Kayaking Freaks

From the Nose of Our Kayak Don & Janet Beasley Chapter 14: Look Out Panhandle Here We Come! To celebrate our 30 year anniversary we headed for the panhandle of Florida...the Apalachicola area to be exact. We wanted to visit some long time friends plus do some kayaking in yet another area of Florida that was "virgin" to us.  Along the way we stopped for some lunch. Seafood was calling our name...something it always does when we're on the gulf coast. When we came upon the town of Freeport we started looking for a local diner. Sure enough we spotted one that suited our fancy. There were plenty of cars in the parking lot. I have to say that Oyster Po Boy Sandwich was out of this world! The oysters were heaped on in quite the fashion, and the bun was so good and soft, and the tartar sauce - lettuce  - and tomato capped it off. Don enjoyed a plate of fried shrimp that were absolutely to die for. And i n addition to the outstanding food, the service was ever so friendly, ...

From the Nose of Our Kayak Don & Janet Beasley Chapter 13: Dreams This week Don and I invite you to dream with us, to dream about the places you'd love to experience from the nose of  your  kayak. But be forewarned...once you start dreaming, it's hard to stop!  The sky's the limit when it comes to adventure. Now days, Don and I prefer kayaking the smooth calm waters rather than white water. In our younger years we did a bit of white water rafting and thoroughly enjoyed it. If we would have taken up kayaking in our 20's we would probably have been Eskimo rolling our way down big white water, sailing through class 5+ rapids, going over falls, and spending our days in wet suits while camping and feasting on s'mores. But just because we are approaching retirement age, and like to take life a bit easier these days, that doesn't mean we don't like to dream. Below is a selection of some of our favorite kayaking videos we enjoy watching and dreaming about the pl...

From the Nose of Our Kayak Don & Janet Beasley Chapter 12: "It's Not a Crime to Test Paddle a Yak" One day in May 2011 Don and I decided to do something off the cuff. We had been hearing about fiberglass kayaks and wanted to see (and feel) the difference for ourselves. So it was off to the gulf coast of Florida we went.  We decided to make it a day trip and enjoy our time seeing sights we don't normally see both to and from our destination. We love taking the back roads and getting "lost" in the moment of some of the most scenic roads on the planet. We arrived and were elated to find 2 fiberglass kayaks we could test paddle. We can't describe the excitement we had doing a lot of "firsts" on this trip. Our first first was entering a kayak from a dock. We had always entered at the edge of the water, so learning the entry from a dock was really quite cool!  The best way to describe a couple of kayak entry methods, including a dock entry, is to...

From the Nose of Our Kayak Don & Janet Beasley Chapter 10: Canoe vs. Kayak Being December in Florida brings some of the most beautiful weather in the nation. Nice cool, comfortable temperatures mixed with plenty of sunshine and bright blue skies. December, like November, is a continuation of an autumn feel in the air.  Believe it or not, we dashed back to Rock Springs Run for one more run in 2010, and our visiting went family with us. At the time we didn't have but only one tandem kayak at the house in Florida, that being the Wilderness Systems T145 "Mean Greenie" as we like to call it. That meant we needed to rent a vessel for our guests. The rental house didn't have any kayaks available at the time, so our company decided it was fine with them to tackle the river in a canoe.  Even though a canoe and a kayak are similar, you'll find some differences. For starters each one has its own "look" about it. A canoe has an open bow and aft, meaning the fron...