Today's News

The amount of trash produced by each American per day is astounding, not to mention the amount generated throughout a lifetime. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, as of 2006, Americans toss out trash at the incredible rate of 4.6 pounds per day per person! If you do the math, that leads to 251.3 million tons each year. And even though this trash is conveniently taken out of your hands every few days, you can't help but wonder what actually happens to the trash.

Tom Fazackerley of Lancashire, England recently spent several days on Cedar Key with his friend Dave Lumpkin fishing and enjoying the Gulf Coast. For several days, the pair fished but only caught fish that were too small to keep. On the last day, Lumpkin bought a crab and shared half of it with him. At the end of the expedition, Fazackerley had caught 40 black drum. The two had a difficult time hoisting the fish aboard and had to get assistance from two men in a boat who had a basket. After the photo session, the pair released the fish so they could become breeders.

Crossing Number Four Bridge, that's what this is about. Number Four Bridge means lots of things to many people. Crossing Number Four to most locals means going to the mainland, leaving the Cedar Keys. Reasons locals cross Number Four Bridge vary. Florida is on the other side. The Cedar Keys are here.

My last column mentioned my ordeal with renting an airplane in Hawaii but I did not go into much detail. Because the incident is so unbelievable I thought I would fill you in on more of the details.

On June 16, around 8:30 a.m., I rented an airplane, a Cessna 172 from one of the airplane rental agencies in Kona, Hawaii. They required a checkout ride which took less than an hour. Shortly afterwards I departed the Kona Airport with my wife and daughter for a tour around the big island.