Fort Pierce, Florida

I have been so pleasantly surprised here - there is lots to do, friendly people, great restaurants and of course the beautiful scenery! It's a small town atmostphere with remarkably big town appeal at the same time. They've got a great dynamic going on here. And it doesn't hurt being lucky enough to live where we are staying.

Ft Pierce has a great downtown group that creates events and draws people downtown to shop, eat and play. One event was a history walk, which doubled as a ghost walk given the opportune time. We took an hour and walked around downtown, stopping every block or so to hear stories from 'ghosts' and about ghosts known to frequent the old town. The tour took a loop inside a newly renovated old theater which was pretty cool to see. They now have all sorts of events that take place here. Apparently this town goes back to 1901, you do learn something every day!

Also, they have a lovely Farmer's Market - fresh food and local vendors, weird shit to buy, random people to look at, struggling musicians, and all in a picturesque atmostphere.

Lo and behold, we found a haunted house! That's the good news. The great news - it was a fundraiser for a sick child of a firefighter. The bad news - we both left scathed. After standing in line for AN HOUR, with a group of screaming little girls directly behind us that loved to scream and run and jump up and down against us, we finally made it inside. Curtis thought it funny how annoyed I was - and reminded me that I was once a member of that club. Unfortunately, yes, true. Still, I didn't need to enjoy it now, did I? And he didn't either, after he got trampled and his feet smashed by them when a scary guy waved a chainsaw in their direction. Haunted houses used to be scary - like claw the one you're with, scary. Didn't they? Now I just get sick and bloody. Maybe that's actually more scary now a days to me. Reality. Ha. There was a moving wall with black light and tons of color that I thought I would pass out on, then I got nailed by a kid's boot. Ok - lesson learned here - Do Not Wear Thongs To Haunted Houses. Duh. Old dumbass hippies we are. Still, that first breath of fresh air as you emerge from the House is always the best fresh air you've had - that feeling was definitely the same. And the guys outside talking about how many pants pee-ers they've had tonight, that too...

The longer we're here, the more animals I see - all different types of lizards, frogs, snails, crabs, dragonflies, bees, birds... The majority of crabs I see, however, are smashed trying to cross the road, so I was very happy to see this guy before he fled to safety of the bushes.

You meet some interesting characters in hot tubs, you know. We met a guy that comes from pages of a Kerouac book - specifically On the Road. He had great and amazing stories of travel and hitching and experiences and people - and he has an admirable recollection of it. Anyway, he was also full of information - like Ponce de Leon found St Augustine, which was the first town of our country, and he also knew the answer to my question from weeks previous. Why are there so many seashells on the beach? Turns out, after the Hurricane Wilma (which yes, he was affected by) they had such massive problems with erosion that they harvested sand from hundreds of yards away in the ocean. They basically took a big vacuum and sucked up sand and rebuilt their beach and dune. Aha - makes sense now.