We Want To See Florida 2: 85 miles on the Suwannee River

Day 3 - Sore and Ready for More

Portions of this day were made possible by Vitamin I

Editor's note. I am going to post this but will revise it later....

Holton Creek River Camp to Suwannee River State Park (SRSP)

This is where the river changes from the meandering and starts to straighten out.

Map - Day 3

[3.1] Has Anyone Seen the Sun?

After two days of overcast skies, today's forecast called for partially cloudy which would be a welcome change. Well, that never happened. it ended up being overcast, again, all day long.

Suffering Succotash

My dear wife was so excited about doing this trip. Once she got into the details of the trip she started research points of interest. One of the things that we were careful to do in the preparation for the trip was exercise. We were walking between 2 - 3 miles 5 days a week weather permitting. Maria was getting some of her endurance back when she had several ailments to deal with. She knew that she could have some physical trouble on the trip but she was determined to make the best of it. Well, on this day, things caught up to her.

She had an issue where a couple of the brackets holding the seats where rubbing against her legs. She was suffering with bruising and a blister. Once Shawn and Debi found out what was happening, they gladly offered some of their knee pads they had in their boat to offer relief. It helped out tremendously but her legs were already gassed. She also appeared to be suffering from dehydration. Lets just say that she suffered for two days further but was able to paddle her kayak the rest of the way. Tough woman to say the least.

[3.2] County Rd 249 Bridge

Savannah, Debi, and Shawn approach CR 249 Bridge

Angelia, Savannah, Debi & Shawn

[3.3] Gibson Park, an Oasis?

When travelling out in the middle of no where, where do you go when you have to ....well...go? This was one of the major concerns for my family. Maria did some research on this as well. On of the things she found was this park that had a boat ramp and flush toilets. It was a nice break for us, and seemed like it would get a lot of traffic on the weekends. We played a little on the floating dock and took some pictures and video before we left. Nice pit stop when you have to go. The park is adjacent to the Alapaha River.

[3.4] Alapaha River

This isn't a Vacation

Not sure when this started but the kids were telling my wife that this wasn't really a vacation. They though there was too much "work" involved in this trip and they would have rather been else where for their vacation. Even though they had someone of a point, there part of the trip was much easier than the parents. We also were happy to say "es" when they asked if they could swim on our breaks.

Also, some time during this trip, Maria stated out loud "my husband sent me to Fat Camp!". That had me chuckling since I knew there was a lot of joking in that statement as well. She is a trooper as well.

The Rest of the Day

Well, the rest of the day was pretty uneventful with the exception of the amazing scenery. An uneventful day seemed like a nice rest for the mind, even if some were sore.

[3.5] Our Cabin in the Woods

At Suwannee River State Park, I chose to get cabins instead of tent camping. I figured it would not only save us from having to cart a tent with us (good choice since we did not have any extra space). It also allowed us to have a nice little treat. And what a treat it was.

Fancier than a standard hotel room, they were spacious with a really nice porch that wrapped around two sides. There was a bathtub that was used to soak sore muscles as well. The kitchen seemed like cheating really but there was a fireplace, kind of. It was electric and only put out a minimal amount of heat. After this experience, I would really love to spend multiple nights at one of the cabins in a state park.

Dinner was steak, again along with sweet potatoes (oven baked with butter, brown sugar, and marshmallows toppings. I picked this side with Angelia in mind. Of course, this was a nice surprise for her.). We also had green beans. This time I pan fried the steak. Never have done that before but it was good. Weeks later, Angelia told me that was her favorite steak ever. I will have to do that again.

Maria continued to suffer mightily throughout the evening and night. I was praying for a quick recovery for her.

Ice, Ice Baby...to go

One of the logistical challenges of this trip were the coolers. We had three total, and moving them around was no fun. We eventually started leaving them in the boats and pulling out what we needed. Two of them required ice (one was electric). My plans included refreezing ice packs at the cabins and using ice from the ice makers in the refrigerators. When we got to our cabin, one of the first things that I did was verify the freezer was working and had ice in it. Working: check. Ice machine working: NO. What to do? I figured I would freeze a gallon of water to supplement I asked Shawn if he could check his freezer for ice. Minutes later he came back and told me not only was the ice maker working but someone left a 20 pound bag of ice in the freezer! We like to refer to this as Trail Magic. Something like this, in this abundance, is when I give thanks to God for meeting this need.

Daily Digest

Tough, tough day. Maria hit a wall physically but was still able to scale it through determination and assistance from others. When at the cabin, and after getting settled in, I insisted that she took a nap while I worked on dinner. After that, she was still very tired and sore. It would take several days for her legs to recover. I was tired as well but knew a good nights sleep would help me greatly.

Daily Stats

Daily Stats

As you can see above, we took more breaks than actual paddling time. This was probably the result of the previously long day. The max speed is from Shawn and Debi doing a speed run in their canoe.

Misc Pictures