Kayaking two days before Christmas. Only in Florida.

My arms are killing me. Me and Brad decided at 2:00 that we would go kayaking to the cape today. We figured it gets dark at six so if leave by about 3:30 we should be okay. I hurried to get some last minute Christmas shopping done then left T-Ville to head to the Cape where I would drop my truck off to pick up later. Brad met me and we headed to his house to set out on our ten mile paddle. His parents quizzed us on where we were going and how long it would take us cause they were worried about it being dark and us being out in the middle of the river. We left his house at about three thirty and made pretty good time getting from there to the 528 bridge over the Indian river. As we were going under we looked at the clock and decided we had been out for about 20 minutes. "If we keep this pace I think we'll make it in plenty of time." After the bridge the water got really calm and it was easy going, there was a slight northwest wind but since we had the land to the south of us the water wasn't choppy at all. I almost felt disappointed because i had wanted it to be a hard trip, 10 miles is as far as I've gone before in a Kayak, its no easy task. On our way through the barge canal we passed a sailboat going the same direction as us, I was feeling great, if we were passing boas we were definitely making good time. I turned around in my seat and could still see a little of the sun through the tree tops, that was good since the horizon must be well below those trees that are right in front of me. We went under the draw bridge and the sailboat had to stop and wait on the bridge to open. on our way past the marina we saw some really cool looking old shacks that we'll have to make another trip to explore later. About ten minutes later we were surprised by the sailboat passing us, I wondered if we had slowed down but there was really no way to tell. My fingers were getting really stiff on the paddle. it hurt to move them out of their curled position. I also had to reposition my hands because of a rising blister on my thumb. Brad was in the slower kayak and behind me a little bit so I looked to see if he was keeping up okay, we had agreed that we would switch kayaks at some point so that one of us wouldn't get worn out way before we got to our destination. I couldn't see the sun anymore but we were passing the second marina and I Could see the cruise ships in the distance, so I wasn't to worried. Brad wasn't ready to trade yet and that was fine with me since my arms had just begun to burn a little. He said that his arms were definitely going to be sore so I assumed that he must be working a lot harder with the slower kayak. We switched not long after that and noticed another interesting thing that we would have to come back later to explore, an old VW bus was sitting in the brush abandoned near the canal. We were finally into the Banana River now and I could see the sun again, reassuring me that we still had enough time to get to the other side of the locks and into the main channel at the cape. As we drew near the locks I was telling Brad about my past experiences going through it, the operator almost always had something to say to me about being safe or that I was doing something wrong. I think he just didn't like running a lock just to let some kayakers through. We waited outside the doors anxiously, they didn't open right away. We watched some manatees and dophins that were playing nearby. The other three times I had been through here I hadn't had to wait, it had been day time and there were lots of other boats coming and going through the lock, but now it was about 6:00 and the boat traffic was almost gone. Finally it opened after about 20 minutes of waiting. A boat came out and I started in, the operator leaned on the rail staring down at me, next to him stood a sheriff. He yelled at us because we had come in to soon and then told us we needed to wear our life jackets which we had strapped to the back of the kayaks since it was such a calm day. Okay whatever we put our life jackets on and waited on the doors to close. The sun was fading fast, and i was worried now because it was 6:20 and after the lock the next place to get out was where we had parked. at this point there was not turning back and calling someone to bail us out, we had to go the whole way. form the locks to Grills it was about 1 mile, alot more than me or Brad had expected. The rest we had given our arms while waiting on the locks was really hurting me now and I couldn't wait to be done and get out of this place. By the time we were passing the Sun Cruz Casino it was completely dark, if it hadn't been for the lights form the restaurants that line the water front we probably would have had a lot of trouble finding the place where I parked my truck.Finally we pulled up to the boat ramp beside Grills and pulled ourselves and our kayaks out of the water. As i stood my legs cramped and i bent over because my back was stiff. I stumbled away to get the truck and Brad took apart the paddles and got ready to load up. We made it, but learned some lessons that will probably help next time, 1. don't leave on a kayak trip right before sunset, 2. put your life jacket on before you get to the lock, and 3. (this is just for me) dont start out in the easy kayak.

BeggarTown

Beggartown is a non-profit organization started by some college students from my church.

Their main purpose is to be a ministry that shares the Gospel and raises money for missions at the same time. Patrick Maguire and Zach Dodd, both former "Firehouse Band" members, came up with the idea for the organization. Tonight they were at Firehouse selling t-shirts and CD's of their band (BeggarTown). Right now they are raising money to help build an orphanage in Uganda Africa. Both Patrick and Zach had to quit their jobs to basically become missionary's. The form that their ministry takes and the way they present it is very cool.
Check it out for yourself: http://beggartown.org/ http://www.zachdodd.com/