QUAIL CREEK PLANTATION--
A country club for the shooting set

Life gives us a bonus once in awhile and my most recent one came in the form of a Sporting Clay's shotgun shooting outing at this 5-star facility near Lake Okeechobee in Southern Florida.

Sue has a dandy new friend, Naomi of Cincinnati, OH and for the past several years the two gals have enjoyed a boatload of camaraderie--or whatever ladies call it--at a local arcade in Vero Beach.  Turns out Naomi's hubby Gordon is an accomplished Sporting Clay's shotgunner.

This melded nicely with my strong support of the US Constitution's right to keep and bear arms and led to an invite from Gordon to join he and shooting pal Steve from Michigan's Upper Peninsula for a morning's noisy romp across the plantation's 14 station practice event.

After uncasing a dandy pair of 12 gauge shotguns, a Benelli autoloader and a Winchester over and under, dumping a box or so of cartridges in handy belt cases (with plenty more ammo where that came from) we boarded Gordon's nifty golf-cart-turned-shooting-chariot and headed for the range.

The shooters alternated between shooting first then operating the hand controller for the clay pigeon launchers while the other took his turn shooting.  At each shooting station shooters could observe a practice launch of the clay pigeons (flying targets).

The targets are about 4.25 inch diameter, flat discs resembling a small Frisbee which are slung by a machine.  They can pass the shooting station from any direction at various velocities including from behind or from far ahead and flying straight toward the shooter.

They can start high and dive past the shooting station, or low and sail by in a climbing arc going somewhere.  Some are slung by the machine to roll rapidly across the ground in front of the shooter, resembling a rabbit in a hurry.

The discs are made of fairly fragile carbon based and brightly painted (sometimes) material that shatters when hit by a quantity of shotgun pellets.  They are said to "powder" when struck squarely by most of the cartridge's load.

Some discs are painted green to challenge the shooter's ability to pick their flight out of the green foliage background.

Sporting clay shooting is often described as "Golf with a shotgun".

Mostly each shooter would load two cartridges in his shotgun and shoot five sets of two.  A perfect score in this case would be hitting 10 discs out of 10.  After both have shot, we moved on to the next station which would offer entirely different trajectories to challenge the participants.

10 shots per man over a course of 14 stations equals 140 shots each.  25 cartridges to the box would equal 5.6 boxes of ammunition shot by each fellow that day.

I can remember entire rabbit hunting seasons where I didn't consume one box of shells while hunting with my trusty single barrel gun.

The guys offered me several opportunities to shoot and I declined saying I usually never shot anything that hurt me which the recoil of 12 gauge shotguns tend to do.

Actually my reticence was mostly from a strong instinct to avoid embarrassment.

CLEVER TRAFFIC CONTROL--

Florida has a nifty feature in its traffic control system Ohio would do well to consider.

When it is difficult here to make a left turn from a driveway or side street, FL traffic simply is compelled to make a right turn.

Imagine wanting to go West across several busy lanes of both East and westbound traffic.  No sweat here!

Drivers simply turn East, slip into oncoming Eastbound traffic, change to the left most lane as soon as possible then move along until the next "flip" turn lane comes along.

Bingo, congestion is eased, traffic continues to move nicely and the only penalty is a short detour until you can make your flip into your intended direction.

We encounter a version of this every time we leave our mobile home/RV park on a very busy US 1 and want to head South.

We simply leave the park headed North then simply slide left into the left-most of two, left turn lanes at the next major intersection--which produces another challenge.

Northbound traffic turning left gets a green turn arrow at the same time crossing traffic can make a legal turn on red to head southbound as well.

Here the solution is simple too.  Traffic making the flip always yields.

SAY WHAT?

This traffic control sign was encountered recently on a rural, neighborhood road near Stuart, FL.  The only thing I noticed this sign could be warning about was a speed-bump just ahead.

I wondered if this was the product of a great sense of humor in the local road sign department--or, the latest example in our pitiful struggle for political correctness everywhere.

PHOTO POTPOURRI--

The critter above is a curly tailed lizzard who was curious about my geocaching activity on a drawbridge in West Palm Beach, FL recently.  It was about a foot long and, while common in Broward County, is not likely to be seen in Vero Beach, just 50 or so miles to the North.  Reminded me of a hunk of speckled corn--with eyes.

Often-times caching partner Leslie Cornet jokingly displays her displeasure when we were barred from seeking a geocache in this Brevard Co, natural area due to, as the sign says, "Habitat Restoration in Progress."  Both access and the cache find occurred a few days later.  Leslie is the "me" in the caching team known as GOC+me.  GOC is her hubby Greg Cornet.  They live in Sunbury, OH and winter close to Sue and me in Vero Beach.

A Favorite Dining Establishment:  Sue also was in a playful mood while we stopped for lunch at Archie's Seabreeze eatery, oceanside in Fort Pierce, FL.  This mostly outside dining/drinking establishment defines the word casual to the extent motorcyclists gather here for Sunday services where communion is said to be served, with due theological reverence, from the tap.

This Gopher Tortise watched Brad Smart and me as we geocached in the Melbourne, FL area.  These pleasant rascals are common, long lived reptiles throughout the state and their large burrows are believed to be refuges to all manner of critters when a fire is active in the neighborhood.  Natural predator/prey relationships are said to be suspended while everyone enjoys their haven.

Riding the Tri-Rail!  This train system is a combination of interurban rail rides stretching from West Palm Beach to Miami; Florida's most densely populated corridor.  The high-speed, modern, Tri-Rail train heads south to the Metrorail transfer station where a smaller train whisks riders into downtown Miami.  There an automated, Metromover roams around downtown, mostly on elevated tracks where multiple loops service more than a dozen stops.  Sue and geocaching friend Betty Maus from Tupper Lake, NY are shown enjoying the middle of the three rides.

JACKIE ROBINSON HONORED cont.

After posting the original story I still was pondering this pic.  Since the sun had already set, the lovely sky (above) had darkened considerably thus enabling an exposure with sufficient latitude to reveal detail in the foreground where the lightness of the field lights more closely approximated the lightness of the sky.

Again, the photo was taken with my Samsung Galaxy cell phone, hand held from our bleacher seats.

JACKIE ROBINSON HONORED

By Major League Baseball in historic Florida ballpark

It was on April 15, 1947 when baseball great Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in modern, Major League Baseball.  That milestone was celebrated for the second annual time this week at the Vero Beach, Florida facility, Dodgertown, where the then Brooklyn Dodgers held their spring training for many years.

Pro teams from nearby St. Lucie, FL (NY Mets) and Melbourne, FL (Milwaukee Brewers) engaged in this memorial game this April 15th with St. Lucie prevailing after a grand slam home run in the second inning sealed their ultimate victory.

Nearly 6,000 local fans were on hand for this soon to be classic celebration.

Robinson did spring training in this very facility every year he played in the major leagues and the Dodgers prepared for the season here until they moved West in 2008.

Fifty years after he became the first modern, black player, major league baseball retired his number 42 from every team in baseball; the first player ever so honored.  Robinson died in 1972.

*          *          *

Photo by the author; with a cell phone camera *Gasp*

  

FOX LAKE SANCTUARY--
Where Prescribed Burns are Beneficial and Geocaching is Welcomed

We were geocaching in this 2,568 acre preservation land just days after a prescribed burn.  That's Sue (in pink) walking a trail past this area of burn.  This trail is a tiny segment of the 7 miles of hiking, horseback riding, kayaking and mountain biking trails in this bountiful conservation area.

This sanctuary is part of the Brevard County, Florida EEL program--working to preserve Environmentally Endangered Lands.  The county also contains the Kennedy Space Center on Florida's East coast.

Population growth tends to fragment natural areas and this program preserves and sometimes recombines what is left.  The fragmentation also tends to reduce or eliminate natural forces--like lightning induced fires-- that have over eons of time helped create the areas we enjoy today.

Composting organic waste creates a marvelous byproduct well known to gardeners.  Think of fire as being an accelerated form of composting.  Initially, it makes a soot-blackened mess but, soon, very soon, fire, acting as a rapid mineralizing agent, produces natural fertilizer and new growth will appear to have spilled from the intense green of an artist's palette.

Long periods between fires also allow combustible material to build up thus creating the possibility of even more dangerous fires.

Firebreaks can be natural like a river or are man-created perimeter areas vacant of combustible material that contain the fires in their intended area like the one shown below.

Note the luscious green growth on the left of the firebreak while the acreage on the right appears ravished extending high in the background trees.  Within weeks with adequate rain the fire damage will escape notice except upon close examination.

Sue is following Greg and Leslie Cornet, our geocaching partners, as we worked our way to some caches in this huge area.  Turns out, a cache we were seeking, which was part of an event known as the Space Coast Geo Adventures Trail, had been destroyed by this very fire.

The cache also is likely to enjoy its own version of a regrowth soon.