{"id":1540,"date":"2013-10-11T21:43:02","date_gmt":"2013-10-12T02:43:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.leucht.com\/blog\/?p=1540"},"modified":"2015-06-14T19:47:11","modified_gmt":"2015-06-15T00:47:11","slug":"my-unexpected-but-fully-paid-vacation-day-9","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.leucht.com\/blog\/2013\/10\/my-unexpected-but-fully-paid-vacation-day-9\/","title":{"rendered":"My unexpected (but fully paid) vacation: Day 9"},"content":{"rendered":"

This is my little digital journal from the government shutdown. \u00a0Today is day 9 (Friday Oct 11th), not counting the weekend. \u00a0Click here to see all of my government shutdown journal entries.<\/a><\/p>\n

Today I got up at 7am because I wanted to get canoeing pretty early. \u00a0I could have set my alarm to get up before sunrise, but I’m on vacation so I just got up whenever I woke up today. \u00a0I checked Facebook real quick and then ate some breakfast burgers, since they make for a pretty quick meal.<\/p>\n

Then I drove about 30 minutes to Pine Island Conservation Area<\/a>. \u00a0Here it is on Google Maps<\/a>. \u00a0My original NASA boss, Gary, told me about this place many many years ago and I’ve been wanting to check it out and have just never made the time. \u00a0This government shutdown is allowing me to do all sorts of stuff that I’ve been meaning to do, though.<\/p>\n

There was a map station at the entrance and according to the map there were two separate canoe trails. \u00a0A 2.3 mile loop run and a 3.0 mile run. \u00a0The loop was obvious on the map, but the 3 mile run was not completely obvious to me at the time. \u00a0After studying it later at home, I’m fairly certain that the 3 mile run and the 2.3 mile loop overlap on the Indian River<\/a> side.<\/p>\n

I started on the south side of the sanctuary at the start of the 3 mile run. \u00a0My thinking was that I would quit after the 3 mile run run if I was tired. \u00a0My problem was that I actually started in a lake next to the run instead of starting in the run. \u00a0I didn’t actually realize that I was in the lake till I got to the opposite end and noticed that it didn’t take a sharp right turn as the map showed. \u00a0Oops. \u00a0No harm, though. \u00a0It was a nice warm up run. \u00a0The lake was dead calm. \u00a0This photo was taken on the lake at about 9:30am.<\/p>\n

\"pine-island-canoeing-1-selfie\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Had I used my GPS app on my phone and zoomed out a bit, it would have been obvious that I was not in the correct body of water. \u00a0But I didn’t do that. \u00a0Oh well. \u00a0Lesson learned. \u00a0So after I took my tour of the south lake, I got my canoe put in at the start of the 3 mile run and immediately started encountering manatees. \u00a0Huge manatees. \u00a0Manatees in large groups, no less. \u00a0I did my best to avoid them, but these things had no respect for my personal space. \u00a0They acted like they owned the place. \u00a0\ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

I didn’t see more than a couple jumping fish and some birds in the south lake, but in this canal there were tons of wildlife. \u00a0I saw alligators, manatees, ospreys, large cranes, and even a bald eagle. \u00a0As soon as I got out into the Indian River, there were tons of fish running in schools and lots of fish jumping out of the water. \u00a0This is a fisherman’s paradise. \u00a0I, however, am not a fisherman.<\/p>\n

The breeze was starting to pick up and work against me while I was traveling north on the Indian River, but I stayed close to the shore where the breeze was minimal. \u00a0By the time I got up into the north part of the sanctuary and at the start of the 2.3 mile loop, the breeze was calm and I felt pretty good so I kept going. \u00a0I hadn’t really been paddling very hard. \u00a0I was just taking a nice leisurely pace.<\/p>\n

The north part of the sanctuary has multiple marsh ponds connected by small channels. \u00a0There was one spot where I wasn’t even sure I was going to fit my canoe through. \u00a0This is a great way to see natural Florida marshland. \u00a0This is probably the same landscape that the first settlers saw way back when.<\/p>\n

The largest pond at the north end of the sanctuary was a bit of a challenge since the wind was working against me. \u00a0I was travelling north and the wind was pushing south. \u00a0But I knew as soon as I turned around the northern border, I would be travelling south on the Indian River with the wind at my back, so I pressed on.<\/p>\n

So after making the turn around and ending back in the Indian River travelling south, I was expecting the wind to push me south and I was planning on just lazily riding it home. \u00a0But apparently the wind died just as I arrived. \u00a0It was dead calm. \u00a0I don’t believe this happens on the Indian River very often. \u00a0It was pretty weird. \u00a0The glassy smooth water did allow me to see lots of fish, though.<\/p>\n

My rear was starting to hurt from sitting in the canoe, so I stood up and paddled and I could see even more fish. \u00a0I know stand up paddle-boarding is a popular activity these days, but is stand up canoeing also a thing? \u00a0Did I just start a stand up canoeing thing?<\/p>\n

You can see a fish in mid-air in the photo below. \u00a0You can also see that I’m in about 1.5 feet of water. \u00a0The lakes and canals in this area are fairly deep, but the Indian River is very shallow unless you are out in the middle where the boat channel is located.<\/p>\n

\"pine-island-canoeing-2-jumping-fish\"<\/a><\/p>\n

In this glassy smooth water, I also saw some dolphins feeding. \u00a0I didn’t get close enough to them to get a good photo, though. \u00a0I saw some small stingrays in the Indian River too. \u00a0Here is a photo I took of a small stingray resting on the bottom.<\/p>\n

\"pine-island-canoeing-3-stingray\"<\/a><\/p>\n

So when it was all said and done, I actually ended up canoeing on both trails, plus repeating a large portion of the 3 mile run, plus a lake. \u00a0By my estimate, I canoed 7 miles or more today. \u00a0I started a little after 9am and finished a little after 4pm, so I was out on the water for 7 total hours. \u00a0It was a long day, but I was not paddling hard during any of my day. \u00a0Most of the time I was just taking it easy and paddling gently. \u00a0Although, that being said, I’m sure my shoulders and back muscles are going to be killing me tomorrow.<\/p>\n

The weather today was really nice. \u00a0The high temperature was 85, I think. \u00a0It was mostly sunny all day long. \u00a0I think I applied SPF 50 sunblock three separate times today. \u00a0I think I got a bit of sun on the back of my neck, though, because the last time I applied it was sweaty and I don’t think it took very well.<\/p>\n

Here is a Google map of the Pine Island Conservation Area marked up showing my path today. \u00a0This is not a GPS trail … I did not use my GPS today because I wasn’t sure the battery in my phone would last that long and I wanted to make sure my phone was available for emergencies. \u00a0This is just a satellite image that I manually marked up with my path. \u00a0Click on the image for a full size version.<\/p>\n

\"Kurts-pine-island-route\"<\/a><\/p>\n

So that was basically my entire day today. \u00a0Afterwards, I stopped for some ice cream. \u00a0Then I got home and rinsed off all the canoeing stuff, then I took a shower and ate a grilled swiss cheese sandwich. \u00a0Then I relaxed on the couch for a bit and now I’m writing this blog post.<\/p>\n

It’s sorta funny that sitting at the table typing into my computer, I still feel like I’m standing in my canoe and it is gently rocking back and forth. \u00a0It’s just a bit dizzying. \u00a0I wonder how long it will take to wear off. \u00a0I wonder if it will impact me getting to sleep tonight. \u00a0I’m about to find out because it’s 10:30pm and I’ve had a long day in the sun, so I’m going to bed now.<\/p>\n

So that was day nine of my unplanned furlough slash vacation. \u00a0My to-do list had 21 items on it last night when I went to bed. \u00a0Tonight it now has 20 items on it. \u00a0I’ll take it.<\/p>\n

What will Monday hold for this furloughed government employee? Stay tuned! \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

Kurt<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is my little digital journal from the government shutdown. \u00a0Today is day 9 (Friday Oct 11th), not counting the weekend. \u00a0Click here to see all of my government shutdown journal entries. Today I got up at 7am because I wanted to get canoeing pretty early. \u00a0I could have set my alarm to get up […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[110,111,108],"tags":[488,486,487,36,485,40],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.leucht.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1540"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.leucht.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.leucht.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.leucht.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.leucht.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1540"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/www.leucht.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1540\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2147,"href":"https:\/\/www.leucht.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1540\/revisions\/2147"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.leucht.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1540"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.leucht.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1540"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.leucht.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1540"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}