Recently the weather has been pretty in the morning, and then kicks up a bit in the afternoon, so we decided to take the kayaks out early. I've blogged quite a bit about drifting around in the lake, so what more can I say? Except that we never tire of it. There's something about the feel of that smooth glide when you first start paddling. The kayaks will get us into areas that even small power boats can't go, so we have it to ourselves.
And the sounds! I wish there were better words for sounds. The high pitched screams of osprey, the gutteral grunts of herons, the weird pops and squaks from the gallenules (and the mad slapping of their feet on the water as they try to get airborn). The "braackk!" of bullfrogs, the rusty-gate creaking of blackbirds, the splash of turtles plopping into the water, the louder mad thrashing of a startled alligator (sometimes followed by the fast paddling of the kayaker). Sometimes you just have to chill out and listen.
Such a primitive beauty. You feel that it would be natural to see some ancient prehistoric creature. And then you do.
Big one--about 10 feet. It was a good day for gator spotting--warm, but not hot, sunny, cool breezes. Saw lots of little ones (3-6 feet). And then we spotted GatorZilla. Low in the water so we couldn't get a good picture, but you see a really big head, and then you see a huge tail about 10 feet after the head. We're guessing 13-14 feet long--about as long and wide as Bob's kayak. We didn't try to get too close.
As long as we were playing hookey, we went to a diner down the road for a hambuger. It's a small enough place that we could place a special order--a hamburger where two grilled cheese sandwiches are substituted for the bun. That's right--sandwich, hamburger, sandwich. Crisp cheesy buttery meaty goodness. And yes, we split one between us. What the heck--had some fried pickle spears too.
So tomorrow we got to work.
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