Kayaking Trifecta

This past week has been a banner week for kayaking. The best days were also the days that Dave races his R.C. sailboat in the afternoon, so we took short jaunts in the morning. On Monday we paddled the perimeter of nearby Hillmoor Lake, and it was so calm that we were able to see lots of big fish and quite a few fish nesting spots underwater in the sand. Today we launched at the Savannas Preserve State Park, which we haven't done in several years.

The backwaters are getting choked with lily pads, reeds and grasses, but the water was still about 4 feet deep the whole way. 

This calm early morning paddling experience was great for reflections.

We also came across these pretty flowers that Google is telling me are Crinum Lilies.

Two days of fresh water kayaking was a nice change of pace, but on Tuesday we were also back in saltwater up in Vero Beach. We launched at a small park near the municipal marina and had a fantastic time pretending that we we were cruising again while paddling through the mooring field of double up rafted boats. We headed out into the mangrove channels leading to the Indian River/Intracoastal Waterway.  This is where boats anchor instead of moor, some of which didn't make out to good in recent storms.

This boat still had people living on it, but it apparently dragged anchor into the mangroves.

Kayaking is going to be challenging for awhile because the excess water from Lake Okeechobee is being dumped into the St. Lucie River in preparation for the coming rainy and hurricane season. This water is nasty and looks like hot cocoa. Since it is fresh water, it can also cause algae blooms and kill the seagrass beds. The St. Lucie eventually merges with the Indian River and depending on the tide, the gross water flows north and south or out into the Atlantic Ocean. We will need to be quite vigilant and imaginative to find ways to avoid the affected areas.

Photo of the milky brown water heading out the St. Lucie Inlet 'borrowed' from Facebook.

Concert Connoisseurs

Dave and I have always been into Pink Floyd music and we try to go to as many tribute band concerts as possible. As an early anniversary present to ourselves we were lucky to get tickets to see the band Floyd Nation at the Sunrise Theatre in Fort Pierce. The whole night was a huge hit starting with finding spot number 31 (Dave's race number) open for us in the parking garage. We arrived before the doors opened and happened to strike up a conversation with one of the band crew that had stepped outside to have a smoke. He told us that almost all the band members were from Florida and had really studied Pink Floyd. The lead singer even studied and learned how to sing with a British accent. Then we were offered a couple of Floyd Nation wrist bands as mementos and a good source of advertising. 

Since we were still early for the show, when we got into the theater we started exploring and they had all sorts of guitars from previous bands on the walls and In showcases. 

Dave was looking for a poster to take a photo of and he asked one of the guys that we thought was a security person, if Floyd Nation had a poster on the wall. He was so friendly and said he didn't know but hey, my name is John and I started the band! He told Dave to give him his phone and proceeded to turn the phone setting to selfie and took a photo of the three of us. Then I realized he was also the saxophone player among other instruments that he played.

We had great seats in the first row of the balcony and this refurbished theater is quite nice. 

The show was fantastic and the music spot on with all songs we knew. The band members really engaged the audience and John even came up to the balcony to mingle during the break. There weren't any big props like the usual inflatable pigs or the big round screen in the background, but the lights and laser displays were quite impressive.

What a great night! We will be looking for Floyd Nation in different venues, and we'll be looking for other bands so we can return to Sunrise Theatre.

Shuffleboard

One of the things that we are involved in with our community is running the shuffleboard games every two weeks (on the alternate Saturdays are the Cornhole games). Today we had 18 people show up to play on our 5 courts.

Every time we get ready to play, I go into the tiny game storage room and wax the bottoms of all the discs. It is done with a bar of special hard wax and a spinning disc machine that is run by a foot control (like a sewing machine has). Then as the spinner slows down, I buff the discs too. That means I do this 40 times (8 discs per court). Then we also sweep and wax the courts by sprinkling special wax pellets that are more like a powder. This helps protect the finish on the painted courts and the discs fly! Dave and I were really on our game today and won almost every time. After everything was put away, I posed in our wagon we use to bring all the equipment out to the courts and back. I could have used that ride back home from the clubhouse, but Dave and his bike would have struggled. 😉  We are a pretty funny couple of old goats celebrating our 46th wedding anniversary!

Thanks Karen C. for the great photos!

Beach Recuperation

It has been a tough couple of weeks for me since I have been plagued with a bad case of gastroenteritis. Today was the first day that I felt like getting out of the house and doing something. Dave came up with the idea of exploring a couple of the Hutchinson Island beaches on the way to Fort Pierce. The first one was Walton Rocks Beach, also known as Dog Beach, because it is the only beach they are allowed at. Wow, was this a popular place, especially today, with sun and 75 degree temps. Luckily, most of the dogs were well behaved and only a few were barking. We opted to walk north past where everyone was sunbathing and came across this cable spool that Dave made into his own island. 

On the walk back, we couldn't believe the shells that the tide brought in and dropped at our feet. This cowry shell is bigger than my fist!

There are beach access parks every few miles, so we headed to the next one to the north called Blind Creek, also known (ironically) as the nude beach. It was packed with vehicles out to the road, so we kept going since we didn't need to see any of that anyway. 😂 Onward we went to Middle Cove Beach and it was amazing the difference in beaches. Very few people were there, mostly surf casting fishermen, and the beach was so wide compared to narrow Dog Beach! 

A motorized hang glider flew overhead and what a view he must have had.

So there is quite a choice of places to go beachcombing in this area, including Dog Beach, Nude Beach, Fishing Beach, and Horse Beach (where we rode the horses earlier this year). There are many more access points besides these, each a little different, so we will have to keep on exploring!

Outboards in LaBelle

Today we drove out to LaBelle on the Caloosahatchee River portion of the Okeechobee Waterway for an antique outboard meet. We made a full day out of the trip and ended up doing a circumnavigation of Lake Okeechobee, going by lots of cattle ranches and gigantic sugar cane farms and processing plants. The meet was put on by the South Florida Gator Chapter of the AOMCI and the theme was "Anything but the Big 3", which brought out many rare outboards. Enjoy the photos and click on them to see them up close.