So without further ado…
Day 3, Monday, March10th:
And we're off on our 43 mile canoeing adventure! 5 canoes, 10 people, 3 very large rubbermaid tubs of food, 20+ nalgene h2o bottles, a dozen backpacks and bags, and only 3 bottles of sunscreen packed into the canoes with us as our supplies for this trek.
The first day we paddled 12 miles. It took us around 5 hours. "Paddled" is a lose term…we mostly floated, occasionally putting the paddle into the water to alter our course. The river was slow and rolling. Not many waves or much of a current. But we were ok with that. I was in front of the canoe, my partner was the outdoor pursuits GA and together we spent most of the time talking. More talk of everything and nothing all at the same time. We talked on the area, his crazy cool adventures he's been on and led, how we got into our fields, our pasts, our families, how he's getting married in a month, how I'm definitely not getting married anytime soon, etc.
We stopped for lunch along the banks of the river. They were sandy beaches and ridiculously white, fine sandy ones at that. The water was black. Not polluted, but definitely very dark it looked like we were canoeing in a river of coca-cola or iced tea. The bright, white sand beaches juxtaposed with the black water of the river made it very pretty. We got over the color of the water pretty quickly because it didn't smell, it was cool and refreshing and it made you realize that yeah, we're in a new place on a new adventure, and all those old country songs about the dark, black waters in the south totally make sense now.
After our 12 miles was up we arrived at our first campground. No one really knew what to expect but we found that our reservations included a screened hut like cabin and a fire pit on beautiful white sand. So this is back country living in Florida, eh? And they had bathrooms and even a communal sink to wash your dishes. We set up camp and it was the one night we didn't have to pitch a tent. Glorious. At the camp we ran into a few groups we saw on the river as well, a group of gentlemen probably in their mid to late 50's and 60's who were just having a week out camping with the boys. We made small talk and they said how it was tradition for all the friends to meet up and spend the week floating on the river. Ah, the retired life. So cool. Many of them would volunteer their time at different camp grounds in exchange that they got to stay there for free and really just live for a few months at different camping areas up and down the east coast. One guy said he would go to Maine and canoe and kayak in the rivers in the summer and then would spend his winters in South Carolina sea kayaking. The dude is seriously living the dream. Later after spending some time setting up and cooking our food, the gentlemen came over with a big pot of chili and sautéed veggies. Claiming to be full and not wanting to waste it all they offered it to us and we got to sit around the campfire just chit chatting with them. Which was fine with me since the meal we chose to make was more on the level of the dog-food-esque style of dehydrated foods. Blek. We had eaten deliciously good meals but that one definitely was less than stellar. But the old guys were great. They explained how we were in the 'Real Florida'. The Orlando parks, Miami, PCB, key west etc didn't count as Florida. Those were tourist traps and dirty and not a good representation of Florida even though that's all I think about when I hear 'Florida'. We had a really good time with the guys though and loved to hear all of their stories.
Tuesday, March 11th, Day 4:
2nd day on the river. Today we had a much bigger trek to haul, a little over 18 miles to the next camp ground. And we had to beat the rain storm that was supposed to roll in that evening. We make breakfast (cheesy eggs, hash browns and pancakes. kid you not. yum!) clean up and pack up the canoes. We switched up partners for our canoes and I now was with a fitness instructor with our campus rec program, named Connor.
Today was probably my favorite. From singing 'Just Around the River Bend' from Pocahontas and other tunes with my fellow canoe-ers to seeing an alligator it was splendid, just splendid.
Yes, real live alligator, it was sun bathing in the shallows near the bank of the river. He was a little guy, probably only like 5 ft long and not very ferocious looking at all. Kinda cute when they're just chilling out. But still SUPER COOL!
Connor and I had some really good talks too. Some got really deep and really personal, really fast. How is it that sometimes you're able to open up so much more so to someone you hardly know than sometimes someone you consider to be so incredibly close? Not sure how or why but it happened. We talked about school, our adventures abroad, family dynamics (the not so glamorous parts) and religion.
Yikes. Religion as a conversation topic? Most of the time I steer clear of that one. It usually leads to opinions, hurt feelings, arguments, etc. No just no no no no no.
But it all started with my silly game of 20 questions I like to play when the silence is too much and too awkward. I asked him what super power would he want, if he could have just one. He said flight, so he could travel anywhere and that led to where would you want to live if you could live anywhere and he said Carbondale.
I turned around so fast to stare at him that I almost flipped the canoe.
"Carbondale?!? Seriously?? I said anywhere, no money worries, nothing, you could live literally anywhere in the world and you would choose Carbondale????"
"Yeah. Well…no, yeah I would stay right where I am."
"Stop. Why? You're crazy! Theres so many beautiful places on this planet and you've seen some! You've traveled the world but you would choose the dale?"
"You laugh but yeah. I love it here."
"Why?"
"My church. If I could take them with me maybe then I would go somewhere else but if not I'd stay."
And that lead us into quite the conversation. In a canoe you end up facing the same way so I'd have to talk like over my shoulder or to the water before me and hope he heard me but then I gave up and stopped paddling so I could turn around because the conversation had gotten us so engrossed that we fell a good 400 yards behind the rest of the group. Oops.
But it was great. I won't get into major details or get preachy but it was eye-opening I think for both of us. To see the differences and to kind of just get the chance to talk, not argue or try to persuade just discuss was refreshing. Deep, and insightful and really just cool.
We did catch up with the rest of the group and got to our camp ground for the night. We didn't get the little hut cabins like the last place but we did get a HUGE thunder storm.
Like boom, crash, lightening, pouring rain the whole 9 yards. It felt like I was inside the storm trying to sleep in that tent with all the thrashing that was happening outside.
But we survived and no water got into our little pop-up home. If you haven't slept in a tent in the middle of a storm, I do suggest it. It's really insane and cool and scary but afterwards you're like ya, I survived. I can survive the elements!
And I'll talk about our last day on the river next time!
To be continued!
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