(no subject)
what a weekend. i feel like i'm going everywhere, all the time. this time we went to manatee springs for a night camping, and then canoeing down the suwannee river, and then a visit to the dingy island grotto of cedar key. it was a good time of bluegrass, earth-lovin' locals and being way the hell out there. night time at manatee, the place is so dark and desolate that i witnessed the most amazing view of the sky that i've yet to see. we could catch the blurry hubs of galaxies surrounding ordinary stars. and the boardwalk, yes another boardwalk, this time without mushrooms... but strangely similar. in the dark we couldn't see, only knew the crazy tangled trees that surrounded us, the deer that were chewing and flicking their tails, the alligators that were lurking in the swamp. in the daytime we rented a canoe from russ, whose vegetable oil-powered F-350 took us well up the suwannee river and dumped us there with our paddles and our fruit-flavored candies. getting along down the river took more work than i'd expected; jarred and i would slave for a few hundred feet and then rest, our boat neutralizing sideways in the middle of the river, and then we'd slave some more. out there time was totally irrelevant, so i have no idea how long it took to meet russ again at the south end of manatee, but when we got there he was standing at the ramp, patiently smiling. he told us of his solar panels and wind power, and i could see the hearts well up in jarred's eyes when he started talking about his days working at NASA. "funny thing about women: they'll make ya move." after that it was to left coast for us: cedar key, which as it turned out had an ugly, dirty beach and restaurants, people to match. we decided not to stay long enough to eat or watch the sunset. once back to civilization, we dined at high tide harry's, which i hadn't been to since god knows when. and man, let me tell you that the economy is not stopping every person on the planet with twelve kids from taking them out to eat. it was kind of like eating in an elementary school cafeteria, only (thank god) they served beer. for the first time in quite a while it rained throughout the night, insuring that i got a long and satisfying sleep.