Back when I first retired, I was looking for things to do to keep my self busy. I was still golfing and a few other things, and my bucket list included a lot of travel. But I was starting to gain weight from inactivity so I set a goal to walk the length of the beach in Central to South Brevard, and take pictures of the experience. Joining together two things I liked, walking a sandy beach and photography, it was a great idea so I made a spreadsheet and a plan. The problem: I did not complete the goal (aka bucket list item).
That bugged me and I felt like a failure. I did not write about it liked I originally planned. Here, five years later, is a synopsis of the walk with a few photos. As you can see by my spreadsheet, I came very close to making it. I did 29 of the planned 33 hikes. I will explain the failure during my brief report.
It should be noted that the distances are one way. Since I was alone in this venture, I had to walk each route both ways. I had to get back to my car! So the near 40 mile distance was actually near 80 miles. Let me give an overview of what happened. I may attempt this hike again this year, on the five year anniversary. The spreadsheet has already been started. Maybe I will start in the South and head North...
Leg 1
I parked at Jackson Avenue, and I walked North to the Jetty Park Rocks. The first photo I took was a pleasant welcome sign....things were going to be okay...
The second photo was taken before I even got to the beach. A black snake across the beach access path. Maybe things were not going to be so okay...
I would end up keeping 1,176 photographs for the 29 legs I did complete. I plan to show each and every one of them....No, Just Kidding.
Once on the beach, I just had to walk to the rocks in the distance and back. That is the fishing pier at Jetty Park on the right. there were birds, some people, small waves; an easy leg to complete.
Leg 2 & 3
The next two legs were from Jackson Avenue south to Wakulla Lane. There were very few people. The Cocoa Beach pier can be seen in the distance on Leg 2.
There were some interesting birds with weird haircuts...
And of course, the pylons of the Cocoa Beach pier made for interesting lighting and symmetry...
Here is the pier looking to to the North on
Leg 3...
It should be noted that after one of the walks, I did stop at the pier for a beer and some lunch. I also spent some time taking photos of the pier and the surfers.
Leg 4
This walk was from Wakulla Lane to I Dream of Jeannie Lane. Yes, Cocoa Beach has a lane named after the 1960s show, which took place in the local area since the Major was an astronaut. It was filmed in Hollywood except for a few external shots.
One of the photos I took include a pair of seagulls flying in wing opposition. It made for a great photo...
Being on Cocoa Beach, the home to Kelly Slater, you would expect to see a few surfers. This one, was not Kelly Slater, but much better looking...
Just to prove the Lane is real, here is a photo of the street sign...
Leg 5 & 6
Starting at I Dream of Jeannie Lane, Leg 5 got me south to 1st Street South and Leg 6 was further south to 12th Street South.
I did get a picture of Coconuts on the Beach, a local restaurant and bar. At this time of the morning, there were no people because they were closed. I guess green aliens had landed since there are no people in the photo. One thing I noticed on the beach walk is that Brevard County does not have a lot of places to eat or drink along the ocean. This place is a favorite for the tourists.
Just south of the previous establishment, there are basically homes and condos. The beach access parking costs money so sometimes there are no people at all, like this day.
As my journey continued south, I was starting to approach PAFB (now PSFB). There are a few planes that make the base home like this one I captured in a photo after takeoff.
There use to be a large mansion in the next photo but it burned to the ground. All that was left was the tiki treehouse on the left. The home was owned by Al Neuharth, the founder of the USA TODAY newspaper back in 1982. After his retirement, Neuharth authored a weekly column entitled Plain Talk, which he wrote in his private tiki treehouse. He died at this house in 2013 at the age of 89.
The quirky, 10,000-square-foot, sun-drenched oceanfront compound burned down, and fire investigators said Wednesday they were examining if ongoing construction played a role in the blaze. Cocoa Beach Fire Chief Ryan Duckworth said Wednesday that the 11-bedroom, 13-bathroom home was a total loss. He said firefighters found dumpsters and construction materials on the 1.1-acre property. No one was injured, the fire chief said. The home had rooftop decks, a 2-bedroom guest cottage, a mother-in-law apartment, tennis and basketball courts, a tiki treehouse, a fireplace and a pool.
The house burned down on March 15 and I walked by on May 5. A new mansion has been built on this spot...
Leg 7 & 8
Leg 7 got me from 12th Street to Taco City, and Leg 8 got me to the Old Officer's Club, which had burned down back in 2005. Ironically, the roof was being repaired from the hurricane cluster of 2004 when a roofer's blowtorch had ignited a fire inside the roof. The roofer's mistook the smoke as being from the blowtorch and took no defensive action. The whole building burned down and has never been replaced.
This is one of the modern looking homes just North of PAFB.
And this is one of the "not-so-modern" houses in the same area...
This is the beach behind where the Officer's club once stood...
Although the Officer's club is gone, there is still a pool at the site. This is a nice pavilion near the pool. I like the color and variety of the chairs....
One of the common sights on the walk were turtle tracks. Loggerheads lay their eggs along our coast.
This is one of the modern looking condos along the stretch just North of PAFB. One of my co-workers at ENSCO owned one of these units. He and his wife sold it when they had kids and moved to a house in Rockledge.
A modern looking seagull...must have been a formal dance or something, black-tie affair...
I will talk about legs 9-29 in a future post, and also explain why I did not complete the bucket item.
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