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From Mark Myers . . .
Well, never let it be said that we’re not out in all kinds of weather. When John Gross called me Sunday morning and said “The Rec” in Ephrata is closed, where else can we go? I knew I was in trouble. Half a dozen telephone calls later, we had the entire day rescheduled for Golden Meadows. The crew at G.M. just looked at us like we were insane and said “We’re going home – lock up when you leave….”
So John and Co, including Vern and wife Patty, Pete Bohling, and Liz Zyla in addition to the students trucked from Ephrata to GM to finish up their course. It appears that several of the students are headed out for warm water trips in the next few weeks, and need to have their class in before vacation.
Diver Dan, Shawn O’Neal and myself had planned to do a quick video shoot in the pool for a client. Originally we were going to head over Sunday evening, but with the snow, we pushed the time to “as soon as you can all get to the pool.” For those of you who think it’s rare anymore that I get in the water – we took pictures to prove that Shawn was there. We finished up our video shoot – and the class finished up around 3pm to 4pm and headed out the driveway – which had about 8 inches of snow on it and had not yet been plowed….
From Dennie Leese . . .
Bud & Christine Fletcher, Dave Moyer and Dennie Leese converged on Crystal River, Florida from Feb. 8th to 15th for some cavern, springs, sinks and manatee diving. The following stories are true. No names or events have been changed to protect the guilty. It started first thing Saturday morning when I checked in at Harrisburg for the flight to Charlotte and on to Orlando. The flight was full, so they asked if I'd mind flying to Pittsburgh first and getting there about 2 hours later. I didn't mind when they upgraded me to FIRST CLASS for free for the entire flight. Sitting on the plane I couldn't help but look down my nose at the poor peasants loading into COACH! Peones! They have no class! The flights were uneventful and I picked up my rental car for the ride over to Crystal River, about 105 miles from Orlando. The weather was overcast and cooler then I had expected, but what's 58 degrees when it was 10 when I left Pittsburgh?
By the time I got to the Port Hotel & Marina in Crystal River, Bud and Christine were already there and checked in. We expected Dave later that evening. The hotel had me down as coming in the FOLLOWING Saturday. After I informed them that would never work and I was obviously there NOW, we got it all straightened out. Dave arrived later that night and we never did see him until Sunday morning, when he informed us he had been in a traffic mishap on the drive over from Orlando. Seems he had been following some truck hauling junk when a piece of it jumped out and smacked him right in the driver's sideview mirror, thereby knocking if off the car. This was the beginning of the "Great Insurance Hassle Caper" which went on all week long.
Sunday was mostly rainy and overcast all day and only in the upper 50's so we spent the day exploring and laying out the dive plan for the rest of the week. We drove about 40 miles South to a small town called Hudson and checked out the Hudson Grotto, a sinkhole sitting about a block off Highway 19. It was fenced in but we could see it and decided to do it Monday morning. We had to stop by the Scuba West diveshop on Monday and get checked in first and pay and learn all the details. Sunday night we went to "Ray's" for All-U-Can-Eat Riblets. By the time Dave was done eating, they had put up a Closed sign. Was it because we ate so late, or because Dave was so hungry and they ran out of food? Monday morning we awoke to more overcast weather and strong winds which turned into a booming thunderstorm that looked like a hurricane. Fortunately it stopped and the sun came out by lunch and was beautiful the rest of the week. We checked into the Scuba West dive shop and got the details and paid and endured about an hour conversation from the lady in the shop who felt it necessary to go on and on about all the local dive adventures while Bud and Dave had to stand there and bear it while they both had to pee REALLY bad! At least she gave each of us a free Scuba West license plate. How cool is that?
The Hudson Grotto is not your normal spring. It's much colder and it has no clear water. It's tea brown from all the tannin and it drops to about 130' and is totally BLACK after about 20'. In addition, it had some rather large turtles in it that seemed to have a fondness for our fingers as we fed them chips from the dock. I immediately worried about suiting up in the water with them swimming right under the dock next to us. Dave must have wondered about it too because as Bud and myself put our fins on it the water, Dave sat on the dock and put his fins on sitting down. I offered him some toilet paper since he looked like an old lady sitting on the pot and taking all day. The water was a chilly 62 at the surface and indeed got black as soon as we submerged. We followed the line to the bottom and encountered a reverse thermocline on the way down. We passed through a Hydrogen Sulfide layer (rotten eggs) on the way down which you could smell right through your mask. I wasn't sure if I was smelling that, or if I had gotten too close to Bud and Dave and one of them had a severe case of riblet gas. The bottom layer is salt water while the upper layer is fresh water. Temperature on the bottom turned out to be about 73 degrees. Nearly 10 degrees warmer then the surface. Viz was bad but with a light at least we could see where we were going. Back on the surface we decided we'd do the second one in the light zone, down to about 15' in order to see the fish and turtles. There was no life below 20'. Being humiliated on the first dive, Dave decided to enter like Bud and myself and walk in and put fins on in water, holding onto the dock. This is where he introduced us to "The Giant SLIDE". We had to enter down a gently sloping rock into about 4' of water. Dave proceeded to slip and fall on his ass and slide down the rock into the water, a very COOL way to enter, I must say. The second dive was less eventful and we took pics of the fish and turtles. Entry fee was $15. Been there, done that, won't do it AGAIN! However, we were glad we got the chance to dive in conditions like that. It was different. We decided we'd start doing the clear water springs and caverns first thing Tuesday. (Partly so we could wash the smell of rotten eggs out of our wetsuits).
We decided to drive to Paradise Springs for Tuesday's dives. We make the 90 minute drive with Bud hauling all the gear and Dave and me following in my rental car. Imagine our surprise when after driving for an hour and a half and not getting lost, we pull up to the gate and it has a big CLOSED sign on it! Wonderful! Luckily for us, the guy that owns the place was in the yard and was nice enough to open up, just for us. (I guess the threats we made didn't hurt). Paradise Springs is a really great cavern to dive. It starts as a hole about 20' across in a guy's backyard and opens up into a large cavern just below the surface with a shaft sloping about 45 degrees down to a large room and a cave entrance at about 100'. Water temp is a comfy 74 degrees. Not bad, considering the weather at home is about 10! Viz was excellent for both dives. Well, it was excellent until the END of the second dive that is, when we decided to DIG for fossils and create giant boulder slides down the shaft into the room below. We found some nice fossils (which you are NOT allowed to remove...shhhhhhhh!!) Good thing nobody was coming in after us. They'd have to maneuver through the muck and landslide we created. A good time was had by all. After returning to the hotel and cleaning gear, we did a late dinner back to Ray's again. Dave seemed to enjoy those All-You-Can-Eat Riblets. We eat, Dave pigs out, we close the place up and I'm not sure they ever opened again. I think I see a FOR SALE sign on it the next day as we drive by.
Wednesday is Blue Grotto day, another excellent cavern dive. Dave took in the light he had bought from me last year to have the head converted from Halogen to HID. In a week or two, Dave will join Diver Dan and myself as owners of "Lights Of God". He's movin on up. A guy and his wife from Michigan join up with us and ask if he can dive with us, since his wife doesn't dive and he is diving solo. We say OK since we're the only people in the whole place. This guy had gear from the 1940's and claimed to be some Rescue Diver. He asked millions of questions and I'm thinking yeah right, Rescue my ASS. I manage to avoid him for most of the dive. I AM on vacation after all. He loosely hangs out with Bud and Dave. Bud hummed his usual tunes the whole dive and played "Cave Monster" with Dave, jumping out from behind rocks and whatnot. We must have scared Rescue Diver off. He only makes 1 dive and leaves with his wife. They seemed nice. Bud's wife, Christine and Rescue Diver's wife drive to MacDonald's and bring us back some chow just in time as we surface from the first dive. I guess there IS a use for wives on the divesite after all! Water temp in Blue Grotto is about 74 and viz about 100'. We decide to do the second dive "without lights", just pulling ourself along the guideline by hand. That was fun. Bud played Cave Monster again with Dave, lurking on the rocks overhead and swooping down on the unsuspecting Dave. We had a blast there. Admission is $27 but worth it. A beautiful little park with changing/toilet facilities. A nice place to dive and picnic and airfills, including Nitrox and HF air. Once again, it's back to the hotel and clean up gear and go eat late.
"Cody's" is the eatery of the night. It's a Country/Redneck restaurant with great food and the largest Fudge Brownie/Ice Cream Sundaes you've even seen. It comes in a bowl the size of an aquarium. A large brownie on the bottom, 4 scoops of ice cream, hot fudge, whipped cream, nuts...you get the picture. It weighs in about 6 pounds. To my amazement, Dave is not able to finish his! Bud cleans his up and I thought he'd lick the bowl dry too. What a freekin hog! I'd have never guessed. I was too smart to get that big thing, so I had a huge slab of Key Lime Pie instead. One thing about eating down there, they don't SKIMP on the food. Burp.
Thursday we decide to rent a pontoon (no..not poontang....PONTOON!) boat and dive with the Manatees in Crystal River and drop into King Spring while we're there. I wanted to get a Jon Boat, but Dave preferred a pontoon. I think it was so he could sit down to put on his fins, but I'm not sure. We motor on down to the manatees, at least a full hundred yards away and anchor up in about 2' of water. I get elected to be boat captain. I think to myself, it's in case we get a ticket, but I can't prove it. We jump in and see a few manatees laying on the bottom in the protected zone, so we swim on over to the King Spring entrance and drop down in. Imagine my surprise when we get inside and I turn on my light and I see Bud and Dave following me REALLY close. Maybe it was because they hadn't brought any LIGHTS in with them? Oh well, makes sense to me. If you can do a night dive with a buddy only wearing a BC and no tank, why not make a black cavern dive with no light? (Sound familiar, BUD?) After a few minutes we pop out and swim to the surface through a huge school of big bass and large snook. We swim back over to the manatee zone and actually manage to entice a few to come out to us. I think they mistook Dave for a manatee in heat in his black wetsuit, and that's why they came out. He complained of a sore butt back on the boat. I don't know why and I don't ask. We motor on back to the dock to dry out our gear as much as possible and repack for the afternoon trip up to Rainbow River to do a drift dive with American Pro.
Rainbow River is a spring fed river that is absolutely crystal clear and you drift for about a mile before getting back on the boat for the ride back to the dock. Depths are very shallow and there's lots of large bass, bluegills, turtles and gar to look at and take pictures of. There's also 2 small caverns with a water flow so heavy you have to pull yourself into them and try to protect your reg from being purged by the heavy current. Once inside you can turn around and let go and have the spring literally shoot you back out. We were blessed with 4 other people on the boat that didn't know the difference between scuba diving and sky diving. The boat captain said entry would be by giant stride. The one girl said "Gee, I haven't done one of those since class!" I knew we were in trouble. I also hoped Dave didn't mistake him for saying entry was by Giant SLIDE again, but he got it right. These other schmucks did the worst entries ever witnessed by man. I've never seen so many people hit the water without the benefit of their reg being in their mouths. I don't know where these people were certified, but we at Smokeys are definitely turning out SUPERIOR products. 1 girl did her entire"Drift Dive" drifting helplessly submerged about 1' underwater. What a thrill for her, I think to myself. We blow off a roll of film and of course me, Bud and Dave are exploring every little crevice in the river and find ourselves way behind the group of "experienced" divers that took an hour to suit up and hit the water before us. Back on the boat we go about getting out of our gear and changing out of our wetsuits. Dave thought it would be a good idea to take off his dripping wet gear directly over my box with all my DRY clothes in it. I politely invite Dave to move forward. He complies. Dave and Bud are SO beautiful! Christine went along for the boat ride and the captain was nice enough to give her a personal topside tour while we spent about an hour down below. Nearly all of our dives were averaging about an hour in length.
Back on dry land, we pack our junk and once again head back to the hotel to clean up and plan the evening eating strategy. Since Dave has to go home on Friday, we decide to eat at the hotel so he has time to pack. He has to take all his things with him on Friday morning and check out of the hotel before we go to Devil's Den, our last destination of the week. As usual, we overeat and my eyes being bigger then my stomach, I order 24 hot wings for dinner. I eat 10 and take 14 up to my room to contemplate eating about midnight. Now, back to Dave's insurance story. He had been trying ALL week to get the adjuster to come over to the hotel and check out his car with no luck. So of course they start calling late Thursday afternoon, just before he has to pack up to leave. On top of that, neither Bud nor Dave's phone work in their rooms, so I'm getting ALL the calls. I log miles going back and forth to fetch Dave to come answer the phone. Friday morning it's off to Devil's Den bright and early so we can be there at opening time. Dave is leaving straight from there to drive back to Orlando to turn in his car, minus the sideview mirror, and catch his flight back home.
Devil's Den was really nice again. A large underground cavern that you have to enter wearing all your gear and take a steep flight of stairs about 50' underground to hit the water level. Admission price is $27. That seems to be the standard for all these springs, only these guys charged sales tax also, making it $28.89. I think the girl is new and screwed us with the tax, but that's just my guess. The water level was really low but very clear and the water temp is 70, coolest of all the springs we had done. We swam in circles for an hour plus looking at HUGE catfish and peering into the many caves with warning signs telling you to stay out. Now, they shouldn't put ANY signs there because what's the first thing you do when somebody tells you NOT to do something? You do it ANYWAY, right? So of course, we can't help ourselves and peer in past the signs, just a few feet. The water is so low that you only had 1 spot to actually walk into the water and 1 platform that sat about 3' about the water level that you had to ease yourself down over. Dave chose Plan B and introduced us to yet ANOTHER new entry techinque, the "BACKSPLASH". This is where you're fully geared up and try to slide yourself over the platform backwards on your stomach, but lose your balance and plop backwards into the water. This looks like a WAY cool entry! We now have added the "Giant Slide" and "Backsplash" to our open water training, at least in my classes anyway. After we use up all our film and are getting wrinkled from the hour and twenty minute bottom time, we decide to dry out and let Dave go on his way and make our way back to the hotel for the final gear cleanup.
Fortunately the temp on Friday got to about 76 with bright sun and my gear dried out quickly so I could pack it up and give it to Bud to bring home in his truck. Bud, Christine and myself go out for dinner Friday night and I figure I'd be nice and treat them to Valentine's dinner at Applebee's. WRONG! It was so crowded that about 30 people were in the parking lot sitting on the curbs waiting their turns. We head off to places less crowded. I ended up treating them to Emily's, a little home cooking joint with nice looking Greek deserts. The only problem is, they brought the check and never asked if we wanted desert, so we paid and drove up to the local Dairy Queen where we pigged out on ice cream. It was back to the hotel to pack for the trip home on Saturday and get a good nights sleep. The weather Saturday to leave was absolutely gorgeous.
I left about 8:30 to drive to Orlando. By 10am it was 73 degrees and by the time I left Orlando for Charlotte, it was 83 degrees. Of course, by the time I got to Harrisburg it was 10 degrees and I just beat the big snowstorm in by a couple of hours. Poor Bud is still out there on the road somewhere driving his way North in this crap. Bud is SO beautiful, especially with all of Dave's and my gear in the back of his truck being snowed and slushed on! I hope he makes it back ok. If nobody hears from Bud by Wednesday, call out the troopers. We had a blast, as always. I'm sure we'll be doing it again in the future and concentrating on new caverns and springs we haven't been to yet. Check out the pictures when Vern gets them posted to the website. I think the worst part is, I had an Ice Diving class last week, then go off to Florida warmwater diving all week and now I have another Ice Class next week. What's up with that? You either gotta love it or be part nuts, but then, most of you KNOW me.
Keep on diving and LIVE THE ADVENTURE!!!
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