Florida Road Trip! Visit with Durhamblogger! Carl and the important rhyme!

  About two weeks ago we packed our van with towels and paddles and life jackets and way too many clothes and a few too many guidebooks and just two iSUPs and headed south!
  Why no kayaks?   Because we weren't planning any big trips and having kayaks with us meant always keeping them on the roof.  Besides our kayaks are meant for big water and we were headed for shallow bays and narrow springs.
  We drove as fast as was comfortable to Florida, spent some time there and drove back a little slower and more randomly.  Which was grea,t because that gave us a chance to meet Durhamblogger; Mike and his lovely wife, Rachel!

  If you read his blog regularly, you know he is very safety conscious and also has many how-to posts and gear reviews.  It's obvious that he is an avid kayaker, but you might not guess that it was his wife, Rachel, who talked him into getting that first kayak.  It was a terrific visit!

   Now we're back home and in the midst of catching up on all sorts of miscellaneous work/house chores.  We've got all our pictures stored on the computer, so I just need to sort out what to report from the thirteen paddle adventures and  200 plus photos.

   Tonight I'll just post one more picture:  a portrait of Carl the venomous Coral Snake:

   For years and years a part of my brain has been dedicated to this rhyme:
      "Red touch yellow; kill a fellow"
  (There may be more to it than that, but it didn't seem as important.)
  Finally it's proved useful!  Without that rhyme I surely would have picked up and cuddled Carl, but because I had it memorized, I just kept my distance and let him go his own way!