Brass Bowl

Along one path that the Flotsam Four walks, there is a place where some metal plates cover something (cable trench, water line, entrance to speakeasy, I don’t know).  Two of these plates are loose, so when you step on one corner, it makes a clang.  Screaming Fuzzy Dave introduced the rest of the Four to this therapeutic event.

We que up in single file when we approach the location, and compete for the loudest clangs.  You have to be quick on the release.  Otherwise, your shoe dampens the resonance, and your clang goes flat.

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It was Gen. Andrew Jackson who recommended that a fort be built on Tampa Bay.  James Gadsden, his aide, suggested that troops from the Fourth Infantry should be the first to be stationed at the new post.  Col. George Mercer Brooke, a hero of the War of 1812, commanded a unit of the Fourth, which was stationed at Pensacola.  Col. Brooke arrived at the Tampa Bay site on Jan 22, 1824, with four companies.  The fort that he designed had utility, convenience, & beauty.  Capt. Isaac Clark, a military comrade, pronounced the barracks with its setting among the majestic live oaks & wild orange trees, “The best barracks of its kind, in the United States.”  A visitor found the site “delightful.”  Beyond the beauty of its location, Cantonment Brooke - soon, Fort Brooke, would become the southern anchor of the U.S .military line of offense & control that would be anchored on the northeast by Fort King, at the Indian Agency, near the site of the old Indian village of Ocale (Ocala, “my camp”).  In proposing the fort on the bay, Gadsden had told the Secretary of War that “a judicious location of an adequate force simultaneous with the concentration of the Indians cannot but have the happy effect of obtaining such a control as to render them perfectly Subservient to the views of the Government.”  In this, he was echoing the view of many in government, but not of the military officers on the scene.  The soldiers knew that the Florida Indians had no intention of becoming “perfectly Subservient” to anyone.

I finally got down to see the bronze of Dick Greco. Some say this doesn’t look like him. I think maybe he did look like this once or twice.

Click on the image for 1200 x 900 picture.

This taterhead had plenty of time and room to stop, he just wanted to be out in front.  In the crosswalk. 

I’m thinking “compensation syndrome”.

Click on the image below for a 800 x 600 image.  It pays to know jerks like this so you can avoid them.

I was only able to get a parting shot of this machine, as it came upon me so quickly.  I was so surprised, I fell out of the photographer mode for just a second.   Luckily I was able to get a focused picture from the rear.

A few minutes research provided the make and model of this “Tadpole Trike”.  It is produced by Bombardier of Canada.  The price?  I saw a year old number of $17k.  For more info, go to the manufacturer website.

You can click on the image to view the full size pic (1024 x 768).

Here are some more pictures from another site.