Waking up on a beach is a good life. I woke up ready for a big day. I got onto the water as I was looking to travel through a lot of the back sloughs today. Sloughs are back channels along the main current. They are like a state road to the interstate. It was a quiet day to be paddling. I headed across the river to get into the sloughs. I had to go over a barely covered rock dike to get into them. The sloughs offer a slower pace that allows you to enjoy the people and culture of the river. I was able to see a lot of the summer cabins and homes on the river. A lot of them have been flooded out this year and people were beginning to clean them out.<\/p>\n
It was nearing lunch time. I pulled up to a covered dock that had some people out replanting the grass. I met the Soey’s. The grandparents and their 3 grandkids were there cleaning up and enjoying time out on the river. I asked permission to dock. They agreed and had me come up. I ended up coming upstairs and making my lunch. The grand kids were bombing me with questions about my boat, the river, and my travels. I smiled and answered everything they threw out my way. It was fun doing a rapid answer session with them. They all came out to see my boat and see me off. Before I left, I got a photo of them and answered even more questions. It was good talking with them.<\/p>\n
After that, I met a guy named Todd. He was working with his crew to clean up their clubhouse. We talked about Clearwater, FL. He thought what I was doing was really cool. I told him when I planned to arrive. He told me he would be down there for a family vacation at the same time. We agreed to try to meet up and grab a drink and share some stories once I get down there. It is a small world sometimes.
\nI continued on and met a guy named Aaron. He was changing the fluids to his twin boat motors. We talked for a bit about river life. It was another good person that I had the pleasure of talking to on the river. It started to become a larger habit to talk with everyone I meet on the river.<\/p>\n
I took off after a short bit. I heard jet skies around the corner. I turned the corner and saw some kids playing on a jet ski. I sat back and watched as they were whipping each other around on a tube. As they went towards their dock, I pulled up to talk with them. I met Caleb, Kyle, and Lexi. They were all high school seniors. They invited me to dock up and go tubing with them. I was up for that and the opportunity to photograph them as they were playing. I pulled out my camera once I was docked. They were going to shoot some pictures of me out tubing. I was ready to go in the water at this point. I pulled my camera out and took off the lens cap. I tossed it into the open cockpit of my boat. It hit the seat and bounced out into the water. For some reason, I thought it would float. I was wrong. I saw it starting to sink. I put the camera down and decided to dive in and do an eagle claw grab on it. I dove in and missed it. Crap. There went my lens cap. It was gone. I was not thrilled. It is something I will have to replace soon. I ended up going out tubing. It was a fun and rough ride, but I loved every minute of it. I came back in and asked Kyle to go out so I could get a few action shots. He agreed. I got him and then I got Lexi going by on the tube. After they brought the jet skies in, out came the shotgun and potato gun. I have heard about the potato guns, but never saw one. They started shooting potatoes out of the gun and shooting the potatoes like skeet shooting. I shot the potato gun to see what it was like. I turned down the shotgun.<\/p>\n
After blasting some things, they wrapped it up and were heading out to dinner. They told me that they were going to be launching fireworks later that evening. I decided to stick around as I wanted to capture some more firework shots over the river. I set up my hammock and waited for them to return. When they returned, I left them with my information. We went outside to launch some fireworks. I managed to get a few good shots of this. They went through a fair amount of big shells and fountains. Once that was wrapped up, Lexi left. I ended up staying up to talk with Caleb and Kyle. We had some good conversations before I called it a night. I was tired and ready to get into my hammock. I was set up under the awning of a house next door. I was right on the edge where if it rained, I would get wet. There was not a big chance for rain, but as I settled in, I heard thunder coming my way. I went out to my boat to grab my tarp. I tied it up over my hammock and used a large stick to extend it out away from me. It came in handy as the rain came later that evening. It was a surprisingly cool evening, but it was refreshing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Waking up on a beach is a good life. I woke up ready for a big day. I got onto the water as I was looking to travel through a lot of the back sloughs today. Sloughs are back channels along the main current. They are like a state road to the interstate. It was<\/p>\n