Personal Story: Swamp Style Bluegrass, Kyaking, and Near Death Experience.

Yesterday, I had the unexpected pleasure of being invited on an unparalleled adventure through Biscayne Bay, South Florida.

One of my old buds, John, called me up and asked me right in the middle of my brainstorm on getting Danny Glover on the phone (part of an ongoing project that will be unfolded later) and said “Dude, we’re going kayaking!”

I guess it wasn’t really a question since, he already confirmed I was going. So I went with it. An hour later we’re in his car and we pull up to a park that in no way looks as if it provides any sort of water sports.

Trying to make sense of the foreign location, John comes in and says, “Well, it’s kind of hot out right now, I thought we could hang out at this bluegrass festival until about 3pm then we could go kayaking.

It was 11am when we got there.

And bluegrass festival??? Don’t get me wrong I love hearing a good banjo every now and then, but I was in no way expecting this. I smiled politely and said, I’m down. Life throws curve balls, I thought; just go with the flow.

Around 3:30 we had enough banjo pickin’ fun, and set out finally to our real destination.

We got to the Oleeta State Park a little after 4pm and it took us just under 15 minutes to get our gear setup and in the water. Not bad at all!

We were floating in his dad’s two person kyak, I had the pilots view, and he was situated in the rear. As soon as we started paddling I instantly knew something wasn’t going to work.

About a gallon of sea water was being splashed on my face from John’s crazy paddling. Something that still puzzles me, because I was sitting in the front of the kyak.

I turned around and said, John I know you’re probably a pro at this, but let’s try to synchronize our paddling in nice and even strokes, it’ll get us out into the bay a lot faster. He agreed and we were off.

The synchronized even strokes worked beautifully and we glided through the water at a relaxed speed, waving to people on yachts and other water craft as we breezed by.

In the midst of enjoying the bay, John’s voice broke the serene calm of the open water. “Hey, see that island over there, let’s go ok!” (Not a question) I truly appreciated John’s knack for adventure but the island looked far from hospitable, the only reassurance I had of safety was, “Man, you’re going to love it, I’ve been there like 100 times and the interiors too cool.

Again, I volunteered myself at his mercy.

Once on the shore of the island, John took off on foot through heavy shrubs. I followed carefully.

Surprisingly the interior to island was kind of cool. Walking through a cleared path, I spotted John on the left, standing next to an exotic tree, gnawing on some kind of fruit. Smiling he held up a piece of a plant and said, “Look, I found a fig tree”.

I am by no means an expert on botany, I think I might’ve received at best a “C” in environmental science, but something in my gut was screaming that whatever John was biting on wasn’t in the same species as figs.

Fast Forward 8 hours.

Some nurse came up to me and asked me to help fill out some paper work, since John was having problems seeing among his arms being swollen, and a scarlet rash that engulfed his legs.

He’d obviously had some sort of allergic reaction to something, to what the hospital staff, and even John and I were puzzled. He was admitted to stay for overnight observation.

It was definitely an adventure to long for just one post. Somehow through it all I still considered it a great labor day weekend, and I hope you enjoyed yours as well.