Everglades Challenge 2013

This morning I kissed Debra goodby with tears as she left for work and I left for Florida. In 11 days she will fly down along with Emily and the grandchildren to cheer us into Key Largo...or if the weather is good we may beat them there.  I had a great day of traveling with great weather, no traffic and a great book on my iphone.  DEEP SURVIVAL by Laurence Gonzales.   I'm planning to get to St. Petersburg tomorrow and take Wednesday to spend some time paddling since I haven't been in my kayak since the 2nd week of January.  I will be camping at Fort DeSoto State Park  which has one of the most beautiful beaches in the US. Great campground too with very large ratcoons who like to steal your food.
With all of our boats and gear unloaded there I will drive my car on Thursday to Key Largo, rent a Budget car and drive back with a few other paddlers. On Friday morning Ben will fly in and we'll get our boats and gear down to the beach and all loaded up. We begin at 7:00 a.m. on Saturday morning.

If you would like to track us there are two ways you can do it. One is to go directly to my SPOT tracking page. If you press HERE this will take you right to the link.

If you want to see all of the boats or where we are related to the others you can go to the WATERTRIBE web page.  Once there click on the "Tracking Map". The you need to go to the category of "Challenger". My paddling name there is  "PassaicPaddler". If you click on my name then you need to click on "regenerate view". Ben's paddling name is "Macatawa".  Please keep us in your prayers for safe travel and paddling. I like to think of Psalm 23 that "He leads me beside quite water, He restores my soul."  

Here is an ancient Celtic Prayer that you could pray for us as well.

Deep peace of the running wave to you,

of water flowing, rising and fallin,

sometimes advancing, sometimes receding....

May the stream of your life flow unimpeded;

Deep peace of the running wave to you!

Deep peace of the flowing air to you, 

which fans your face on a sultry day,

the air which you breathe deeply, rhythmically,

which imparts to you energy, consciousness, life.

Deep peace of the flowing air to you.

Deep peace of the quiet earth to you, who, herself unmoving

harbors the movements

and facilitates the life of the ten thousand creatures,

while resting contented stable, tranquil.

Deep peace of the quiet earth to you.

Deep peace of the shining stars to you,

which stay invisible till darkness falls,

and disclose their pure and shining presence,

beaming down in compassion on our turning world.

Deep peace of the shining stars to you.