Thanks to the folks who suggested that I drop in on Sweetwater Kayaks while working down in the Tampa area. They rented me a brand-new Romany and gave me directions to a paddle out to Egmont Key. Beautiful Island with lots of birds and some old fortifications from the Spanish American War. They did not ask for proof of my training BCU or otherwise. They could tell I had taken some BCU training when I showed up with my "kit" and of course my "hot drink" (it was 95 F and 100% humidity). None of the local wildlife bothered me although my coworker made a point of telling me about the old man who went for a swim off his dock every day of his life up until last week when jumped off the dock and onto a hungry or ornry 15 foot Bull Shark. The folks at Sweetwater also told me about the friend of a friend who works in the ER and had a fisherman come in after a Gator nibbled on his head last week. Nice paddle although the heat was enough to kill someone who is used living a bit farther from the equator, and of course the water was a bit warm and salty for my tastes. With luck I will be back for another round of sampling this winter when it is a bit more livable down there. It was wonderful to come home to the first frost of the year and highs in the 60s rather than 90s! I dropped off a couple of our Great Lakes Paddling guides and then cashed in on my psuedo-kayak-celeb status by getting a free T-shirt from Sweetwater and they even bought me dinner at a nice Thai Restaurant! Great folks, I strongly recommend that you drop in on them if you find yourself in the Tampa area. *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - All postings copyright the author and not to be reproduced/forwarded outside PaddleWise without author's permission Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************Received on Mon Sep 25 2000 - 11:16:15 PDT
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