This past Wednesday, Feb. 21, 2018 my best friend Tammy and I went kayaking on the Suwannee River.  It was just what I needed.  Talk about a morale booster!

We started off at the big blue bring in Luraville which there isn’t much there except a little general store that reminds me of Fritz Creek General Store.  Only difference is Luraville store doesn’t have a post office, liquor, and pizza.  So, anyway you have to cross this bridge to the other side where the boat ramp is.  Dad back us up into the boat ramp, unloaded our kayaks and we were ready for our adventure on the river.

We shove off and first stop is Telford Springs.  One of my favorite springs to visit.  Also, that’s where a tradition was born.  Bloody Mary’s at Telford.  It’s a really beautiful spring with a natural cave and bridge.  You can swim through the cave if you want, but it’s better when the river is down.

We drank our bloody mary’s and then we were off to our next stop.

We stopped a various springs including Peacock Springs where we had lunch, Running Springs where we were able to kayak into with some great difficulty but we did it.  It wouldn’t have been possible without the river being up.  We had some fun, ate some more snacks and then road out of the spring by way of current and maneuvering.  As, we went down the river enjoying the beautiful 85 degree weather in February we decided that we should take a gander at Bath Tub Springs.  Tammy always said there were a massive amount of snakes there.  I’ve never seen any there so I was positive that it would be okay.  We tied up our boats and proceed to walk to the spring.  This spring is not completely accessible by water and you must walk to it by trail.

I was telling Tammy that everything looked safe and we could proceed on the trail.  As we got closer to the spring Tammy was worried, I wasn’t.  As soon as I said that it was all clear, the biggest water moccasin I have ever seen high tailed it into the spring right in front of me.  It scared me so bad I screamed and I think I peed a little.  The thing was 2 or 3 inches diameters round.  It was wider than a garden hose.  The darn thing had to be 4 or 5 feet long!

As I screamed, Tammy screamed, and we were high tailing ourselves back to our boats, not before rinsing myself off though.  Tammy kept watch for the big bad snake so I could finish what the snake made me do.  LOL

Number on reason to live in Alaska.  NO SNAKES!!!!

So, we left Bath Tub alive and continued down the river.  Low and be hold, ALLIGATORS!

The first one we saw we floated by a little to fast for me to get a picture of him.  He was sitting in the most uncomfortable way.  Face in the water, butt in air, tail on the other side dangling down.  It was funny.  Then I saw this guy posing for me.  It turned out to be a great picture.  Then I almost had a gator in my boat.  I wanted to go through a series of boulders and I surprised the gator so much it jumped into the water.  It got air.  If I was any closer we would be kissing.  We’ve never seen gators this far up the river before.  We usually see them on the islands in the middle of the river further down.

Any who, we started talking about Convict Springs and how great their burgers are.  So, we decided to stop.  The name convict comes from the exact thing it was used for.  It was used to cool down the convicts on hot days during the chain gang times.  The name stuck.    Since then, it has become a back woods resort with river campsites, RV sites, swimming pools, food service and ice cream.  They only serve food on the weekends of course and we didn’t know that at the time.  So, we packed it in and headed home.  It was just getting dark when we made it and pulled our kayaks up to Tammy’s property.

It was a fun and adventurous day.  I am so glad I was able to do some paddling.  I hope I can do it again before I leave for home.