Having done our part to safely launch the shuttle ('Booster?' Go! 'Guidance?' Go! 'Dorsi?' G...g...go!) Chris and I made a beeline for the Everglades City and the Ten Thousand Islands. We caught a shower, ate some fried oysters, and rented a Grumman canoe from Ivey House. We paid about $35/day, including some water jugs and dry boxes. The flexible Grumman engineers not only made the aluminum canoe we paddled during our trip, but also the Apollo LMs that were flown to the moon's surface and back into lunar orbit.
Our four-day paddle took us through a network of mangrove islands to the open fetch of the Gulf Coast. We learned to make the most of the velvety seas and mild air in the first hours of the day, and to plant ourselves in deep shade by early afternoon. We made camp on the crushed-shell beaches of a couple islands down the coast before diving back into the narrower interior waterways. We spent the last night of our trip perched on a wooden chickee platform elevated a few feet above the water.
The shallow flats of the Gulf Coast made for action-packed animal viewing. From the front-row seats of our camps, we watched as sharks, dolphins, and many unseen predators flushed airborne fish after fish. I recognized almost none of the dozens of long-beaked birds we encountered. Our trolling line produced a mullet and catfish that breaded up great in "Cajun Fry." Coons were prevalent.
With each sunset, the aggressive and DEET-immune mosquitoes and no-see-ems became a maddening blight; we ate early and retreated to the protection of the tent to read our books and listen to the drone of the insects outside.
