Sunday, September 11, 2005

Sunday, September 11, 2005

Since I'm still almost presentable in public, I accepted when I was invited to canoe the Everglades.  I love me some Everglades!  =)  My Sensei has a gazillion people visiting from Germany somehow, so there was a big party of us going, including 2 students who are testing for their black belts.  That's dedication --- flying transatlantic to test for that.

This would be my opportunity to go and NOT have to paddle.  Yay!!  I sat in the middle between Galahad and Uli and quickly learned the German word for spider.  Crikey!  We had tons of them.  /shudder  We drove up to Jupiter and canoed the Loxahatchee River, which I later learned (thank you Google) means river of turtles.  We saw only one gator but tons of turtles as we canoed through this gorgeous Cypress Swamp.  It was completely different from what I expected but so amazing.  It was also much longer than I expected, lasting 6 hours plus 2 hours driving time.  I was exhausted and I paddled maybe only 10 minutes or so.  Yes, I wore a hat and slathered on sunscreen (even though I think it's poisonous).  We stopped at Trapper Nelson's for our picnic lunch, and I chatted up the Park Ranger there.  Holy shit, she lives out there full time.  It must be so incredible and so scary at the same time.  Plus, I'd go bonkers without the Internet.

All of that nature gave me a mind-shattering migraine.  I think I might have been allergic to the vegetation or maybe it was just too much heat for too long.  It turns out I might be sensitive.  :p

Two Imitrex and off to sleep with an ice-pack on my head.

No comments: