Hall.
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By LAMAR THAMES
A tubing trip down Ichetucknee Springs has been a goal of mine for nearly the whole 40 years I have lived in Florida. For some reason, I never followed through on that ambition until 2009.

When my son asked me what I wanted to do for Father’s Day that year, I mentioned my long-standing ambition. He immediately jumped on the idea as a good Father’s Day gift, especially since his wife has also wanted to tube the Ichetucknee. It would be a good way to combine two goals into one, he figured.

So off we went the day before Father’s Day. Even though it wasn’t quite the experience that I had envisioned, I had a great time and would like to make it an annual family event.

First of all, I urge anyone wanting to take the trip to make your first run before you turn 65. That way, youwill have more strength and flexibility to make the experience more enjoyable. And I would advise you to take just one or two people along with you for the initial run. Getting nine people organized for our first trip proved tedious and the fact that none of us had ever been there before put us at some disadvantage.
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