Landing on the Moon

In mid-December we headed for a rendezvous with the Florida Chapter of RVing women at Rainbow Springs State Park. On our second day there we joined a small group of women to kayak the Rainbow River from the campground to the headwaters. 

To say that our previous kayaking experience was minimal might be an overstatement, so it was not without some trepidation (never mind that the water was only about six feet deep in most parts of the river) that we climbed aboard a double kayak with the help and encouragement of Fran and Donna, experienced Floridian RVers and kayakers. 

Afloat in Rainbow Springs, Florida

The Rainbow River is formed by a voluminous spring (Rainbow Springs) and is a is a protected ecological site, recognized for human activities for thousands of years. As we paddled upriver we could see the change in the water color that revealed many smaller springs that come out of numerous caves and rock crevices at the bottom of the river. It is breathtakingly beautiful and we loved paddling by the many birds, turtles and native plants that looked suspiciously like house plants we sold at our garage sale when we left Friday Harbor.

Indian River Lagoon at Twilight Launch (Yes, that's Venus)

With that success under our belts, we ventured further into our kayaking education a few days later on Merritt Island, home of the Kennedy Space Center and the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge. Janna was aghast when Liz scheduled a kayak tour IN THE DARK to experience the luminescence of the numerous comb jellies in the mangrove swamps. So we were a bit fearful as off we went just as the sun was setting over the Indian River Lagoon, (never mind that the water was only about two feet deep in most of the lagoon.) In spite of many mosquitoes and being scared by an alligator (that we couldn’t quite see in the dark,) it was a wonderful experience, highlighted by the rising of a full moon toward the end of the trip.

The next day we spent 8 hours at the Kennedy Space Center, learning about the first landing on the moon, the Hubbell space telescope, the International Space Station, the Space Shuttle, and much more. We were amazed to realize that only a few weeks before we had been at Kittyhawk learning about putting people into the air for the first time, and now we were learning about putting them on the moon which happened only 66 years later. 

Just a few weeks ago we thought we might just be too old to take up kayaking and now we have been out twice and watched the moon come up from our kayaks: truly a giant leap for Janna and Liz.