Travel Inn: No Vacancy

I traded McDonald's and their free wireless for Joe Patti's Seafood Market which according to Yelp is the best spot in Pensacola for fresh seafood. Welp, Yelp didn't tell me they'd be closed at 7PM on a Friday...

Sam's Seafood across the street was not closed, however, and had a sign that boasted "best grouper sandwich in town." I'll tell you what, that was the best grouper sandwich I have ever had in Pensacola, FL.

After that I thought it would be nice to go to a cheap motel, lay on a bed and watch TV.

Nope.

Consuela Garmin led the way to Travel Inn. Sounds safe enough right?

I went in and slid my $32 (20, 5, 4 x 1's, 7 quarters, 7 dimes, 9 nickels, 10 pennies) through the bullet-proof glass.

On the way to my room, across the street and around back to a parking lot walled in on three sides, I met five of the locals... Four of them asked if I was partyin' tonight: weed, coke or boys/girls? With one insisting that I was ripped off and should have stayed in his room. Would have only cost me $10.

Notice the duct tape over HBO

If I could just get to my room and lock my door, I'd be safe. Right?

Wrong.

My room did not have a lock. The dead bolt was missing. The latch was broken and the lock on the door knob did not latch.

Needless to say, I got the hell out of there.

When I told the sad looking man that I would not be staying and asked for my money back, he asked why. I told him my door did not lock. Not satisfied with my response, he asked if there were a lot of people out there, with a knowing look.

I nodded and he slid my money back.

On the way back to my car the first man I met came back up to me:

Hey man, you find your room?

Hey man, where you going?

Hey man, like weed?

Hey man, you gonna sleep in my room?

Hey man, gotta couple bucks, I can get a bowl of noodles.

After I was in my car, a woman with no teeth or clothes came up to me:

Hey man, come here.

Hey man, I need to talk to you.
NO YOU DON'T

Hey man, wanna f*ck?

Hey man, come back here!

F*ck you man!

I sped off to the nearest Walmart Bed 'n Breakfast, parked and listened to the rain soak Lucy through the night. Read more!

Should I stay or should I go?

I am on vacation until Thursday. As such, I had planned an exploratory journey along the gulf coast starting in Pensacola at the Naval Aviation Museum and ending in New Orleans.

While I was at the museum, I found out that the Air Force band was having a free show, including a catered dinner. I was set to go and then asked to leave because cut-offs do not count as business casual. Not to be deterred I found the nearest thrift store to purchase a pair of pants so I might gain entry to the concert.

The first Thrift Store I went to, Classy Cat Thrift Store, was not open.

On my way to the second, Salvation Army, a sure thing, I got a call from a 305 number. 305 is the area code for Miami and the FL Keys. It was a place I interviewed with in the Keys to offer me an internship AND an instructor position from Jan-May.

Holy smokes! Excellent news right?

Maybe.
This whole week I have agonized over getting this job and whether I would/how to leave my current situation, and gone back and forth between being really excited about staying in GA and miserable over it.

There are reasons to stay and reasons to go, and at this point I can barely see straight (partially due to the rain that continues to blast Lucy’s windshield and partially due to the news I’d just been dealt).

I get to Salvation Army and it's a grocery store now. They don't sell pants.

Confused and defeated I have taken refuge in a local McDonald's which I know from my couch-surfing days has free wi-fi. Here I can look up other sweet shit to do in Pensacola. I don't have any idea where I am staying tonight and until I figure that out, I can't exactly get on with my evening. I am half tempted to go get a sixer or three and go to a cheap motel and watch TV for the rest of the evening.

If I decide to go work in FL, I should probably go right back to GA to tell them in person. As it stands the next time they will see me is the first day of the next term of service.

I knew this was going to happen. I knew I was going to get this job and I knew it would be too little too late. If I don't take it I am going to be disappointed in myself for continuing on more predictable path. Currently I am staying afloat and I don't know if there's any way to do that in Florida (figuratively, obviously I could just go into the ocean and float all I wanted). Read more!

26

Today I turned 26. Read more!

I am here for the ladies.

Last Saturday night, I saw my first female...turtle, that is. Melissa and I had just gotten off the beach after an exciting turtle walk, topped off with the capture of a particularly pissed off ghost crab. As we were leaving the parking lot we heard, "We have emergence 202, next will be 203" windily crackle over the radio.

Without hesitation we turned left out of the beach deck parking lot and sped down Beachview Drive, stopping at the Hampton Inn and then at Glory Dock to get back to the sand and spot the latest lady.

No turtle.

Finally, we were able to get a hold of turtle patrol who had previously been too busy with their new mama turtle. She was just north of the convention center, no more than a kilometer from where we had started. Again, we raced in 1960's Batmobile fashion (theme music and all) back up Jekyll's coast to find our lady loggerhead.

We got there while she was still digging her nest chamber. Soon after, she started dropping egg. At that point, with mama in a trance, we were able to approach her and watch as this lady laid in the moonlight. 45 minutes later, she started to close up shop and Turtle Patrol went to work, dressing her with her flipper and PIT tags, and taking a skin sample for a mitochondrial DNA study.

When they got what they needed it was off to the next one for Turtle Patrol.

I stayed to see her off to sea. The nesting ritual has a spiritual quality. This same ritual has gone on for millions of years; far longer than any of the world's religions. This turtle doesn't know about environmental policy or coastal development. She knows about eating, mating and nesting and does as she always has (since she was about 30 anyway) and as the millions of generations of sea turtle before her had.

Until then, I hadn't seen a nesting female sea turtle. I have been working in sea turtle conservation for the better part of a year and always felt kind of like a poseur. The people I have worked with both in DC and in South GA had not just seen it, but seen it hundreds of times. They all, though, remember their first ladies, just as I will remember JICc78, and get just as excited with each emergence.

I have included a key for those of you having trouble deciphering the phone pic taken through our night vision monocular (Sarah Hoyt)

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Faces of Kam

I was trying to describe this face via Skype:

This is what came out:

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Two Pieces of Trash

As a 5 year old, itching to get to the pool, bound by the back seat of an '89 Mustang, I would get mega-annoyed by my mother's constant stopping to pick up "just one more piece of trash." I couldn't understand why she would pick up one piece of trash, let alone many pieces, or even, every piece she saw.

Twenty years later, I find myself unconsciously picking up trash. Be it on the streets of Washington DC, along a hiking trail, or in the muddy sand of Driftwood Beach, I can't stand the look of garbage on the ground. If I keep on walking, that Catholic guilt that I have been working so hard to get rid of cuts a hole right into my stomach.

The problem here is that once you start picking up trash, when do you stop? Is every day going to be a trash clean up service project? That would turn just about every place you go into a chore.

So as not to pick up trash all day everyday, I have made a goal to pick up and throw away 2 pieces every time I am at the beach (which is every day). This won't make much impact by myself, but if everyone made sure to pick up just 2 pieces of trash every time they went to the beach, we'd surely have clean beaches someday.

This is no Mike Donohoe original, but it's an idea worth spreading.

Happy World Oceans Day!

http://www.theoceanproject.org/wod/
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That time I couch surfed through DC: Sept 15-April 4

From September 15-March 31, I interned with Conservation International's Sea Turtle Flagship Program. Initially I was only to be in DC until mid-December, but I was asked to stay on until the end of March after proving that I was worth keeping for a minute or two.

A lot of blog posts should have come out of this trip, and a lot of blog posts may yet, but to get everyone up to date, I have assembled a collage documenting my time in DC.

DC in 20 run-on sentences/fragments:

September 14: Packed everything I own in to Lucy's trunk, drove through the night, slept in CI's parking garage before showering at Caribou Coffee and showing up at CI's offices bright eyed and bushy tailed. Began living in DC. Ate multiple free meals a week care of CI's multiple meetings around lunch and dinner time. Lost my wallet, no access to cash, got third in a dance competition trying to win $100. Made new friends.

Learned about the metro, battled the Orange line many a morn. Drove across the Chesapeake Bay Bridge on my way through MD for blue crabs. Went out for Halloween, made my costume for free with CI's printer. Celebrated 15 or so birthdays with Moe's Southwestern Grill. Explored the Mall.

Maxed out on samples at each of DC's farmer's markets. Won a free pair of sandals for being hilarious. Took the train from DC to CT, stopping in NYC. Battled the Blizzard of 2010. Made new friends with DC's Surfriders.

Went skiing for the first time at Wisp. Couldn't figure out how to get free falafels,but ate as many as possible anyway. Lived in my car, DC, NoVA, MD. Helped produce SWOT Report, made a music video. April 4: Drove home.

DC was an incredible test of strength. Strength that stemmed from the support of my friends and family. Without their couches and toilet paper, there is no way I could have made it through.

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the milktrix

May 2003


While in Cleveland for a swim meet, I saw a film crew shooting a commercial of a car driving down the road. The camera man was following in an SUV standing in the sun roof. I immediately decided that shooting with the camera-out-the-sun-roof technique needed to happen and the milktrix was born.
The problem with the the camera-out-the-sun-roof technique is that it is apparently illegal on many levels. As we were filming, my ass half-out the roof of my mom's car, I have the driver go around Joe's car so that I can get the shot. Joe was following th posted speed limit of 45 mph which meant to pass him we were banging out about 55-60. This was not a problem with any of the other cars around us except for the police officer.

After we got the shot, we pulled over to thank the police officer for clearing traffic for us...

"Are you guys crazy?" He said, not calmly at all. "I oughta impound this vehicle and slap you with reckless opp."

"Hello officer, I'm Michael and this is Andrea. And we are filming a short for a photogr..."

"You guys were driving 60 miles an hour without a seatbelt, half out the car."

"Officer, I apologize, we just needed that one shot to finish our film and we have gotten it and so we're done."

"Well you have also got a pair of tickets for speeding and failure to wear a seat belt."
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Island Reef Job

I finally got my video application for IslandReefJob.com finished and uploaded. Over 34,000 videos have been uploaded. Some are garbage and some are really really good.

The idea is that you get this job, you go to the island and then you regale the world with your adventures via photos, videos and blog posts all the while drumming up interest in Australia as an international vacation destination.

The question becomes, how do you make yourself stand out in a group of 34,ooo?
Just because I got 15 emails and 30 phone calls in one day telling me that I am the perfect man for the job doesn't mean a whole lot unless I can show them.

I decided immediately upon hearing about it that we weren't going to go with a "talking head" type video application. Also, we were going to shy away from slide shows and pictures of me being awesome in various locales around the globe. Why?

1) Everyone else did that
2) This job is not about where you have been. Its about your ability to present Queensland to the world in an entertaining way. To do that, I have to start by presenting myself in an entertaining way.

I realize that not showing photos of me being awesome, and relying more heavily on imagery than words is a gamble. Focusing on plot, production value and humor did not however cause me to leave out any of the requirements for the video app. Instead, by sprinkling the pertinent information on top of this short, I have gone above and beyond; providing a preview of whats to come, not what has been.

I'm Travelin' Mike, and I'm going places.

Please go to: http://www.islandreefjob.com/#/applicants/watch/QCVC8pKWIV8

Thank you,

TM


p.s. I would like to give a special thanks to Joe Camerlengo for coming aboard behind the camera and Joe Fitzgerald for lending his vocal talents to the production. Both can be found at ThisIsMySuitcase
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That time the boat broke: A day without wake

4 July 2008

A weekend of wake boarding becomes a weekend of creativity when the boat breaks over the holiday. Beached for the day obviously did not mean a day of boredom. Here are some photos documenting our day at the beach.

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