Interesting Connection.

 I have written multiple times about my interest of connections. Sometimes it is a place, or a person or even a time or event. Whether is is Who, What, Where, When or Why, I always find the connections of interest. Maybe it is a Math thing for me.

Recently, a random trip on Easter Sunday to the Wetlands along Canal 54 North of Fellsmere started me on an interesting connection. It started on a road in the middle of no where...

I was walking along this road taking pictures of birds and other wildlife like alligators. It was a beautiful day and I realized I was almost in Sebastian, so I decided to head over to Captain Hiram's for a quick bite of food and maybe a beer or two.  The view from my barstool at about 11:30 AM.

Being Easter, they had an Easter egg hunt earlier in the day and there were scheduled bands playing all day and into the evening. As I was eating my big plateful of mussels and drinking a Landshark draft with lime, the band started to play. They were really good and played oldies I liked and even some Black Keys. My nephew Brandon and I went to see that group at the Amway Center in Orlando

I ended up listening to the band for over an hour and took this photo of their sign. Their name was Forte and I decided to talk to them. They were disassembling the equipment as their set was done and another band was scheduled. I told them I enjoyed the show and they said they were from the Satellite Beach and Melbourne area. I said I will look them up. I found a Facebook page and hit follow.

I received a message saying they were playing at Tide n Tonic in Indian Harbour Beach. Normally on Fridays I drink my 3 beers at Lou's Blues and then head home. For some reason I wanted to see this band again, and it is only about 5 minutes from Lou's to the place. Why not.

The placed was packed and I did not even know that Tonic n Tide was open yet. It's a new place in a building with a history, which I will get into, but first about the band and my experience.

I did talk to the band but the guy I talked to in Sebastian vaguely remembered me. He said he had drunk about 5 Bloody Mary's when we had talked last. Here there were just two and I found out they are brothers. Again, I enjoyed the music but there was no place to sit. Currently, only the outside bar and patio is open for business, but it will be soon that the whole place is open.

Outside the patio dining area they have added a nice place for gaming (like cornhole) and a few poolside chairs, but no pool. It was hot and I had been standing for a while so I asked some people if I could sit with them for a bit. It was a nice couple who was with their college age daughter. We ended up talking for almost 20 minutes. I also talked to a guy named Mike Grayson who is a Real Estate Agent now but use to manage the Wine Gallery. There is a whole other connection with that spot.

I told the couple, as I was sitting here listening to the band, I was very close to where my first job was in Florida at ENSCO. Now it is time for some spatial connections.

When I started at ENSCO in 1980, we were located in a spot called Shopper's World. Using Google Maps for the images, I could only get back to 1994. My office in in the spot marked A, ENSCO's front entrance was at spot E, Bishops was first at B and then moved to C, the Tide n Tonic was at D, and Kmart was at K.

Bishop's was just a short walk from my office, but then they built the big building in the photo, and moved across Pinetree Drive into another part of Shopper's World. The new business was a lumber and hardware and garden store. For two years I lived on Pinetree Drive.

Then they tore down the Kmart and the other store, and eventually all of Shopper's World. This photo was from 2005. The next photo is 2023. Kmart (K) became a apartment complex, A,B, and E became a Lowes, and C is just nothing. But D, was still there. Tide n Tonic.

So why did I call it D, because originally it was a Captain D's Seafood restaurant. I can remember going over for lunch. Then it turned into many different things. A few I can remember are Brano's Italian, and Foreman's Steakhouse.

The last place before TNT was Fresh Scratch Bistro & Lounge. I took the following photo back in 2019. I liked the food there but the service was not always the best so I boycotted the place. There were lots of other nicer places. I am showing this shot because it shows the building was definitely a Captain D's.

The new place, Tide n Tonic, which I visited again on 4/10 which leads me into the connection.

I get a text from my cousin Pam saying that I apparently had talked to her drinking buddy Ron and his wife Claudia and their daughter. I verified who they were  and went to see Pam and Ron at another new place called Cadillac Cove. Pam was a regular at Doubles when it was on South Patrick, but they closed down and rebuilt on the site of the old Peg Legs at the end of Desoto. The new place was not the same.

My group was going to a place called Whiskey Beach in Satellite Beach which was at the end of a small strip mall but they wanted to get bigger and moved to the original Cove. Well, we did not like the new place as much so we went to Lou's Blues instead. The Whiskey Beach finally closed down and became the new Cadillac Cove. Just to make it complicated and interesting, this new place is being managed by Sabrina, who was a great server at Lou's Blues. And the pseudo owner of Cadillac Cove is Lou, who had sold Lou's Blues to Mike, the current owner.

When Whiskey Beach moved to the Cove, a new place called Mavericks 321 moved in and was doing real well. Jason, the owner, now owns the Tide n Tonic.

Phew! So I still go to Lou's, and I have reason to go to Cadillac Cove and TNT. There are not enough days to drink....so I made some introspection...(That's me in the mirror with the camera at downstairs Lou's)

Cadillac Cove has a nice Tiki bar outside...they have this sign for the...the...lost for words...

While sitting in the inside bar with Pam, Ron and some other guys who names I have forgot...I asked Pam if she remembered the fancy restaurant that was just North of Desoto on A1A. She could not remember the name but remembers having a company get together there and getting drunk. So I texted John Pitkethly, who's son worked there. He said it was called The Phoenix. BTW, John is who hired me at ENSCO back in 1980...

Interesting Connections