Mini Day Trips

Instead of working, I have been daydreaming about our upcoming trip to Welaka, Florida.

I found a little book that Al had picked up years ago.  It's called Mini Day Trips.  It's for the North East portion of Florida, which is exactly where we will be.  Even though we lived 30 years in Florida, this was one part we never got to much and we are really looking forward to it.

I've been trying to get Carol, my friend from Arkansas, to come visit us while we're at Welaka.   Her husband Mike is a motorcycle fanatic.  Carol, not so much :)   They just got back from a trip to Sturgis, SD for the motorcycle rally.  He'd been trying to talk her into going for several years and she always got out of it.  This year she was out of excuses, so she went, and had a good time, I might add.

It occurred to me that February was the time for Bike Week in Daytona, so I confirmed the dates and did a MapQuest to see  how far Welaka is from Daytona Beach.  It's less than 60 miles, so it's about perfect.

I sent an e-mail to Mike to let him know, and I know that will fire him up!  He's wanted to come to Daytona and any excuse to do anything related to motorcycles, he will use!  Carol, on the other hand....will kill me :)

One of me and Al's favorite things to do, other than scuba, kayaking, camping, is just to get in the car and explore.  Even if it's someplace we've been, there are always new things to see, new roses to smell, new pictures to take, and new scenery to admire.

I remembered that around Daytona you can drive your car right on the beach, so that will be something fun to do that we've never done.  No way could you do that on the  Gulf Coast.

There are even Panama Canal style locks up in Palatka, so that should be something new and interesting to see.  Of course Manatees are all over in the warm spring waters and  Blue Springs State Park has one of the biggest concentrations.  We've been there before, but we'll definitely go back,.

There are many great kayaking places and one place we will definitely not go kayaking is Juniper Springs.  We went there once several years ago and it was a tough paddle.  There were lots of trees you had to navigate around and under, twisty curvy and fast flowing waters.  Man eating alligators and that's the place Al and the gator had the run in!  Here is the link that I posted about it a while back.  It was a beautiful trip, but way too much work.  You couldn't relax and taking pictures was nearly impossible.  We will probably hit the Silver River in Ocala as it's one of our favorite paddle trips.

Now that I've daydreamed a while, it's time to get to work.  Tonight is a big night...the new Survivor starts!  It's one of our favorite shows.  I should wait and watch it with Al when he gets back Friday....but I won't :)