by Royce Emley

Created on: July 26, 2008

This October will mark 40 years since I moved to Palm Beach County Florida. I thought I had become a true South Floridian by the age of 66. I had done a lot of things during my tenure here to make me one. I had climbed to the top of the Jupiter Lighthouse. Tasted Sunday brunch at the Breakers Hotel. Enjoyed late night drinks on Worth Ave. at Taboo, and eaten a great steak at the Okeechobee Steak House. I had spent some time at the Seminole Inn out in Indiantown, visited the Zoo and Butterfly World. Enjoyed the taste of Okeechobee catfish and even visited Gatorama on the western shore of Lake Okeechobee. Things I thought qualified me as a true Floridian.

A visit last month by my grandson who lives with his mother in Ft. Lauderdale however changed my list of criteria substantially. My grandson has a passion for baseball and trains and during his brief stay he opened my eyes to both things. These were local things I had been somehow ignoring.
We went to see the Jupiter Hammerheads play at the Roger Dean Stadium. A measly $6.50 for me and free for him gave us one of the most memorable evenings we will ever have together. I happened to catch a foul ball at the game and gave it to him. That baseball is now his greatest treasure, that he carries everywhere boasting with pride that his grandfather is the greatest in the world. All these years living so close to the Stadium and never knowing all the fun I was missing. The Hammerheads won that evening, but if they had lost it would not have mattered, for I had one of the greatest evenings out with a seven year old anyone could ever have. They put on a great show for the whole family at a price that can't be beat by any other attraction in Florida.
My grandson's second passion is trains, so rather than drive him home which would have cost me thirty dollars or more in gas, I took the advice of my daughter and we took Tri-Rail from Mangonia Park to Ft. Lauderdale, where she would meet us. I was dumfounded to see how little the round trip cost for me to go and come back. I spent $5.00 for my fare. The ride took about the same time as if I had driven there, and was a wonderful experience, but the look on my grandsons face was priceless. Tri-Rail has to be the biggest secret in the County.
I had at one time been a limo driver for 5 years at PBIA and took many airline passengers to Ft. Lauderdale and Miami airports. These were paid for with vouchers by the airlines, since their flights had been rerouted to West Palm Beach due to weather or mechanical problems. The charges for transportation by taxi or executive sedans ranged from $90 to $150. A Tri-Rail link to the Airport could be financed by the Airlines vouchers alone saving them thousands of dollars and opening up PBIA to International flights. Yes, PBIA can handle a Boeing 747 but getting 300 people to their destination in South Florida is a daunting task without a Tri-Rail link. I have experienced several evenings when an International flight from Europe was diverted from Miami to land in West Palm Beach late in the evening and some of the 300 people were offering large amounts of money to anyone who would drive them to Miami. The cost on Tri-Rail for a trip from Mangonia Park to the Miami Airport is under $10. Compare that to any other form of transportation and the only thing that can beat it would be walking or biking. My one hope is that my grandson's passion for trains will one day be shared by others and become a force for change and may bring us a much needed Tri-Rail link to PBIA. His passions sure changed the critera I had of being a Floridian.

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