This has been a long interesting journey so far! I think I could give Jimmy Buffett interesting material for a song! Here’s what’s happened so far (with some interesting events omitted since not appropriate for publication!) ...
I attended catholic school for 12 years, went to Ohio State for 5 years and changed majors who knows how many times! After I left Ohio State and moved back home, I attended a technical College for a year and obtained an Associates Degree in Mechanical Engineering, graduating with Honors (3.96 GPA!). From there, I managed to get a pretty worthless job for 15 months at a foundry as a lab tech making about what I would have earned working at McDonalds. I got pissed at them due to no pay increases that were promised, so I finally quit. I went job hunting and landed a great job as a lab tech in R&D at a local pump manufacturing company. I really enjoyed this position due to the variety of projects I was assigned. Well, that wasn’t meant to last! The parent company decided to pull Research & Development from my factory and they laid me off 2 days before Christmas in 1992!!
It turns out that I was heading to Key West, Florida for New Years vacation, so when I went, I had a new attitude towards working for someone else for a living! I met a guy who had a business running Jet Ski rentals there and saw the money he was making and decided I could do that. Next, a friend of mine bought equipment and started a rental business in Ohio. Well, we made nothing the next summer because we played more than we rented! It was getting cold at the end of 1993 and I decided it was time to either get a real job or move south. That choice was easy. I packed up everything and moved to Key West since it was the warmest place I could drive to! Well, after a 40+ hour drive straight through doing 50 mph, I arrived in Key West.
In short (and leaving out many interesting stories!), I bought a cheap houseboat to live on and helped manage a Sea Doo & Jetboat rental business there. The rental business was another of those valuable learning experiences... I guess I probably should have taken some business courses in my college days. The city bought then proceeded to destroy (I believe they called it renovate) the street and harbor for 6 months, effectively killing any small businesses located there. The rental operation ended up going out of business due to lack of planning ahead for the "rainy days". After that, I basically goofed off for a year or two down there. Eventually I was approached by a guy I had met there who had also started a Sea Doo Rental and Tour business at one of the largest Resort Motels in Key West. He asked me if I could help him out by being a tour guide and part time mechanic for his 18+ Sea Doo fleet. I couldn't turn that offer down. I helped him out for a short time fixing skis and guiding tours around Key West. It never did pay much, but kept me on the water and in great shape!
In the mean time, a bartender I knew at one of my favorite watering holes bought an old 36’ leaky wooden sailboat. He told me he wanted to sail to Honduras, and since I’m always up for an adventure, I told him I would lend a hand! The boat was a real piece of work and after a one month journey, several storms, almost sinking in the middle of the Gulf Stream, running aground, breaking the rigging and living conditions that I really don’t want to think about, we arrived at Guanaja, the Eastern Island in the three Honduran Bay Islands chain. Along the way, you learn many things about a person when on a small boat. That’s why I got the hell out of Honduras and headed back to Key West!
Finally, I found I had my fill of the expensive cost of living in Key West so I sold my houseboat, packed my car and moved back up North. To keep busy, I put this website together using the knowledge obtained from past experiences and new things learned. People say the site helps them out and it keeps me busy for the moment.
What I’ve done so far...
My life’s been interesting and family has been what shapes me since birth. Since it would take a whole encyclopedia size page to go through what I’ve experienced through life, I’ll instead start when sun and water got into my blood and took over my brain...
I’ve drank beers with movie stars, drank wine with bums, hung out with rock stars, drank in the Compleat Angler in Bimini (Hemingway’s hangout... it unfortunately burned down recently), fell off my bike handing Arnold (the Gov) a business card, drank with Captain Tony on a gambling cruise (RIP Capt Tony), had rum & cokes with the late Mel Fisher on more than one occasion at the Schooner Wharf, been a judge of a Hawaiian Tropic Bikini Contest, been inside Jimmy Buffett’s studio, attended Dale Earnhardts’ last race at the Daytona 500 (the only Nascar race I’ve experienced), rode out a hurricane in a boat, been to Oktoberfest (the real one), gone 160mph on the Autobahn, been in the Coliseum (Rome), Stood on top of the Eiffel Tower and taken in the view, been to Amsterdam (didn’t inhale), watched friends night time skinny dipping in Corfu Greece (still am at a loss why I didn’t join in), dated a swimsuit model and a girl who owned a liquor store (no lies), been best man at my brothers wedding and twice so far for John (one of my best friends), helped run Camelot up the East Coast with my buddy Larry (another of my best friends... RIP), slept comfortably on a sinking boat, bailed water with a 5 gallon bucket in the middle of the Gulf Stream 45 miles from shore on a different sinking boat, and got kicked out of a bar in Daytona on Christmas Eve for getting sick.
I’ve also seen some of my favorite bands live...
Journey (saw with Amy several times), Rush, Ozzy, Dio, Black Sabbath (with Ozzy), Queensryche, Van Halen (Sammy), Jimmy Buffett (quite a few times), The Coral Reefer Band (without Jimmy at Blue Heaven, KW), 38 Special, Molly Hatchet, Rod Stewart, Metallica, The Scorpions, Metal Church, David Lee Roth, David Lee & Sammy, Bad Company, Ziggy Marley & The Wailers, Queen (with Paul Rodgers), Trans Siberian Orchestra, Judas Priest, AC/DC, Ratt, Styx, Warrant, Firehouse, Quiet Riot, Whitesnake, Bullet Boys, Kansas, Creed, REO Speedwagon, Ted Nugent, Bob Seger, Pink Floyd (at OSU), Heaven & Hell (Black Sabbath with DIO), Aerosmith, KISS, Foreigner, Loverboy, Eric Moore & The Godz, and The Sauce Boss (www.sauceboss.com). There’s probably quite a few others I forgot as well. Concerts I would like to see... Led Zeppelin (Page & Plant), Van Halen (with DLR), AC/DC, Santana, The Cult, a couple Blues acts, and a couple forgotten '80s hair bands. Believe it or not wouldn’t mind seeing Shakira as well!
Throughout it all I’ve done some dumb things I regret and some I don’t. I’m not fond of a few of my exploits but man I’ve had fun for the most part! I’ve had many great friends along for the adventures and they occasionally remind me of something I forgot or something I’ve exaggerated. Since I’ve forgot more than I remember about most of my adventures, if I think of anything to add I’ll update this page.
The weather sucks up here for the most part so I'm now planning on getting back to the Keys (or farther South). I’m not sure what will happen next, but I'm sure it will be an adventure!
