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Suwannee River 2021
Jul. 27th, 2021 06:42 amThe Suwannee River is a time machine, transporting its guests into a landscape shaped only by the universe itself. The moon pushes and pulls the tides as cypress and oak roots grasp tightly to the earth. Fireflies mimic dying stars, dancing to the music of the crickets. And the air hangs heavy, hugging anyone lucky enough to be in its embrace.
I wrote this while sitting on the screened back porch of our rental on the Suwannee River. My husband had only floated down the Ichetucknee once, and I had fond memories of going many times with family. So we decided to take a trip this year. Rather than a day trip, we decided to find a place to stay so the experience would be more relaxing.
One of the best parts is that we didn't even need to take PTO. We both have the luxury of working from home certain days, so we worked from home Friday and hit the road immediately after work. We also worked from home Monday while recovering from the busyness of travel.
As we made our way to the rental, we slowly traveled down (surprisingly smooth) dirt roads. It felt amazing to be so far away from society. I saw a deer behind a fence and was thrilled, only to be crushed shortly thereafter when we saw a sign on the fence labeling the place as a private hunting preserve. The idea of these places is so interesting to me, but that's for another post another day. We also saw some bison behind the fence another time.
We saw lots of free deer too, which was really cool. One house in the neighborhood had a pet goat (they didn't have a farm or anything, just a large yard). This house also had a giant pile of sticks and trash that they were burning one day. There were three kids running barefoot in the yard. It was definitely a scene from the country.
Wildflowers lined the dirt roads, and I got a few amazing pictures. There's just something so special to me about yellow wildflowers along a dirt road. Something homey. We also passed an abandoned house with an old Jeep parked in a crumbling garage. It was such an interesting scene. Not sure what is so captivating about places like this -- maybe just wondering about the lives of people who live(d) there.
Our rental turned out to be so comfortable. It's called Paw Paw's Place and had pictures of what I assume were Paw Paw and his family. There was no new decor, and it felt like someone's grandmother's house. The screened back porch looked out onto the Suwannee River, and that's where we ate all of our meals. We got pizza from a local place the first night.
The water level was really high, so although a canoe was available, we decided against it because I had never been before, and canoes are less stable than kayaks. Plus we were in the deep woods on the Suwannee and I'm sure many alligators were curiously watching us.
Saturday morning, we ventured out to the Ichetucknee River. We were about 30 minutes later than planned, and the line to get in the park was already long and stop-and-go. The park was full of families, including an interesting lady who was in line in front of us, telling her grandchildren a story about someone's glasses that went missing in the ocean. She asked them if they knew why the glasses were eventually found, and then told them it was because of her prayer to Jehovah -- that was the only reason.
When we got into the river, it happened to be behind a 15-person group who tried to stay connected as a chain as they all got in. We had to do some intense paddling (with our hands) to get around them. The river was much more crowded than Ginnie Springs was around a similar time last year. I remember being so relaxed on river floating trips when I was younger, but now that I am older, I am so uncomfortable with getting too close to the banks, fearing gators hiding just below the surface of the water. I'm sure it is fine, but I definitely prefer to hang onto someone else's tube so that I don't panic.
The river trip ended up being much busier than expected, so we were glad to get back to our cabin. It wasn't really a cabin, although part of it had wood beams that looked like a cabin, so maybe it was. I always want to call it a cabin. We had shrimp cocktail and frozen fries for lunch. It was sooo delicious. There is something about eating seafood after being in the water, and I've been particularly fond of shrimp cocktail and fries lately.
We were so exhausted from the trip that we napped that afternoon, and we didn't cook burgers later like planned. Thank goodness for leftover pizza! We had ordered a large, which turned out to be EIGHTEEN inches, but it came in handy after all.
We spent mornings and evenings on the porch, and Saturday night we had a little fire outside, while watching our backs for bears and gators. Also on Saturday, some massive banana spiders had created some webs conveniently near the staircases on the house. I got a bite at some point, but I'm not sure when. It seems to be healing ok, so I don't think it was from a black widow or brown recluse. I'm still a little jittery here at home, expecting bugs to crawl out from anywhere.
The house owner also let us stay a little late on Sunday, which was nice. We had some leftover shrimp so decided to chop it up and make scrambled eggs with shrimp and havarti, which we initially intended to use on the burgers. Super luxurious breakfast.
This trip was such a nice escape to what felt like a different time, when things moved slower and people really lived in nature. Despite my anxieties about bugs and gators, I loved living down those dirt roads for a couple days.
I wrote this while sitting on the screened back porch of our rental on the Suwannee River. My husband had only floated down the Ichetucknee once, and I had fond memories of going many times with family. So we decided to take a trip this year. Rather than a day trip, we decided to find a place to stay so the experience would be more relaxing.
One of the best parts is that we didn't even need to take PTO. We both have the luxury of working from home certain days, so we worked from home Friday and hit the road immediately after work. We also worked from home Monday while recovering from the busyness of travel.
As we made our way to the rental, we slowly traveled down (surprisingly smooth) dirt roads. It felt amazing to be so far away from society. I saw a deer behind a fence and was thrilled, only to be crushed shortly thereafter when we saw a sign on the fence labeling the place as a private hunting preserve. The idea of these places is so interesting to me, but that's for another post another day. We also saw some bison behind the fence another time.
We saw lots of free deer too, which was really cool. One house in the neighborhood had a pet goat (they didn't have a farm or anything, just a large yard). This house also had a giant pile of sticks and trash that they were burning one day. There were three kids running barefoot in the yard. It was definitely a scene from the country.
Wildflowers lined the dirt roads, and I got a few amazing pictures. There's just something so special to me about yellow wildflowers along a dirt road. Something homey. We also passed an abandoned house with an old Jeep parked in a crumbling garage. It was such an interesting scene. Not sure what is so captivating about places like this -- maybe just wondering about the lives of people who live(d) there.
Our rental turned out to be so comfortable. It's called Paw Paw's Place and had pictures of what I assume were Paw Paw and his family. There was no new decor, and it felt like someone's grandmother's house. The screened back porch looked out onto the Suwannee River, and that's where we ate all of our meals. We got pizza from a local place the first night.
The water level was really high, so although a canoe was available, we decided against it because I had never been before, and canoes are less stable than kayaks. Plus we were in the deep woods on the Suwannee and I'm sure many alligators were curiously watching us.
Saturday morning, we ventured out to the Ichetucknee River. We were about 30 minutes later than planned, and the line to get in the park was already long and stop-and-go. The park was full of families, including an interesting lady who was in line in front of us, telling her grandchildren a story about someone's glasses that went missing in the ocean. She asked them if they knew why the glasses were eventually found, and then told them it was because of her prayer to Jehovah -- that was the only reason.
When we got into the river, it happened to be behind a 15-person group who tried to stay connected as a chain as they all got in. We had to do some intense paddling (with our hands) to get around them. The river was much more crowded than Ginnie Springs was around a similar time last year. I remember being so relaxed on river floating trips when I was younger, but now that I am older, I am so uncomfortable with getting too close to the banks, fearing gators hiding just below the surface of the water. I'm sure it is fine, but I definitely prefer to hang onto someone else's tube so that I don't panic.
The river trip ended up being much busier than expected, so we were glad to get back to our cabin. It wasn't really a cabin, although part of it had wood beams that looked like a cabin, so maybe it was. I always want to call it a cabin. We had shrimp cocktail and frozen fries for lunch. It was sooo delicious. There is something about eating seafood after being in the water, and I've been particularly fond of shrimp cocktail and fries lately.
We were so exhausted from the trip that we napped that afternoon, and we didn't cook burgers later like planned. Thank goodness for leftover pizza! We had ordered a large, which turned out to be EIGHTEEN inches, but it came in handy after all.
We spent mornings and evenings on the porch, and Saturday night we had a little fire outside, while watching our backs for bears and gators. Also on Saturday, some massive banana spiders had created some webs conveniently near the staircases on the house. I got a bite at some point, but I'm not sure when. It seems to be healing ok, so I don't think it was from a black widow or brown recluse. I'm still a little jittery here at home, expecting bugs to crawl out from anywhere.
The house owner also let us stay a little late on Sunday, which was nice. We had some leftover shrimp so decided to chop it up and make scrambled eggs with shrimp and havarti, which we initially intended to use on the burgers. Super luxurious breakfast.
This trip was such a nice escape to what felt like a different time, when things moved slower and people really lived in nature. Despite my anxieties about bugs and gators, I loved living down those dirt roads for a couple days.
