Robert Shadrick Renfroe, 77, passed away Thursday, July 3, 2008, at Cape Canaveral Hospital.  Bob was born March 28, 1931, in  Summerville, Ga., and was raised in Trenton, Ga.

Bob Retired early after a career in aerospace at McDonnel Douglas Corp.  His professional accomplishments included: chief engineer and design engineer for Cruise Missile guidance systems and the worldwide installation manager for F-15 air craft simulators.  He was also a veteran of the U.S. Air Force.  Bob had more than 20 years in retirement at the beach that he loved.  He was generous to his family and friends.

He was preceded in death by his parents, Grace and Tom Renfroe of Trenton.  He is survived by his sons, Robert and Timothy Renfroe, both of O’Fallon, Mo.  Other surviving family members include sisters, Myrna McMahan, Patsy McKaig, Peggy DeWine; brother, Kelly Renfroe; many nieces and nephews; six grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren.

Uncle Bobby was my maternal grandmother’s brother.  However, he was probably about as close to me as someone is to their grandparents whom live far away.  Every summer we loaded up the van and traveled to his place in Cocoa Beach, Florida, where we spent our days riding his bikes, swimming in the pool, and playing at the beach.  Bobby was always there to dispense his wisdom (mostly of the ‘you have to watch out for women like that’ variety) and to let us get a peek through his binoculars.  I think my favorite thing we would do there was go to the beach at night looking for sea turtles.  We would go out there and chase crabs and look for sea turtles.  I don’t think we ever saw any sea turtles.  We did see a rocket launch at night from the beach though.  If you ever get the chance you should experience that.

Bobby always had Cinemax.  To this day I am not sure if he was telling us not to watch the late night nudie shows, or, ‘I better not catch you watching those late night movies’ (wink, wink).  Needless to say, we watched them anyhow.

We had the chance to go down on the 4th of July after he passed.  It was the first time I had seen the cousins I used to see most summers down there.  It was nice to get back together again and experience some of the things that Bobby loved to do.  Bobby did not want a formal funeral so we had a gathering at his place with food and invited everyone from his retirement community.  I think he would have appreciated it.

I hope that one day I will be able to return there and catch a night launch and remember all the good times we had down there during my childhood.

Due to a death in the family, this year instead of the usual fireworks and cookouts for the 4th of July we had to take a quick trip to Cocoa Beach, Florida.  It was a last minute, spur of the moment trip with no clear plans.  We got there Friday afternoon and came back the following Monday. 

Due to my Uncle Bobby not wanting to have a funeral (or any formal service) we had plenty of time to relax and reminisce around the swimming pool, and play on the beach.  We held a gathering at Bobby’s house and invited all his friends.  It was a nice gesture and I am sure he would have appreciated the format.  In addition, it was nice to go around and enjoy some of the things he enjoyed.  We ate at a few of his favorite restaurants.  Specifically, Grill’s Tiki Bar is a great little seafood restaurant on a dock in the port.  There are signs posted all over warning you not ask them to fry any fish.  No word on what would happen if you did.  I assume you would be slapped in the face with said fish or endure some other form of public humiliation.

The trip also gave me the chance to see some cousins that I have not seen in many years.  For the first time ever, I was in the position to say ‘Do you know who I am?  I haven’t seen you since you were this tall’.  However, I try to avoid cliches and have always hated it when people say things like that to me.  So I didn’t mention it.

Though we have a vacation coming up pretty soon.  Cameron got his first taste of the beach a little early.  I have to say that he enjoyed it.  We only went out one day, but he seemed to have a good time.  He just loves water and anytime we pass it in a vehicle (go over a bridge, by a water fountain, etc..) he points and says wahbuh.  Then proceeds to cry because we didn’t stop and let him play in it.

I have posted some photos of the trip in my photo albums.  Below are a few from the album.

Here is a photo a coworker shot of me giving a class to some of the new guys at work.  He thought it was funny (as should anyone who knows me) because teaching others is not one of my stronger points.  However, I think it went well.

I recently stumbled upon the neatest tool for bloggers, Windows Live Writer.  I had read about it about a year ago and thought nothing of it.  It is basically a desktop application which lets you post to your blog.  Doesn’t sound like much but it also handles image uploads, post metadata, gives you a preview of it on your site, and has a wysiwyg editor.  You can also edit your existing posts, add effects to your images, manage your categories.  In addition to this, it also has an open api so I expect to see some slick plugins coming out soon.  I highly recommend bloggers download it and give it a shot.  It is free, easy to install and setup, and works with most popular blog software.  Kudos to Microsoft for this free and useful piece of software!  When it’s as easy as this, I have no excuses for not posting.

Kristin and I have been enjoying our boat quite a bit this summer. I have posted a few photos for your viewing pleasure. Every time we have gone out we have taken friends with us and made a long day out of it. Well this past Saturday I decided it would be nice if we took a quick little ride on the boat just Kristin, me, and Cameron.

We have not gone out like this before so we just threw some stuff in and dropped the boat in around 1 PM and took off. Well instead of our usual route south on the river (through downtown), I decided to go North and lock up through Chickamauga Dam. I have not done this before (while captaining) and wanted to show Kristin how it worked. We passed through the lock without problems. It is astounding how much energy is wasted just to let a tiny pontoon through.

We proceeded up the river to Chester Frost Park and met my cousin, who suggested we go beach at a nearby, ugh, beach. Along the way we ran into some distressed boaters who had ran out of fuel. Luckily I keep a spare jug of gas on my boat for such occasions. So, my cousin and I swam out and pulled their boat into shore. It would have been nice if a few of the people (about 6) that were on the boat had swam to shore by themselves w/o creating more work for us (I thought I was going to drown), but not everyone is as thoughtful as us. I decided along with the 2.5 gallons of gas I gave them, that I would give them my jug to fill up and bring back. After much ado it became apparent that none of them knew what they were doing and they had a lot of problems getting out of the cove we were parked in. They were drifting way back into the weeds and looking over at us like we were going to come swim out and save them. Finally (30 mins later), they got the thing started and pointed in the right direction. Needless to say I didn’t expect to ever see my gas can again and I was fine with that.

So we start to head back around 6:45 PM b/c we can see that a storm is rolling in. About halfway back to the lock it begins to rain on us. I think I can push through the storm and attempt a run at the dam. About the time we get to the dam it begins to go crazy. We could not see anything, it is lightning everywhere, and we are in a state of general panic. I wish I had radar b/c I am pretty sure we were in the magenta there sitting in the middle of the Tennessee River.

We head for shelter at a local marina. I scream in there and slam my boat into the dock and Kristin and Cameron make a mad dash for some cover. It is lightning everywhere and I am pretty sure I was going to die sometime soon trying to tie my pontoon off to the metal dock. A fellow boater, seeing that I am in dire straits, asked me if I needed any help. I said “yea!”. I don’t think that was what he was expecting when he asked. Nevertheless, he came down and helped me tie it off in the pouring down rain, and lightning.

So we sit there for about 45 mins, until the storm passes. At around 8 PM we start heading back downriver to the dam. When we get there the lockmaster tells us it will be 3 hours before we can come through b/c of commercial traffic (aka barge). Since, I am not about to wait until 11 PM to attempt to go through the lock and I had no other options, I called my mom to come get me so I can get my truck and pull the boat out.

The only boat ramp at this particular marina was a tiny one they use for jet skis, but I had to make do. We finally made it home at around 9:30. Funny thing is, we were supposed to be at a birthday party at a restaurant located at this marina at 7:30. We were on time but in no state to participate. Being that we had Reese with us, we were soaking wet, and looked like a couple of musk rats.

The worst thing about the whole ordeal is that we donated Cameron’s customized beach towel to the Tennessee River. Kristin was using it to cover him up when it was raining.