It wasn’t coal-fired like the old boats. It had an oil burner. The boat itself was metal hull construction to meet Coast Guard rules. This was a good thing.
I went past the Saenger Theater where the showing was to be. It had originally been scheduled for the, but that theater wasn’t big enough. We (the studio) ended up paying for the day at the Orpheum as we had backed out at the last minute.
The Saenger would seat four thousand people. I didn’t think we would fill it.
I was proved wrong the next morning when I arrived at the theater at eight am, accompanied by the taciturn Mr. Hennessy.
I bet he didn’t say more than ten words. I know a cowboy I would like to introduce him to. I would love to hear a non-conversation between him and Bob.
People were lined up already. This time we were ready for them. My table was set up in the air-conditioned lobby. Another table with a photographer in place was there. The charity was the Daughters of Charity, a Catholic group. I noticed no one gave the nuns any grief the entire day. That may have something to do with the wooden ruler prominently displayed.
There had been plenty of stories about my role in the movie. I was questioned time after time. The guys thought it was cool, the girls thought I shouldn’t be a Meany.
Well, I wasn’t a Meany in the movie. I was a psychopathic murderer. I didn’t tell them that.
The movie was received the same as it had been in San Antonio. This time I didn’t have to boo when Death Wind showed up. I as Lew Wetzel got cheers and Mary had her, “Oohs and awes.”
The people had been allowed into the theater as they arrived, there had been a band on stage and they danced in the aisles. The popcorn and drinks were free. The politicians were there for the photo-op. All in all, it was business as usual.
Marshal Hennessy dropped me off. As he drove away I realized that I had never thanked the Marshal. I had the local Marshals office number so I called them to leave a message. They questioned me at length. They wondered why I hadn’t contacted them. They had no Deputy by the name of Hennessy.
The only Hennessy in law enforcement that they could think of was David Hennessy, the New Orleans Police Chief in the 1880s who was assassinated.
That was just plain weird. Maybe I should have gone to the Voodoo Museum to find out what went on in New Orleans. Not that I believed in ghosts or had any contact with them.
Chapter 9
After filing a flight plan I refueled and checked that there were no flat tires and the wings hadn’t fallen off. I took off for Miami with a fuel stop in Tallahassee. Not to make light of the preflight checkoff inspection. Strange things have been known to happen, once a truck clipped a wing with no apparent damage until the wing did fall off as they were taking off. The crew and passengers would have died if they had made it into the air.
I could have cut across the Gulf of Mexico and made the trip a lot faster. That was another thing you didn’t push. Storms came up quickly over the Gulf, no sense in crossing it in a light aircraft if you didn’t need to. Why risk your life to save an hour?
I made it to Tallahassee in the predicted two hours. It wasn’t lunchtime, so after a quick pit stop I took off for Miami. Not being in any hurry I flew down the west coast of Florida. I was hungry about the time I came across Tampa Bay. I landed at a small airport across from Tampa International Airport. The name, St. Petersburg-Clearwater International Airport, was almost longer than their runways.
There was a plaque at the airport telling how this area was the birthplace of commercial aviation. In 1913 Tony Jannus flew two paying passengers across the Bay to Tampa. The maximum speed was 75 miles an hour and reached an altitude of 50 feet. That would have been some flight.
On the recommendation of a fellow pilot, I took a taxi to a little restaurant just north of the airport. They were on a bayou and had fresh fish delivered to their dock. I had a grouper sandwich that was out of this world.
I took off and headed south. Flying along the beach I came across the most brightly covered building I had ever seen. It was huge, a hotel I guessed. It was a brilliant pink!
Another interesting thing flying along the coast was that I could see schools of sharks and other large fish in the shallower waters. I wondered how safe it would be to swim there.
After reaching Sarasota I turned east following a two-lane highway across the state. The area below looked swampy. The map called it Alligator Alley. I decided I wouldn’t try to land there.
Seven hours after leaving New Orleans I landed in Miami. Four hours flying time, the rest for fuel and food stops.
Waiting in Miami for me was Deputy US Marshal Raylan Givens. He seemed pretty nice, his accent wasn’t south Florida. I guessed Kentucky and I was right on. He liked working in this area but wouldn’t mind getting stationed back in his home territory someday.
As per our arrangement, I dropped him off at the Federal Building. He would meet me at the Hotel Fontainebleau in two days to escort me to the film event. I had two days to explore Miami.
When I checked into the Fontainebleau or the Blue as it was called locally they treated me like a big shot actor. There was a huge suite with a
