Another beautiful sunrise greeted us with temperatures even warmer – 79! But the pollen has turned everything yellow. Welcome to spring! The forecast for the next 10 days is sun, sun, sun and up into the high 80s. Hurray! Larry, our favorite ranger offered to drive us up river and drop us off for our kayak trip, so we had to get ready for that. We took down the jeep top, and loaded up our stuff. There was a tiny little dirt road that lead to a secret place to put in – basically black swamp water, but Larry assured me that there weren’t too many alligators around.
We shoved off and paddled our way to the entrance to the river, and then the current took us downstream about 5 mph. We only met a couple of guys exiting where we put in who asked us if our inflatable was tough. As we passed eachother, I wondered what he meant by that, but we were soon to see for ourselves. It was pleasant, absolutely peaceful just the sound of birds which we couldn’t see as the trees were so tall, but it was fun not having to paddle. This river is so crooked, often it looked like it dead-ended, but just as you got close to the trees, it opened up on the right or left.
Sometimes there were huge trees lying across the river with just a small opening. We tried to get around the branches, but one we just crashed into because the current was so strong between the pass. We wiggled our way out, and wondered how we could avoid that again. We decided we couldn’t, and were glad our SeaEagle was a tough young thing and that the water wasn’t too deep.
James and Larry were waiting for us just around 3 hours after put in to help us take out. What good guys! A piece of pumpkin bread for each of them should be a tiny reward, but this is a job they obviously love doing. We washed the mud off of ‘no name kayak’ and our shoes, and set her next to Bella to dry in the sun. Then it was cocktail time, and once again, I am thrilled with the peacefulness. Being Good Friday tomorrow, we expect to see a lot more rigs entering the park tonight. After we cleaned up our cocktail stuff, it was time to have some leftovers and not the BBQ chicken we had planned earlier and it was a good thing, because as I was getting things together, I heard Gary talking to a guy that said “Do you recognize me?” I couldn’t see him, but racking my brain as to who it could be, Gary said, “Peg, guess who’s here?!” It was Howard! A hug later, and we discovered they had arrived that afternoon right down the road at Shuman’s RV park. We made arrangements to have a campfire that night at our place and dinner the next night (yay, we have a chicken). We weren’t sure about kayaking down the river with them the next day, but Gary offered to drive them up to put in. Our campfire didn’t get hot enough to roast marshmallows, so Linda and I nuked them and they were just as good! We talked till 10 pm and said goodnight, exchanged phone numbers, and tucked ourselves in for another perfect night’s sleep. Ahhhh, this is the life.
We shoved off and paddled our way to the entrance to the river, and then the current took us downstream about 5 mph. We only met a couple of guys exiting where we put in who asked us if our inflatable was tough. As we passed eachother, I wondered what he meant by that, but we were soon to see for ourselves. It was pleasant, absolutely peaceful just the sound of birds which we couldn’t see as the trees were so tall, but it was fun not having to paddle. This river is so crooked, often it looked like it dead-ended, but just as you got close to the trees, it opened up on the right or left. 
Sometimes there were huge trees lying across the river with just a small opening. We tried to get around the branches, but one we just crashed into because the current was so strong between the pass. We wiggled our way out, and wondered how we could avoid that again. We decided we couldn’t, and were glad our SeaEagle was a tough young thing and that the water wasn’t too deep.
James and Larry were waiting for us just around 3 hours after put in to help us take out. What good guys! A piece of pumpkin bread for each of them should be a tiny reward, but this is a job they obviously love doing. We washed the mud off of ‘no name kayak’ and our shoes, and set her next to Bella to dry in the sun. Then it was cocktail time, and once again, I am thrilled with the peacefulness. Being Good Friday tomorrow, we expect to see a lot more rigs entering the park tonight. After we cleaned up our cocktail stuff, it was time to have some leftovers and not the BBQ chicken we had planned earlier and it was a good thing, because as I was getting things together, I heard Gary talking to a guy that said “Do you recognize me?” I couldn’t see him, but racking my brain as to who it could be, Gary said, “Peg, guess who’s here?!” It was Howard! A hug later, and we discovered they had arrived that afternoon right down the road at Shuman’s RV park. We made arrangements to have a campfire that night at our place and dinner the next night (yay, we have a chicken). We weren’t sure about kayaking down the river with them the next day, but Gary offered to drive them up to put in. Our campfire didn’t get hot enough to roast marshmallows, so Linda and I nuked them and they were just as good! We talked till 10 pm and said goodnight, exchanged phone numbers, and tucked ourselves in for another perfect night’s sleep. Ahhhh, this is the life.
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