We have the wedding of my niece this coming Saturday. I have been asked to officiate the wedding. Having never done something like this before (gulp), I obtained my minister's ordination (blessed by the Internet) and have been busy preparing for the ceremony.
We moved to an RV park just outside of Jacksonville (Flamingo Lake). I'll post some pictures of the campground on my next entry.
Having some free time this morning, we donned our t-shirts and shorts and decided to hike the Little Talbot Island Dune Ridge Trail. The park was a short thirty-five minute drive from our campground. Pulling in we were greeted by a "seemingly" friendly park ranger who answered our questions, instructed us where to park and told us how to get to the trail head. It was later that we realized he left out one important piece of information..
Mosquitoes! Thousands of mosquitoes..
We didn't notice them in the parking lot, or the pleasant quarter mile stroll to the trail head, or even the first few minutes of the hike.. But they noticed us. Like the descending of violent storm cloud, they pounced. These blood-thirsty creatures tore at our flesh like a pack of voracious velociraptors. Not deterred by our swinging arms, they attacked again, and again, sending us running forward. The beautiful scenery, meant to be observed and savored, passed before us in a blur. Lorraine stumbled, as her sneaker came loose. "Leave it!" I yelled as I
ran past her. Disoriented by the loss of blood, she hesitated.. stooped down to tie it.. and was never seen again (just kidding, of course).
Puffing and panting we reached the point of the four mile hike that veers out of the woods and onto the beach.. (at least I think thats the direction the path was taking us. At this point in time, we would have climbed over rusty barbed-wire to get away from our vicious pursuers).
..And what a sight we saw. A long, lonely beach at low tide. Large pieces of bleached driftwood littered the shoreline. A misty haze had blown in making it seem like we were walking through a mystical, surreal jungle graveyard. This view alone was worth every bite, scratch and welt that covered our exposed flesh.
