"Paradise" Sea Gulls and Cheese Nips As you go out of town, there are all these great roads, Persimmon Hollow Rd., Possum Trail, Gator Lane, and my personal favorite, Barney Bloxxum Road. There the Black Water river snakes all through the land. The road is a terror at night. Winding and up and down hills, they call it death alley at night. Santa Rosa county where I live is a dry county, so people go over to the beach and drink, and many have died on that road, especially on late Friday or Saturday night. Everywhere you look on either side, there is purple wisteria, azaleas and dogwood—tumbling over each other. The farther you get out of town, the more there are acres and acres of pine trees. They stand so straight and tall it is almost by design instead of random. If you look underneath the pines, it is very bare—you can almost see Indians walking underneath them tracking deer. From time to time a deer will run across the road—from one stand of pines to the other. It usually happens so quickly, you wonder if you really saw it or not.At one point you go over a bridge that is so high up, but straight across the river, you are even with the tops of the trees.There is even a road nearby that is called Bay River Road because the river is on one side, the Pensacola Bay on the other. As you get closer to Navarre(the end of the beach I go)the air starts to change. You can smell the salt air, feel the coolness of the sea breeze if you let down your windows. Now the roads are changing to names like, Quiet Water Cove, Sea Marge Lane, Mariner lane, and the houses start to have seafoam shutters, maybe coral trim. You know for sure you are getting there when you see Sand Dollar Plaza, Seascapes Plaza, and other shops full of things for the tourists. There it is!! The bridge to Navarre Beach!! For 50 cents as a toll, you enter Paradise! The bridge is rather high to let the big boats go through, so as I go over the top—there is this seagull flying parallel to the bridge and alongside my car! He is white with a totally black hood—he looked like the Lone Ranger.I glanced over looking for Tonto—but he was alone. Then the panorama of the beach is before me. On this side is the Quietwater(the bay) There are bamboo huts with personal watercraft to rent, also paddle boats. I go to the end of the road...If I go left, it is another dead end—but is the nude beach, Moonlite and alone is one thing—full day and all the people(even one other is too many!)is quite another. The world isn’t ready, and neither am I to expose this heiney, so I go right. Now the houses and condos are every color! Mango, coral, yellow, seafoam, a few weathered grey. My favorite since a child—and I can always remember it being there—is a space ship perched on top of a square block house! Yep, a space ship—plexi-glass and with actual portholes for gazing at other galaxys! The island is maybe 2 miles wide, so in places, between dunes and cottages and condos, you can see the bay on one side, the mighty Gulf of Mexico on the other. It is to the Gulf side I go. I go over the boardwalk (to protect the dunes and the sea oats that anchor the dunes from the pull of nature and the reclaiming of the sea.) There it is! The sand is so white it almost blinds me! The waves are pounding the shore, flags are up for dangerous surf-and I have never seen a more beautiful day! Every color of green, blue, and turquoise paints the water. There are fishing boats out—even though there is a small craft warning—the Cobia are running and there is a fishing tournament—and the fishermen who fish for a living must eat so they are out there too—way out where the fish are running. I throw down my sheet and towel, book and Cheese Nips, kick off my sandals and start to walk. There are maybe 9 people on the beach as far as I can see. I go to the right where there is no one. I walked for maybe a mile, picking up shells, stopping to look at the horizon—just meandering. My foot prints are the only ones on the beach that day. I couldn’t find any big shells, seems the crush of the shore tore them up—but all kinds of little ones are there. I stood for a while and sang of course, I am always singing (lucky no one is around—I sing off key most of the time!)My first heart song is: I VOW TO THEE MY COUNTRY and one that the beach always inspires me to sing HOW GREAT THOU ART. I claim the beach as belonging to Goddess Rhee—I cast my pain and all hurt into the sky—the wind takes it and I feel again—brand new. The salt water purifys me—I send thoughts of healing light to those I love... the sand is so bright, I figure the white light will be amplified.(can’t hurt anyway!) I walk back to my sheet and sit down after an hour, dead tired—my feet won’t go anymore. There are one or two seagulls around, but I know how to call them. Goddess Rhee is most powerful!! Ok, I know they love to eat anything, so I throw up a Cheese Nip—one comes and catches it in mid air, suddenly I am surrounded! Sea gulls everywhere!!! They catch as I throw, some as close as my toes in the sand! I stop for awhile, all fly off as if on signal, but 4 remain, on guard duty it seems. As soon as I throw a Cheese Nip again, one calls and the others come back. They are so close I can see the little tongues in their beaks—only one calls the rest are busy eating. As I get close to the end of my bag of Nips, I stand up and throw them all into the air—I am in the middle of the flock of birds(22 I counted!). Awesome!! That is the only thing I can think to say about it. I lay back down, and doze for a few minutes then time to go. Goddess Rhee says good-bye to her kingdom—a little sun-burned and wind swept, but peaceful and tired from my few hours in paradise. Maria Lindberg Copyright 2000 Goddess Rhee Mistress of Both sand and sea Nature calls To Goddess Rhee Sets my soul And spirit free. Pensacola Beach Web Cam       <