Through out the course of life you experience certain events that you wish wouldn’t end such as a family vacation, party, Homecoming, etc. I had never really had one of those life experiences until this particular event. I had heard a lot about this trip from people that had gone on it before but I was ready to experience it for myself.

It’s the summer of 2013 and the one thing on my mind was Florida Sea Base. The trip had taken a year and a half to plan and all that I had to do was pack my bag. I was going some people from my boy scout troop who would make this the experience of a life time. The day finally came and I was as excited as one  could be waking up at 2:00 in the morning. My brother and I were both going, this would be his second time plus he had just aged out of boy scouts meaning he turned 18 and was officially an adult. I was the Senior Patrol leader (SPL)  which meant that I  was the leader of the scouts.

We went to the meeting spot where we would be meeting everyone that was going on the trip. We said our final goodbyes and were destine for the Detroit Metro Airport. Once we got our boarding passes and boarded the plane the only thing on my mind was the warmth of Florida. The plane ride was very bumpy and I couldn’t sleep, I wasn’t sure if it was because I was so excited or because of the turbulence that we hit. With the size of our group we took up about a quarter of the plane, we had two people(a dad and his son) from another troop join us on this trip. We were all excited to get to know them, for starters their names were Zach and his dad Mr. Martindale. While on the plane Zach built a house out of cards and it was all good until we hit a big patch of turbulence and down went the house of cards. As soon as we landed there was a strange sound that resembled a whining dog mixed with a cat hissing. The flight attendant walked passed us and jokingly said “That doesn’t sound good, I think we ran over a dog.” We both looked at each other and started to laugh but quickly corrected himself by saying “It’s just the hydraulics adjusting.”
We walked out of the airport just to get onto a bus for another four hours. Finally I could get some sleep on this trip. I was asleep for what felt like a second and woke up to the bus driver saying “I always carry my shotgun incase of emergency, you never know what could happen… people are crazy.” I turned to my friend who I couldn’t tell if he was intrigued or in awe of what was just said. But I immediately was assumed that this guy was crazy. It might of been wrong of me to do but I didn’t care.

After 7 plus hours of traveling we finally got sea base and it was everything that I had hoped with air conditioning.  It was placed on the edge of the water and with blue skies living on for the next week was a 100 foot schooner named the Jolly II Rover. We were kindly greeted by the crew and Captain Ron. Captain Ron was always wearing a long sleeve shirt, I assumed he didn’t want to damage his skin being out on the water for days on end. We boarded the vessel and dealt with the smell of the head which was conveniently placed next to the sleeping quarters, while we explored the small  ship like kids in a candy shop. My friend yelled from across the ship “I found a port hole, look how close we are to the water, it’s so blue.” Everyone constantly complained about the smell and ended up sleeping on the deck but there were a few brave souls such as myself that would sleep downunder.

The days felt like hours and every sunrise would make way for a new adventure. Whether it be snorkeling at the coral reefs or anchoring at a small island to relax the moments were priceless. By the third or fourth day we were almost out of water so we headed back for key west to restock our supply. We were a mile or so away from the docks when we were passing a cruise ship. The started to yell “Get the cannons” in a flurry of chaos they managed to get the cannons and fire off 4 shots in the time span of one minute.

Soon we docked and were able to explore the island for the day, but before we did anything a group of 4 of us decided to run down to the southern more point which was a mile or so away from the docks. This was a good idea but we didn’t bring water with us, it was only 9:00 overhead,  you could see for miles. We meet up with our guides Tom and Melissa who would be with us for the rest of the week.

The sun rose on a new and 3 more hours in a van driving down to Key West where our boat awaited our arrival. I was still trying to recover from the 7 hours of travel and lack of sleep so once we hit the road I was out. When we arrived at Key West and I stepped out of the air conditioned van and had a wave of heat slap me on the face. The boat that we were going to be AM and it was already 94°F. The run also gave us an idea of the layout of the island and helped us throughout the day. When we got back from the run we went to the showers they had on the island for the boats that didn’t  have them. The showers felt refreshing, especially getting all of the salt water off of your self. 

Not soon after, we were off exploring the island, we walked past the tourist traps and then to the shops. A lot of the shops we having end of summer sales which was good for us. We enjoyed the fact that everything was walking distance but the heat was overbearing. We had to find an air conditioned building because of the heat. We stumbled upon an aquamarine museum that was really fascinating. There was a movie showing every hour on the dot and we had arrived at 12:06 so we decided to go in. We went from extremely sunny to pitch black and that was not a good idea because we were tripping over people. All that you could here was “OUCH excuse me thats my foot.” Based on that we decided to sit on the ground in the front, the room was the perfect temperature to  sleep and the movie wasn’t very entertaining. I closed my eyes and was abruptly woken up to a girl screaming and quickly realized it was only the movie. Our day continued as we left and went to a place called peppers of key west that specialized in hot sauces. While looking around the shop we found one called Satan’s Rage and for some reason a kid who was with us really wanted to try it. So we sat down at the counter to start the taste test, the worker started us low and worked up to the hottest he could serve us. In the beginning the sauces had a lot of vinegar in them then they started to get hotter and hotter. I remember him telling us “The legal limit I can serve is 600,000 scoville units, which is half of what pepper spray that the police use”. Before consuming it I thought to myself “is this really the best idea? Why not it’s the last day, what could go wrong?” When we got to the hottest one the server said “whatever you don’t swallow it” and that is exactly what I did, swallow it. That was probably one of the worst feelings in my life aside from snapping my clavicle earlier that year. I thought that drinking something would help but it just made it worse. The server noticed me struggling and gave me some cream cheese which he claimed was one of the best things to stop the burning. The burning sensation reminded me of the first time that I had a jalapeno pepper. I was with my uncle in new york at a mexican restaurant and felt almost the same burning sensation.

I was sad to see this trip come to an end. While saying goodbye I knew that this was one for the books, something that I will tell my friends about forever. I left clarkston not knowing what to expect and came back with my mind blown and stories that would intrigue my friends. These stories would change and shape my life. I left sea base thinking that this was a pretty good trip but now I’ve come to realize that it was more than that. I’m constantly reminded of the unique shades of orange and red dipping beyond the horizon. This trip left it’s mark on me and I am grateful for that, I now see every little thing I do as a time to experience life and live life to the fullest.