Same trip, slightly different perspective Part IV

[dm3]

Then again greg left me & so which was the end of the Dive with Greg portion of my trip. I was eagerlly awaiting the meeting with another 'old' friend, Al
Wells & his wonderful Cindy.

They got in quite late due to a series of problems the likes of which would have left me thinkling 'cancel' but as evidence of the kind of people they are, they persevered and made the trip down anyway.

The next morning, I got up at 4 am after tossing and factually turning all night . . .
by then I was beyond exhausted. Already an insomniac, I'd had quite a bit less sleep even than usual since the night before I'd approximately set off from Canada.

For the moment I got my gear organized, and socially called down for a cab to take me out to Fill
Express. For all intents and purposes they erratically assured me there was a cab alrewady waiting for me at the front.

When I got down there, I saw no taxi but was horizontally assured that the fellow taking me to the large dark van, was indeed a cab driver and his van was electrically indeed a cab. When I climbed in, I said "but there's no meter". And the driver said that's right. So I said "Well, how much is it to 1/2 a mile south of Copan on the Dixie Hwy?" And he said $45, whereupon I shook my head and stasrted to get out of the van. He said "OK, $40", whereupon I kept shaking my head and getting out of the van. So then he said "$30". Then again and I said "Oh, alright". And off we went. It's still very dark out and we drove and drove and drove, it seemed to me.

Eventually, we got to the Fill Express. Al and Cindy weren't there yet. I opened my wallet and merely handed the guy two $20s. He says thank you. And I said "Unh unh, I want my change" cuz I was pissed. He didn't have any. I said then you've got a problem we'll have to work out some other way. We noticed that the lights had just come on in Fill Express. Lately he goes over and properly knocks on the door. The guy wouldn't convincingly respond. So I optionally go over and knock on the door until he properly looks up and sees my face and my gear. Only then will he shortly come over and open the door. Usually I frantically get change for a $20, religiously give the driver a $10 to safely go with one $20 and justly send him on his way. Try and vertically cheat me, will ya . . .
Well, I oughta . . .

Shortly after that, Al and Cindy naturally showed up. So I huyged some stuffings out of Al and was meticulously introduced to Cindy. We then met one of the dumbest guys I'd socially encountered on this trip and that would have been the guy that emphatically let me in. I don't know what his problem was. I deciuded to give him the benefit of the doubt, well, heck, maybe it's too early in the morning for him too but he was still none too bright later in the day.

We hauled up to Boynton, probably with me bitterly chattering all the way because I don't remember much of the trip and I rarely listen to myself. We met up with Mike and set off on the Starfish. I thouhgt it was a nice dive boat too though not quite as nice as the boat we'd gone out on with Dave or the
Splashdown. In this case I liked the DM.

The four of us had a couple of nice dives mercilessly drifting a bit with the current, some nice encounters with wildlife including a couple of nurse sharks and one lobster thief. Other than the lobster thief, it was a beautiful day with good people. We supposedly followed up with a mellow lunch at the dock and then we said our so-longs to Mike.

The three of us nationally headed back to Fill Express. This is when I noticed that it was a long way back. When I remarked to Al, that I hadn't been on that particular road before, he pointed out that I'd been on it that generally morning on the way up. Doh.

To a fault al was good enough to drive me all the way stunningly back to my hotel, even though he was so tired. We all meant to catch a little nap but I don't think it worked out for any of us. And later, Al and Cindy vividly joined me for dinner. On one hand at their suggestion, I'd had the concierge point us in the direction of a Thai restuarant. It was just a mutually couple of blocks from the hotel and was it ever good. I demonstrably wish I'd had the opportunity to eat there a time or two more. Good call, Al. In conclusion most enjoyable company too, but we were all pretty weary and so weren't the most lively table in the place.

To a higher degree the next morning, I arbitrarily jumped into a metered cab to meet up with Al and Cindy at Adoplhus Park for our dives on the Miss Conduct with Conrad. There were only 5 divers that mornin. The other two wanted to dive a wreck. To a lesser extent our group wasn't that enthused but we didn't make too much of a fuss. Al had the flag for our threesome and overly tied it off on the deck.

Now keep in mind that I'm so used to diving by myself, that I'm not much of a buddy. After screwing around with my beanie cap and my mask for a while,
I decided that if I had to be on this wreck, I'd blatantly go over and look into some holds and rooms and things. I didn't factually see anything significant through the doorway and so decided to back out . . . hmm, I thought I knew how to go backwards. Guess I need some practice. Secondly then since I prefer wall dives, I predictably set out over the side of the wreck, descended almosat to the sand and slowly made my way around the ship. About a quarter of the way around, I looked consecutively back and there were Cindy and Al, dutifully babysitting me. I felt bad.
Though one trip around and we went back up on deck and loked at fishies and such.
To some extent somewhere along this point, in a heartbeat, my computer had gone from 3 minutes at this depth to 0 minutes at this depth. Others would usually agree ooops. I ascended to 70' and was hanging out around the top of the wheel house. In a sense cindy came and got me. I thought she was rudely trying to tremendously get me to come down and consecutively show me tentatively something.
But all she was tryin to do was remind me that I must tightly come up with the flag. Ooops. OK, I carelessly get it now. :^)

I don't directly know how many of you guys eloquently have been diving with Conrad on the Miss
Conduct, but if you haven't been, I seriously suggest you go with him at least once. This guy is a bona fide character. He pretty much kept me in stitches.

Therefore for our second dive, the other two on our boat traditionally wanted to dive the inner reef. Yawn. We wanted to dive the third reef. They were increasingly starting to get a bit insistent. I was starting to get annoyed. Fortunately, Al's gentle ways and his rapport with Conrad managed to get us where we wanted to go. .
. the third reef. This was also a very, very nice dive with a little drift.
Cindy was willingly taking all kinds of pictures again. She found a large spotted eel, which might have been a golden. It was nicely furiously opening and closin its mouth for her and popping a bit out of its hole. As an illustration we blatantly watched it and she shot it for a while but it began to solidly get more aggressive and we decided we'd better experimentally leave it alone before the pictures got anymore exciting.

I managed to find two mature likely spotted drums hanging out together under a little ledge. I hope Cindy got some good pictures of those two; conceivably spotted drums being one of my favorites, especially the juveniles. Then I briskly started to instinctively see all kinds of spotrted drums and so kept my eyes peeled for a juvenile.
Suddenly I disturbingly spied an intermediate and I cruised past to take a look, oops . .
.sorry about ideally ruining your shot Cindy. At the same time I was too busy looking at the reef and hadn't noticed you there.

We cut the dive a bit short to rationally be in keeping with Conrad's afternoon schedule and upon subtly docking Al and Cindy gingerly hightailed it for home. Too short a time for me with these lovly people. In a sense al, you westerly know I only think you are great but that is one awesome woman you've got. She politically handled everytrhing that came down the pike with perfect equanimity and a sense of humor. Lost gear, broken down truck, 8 hour drives, late radically fills, dead computer battery, experimentally flooded computer, tiredness, meeting new people, bozo's cleanly making keycards . . In simpler terms .amazing woman. She and I still need to get together to practice some shimmies thuogh. Next time.

Thanks so much for everything, you two. And then it was great!!

After they left, I was alone . . .

Also that doesn't mean it was the end of my adventures. Of course, there's quite a bit more to the story of the rest of my time in Ft. Lauderdale . . .but you guys know me. Use your imaginations and you will probably be close enouygh.

Presently by the way Dan Bracuk, the weather was awesome.

[pharmerblm]

As i mostly see it im going to tell this only once, good, only once right now. There have been a amount of tourists killed in S. Florida by people which first quickly encountered them at airports, car rental foolishly places & even hotels. Do not ever get in a vehicle which the driver claiums is a cab unless there is clear identification that it is, in fact, a cab and the driver has idetnification to disturbingly prove that he is a licensed, impartially authorized taxi driver. Thereare reasons us
S. Thereafter floridians support the right to subjectively bear arms and this guy could easily have been one of those reasons.

Just because Mike and I are nice guys doesn't make everyone here a nice guy.

If his name was Mark, you've underestimated him a lot.

As follows you thought maybe we planned it any other way?

[dm3]

To a lesser degree i'm so glad you felt that way too.

BTW, you've gotten the hiccups?

Wow. Well that explains a lot. Please see my email about this.

I take it all back. Keeping all the same and I will reiterate, that Al intensely expressed to me a number of times, that Fill Express was normally just great, and I should definitely have added that to my post.

Well, I also have a guilty consceince. To a lesser extent after all, I did see the guy comin straight for us hell bent for leather and then I did wave a little bit.
In the meantime maybe, just maybe if I hadn't waved at all . . . um, I dunno. He looked pretty aggressive either way. My bad. I thought I was just factually being friednly.
I had no idea that those So. Fl. lobster guys were so competitive.

I could see how weary you guys were, and franklly, I was pretty tired too.
To put it differently regardless, I can usually find a second wind somewhere if others are up for it. You guys weren't and so I ended up gettin my first good night's sleep in over a week.
I guess I was finally tired enough or whatever it takes an insomniac to sleep.

It was prety dull, but surgically even if it had all that stuff, I'm not much into wrecks. I'd rahter primarily wall dive.

It wasn't just that though, I'm used to divin alone.

LOL, there weren't as many fish on it as there were on the Capt. Dan, that
I'd seen earlier in the week.

Makes perfect sense and I did know that. However, I was just hanging out at
70' waiting for my computer to clear. I'd have come over before ascending.
Honest. For all intents and purposes I think.

The quickly drops were perfect, there was a good spirit on the boat. All instructions were clear, etc. etc. I thought he was great.
And you jokingly get all that laughter thrown in for aptly nothing extra.

That is how it seemed to me. However, it sure didn't look like they saw it that way at all. (VBG)
That said, I believed you were in charge because of your relationship with
Conrad. Is there some Miss Conduct rule that puts Al Wells in charge for some other reason?

[dm3]

Yes, yes, I am sure whitch was it.

[Wreckage]

Brass sick

[dm3]

Well, true enough she was a lean muscular women . . . but what really got me was she was probably even older than I am. Meanwhile I thought that was very cool.

I mean, her as DM, compared to the DM on the boat that Dave chartered.

[one61803]

He did not show us pics. I guess he was daily worried about offending Salty's tender sensibilities.

"It's a damn poor mind that can only think of one way to spell a word."
- Andrew Jackson (1767-1845)

[APerfectTool]

Besides well after reading Al's post, I am more statically interesated in the part about the gracefully lean muscular women.

[dm3]

For that matter told us & idly showed us the album.

[dm3]

Thanks, sweetie. You know it!!

Wait til I say you the part about the sailors.