The Peaceful Canoe Trip That Wasn’t: Day 4

I slept like a baby. When I first awoke, Weber was gone. I figured since the beans, he had to go number 2 somewhere. I was wrong. He actually went on a good run around the beach, doing what he does, taking a bunch of pictures, and feeling like we had both felt since leaving the civilized world: like a kid.

I got up when he returned. He went on a walk with the camera daughter and I chatted with the mom, as the dad was out fishing or something. She was awesome. They tried to get me to eat some of their amazing breakfast but I refused, claiming to have already had my stuff. Then the mom asked if I was juice fasting, and with that I shared.

She was really cool and we talked for a long while about this and that. She told me of how she and her husband were living the high life or constantly working for money and missing the family life. Then a revelation had come to them both and they completely 180’d their life, orienting it around their family and children. That is why they go camping and fishing so much now.

Her husband was actually a semi expert on the ways of the Glades, sharing his vast knowledge of everywhere we had been the previous night. He was simply amazed at what we had been through and emphasized how lucky we were. Basically a nice way of saying we were about as stupid as they come to have thought this national park was as simple to navigate as we assumed. He asked if we had heard of those people that had been lost in the Everglades, which Weber and I both had, and told us that those people did what we did, only didn’t get the same hand of luck. He also advised on what we should do if we want to make tide and fight the wind the easiest in our return to the start.

ALSO, I asked about our constant strain to maintain going forward in the canoe, and it ends up we were instructed wrong by the canoe guy: you put the small paddle on the back. Funny.

Weber and I decided we would try and bang out the final 15 miles on Thursday to finish our trip a day early due to Weber’s lack of food and assumption our overwork would catch up with us at some point. We shared with the dad that idea and he volunteered to take us to the next cape site we could see in the distance. This was to make sure we were ahead of the difficult circumstances nearing the Flamingo Center Dock, since it was all based on when we would arrive.

We agreed and took the ride. We thanked the family and said our goodbyes. I dropped the conch and other big shells off near the coast, quick packed and got on the boat WITH our canoe. He actually had us LOAD the boat into his boat. Cool. We were gonna go fast for once!!!

Regarding my collecting of shells and leaving them behind: I enjoy looking for shells, not keeping them. I don’t have any need to keep any of this stuff. I find it fun to treasure hunt per say, and enjoy the process, not the end result. Therefore I discard of such things.

He got us to the site, we unloaded into the ocean, thanked him deeply and took off. He had helped yet again another couple people. See, he is a missionary that adventures to problematic places in the world to help, like Haiti. He had great energy and his wife and kids were all awesome. It was an amazing meet and get to know in the midst of our Everglades adventure. We now had 10 miles to go.

This was a cake walk. With the paddles switched we flew like the dolphins. We had some current eventually, with wind back in our face, but it was the home stretch. We continued at a nice steady, relaxed and peaceful pace until the end.

As we were approaching the tower that was the Flamingo Center, a bald eagle flew by us, marking our return just like it marked our beginning. Was it the same bird? Who knows. But it was there as we were there. We arrived at the beginning. A solemn feeling overcame me, as it seems this return to the social world of humanity is not really where I am supposed to be.

I jumped out of the canoe and went to tell the canoe guy we made it. He was in disbelief we made it a day early and informed us about Monday’s weather and how they went to save the day for some other canoes. Weber and I loaded up my truck and headed home.

We were mostly quiet on the way home, just having shared quite an adventure together, and we were reflecting on that fact. We had become so in synced with one another that even when he leaned a bit on the truck to one side, I immediately shifted my angle to compensate like in the canoe, to keep it balanced. This was funny to me, as the truck felt like we were still going up and down in water like in the previous 4 days.

I thought I felt a weird truck engine skip, like gas running out. I checked the gauge and it was on ultra low. OOPS! I pulled in the next gas station, not knowing if the truck was out or not. No matter, we were there.

I get out and start pumping and the pump stops at $.08. Nothing more was coming out. After some curious faces around getting gas, it had come to pass that the gas station was out of gas! And there was not another gas station for probably too long for my truck… ironic right? It never ends, I thought but giggled. Luckily a gas truck had pulled in, filling things up. So once again, things worked out.

I got Weber home, thanked him for sharing an amazing adventure with me, and returned home myself.

When I arrived to the house I stayed at in Miami, I was beat. I first made a nice fresh vegetable juice before unpacking, which was amazing, and got all of my still wet things to the washer. I dried what couldn’t wash.

Then I showered. Shortly after, Weber calls me with a hectic tone to his voice. He tells me that we have a problem: he accidentally, while uploading all of the pictures, deleted them all but one. I laughed and told him if he could accept that I could. He said he had no other choice. Rightly so, rightly so. Good thing we were paying attention out there! That is why this is a mostly picture less blog post!

I then returned to unpacking the small things. In unloading all of my bags pockets, something strange happened: I found a detailed map of the Everglades that was unscathed, with campsites and land IN DETAIL. If I had found this, most of our issues would have been solved. I started laughing hard.

Go figure.