Rollin' On The River

After stretch and tone, and then lunch, we got in Pam and Dennis' truck and headed to the Silver Springs State Park about a half hour from here. The sun and 80 degrees had us headed out for whatever adventure the Silver Springs river provided.

When Pam and Dennis had hiked in that park the other day, they discovered that the park rents out canoes at an hourly rate, with the first hour being free since we had to walk about 15 minutes to get to the river. After paying the park entrance fee ($4/per vehicle), we got our life jackets and paddles and headed for the river.

Fortunately, Pam has strong arms and was able to lift the downed tree to allow us to continue.

This river is beautiful - crystal clear with lots of fish, among other wildlife.

This "float trip" was unlike any other. We had to paddle upstream for about an hour and a half to the source of the river before finally floating back to where we started. We were always on the look-out for alligators and snakes. This is what we came across, not even 5 minutes into our trip:

A few minutes later, we came across these guys:

This fellow was a mere 5 feet from me at the front of the canoe:

I'm happy to report that none of us fell in - we were too afraid to. I personally did not see any snakes, but everyone else did. At one point I was worried because Mark kept standing up to stretch because his back kept cramping.

Tonight we are aching, and really wish we had a hot tub to jump into. This four hours of fun only costs us $14 per couple!

Banjo practice continues with input from Dennis about finding those chords.