At One With The Wild

The last three weeks have taken us on a canoe and bicycle trip into the wild, a remote beach, and a water park at Disney! One of our stays was spent for the first time in a National Forest!

The canoe trip began at the head waters at a river at Wikiwa State Park that was formed by a natural spring. We canoed on the pristine, shallow waters which allowed us to view plant and fish life and a variety of lily pads floating on the surface! The bank was a living theater of turtles and alligators basking in the sun as families. A 12 inch Piliated Woodpecker was slamming his beak into the tree bark, a wild and crazy performance at the reported rate of l2,000 a day! We spent two beautiful hours paddling in a world of our own!

Since we were close to Orlando, we decided to be kids for a day and go to Disney World! That sounds "Goofy", but we had the time of our lives! It was low season so there were very few people floating down the Lazy River with us. Ty talked Janet into climbing l00 stairs to take four wild rides! One was down a water slide while laying on a rubber toboggan on our abdomens. She thought she was literally being flushed down a toilet! Another was a catastrophic kind of ride called the Double Dipper, on a raft at a high speed together and we gracefully flipped upside down in the pool at the end! We didn't encounter any other Boomers in their 60s on the rides all day except for the Lazy River. Crazy, maybe; living yes!?????

We spent one night with Silver parked in our first National Forest 20 miles off of the highway. Huge pine trees sat far apart as did the campsites! We were one of four campers in the entire forest. The exploding display of stars and the silence was captivating. "Nature speaking once again to us!" We were in the mood for a BLT of all places with reports of Black Bear sightings. We had Silver so sealed up trying to keep the smell of fried bacon from the bears that we set off both the smoke and CO2 detectors! So much for nature's silence; especially for the other campers! Oops!

Ty took a 3 hour bike trip through several ecosystems one day. Bikers would call it a single-track trail through sand, pine needles, over roots, and rocks while passing through the dry forest of large leaf pines, two swampy bogs, and a controlled burn area. Adding to the thrill was the inability to see around the next corner of the narrow trail because of the density of the vegetation. Kicking up the speed also adds to the thrill! Crazy or living on the edge?????? The scariest moment was seeing several large animals 200 yards away scattering through the forest. He found out later that they were really large turkeys, standing 3 ft. tall! One of his top two single-track bike rides!

We are currently at St. Joseph's Peninsula State Park that juts out into the Gulf of the Panhandle, dubbed the "Forgotten Coast". Because we have moved north, the temperature is 70 instead of 80,so there are only a few other boomer couples on the beach which is barren for miles in both directions......bluish green water!

Interesting people: Janet met an interesting lady in a book tent at a flee market. They were talking about the books and candles she had for sale. The books were $l.00 each. She said to Janet, "All I need in life are my books, nice candles, and a good bag." I love purses! On the way out, she said, "You have a safe trip and a good life now!" Janet said, "God Bless!"

Ty met a fellow who told of his past job as a hunting/fishing/kayaking guide around Colorado and Utah. At one time, he backpacked into the Alaska wilderness for three months, surviving on berries, nuts, kelp, and roots, with no human contact or electronic devices. Imagine his stories!

Each campground has a host couple who are volunteers, so they get to camp at no charge, but have jobs such as cleaning the bathrooms and other jobs such as greeting people. This 80 year old host told us that he cleans the restrooms at 3 a.m., so they were never closed during the day. Arising at l:30 a.m. was not new to him, since he had been a milkman for l8 years. He serenaded Janet singing at her request, "My Wild Irish Rose"! What a character!

Thoughts by Janet:  Connection.   We have both been mesmerized by the magnificent spiderwebs, intricately woven throughout the Everglades and coastline. I started to think about how connections are so vital in our lives. I began to reflect back ten years ago when I had a couple of experiences that impacted my life. Jenna certainly did after having been at ground zero several days after 9/11. She went with a research team of the Sociology Dept at CU. After she came back, we both transcribed verbal interviews, reactions and actions of some of the people who had witnessed this day in our country's history. I transcribed 100 pages  myself and the stories have been permanently itched in my mind and soul. A few months late,r I was watching a documentary on the comparison of religions in the world. It ended with a very profound conclusion. It spoke of 9/11, the day some people would choose to jump from windows and the fact that many chose to hold another person's hand. The simple conclusion - the importance of a connection with other human beings no matter what their beliefs.  During this journey, I have seen the importance for a connection with God's creation and nature in our lives.....to experience it, touch it, feel it, to draw from the natural energy that is given off  by the pine cones, spiders, orchids, grasses, wind, sky, and the sunsets.....Are we here to weave our own web with others and also nature?  Our connection to a deeper source?

Thoughts by Ty - The Moon      While walking back from the shower, I happened to notice the brilliant moon, extra bright, due to the absence of artificial light pollution. For the first time, it occurred to me that every single human that ever walked this planet has gazed at this moon! From early cavemen standing in the night with a torch to today's teen with a Smart Phone. I tried to picture millions of moonlit faces that had ever gazed upwards and felt a connection to each of them. Powerful...... Are there other objects that bind us all together????

We are seeing so much wildlife that we decided to keep a listing:
turtle, alligator, scrub jay, snake, eagle, heron, egret, osprey, ahinga, wild turkey, fox-squirrel, armadillo, raccoon, bee hive, stingray, beetle, spider,