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I spent a good fifteen minutes with the falcons yesterday. They weren't thrilled that I was skulking around but for my part, it was fascinating. They definitely live around here so you'll probably see them around your place, Walter.

Anybody remember last year's canoe trip to King's Landing up in Apopka? Some remember it fondly, till the end, and others remember it with horror. I went back Thursday and had one of my best days on the river. The place has vastly improved, from the building where you sign up and the launching place (now clean and clear, not mucky or sulphur-smelling). The canoes are brand new- except I did spy, with great interest, an E.T. canoe that must be from the early 80s. It featured a repeated drawing of the extra-terrestrial hiding among the toys in Gertie's closet. Hilarious.

There are now signs most miles down the 10-mile track to give you an idea of how far you have to go to get to the end. There's also a sign pointing to King's Landing both on the road on the way there and at the fork in the river where some of us got lost last year. The water was clear and high enough that we never got stuck on trees and the river looked great. Amazingly, despite the 60% chance of rain, we got no precipitation till 3:10pm, 10 minutes after we pulled our canoe out of the water. At that time the sprinkles started and a few minutes later the sky opened up for the next few hours. We lucked out. Also, being midweek, we had about 5 canoes on the river so we saw no one for hours at a time. Then, at the pick-up, the company had gotten a new van that was not even remotely crowded and they arrived right on time. One note is that the pick-up time is a little misleading. They came at 3:30 on the dot, but it took the two drivers 15 minutes to load up the canoes and supplies, so you really don't get on the road till after that. We were dropped off, at our car, by 4pm.

Other than the lack of rain, my highlights were:
~ seeing a deer about 15 feet away slowly munching on some greenery while wading in about two feet of water.
~ seeing tons of turtles, as always, and countless birds, including a Great Blue Heron that soared about five feet over our heads.
~ seeing a single alligator about 30 feet ahead, then a minute later hearing a major thrash and splash around a closer bush as a different gator entered the water. I've had alligators come closer, but never at the speed that we heard this one. I felt a healthy fear from that one.
~ feeling the wind from some weather front come rushing in as we paddled around the dock at the end. It started as a great increasing noise in the tall trees and then gusted my hat off. It went silent for a few minutes then led to the rain.

There are people I know don't need to return to the river, but for anyone that's willing to give it one more try, King's Landing is in a lot better shape and the service has markedly improved.

We might be able to put something small together. My friend Greg wants to go back and Kyle mentioned he was interested as well. Kyle also mentioned that he's got some time off in late July as well.

One thing we made sure to change from the last trip is that we brought a cellphone with us in the canoe (in a waterproof container). That would have solved some problems we had last year..

Kyle, what days might you be available? I can tell you this- it's a lot more fun with less boats on the river, which means it's a lot less fun on the weekends. How about a Friday? If it's really unlikely you'll make it, please don't try to influence the day it's to fall on (not talking directly to you, Russ). Most trips and events fall apart for us these days, so for this one, which I, or someone else, will make a thread for later- for this trip it should not be about getting a big party together. It should be about those of us that will do our best to go actually going. Thanks for everybody's interest!