I won’t be writing for a few days. I’m going on a 3 day, 2 night canoe camping trip. I’ll be back Monday. Warm pictures for you Mr T........
Keep them coming!! It's actually been (slightly) above freezing the past few days. At this rate, my lawn may reappear by early May. Enjoy the canoe trip, but if you hear banjos......................
Howdy crazy penguin fans, I’m going to dedicate this to Tom, a.k.a. Mr. T. I figure he’s up north wishing he could go outside and play, and we had three days and two nights of fantastic weather. My mantra in life is to bring less than you think you will need. Of course I’m not talking about beer. Heck no! I’m talking about camping gear. My nephew is the total opposite. He and his friend have been doing this for years. We just started tagging along the last couple years. Apparently they have a competition between the two of them. Who can buy the most camping supplies! You would not believe how much equipment they bring to spend two nights in the woods. They actually set up what they call the kitchen area. Sure cracks me up, but it did look like a kitchen area. As I said, I believe in bringing as little as possible. We never even used the stuff we brought to cook with. My nephew, “Use my stuff Uncle John. The grill is already hot and everything is ready.” When I got home late Sunday there wasn’t even anything to clean from our stuff. Awesome! The trip to Arcadia. It’s about a 2 1/2 hour trip to Arcadia from West Palm Beach. Would you believe we actually left on time. I was riding with my son and family, so I didn’t have any choice, but he is notorious for being late. If you are not at the canoe place by 9:30 AM, with all your camping gear already put in their trailers, and your butt on the bus, you will be left behind. We got there in time.
Friday morning after we were finished loading up our equipment in their trailers. It’s a 12 mile canoe trip total. The first day you do 7 miles, and then we hit the Canoe outfitter’s campground. When you get to your camp, all your stuff is already there in one of their trailers. Very cool!
As you can see Tom, it was a beautiful day in the lower 80s with a nice breeze every now and then. We definitely pounded some beers along the way. The second picture is my canoe with my number one navigator and most competitive grandson. He wanted to be in first place the entire day. Wore me out!
We stopped for lunch. As you can see, there was a native Floridian close by. We actually saw tons of gators on this trip. They were everywhere including our campsite. Cute little fellas.
The first and last picture is our camp. Very little equipment. Pictures two, three, and four are my nephew and his friends camp. Boy do they like packing stuff up, unpacking stuff, and then come Sunday packing it all back up.
Yes, my nephew and party, they all brought air mattresses. Us, we slept on the ground inside the tent. When I woke up Sunday morning I felt like I had changed the transmission from my garage floor. My right hip hurt a lot from laying on it.
Saturday... as planned, Saturday is just a laid-back, drink beer, eat more food than fits in your belly, and laugh a lot. Our favorite sport is sitting up on the bluff above the river and rating couples. We either call them a divorce in progress, or damn good canoeists. One couple went by us and pointed up to us up on the hill. The guy in the canoe yelled, I know exactly what you all are doing! Then he said, I’m sure one of you is a sharp shooter. Kill me now! We all busted out laughing. Way too funny!
This picture is sad in so many ways. First let me introduce you to this young man. He is Neighbor John’s son. Neighbor John and his wife think it’s perfectly fine that their kids spend their entire lives hiding in their bedrooms playing on the Internet. It was less than 24 hours into this camping trip and the batteries on their phones were DEAD!!! To funny! Life came to a screeching halt for this young teenager. In fact it probably ended in this kid’s brain. This picture was taken at 10 AM Saturday morning. All the other kids, and older teenagers are running around having a great time, and this kid has no idea what to do outside. I find that hilarious, and sad.
Usually the kids get to play in the water and dig up sharks teeth in the sand. Not this camping trip. Way too many gators! So the moms took their kids for canoe rides in the alligator infested waters.
For you up north people in the wilderness, you are not the only people that have big foot. The older teenage boys took a walkabout and brought Bigfoot back with them. It’s a long story, but they got yelled at by their fathers and told to put Bigfoot back where they found him. More stuff to laugh about
