Author: Randy

Well we did it. We found a great little house to rent for a bit. Something to call home. After drifting about freely for over three years we decided we wanted a “home base”. Now this does not mean our travels and journey has ended. We just now have a place where we stretch out a little more and a place to set up shop.

The house is what is known as a Faux English Tudor home was built in the 1940’s. It is located in the North Hill Historical Preservation District of Pensacola. It has been restored by our landlord, David, to its original state, with beautiful wood floors, interesting nooks, mechanical doorbell and even a claw foot tub! Click here to view interior pictures >> Once we get into the house we will post pics of how we fill it up and decorate it. It has a private courtyard out back where we plan to eat breakfast at almost every morning. There is a detached garage which will make an EXCELLENT art studio! I am so excited to paint again! To be able to keep my easel and paints set up and ready to use whenever I get the chance.

But we will not be abandoning the CrusieMaster as it will be kept in nearby storage always ready to roll because I am sure we will be getting the travel fever every couple of weeks, because how else am I going to stumble across shoes in places other than Pensacola 🙂

While Sharon and her sister, Rachie, were driving around Port Charlotte the day after Hurricane Charlie had hit they literally hit a fork in the road. They had to get out and pry it from the tire. Little did we know how symbolic that would prove to be as we hit a huge metaphorical fork in the road just a couple weeks later when we lost are place to Hurricane Ivan. Which as most of you know led us to buy a motorhome and travel full time for the last 3 and half years. We saw people and places and places we would never had seen otherwise. My photography got to take on a new level. I got re-inspired to paint again. And the One Shoe Diaries was born out of the journey. But we are now putting the traveling on a back burner for a bit. It was a tough decision, but one we really did not make of our own free will. It seems God (or whoever is in control) had plans for us…

Sharon and I have been blessed with a child on the way. And also as many of you know this was not planned. We were well on our happy way to just having Jack and Jinjer as our children. But here we are, at another fork in the road. We did several tests to make sure, we tried to convince ourselves we were just reading the stick wrong, maybe we did it wrong, the stick might be old and defective. But nope, they were all correct. Sharon is with child. We tried even to deny the weight gain, her increasing bra size and morning naseau for a couple of months. But we have to face it, we are having a kid. So at age 38 I will be a father for the first time. Man i hope I have the energy to rise a child 🙂 We are cautiously excited, because we want to get an ultrasound to hear for sure we have a healthy little one growing in there.

However we can tell you, we will NOT be selling the motorhome and already have plans to do a “Baby Hamilton Tour” when our year lease is up so we can visit family and introduce our newest roadie 🙂

Recently I saw an article about a woman in Pittsburgh that has been collecting single gloves that have been lost in the hopes of posting them on the internet in the hopes someone will recognize one as their own and she can reunite the pair of gloves. She titled her project “One Cold Hand” Well the story hit the A.P.wire and took off like a meteor. She has been on NPR and CNN. She has even gotten international exposure!

I guess this is good because maybe it will draw attention to the One Shoe Diaries. After all she is doing gloves and I am doing shoes, she is about reuniting and I am doing it as a form of art.

Actually, who is upset is my friend Linda (the Glove Lady) who has been collecting lost gloves for almost 14 years!! Just about the same day she set up her exhibition, FOUND GLOVES, One Cold Hand hit the airwaves. I believe she has around 400 gloves in her collection. After seeing her exhibition it is hands and shoulders above Ms Gooch’s. It has a lot of stories and history behind the gloves. It is a very impressive collection. I cannot wait to collaborate. She has the same passion as I do with regards to her collection.

This is my plea to those friends of mine and fans of the One Shoe Diaries. If you know of any ways to get exposure for the book please let me know, I am up for any ideas. This project is just getting started.

And I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of you that have supported our project and journey!

And for reference 🙂 here is a link to the One Cold Hand website.

Somewhere in Tennessee:
Our first destination ended up being a small somewhat dirty motel. An America’s Best Inns I believe. It had a free breakfast, old coffee, very stale muffins, fruit loops and brownish-orange juice. Nothing too appealing except for the Fruit Loops 🙂 But hey it was cheap and allowed dogs so it all was good.

Norwood, Ohio:
Arriving at our first real destination we were happy to find that our good friend Trish had bought a nice and cute old house recently and had a room just for us…the living room. She had just moved in and it being her first house she did not have the spare bedroom set up yet. To our surprise though the pull out couch was very comfortable. We had dinner with my brother and niece in Newtown at the Main Street cafe. Good chili and nice beer selection. It was nice, i wish i could see my brother more. I think we could really bond, and become close if we spent more time together.

Next night we met up with Sean, Gina, Kelly, Alex, Trish, Randy at Pat Vicky Costellos who are Sean and Kelly’s parents but are more like just one of the gang in our minds. We ctually had carolers come and sing at the door. A great tradition that goes on at the Costellos is to get the largest tree possible to fit into the house and decorate it. The tree this year must have been 12 tall and 20’ in diameter!! Yes that is huge! A must see to behold 🙂 We all stayed up until 2:30 in the morning talking and reliving old times. It was a special evening. I love being amongst my friends. They are ALL special humans. I got the chance again a few nights later, and this time we added Skippy, Becky, Dave, Gary and Jason to the mix. The night ended early but it was nice. We got to catch up a bit, but nearly enough. Thanks Trish for the hospitality and the Skyline Chili dip 🙂

We took my mom out to Lunch at a thai restaurant. This was to be her first time ever eating Thai food. She went mild and got their sweet and sour pork. At one point in the day I found a shoe and its mate. They were perfect condition Airwalks! Size 13. Just my nephews size. This was one of the first times I ever found a pair of shoes, and actually picked them up. Overall we had a nice day with my mom. We did not do much, just shopped and ate but it was nice. I love my mother and wish I saw her more.

Another notable event was seeing an old school mate, Chad Borke, whom I had not seen in around 10 years. Growing up we were pretty close. Best friends at one point. We are both freelance designers now. He lives in Connecticut and we will try and see him this summer if we get up to Maine. Just another list in a long line of people I wish i could have spent more time with. I feel very blessed to be able to say I have so many friends and so little time. Oh yeah, speaking of that. I am sorry Tom. I will catch you next time. If you get a chance and are bored check out Tom and I’s CuriousWords.com.

PS. Always grab a jar of Frisch’s tarter sauce if ever in Cincy area.

Baltimore, Maryland:
After a long drive from Cincinnati we got in to Sharon’s aunt Glenda’s in Baltimore. We timed it perfectly because just when we arrived Glenda had just finished making dinner for us. She always makes such good food for us. We did not stay long, but we would be coming back shortly to spend time with Nanny.

Deal Island, Maryland:
It felt like we just left that place. We celebrated Christmas there at Sharon’s parents. It was nice, felt great to spend christmas with them this year as last year we stayed in Florida with Rachie. The sad thing was that neither Rachie or Michael could spend it with us so it just was not the same. The puggles love it on that farm as they get to run free in the fields. They run and tackle each other then run some more, they love cool weather. Overall the weather was pretty good on the whole trip. Only one time in Cincy did we really feel cold.

Baltimore, Maryland:
We got back up to Baltimore and got to spend some really quality time with Glenda and Nanny, we love you guys so much!!!. We pretty much just stayed at the house and hung out. What a christmas present it was to get to see everyone. Thanks to everyone who contributed to our gift, we appreciated more than you know.

Fredricksburg, Virginia:
After what was a great trip it was time to head south back to Pensacola but we had a few scheduled stops along the way. The first was in Fredricksburg to visit with Sharon’s “new-found” sister Elise. (To read about the internet reunion go here, it is quite a story) We had a great time with Motts (her fiance) and her. We went out to a Japanese steak house for hibachi food and ate til we burst. The next day we hit Perkins for breakfast with them, found a shoe to photograph and we were off. Seemed I was still hungry throughout the day, like I had munchies all day for some reason 🙂

Charleston, South Carolina:
Our final stop was in Charleston to spend the New Year’s Eve with Kevin and Jason. We hit a couple of cool pubs, the Griffen, the Brick, Tommy Condon’s and Blind Tiger. My favorite being the Griffen. I like its small intimate atmosphere with a hint of hole in the wall dive bar feel. Good selection of import drafts as well. Condon’s is alright but not much in the way of an authentic Irish Pub. Blind Tiger has a great outdoor courtyard and was quite lively. The Brick was dead but it was early, would have been fun to see the band that was setting up but Jason saw no chic’s in the place so wanted to leave.

While in Charleston We also got a chance to play some more disc golf. (frisbee golf for you old-schoolers 🙂 The course was very technical and gave us fits! It was fun though when I wasn’t bouncing discs off the trees and not getting bloody from walking through palmettos searching for my errant throws!

Pensacola, Florida:
Upon arriving back in Pensacola we were greeted with temps in the 20’s headed down into the teens!!! The motorhome was sooo cold. Grande Burrrrrrito as we like to say. We bundled up under, no lie, 5 blankets next to the puggles to stay warm while being fully clothed in sweats and sweaters. Sometime in the night the heat from the furnaces took hold and chased out the cold as I woke up sweating, but it felt so good not to be cold. I was kinda sad as that may have been our last road trip for some time 🙁 🙁 We will keep you posted.

On Christmas Eve 2007, a good friend of mine passed on from this earth. He was a great guy who has many friends and family that will miss him dearly. He passed in the manner everyone wants to go. Peacefully in his sleep, but WAYYY WAY too young. Age 31. It is with genuine sadness that I am creating this small memorial to him. He was always in good spirits with that endearing smile seemingly permanently fixed on his face. I have a story to share that pretty much says it all in regards to what kind of person he was.

I was in a bind on a project and Danny overheard me speaking of it to somebody. He offered to help me with programming the online form for me that was vexing me. The next day he sent me the code and it worked like a dream. I offered him payment for it and he would not accept it. Several times I tried to repay him but he would not accept it still. So now I can finally repay him in a way by donating that amount to the Humane Society in his honor.

Goodbye Dan and may there be endless beaches in heaven for you with perfect waves, sand, courts and of course, babes 🙂 Sharon and I will miss your smiling face. You were a good friend to both of us.

Here is a link to his online guest book sponsored by the Pensacola News Journal

I am sorry to report there has been nothing notable to write about recently. Things have been pretty mundane sitting here. We have launched a new web business to help benefit the ASPCA. We are asking for people to submit their pet photos for a chance to win $150 for first and $50 for second. If interested check it out here >>

We also have to report we have removed the Celtic Ray as our favorite pub. It has been bought out and the new owners are screwing things up. For starters they kicked Kevin, the previous owner out after asking him to sty on to run the place. Thery then fired his son and his girlfriend. The arguement was between Kevin and the new owners regarding putting in TVs, Budweiser products on tap, and serving cheeseburgers!! Everything that made it one of the most authentic Irish Pubs in the U.S. is being stomped on! So with these developments Sharon and I, along with scores of others will NEVER step foot into that pub until Kevin is back in charge, which looks like will not happen. Sad to see people screw up good things.

NOTE TO SELF: Things will be if they are meant to be 🙁

I did get to spend some quality time with Scooter a week ago out on the Tribal 21 boat. We took it out to Boca Grande and Cayo Costa for a video shoot. We are preparing to create a PODcast and Television spot. But I think we did more fishing than filming, but it was a great time. He beat me 11 – 10 and had the prize fish, 23” speckled trout.