Help! My Blog Has Been Hijacked!

The brothers, Bubba and Joe, set out on their second great adventure on Wednesday, October 25.  It was a cool morning and beautiful as the two adventurers met at the Chipola River bridge on Highway 20.  Their last trip had been so much fun that they could hardly wait to continue onward down the river.  They left Joe's truck there and went on to the Peacock Bridge on Chipola River to launch their kayaks.

It's 8:30 AM and Bubba can hardly wait to get going.

Their journey started out much like their first outing.  It was peaceful going downstream enjoying the sights and sounds of the Chipola.

About every two hours, they would take a break and get out to stretch their legs and rest a little.

Then it started to dawn on Bubba that just possibly his younger brother was a foolhardy daredevil as they passed a cave and Joe kept trying to get Bubba to go in and look around.  Thankfully, Bubba had too much sense to oblige him.

They passed an old man fishing and divers preparing for a future cave dive.  Then they came to a place known as "Look and Tremble".  

Bubba is looking and possibly trembling in this picture.

Brother Joe says "I think I can make it."  He told Bubba it was "easy".  Then he proceeded to show Bubba how to do it.

In fact, it was so "easy" that Joe did it with his feet in the air.  Thankfully he had on his life jacket, but it scared Bubba as he ran down the bank trying to find Joe fearing that he had been hurt.

Joe climbed out with a defeated expression on his face.  He lost his cap, his water bottle, and his dignity.  In fact Bubba said he looked like a "wet rat".

Bubba sat on a rock, ate his lunch, laughed at Joe, and then carried his kayak around "Look and Tremble."  

Joe smiles as he tells Bubba that he is going to give it another try.  He made it the second time, but Bubba wasn't too impressed.

They continued their trip enjoying the clear water, sandy bottom, and the limestone cliffs.  After another three hours around 3:00 PM, Joe's GPS reading indicated that they were still five miles from their destination.  They had already traveled thirteen miles.  They were both tired and were running out of daylight.  Joe's trials with "Look and Tremble" had exhausted him.  

Then they decided their fastest way out would be to call Search and Rescue in the form of youngest brother, Tim, to help them out.  Of course, Tim responded.  After all, this was not the first time he had to take care of his brothers.  

Joe gets in the boat with Tim and then Tim tows both kayaks back to the landing.

Look at the smile on Tim's face.  He is already thinking about how much fun he will have telling about this "Search and Rescue" at the family Christmas gathering.

Tim tows them back the last five miles.  Bubba relaxes and enjoys the ride.

By the way, Tim says that he does not want a kayak.

We're going camping again soon.  Brother Joe wants them to kayak down the Pea River in Alabama.  Brother Tim warns Bubba about a waterfall that Joe let him go over one time on that same river.  I'm thinking Bubba and Joe have different ideologies about the sport of kayaking.  I think Bubba has a peaceful, non-eventful trip in his mind while Joe envisions more and more challenges with the thrill of adventure.  I'm hoping sister-in-law Judy will help me straighten them out on the fact that they are not spring chickens and have to be careful and safe.

Note: Bubba could hardly wait for me to write the blog about his trip.  He said that Joe took pictures of everything because it would be good for the blog.  Now he is telling me what to write and I can hardly type fast enough to keep up.  I'm thinking that they may need to start a Kayaking Brothers blog soon.

Fall Holiday

Amy, Darryl, and Amelia arrived here in the middle of the night on October 17.  Amy and Amelia were going to come for a quick fall holiday visit, but when Darryl's family's rental house needed some painting and repairs completed before the 1st of November Darryl decided to come with them to help his sister get the job done.

As always, it was great to have them here.  Bubba volunteered to pitch in and help with the work, leaving Amy, Amelia, and me home for some quality time together.  This is a picture of Amy spending quality time with her mom.

Note that she "appears" to be interested in what I'm saying, but she has her laptop open and is constantly glancing down to connect with the world. (I had to include that little dig. I hope she forgives me because she is truly a wonderful daughter.)  Bubba says I'm addicted to mine also so I guess that I'm getting a dose of my own medicine.

What was unusual about this visit is that we picked Amelia's cousin Avery up at "school" on Thursday and Friday and she stayed with us all afternoon.  There was so much activity that I didn't get any pictures of them together.  They were so funny.

The first afternoon we took them to the park up the road that has a really nice playground.  It is also the home of "Bucky" and "Doe-Doe", the goats that we enjoy feeding.  They visited the goats and played for a while and we headed back home.

When they crawled up into their car seats, Avery grabbed up Amelia's teddy bear that she had brought with her.  Amelia immediately began to wail wanting her teddy bear back.  We gave the sharing speech to no avail.  Suddenly Avery tossed the bear into the very back of the car and Amelia's wailing got louder.  Then Avery joined in with a fake wailing noise mocking Amelia.  Finally, I had enough.  I turned around and said, "If you both don't hush right this minute, you're both going to be in time out when we get home!"  To my surprise (and Amy's) they both turned it off immediately and we had a peaceful ride home.

Friday afternoon, we picked up Avery and headed for Pier Park. They have rides there now and it is is called Miracle Strip at Pier Park.  Both girls were very excited to be there. We got each one of them an arm band so they could ride as much as they wanted.  The afternoon passed quickly.  When we headed home, we stopped by "Chic-Fil-A" which Avery calls "Chick Olay" for ice cream and allowed them to play a while in the play area there.  

On the way home the fussing between the cousins started again.  "She touched me!"  "She looked mean at me!"  "She did her teeth at me!"  "I don't want her to come to my house!" "She doesn't share!"  "I don't want to play with her!"  But when we got back and Avery's mom was walking toward the car to get her, it changed to "I don't want Avery to go home!"  "I want to go home with Amelia!"  "I want Avery to play with me!"

It may not sound like it to you, but this was all a lot of fun.  We did a lot of laughing about it.  Ashley said that she and her cousin, Ginger, were the same way -- always bickering, but loving their time together.

Saturday, before they headed back to Baton Rouge, Bubba and Amelia enjoyed some time with the "hole" swing.  Amelia loves to swing high and she loves for Bubba to make the swing spin round and round.

She also loves to pose for pictures.  

One time when she was spinning on the swing, her dress got caught up in it somehow and her belly button was showing.  She thought this was hilarious so every time when she finished spinning, she somehow managed to finish with her belly button showing.  She would laugh and laugh.  I love the way she says "button".  It is "but" "ton" as though it was two words instead of just one.  

Way too soon, it was time for them to head home.  It was a very good visit.  In just a few weeks we will be on our way out there for Amelia's 5th birthday.  She is growing up so fast!  She is so loving and precious.  She has brought us all great joy.  We can't wait until next time.


Note:  How can you not be a LSU fan??

A Lot to Think About

The weekend following Bubba and Joe's first kayak adventure, we had a bad case of hitch itch.  We were ready to camp.  Now that we have a year of camping under our belts, we are more particular about where we want to camp.  It is important to us to be able to sit outside in a peaceful location preferably on the water with a nice view.  One of the two places that fit that description best is the park on Lake Seminole where we had just been with Joe and Judy a few weeks earlier.  So we headed out on Friday morning and were able to find the perfect spot.

The route we take to Lake Seminole goes through Marianna, Fl, where we always stop at the Travel Centers of America truck stop.  Now what makes this truck stop so appealing to us?  You guessed it!  Three of our favorite fast foods are offered there.  It's clean and it's easy to park the trailer.  We cannot pass this place without stopping.

I'm not going into a lot of details about this trip except to say that we both enjoyed time paddling the kayak.

Bubba ventured out a long way this time. 

Nature is a constant reminder of

all His hands have wrought.

 We both spent a lot of time in our recliners just talking, reading, and thinking.










I really had a lot to think about this particular weekend.  I worked for a man that I really respected, who treated staff well, and who made going to work enjoyable.  He was recently very unfairly advised by the higher ups that he could either move to another prison in south Florida or go home. He chose to go home.  His mother is elderly and in poor health and he didn't want to leave her.  We were all upset at work.  I began to think about my future and what I wanted to do.

I can tell you that I gave a lot of thought over the weekend about going ahead and retiring.  It would cost me a lot financially to do that.  Health insurance for just myself is $569.00 a month not to mention that I would have less retirement and social security to live on; however, before the weekend was over I decided that if I wasn't happy with the new boss I was going to retire.  

This was my view for a lot of the weekend.  

It was nearly two more weeks before I met the new boss.
I have to say that so far I'm happy.
He's a young man and has treated me as though I'm very important to him.  I have listened very closely to his dealings with staff and families and I like how he treats them.  He approves of the flex schedule I'm on now that allows me to be off every Friday which is very important to our new camping lifestyle. So my decision for now is to stick with it a while longer.

Anyone who knows Bubba knows that he is a pessimist (a glass half empty kind of guy).  I, on the other hand, am an optimist (my glass is half full).  It's kind of interesting that when planning for the future, we swap roles.  He is optimistic in thinking that we will both probably live well into our nineties.  I am pessimistic in thinking that we need to enjoy things while we are both in good health and can.  I think that probably we are both being somewhat realistic on this.  At any rate, I'm looking forward to retirement whether it be in a few months or a year.

This was a great weekend for relaxing and for thinking.  We all need one like that every now and then!

The Difference Between Men and Boys

Is the price of their toys.  As you know from my last blog about our trip to Lake Seminole with Joe and Judy, Joe had just purchased a 10 foot kayak.  That weekend we all took turns trying it out and of course Bubba caught the fever.  The very next weekend we went kayak shopping.  We searched high and low in Panama City on Friday with no success.  The next day we went to Academy Sports in Tallahassee where Bubba found his kayak and here it is. 

He bought it on Saturday and then he and Joe immediately planned an adventure for the following Wednesday. Bubba met Joe at 8:00 AM at the Peacock Road Bridge.  They put Joe's kayak in Bubba's truck and then drove to Marianna where they launched their kayaks and set off paddling.  It was a cool beautiful day.  They had estimated this to be a half day trip which they thought would be a good start.

It was so peaceful.  Along the way they saw an alligator, turkeys, ducks, and a lot of the beauty of God's world.

Their half day trip actually turned out to be a full day, but they really had a good time.  The next adventure is already being planned.  Stay tuned.

P.S.  After Bubba got his kayak, I decided it was okay to reward myself with a new ipod.  Mine got "lost" while I was in the hospital.  I'm thinking that I may eventually want a kayak of my own, but maybe not until I retire.