" I feel like going surfing in a hurricane"

Greetings y'all :

I'd like to thank Jimmy Buffet for the title if today's daily letter to the works. It happened to be the song we listened to last night as we drove with the top down through the fierce storms that swept over us on the way home from our Friday night adventure . 

By now y'all know our favorite spot is ORNC. And one of our fave spots at ORNC is the lake. Last night was the spring moonlight canoe adventure . Ok so it was cloudy and sans  moonlight. Somehow it was still beautiful and magical. Quite an interesting perspective and adventure.   First I must commend the staff for being outstanding hosts. Melissa an Dave were stellar. Very congenial, flexible and knowledgable. Well done! 

We first had to dodge the tadpoles at the lakes edge. FYI they are really getting big now . We've watched them develop since they were eggs. The woods are becoming more dense each day. Kinda reminds us that time marches on or as John Lennon sang " life is what happens when you're busy making other plans"

Junior Mint was a strong paddler and and excellent look out. He kept us away from the alligators* . When we turned to admire the lake God flipped the light  switch on and started playing on his timpani. Time to evacuate the lake. Shortly there after , while we portaged the canoes back to the canoe rack it started to drizzle. End of story ? No ! there is s'more !

Some folks left but those who remained and endured a brief light rain got to watch Junior Mint and his pa dig a fire pit in the sand . The staff then lit the camp fire and we all commiserated over s'mores. The end .... or not ??

Well since we weren't camping there we did have to drive home. Top down, singing our hearts our to Jimmy Buffet and enjoying life but mostly enjoying each other. The thunder and lightening in the distant was amazing . We finally realized we were closing the gap and the light rain felt good. The medium rain felt good. The heavy rain was a bit dodgy, considering the road was dark and twisty all we saw was lightening flash across the sky an thunder rolling . Right on cue "Hurricane" came on and we sang louder than ever . Yes once we found a safe place we stopped and closed up the roof. We arrived home wet and happy. 

I admit through the time at ORNC I would stop and just look at Junior Mint. Just absorb the contours of his face, his posture,  who he is. Love that kid. He stepped back and let other kids go first, be right and decided he and the other kids should all help extinguish the campfire together. He wanted them all to learn from and experience it. That's big because it was a job they gave to him as a solo project. Teamwork  my lad , teamwork.

I'd say it was an excellent day. We got exercise. Learned about  biology,physics and chemistry. Even helped a stray black Lab. If y'all know anything about a missing lab in that area please let me know . 

Thanks for reading again today folks. 

* The last time we went canoeing was in Florida on a river with several alligators.