Travis Beechler

Travis called me yesterday. He's the guy for whom I painted in Naples. I was surprised to hear from him because the last time we talked was face to face.

Anyway, you may remember that I left an apology after saying I felt kind of cheated after only getting paid $60 for nine hours of hard work. I doubt that Travis ever saw either the original post or the apology post, but they will both be there for as long as this web log exists. Even though I've already posted that apology, I want to add a little more because as far as I'm concerned, Travis is good people.

Here's how I met Travis and his wife Terri:

I was walking around in the Everglades. They saw me and thought I might want a ride, even though I was off the road exploring. So after they drove by, they turned around and came back to check on me.

It was Travis's birthday that day and they were just driving around aimlessly, with no particular destination in mind. When I got in the car they asked me where I might want to go. I said I'm going anywhere and everywhere, so Travis pulled out a quarter for me to flip. He said heads means Miami and tails means Immokalee (I think that's spelled right). I flipped heads, so off to Miami we went.

On the way, we stopped at some roadside attraction in which they paid $3 apiece for us to see a bunch of somewhat exotic animals like gators, a peacock, some parrot-type birds, several pythons, etc. They were all caged, of course. Later on, Travis pulled off the road into the entrance to a state or national park. They could see that there was at least one gator in one of the swampy areas beside the driveway, so they let me out to get some pictures while they looked for a place to park. A couple minutes later they joined me and we were gone within about another 5 minutes.

We entered Miami and headed toward Fort Lauderdale, where we ended up at a casino/dog track. Travis quickly turned $5 into $20, then gave me the $20 voucher. He said if I end up with more than $20, just give him the $20 back and keep the rest; if I end up with less than $20, keep it. Shortly after hitting the slots, I was up to about $60, but I was back to $20 when we left. Inside the casino at the nearby horse track, I ended up blowing the whole $20 as well as another $5 or so of my own money.

After leaving the casinos, Travis and Terri also treated me to dinner at the Olive Garden. It was something they were going to do even if they hadn't picked me up (because it was Travis's birthday), but they didn't mind treating me. That was nice.

Anyway, that's the quick version of my time with Travis and Terri. I don't like how I sounded in my post from the library in Naples, so I hope this kind of makes up for it. Also, now you know a little bit more about Travis and how he fits into this epic adventure.

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Aimless
The Quasi-Aimless Trailer
If you'd like to contact me, call me at 614-738-3867.