Advertisement
Published: February 16th 2013
Edit Blog Post
The One About the Air Boat Ride
It was pouring when I went to bed last night. I love the sound of rain on Moya’s roof. I sure am getting used to lazy mornings. I slept until 7:30. Winston woke me up happy and wagging and raring to go. The rain had stopped, but it was overcast and almost misty.
I have a new app on my iPhone, runtastic PRO. I got a coupon for a free download, and did it, I think it’s one of those $2.99 apps. ((I did get a step counter for Christmas from Tim & Gret, but it kept jamming and not counting my steps, and the clip was weak and it kept falling off my pants. It fell off one day and I stepped on it and it was dead.)) I looked around for a step counter app, downloaded something awful, then got this coupon for runtastic PRO. It is kind of slick. It has a GPS feature, and tracks where I walk and puts it on their web site. If you buy their heart rate counter for some exorbitant price and plug it in to the phone, it
small alligator
look carefully in the middle for a small, under 2 feet long, alligator will also record heart rate. I fired it up this morning. Instead of counting steps, it tracks mileage and time, and gives you all kinds of statistics…calories, ET, MPH, temperature, etc., and gives me options on running conditions. It posts to their website for me to view, and can post to facebook, but who wants to report 1.2 miles in 37 minutes. Remember, this is WINSTON’s walk, not mine. It is his time to pee on every tree and poop where he wants, so we stop a lot until his business is completed, then we hustle home. It does give me a sense of accomplishment. I know 1.2 miles is nothing to write home about, but it feels good. He also got a long run next to me riding my bike; he really does a good job with that. Sometimes he does make me proud.
We had planned to leave for the Air Boat ride at 10:30, but decided at 10 to give it another hour to see if it cleared up a little bit and got a little warmer. At 11:30 we could see enough blue sky to make a sailors pair of pants (my mother’s
scenery and 'kite'
Beautiful scenery along the ride, but the interesting thing in this picture is the bird on the tree upper right. We were told it was some type of rare "kite", a raptor. There are many types of them here in FL, which ever this was, he was rare....... saying) and we headed south to Boggy Creek Air Boat,
www.bcairboats.com rides on the shores of Lake Tohopekaliga (say that 10 times fast.) This was kind of back in the same direction as The Floridian RV Resort of the first MidLow’s campout Ginnie and I went to. Over the river and thru the woods, I am always marveled how quickly the terrain changes in FL. When you approach the Lakes area, the trees change varieties, the grass is greener, and there are more cow and horse farms. We were greeted by the friendly staff, purchased our tickets, took a bio break (Ginnie and I used the men’s room as the line was so long for the ladies) and went out to the dock. There a chirpy twenty something was taking pictures against a green screen and you could chose from multiple poses and backgrounds. We declined her persistent harassment. I never did get our ‘captain’s name, so I will just call him Cap. He led us to an airboat, probably 15 feet long with a HUGE fan on the back. Not by my choice, I ended up in the front. There were 3 men with us as well, and they
didn’t need to tell me that they were from New York, it was that obvious. I would even venture to say Brooklyn or Queens. We were given noise cancelling headphones and were on our way for 45 minutes, cost $60. It is a little disarming riding over the low marsh grass, dense lily pads and seemingly shallow water at breakneck speeds. Our outbound trip had us finding 2 small under 2 feet juvenile alligators within a stone’s throw of the dock. Cap told us this lake is controlled by a series of dams to prevent the lakefront homes from being flooded by a hurricane, and we passed one of those locks and canals. We saw cows grazing in the water, and joked about Water Buffalo and Sea Cow. Cap said the area we saw them grazing is not under water in the summer. The cows seemed to enjoy the marsh grass – remember, this is a fresh water lake. Cap stopped to point out a hawk like bird he called something or other kite which he said is rare for ‘these here parts.’ He looked hard for the big 15 foot alligator, but said he hadn’t seen him in a
long time. He startled a pair of white cranes and I saw them take off gently. Cap kept pace with them as they flew off our starboard side. Then he started chasing ducks!! We flew into a large flock of ducks. They got startled, started scampering along the water to take off and fly, and then we were in the middle of them flying. It was very very cool. If we got too close to a slow flying one, they dove into the water and we flew over them. I posted a great video to you tube and the link is imbedded here.
I missed the picture of the large alligator we did see. I had my camera set to record video, and got a whole bunch of irrelevant gibberish video instead of the 6 foot alligator up close and personal.
We stopped for a wonderful soft ice cream treat for lunch on the way home. You can do that when you’re a senior citizen – just eat desert for lunch. Back at the rig Winston was fine, my neighbors reported he only barked a little. I
I tried :(
I tried to get all 3 of us in 1 picture, but none of them worked really well....I tried....... can’t figure out if they are telling the truth or just being kind, but he really did seem ok. I spent what was left of the afternoon continuing to rearrange the cabinets and closets, and thank the gods that there are no more ants.
Happy hour and a wonderful dinner made by Kathy and we were happy and stuffed. I did 2 loads of laundry; I figured late Friday night had to be less crowded than early Saturday morning at the campground Laundromat, and it was empty. $1.50 to wash, $1.50 to dry for an hour, and my golf shirts were damp at the end.
Sea World late in the day for a Beach Boys concert is on the schedule tomorrow. A cold front is supposed to slam thru tomorrow afternoon, bringing wind and freezing temperatures to central FL. The weathermen say prolonged frost for Saturday night to Sunday morning. Ugh. I want the sun back.