Seward - July 24

The next morning we went kayaking at Fox Island. It was an hour boat ride to Fox Island. Once on the inland, a group of three guides took twelve of us out for a 4-hour kayak trip. {pic kakaking}

It was raining and in the 50s. They equipped us with life jackets, rain gear and boats. Thank god they did because it was bad out. Once all the gear was donned we headed to the beach for our instruction. The kayaks were all built for tandem paddling. The rain was coming down at a pretty steady drizzle so I left my camera in the dry bag that the outfitter provided. The scenery was beautiful and definitely the kind of stuff I wanted to shoot. However, it was getting to that point in the trip that I have seen so much cool stuff that I was a little bit less willing to put forth the effort. This, on top of the fact that I was in a boat that I felt just a little bit unstable in, made me keep me gear stowed. The water was pretty eventless. We did spot one sea otter. {pic sea otter}

After about 2 hours of paddling we reach the mouth of the Fox Island River. There were several fishing boats in the bay with us. The salmon were starting to run and the fishermen were able to catch them in the bay before they started their final journey up the river to spoon. I finally worked up the nerve to pull out my camera and click a few shots. {pic becky and leeann kakaking} I started talking to one of the guides that was hanging out with our slowpoke family. He had just graduated from college in Alabama in Finance. I asked him how he ended up floating around in a kayak instead running around an office wearing a suit. He told me that he had been a whitewater rafting guide during college in the summers and decided do this before he had any one to worry about. I told him “Right On”. This is a cheesy saying that keeps randomly popping up. It seems to confuse him as much as it did me. This is definitely a tale tell sign that I am becoming an old fart. I am ok with that.

After humiliating myself I decided that I was getting hungry. (This is an automatic response of old fart when they are humiliated.) On the trip back we saw young bald eagles at were nesting. Seeing an eagle isn’t a big deal, the weird thing was that they were soaked. {pic eagle} In Illinois, I never have seen an eagle in the rain. Usually the eagles come to the river in high number to find open water to fish in during the winter. Not a lot of rain in the winter. At the end of the trip we were served a nice meal of prime rib and salmon. A park ranger did a presentation on the history of the park. The boat that had brought us out also carried sightseeing groups. The dining room was packed with older well-dressed couples. I spent a lot of time listening to my daughter chatter back and forth at each other and thinking about being an old fart on a bus. {pic becky and leeann} Spending my golden years staring out the tinted glass wondering about the things I was seeing and just making up some crap. I am pretty sure I’m more at home on a motorcycle with a flat tire, and a quarter tank of gas in the ass of nowhere. I think the trade off for security and comfort is the powerful memories of my misadventures that I love so much. I am sure you have noticed that since the more structured part of this trip started, my record of daily events has become less interesting. I am looking forward to my bike trip back home now. {pic familty photo}

Of course, I love spending time with my family but requirement of having to figure out safe places to pitch my tent and finding food makes the traveling process a lot more engaging and yes exciting. It seems silly to feel to better at the end of a poorly planned trip than a well plan one. I guess this is the result of sleeping my way through too many vacations. Traveling is not easy as a group I know, but sitting in the backseat of a car all day is just a rolling nap for me. The luxury of making ad hoc travel plans removes the stress of making it to your reservation but it is replaced with the concern of “where the hell am I going to sleep tonight.“ Having spent my share of time or airport and train station floors this is a pretty light cross to bear for me. It forces you to be more out going and resourceful. When you run into a group of long distance travelers if you listen to their stories you will notice a tone of pride not that they had been to a city or continent but that they problem solved the trip. The conflicts are what defines the adventures for me.

As an example of this, I have without a doubt told the story countless times of being woken up on the beach by Mexican police. Another example I remember is when my wife and I were in Romania and met a couple of British guys that had been traveling for a solid year. This was an impressive feat, but the coolest part was that they had financed the trip by working in a South New Zealand diamond mine. The money they made was all saved and they were traveling on just the interest. These guys were hardcore and totally in the moment of what they were doing. I remember realizing that anyone could save or borrow the money to go pretty much anywhere when they were old and feeble. It takes someone with real guts to walk away from the table for a full year or more. I know that to some of you it sounds pretty exciting but it takes a lot of drive to just keep going. I met a guy on the river that was kayaking all the rivers in the lower 48 states to raise awareness about MS. When I met him he was headed to Chicago through lake Michigan up the Fox River and then down the Mississippi. Yeah, totally freaking crazy. He had been on this journey for two and a half years and figured it would take him another 2 to 3 years to finish his journey. If you are interested his journey ended in Chicago after having all of his equipment flooded with Chicago sewage. I believe that could be a manifestation of the old saying “Pissing on your parade”. He did make it into the Guinnus book of world records as the longest solo kayaker. Two and a half years of just kayaking is definitely crazy but it has given him a true glimpse of how wonderful life should be.