ST. GEORGE ISLAND, Fla. â Patricia Hale is 65 and a half feet up in the air in Florida on a barrier island in the Panhandle.
Sheâs not on a roller coaster, or any theme park ride.
Itâs all lighthouse height.
âFour different lighthouses on four different spots. This is the most recent,â said Hale.
Hale is a Lighthouse Keeper at St. George Lighthouse on St. George Island at its fourth â and what she hopes â is its final and lasting location.
âItâs a wonderful resource,â said Hale.
And it carries its past in its walls, and in the museum next to it.
Thatâs where we find Terry Kemp, a local resident who helped to save the lighthouse.
âWe sort of built the lighthouse a T-shirt and a barbecue sandwich at a time,â said Kemp.
The lighthouseâs third location on these barrier islands off Apalachicola was built in 1852.
And by the time it fell into the sea in 2005, there was already a group ready to save it.
âOh my God we were in shock,â said Kemp. âBut now it was like, 'We donât have to stand around and talk about what are we gonna do. Because we donât have any choices anymore.'â
They decided theyâd rebuild and relocate the lighthouse to a drier spot.
âOf course, everyone thought we were crazy,â said Kemp.
For months, they salvaged pieces of the lighthouse. And what they couldnât use, they preserved.
"We cleaned over 14,000 bricks in seven monthsâ time,â said Kemp.
They used the bricks from the 1848 and 1852 lighthouses to line the inner walls of the new 2008 lighthouse â 140,000 new bricks, and 14,000 old ones.
âWe hope it will continue to go on beyond our lifetime,â said Kemp, touching the inside of the lighthouse at the base of the 92 hard pine steps.
For Hale, walking these steps everyday multiple times every day, itâs her lifeâs adventure.
âItâs an honor and a privilege to carry on the legacy of the lighthouse keepers that came before me and continue to teach our beautiful history,â said Hale.