My Florida reunion trip began in Ithaca on Thursday, the 15th as I 
prepared to get to the airport and fly to Miami.  About 10 minutes
before I was going to leave I recieved a phone call from US Air to
let me know that my flight out of Ithaca was going to be delayed
an hour, but, not to worry, my connecting flight was delayed an
hour as well.  That's that kind of customer service that'll keep
me flying on US Airways (that and it's one of two airlines that fly
out of Ithaca).  As an extra bonus,  this trip will give me the
frequent fly milage necessary for a free trip.  I'm thinking Vancouver.

I had just enough time during at my stop in Philadelphia to call
Sandy and let her know that I wouldn't be arriving on time, but
an hour later at the ungodly hour of 1:35AM.  I only had to wait
15 minutes or so before she arrived to pick me up at the airport.
I was pretty easy to find as there wasn't anyone else standing
out in front of the airport with a beard and carrying a kayak
paddle with yellow blades.  We arrived at Sandy's place around
2:00am where I found a comfortable couch.

The next morning I met Hank.  I could tell right away that he
was going to be fun to paddle with and I was disappointed (and a
bit envious) that he was going to be kayak camping in the Everglades
the rest of the weekend.  I was also disappointed that he didn't
make it back Sunday night so that I could here his stories about
how the trip went.  After a wonderful breakfast prepared by Sandy's
lovely cousin Hank and I loaded boats and more food and gear
than anyone could possibly need for our day trip to the Oleta river.

The Oleta river trip was the perfect first day trip of someone that
hadn't paddled in nearly four months.  Sandy, Hank and I were 
joined by Marinel, her friend Dave (just his second day in a kayak),
and two other Paradise paddlers (the names are escaping me).  One
had a brand new Impex Serentity.  Sandy allowed me to paddle her Seda
Gypsy and I found it a delightful little boat.  We paddle amoung the
Mangrove trees and then out into Biscayne and to an island affectionately
known as "Beer Can Island" (not named for it's shape).  Despite the
numerous cigarette boats and fairly heavy powerboat traffic it
was a good spot for lunch.  Before landing I thought I'd give a try
at rolling Sandy's Gypsy.  No problems, I came up the first try.
At one point I noticed that Marinell's Old Town 120 didn't have float
bags in it and I commented on it.  She said that the material it was
made of would cause it to float but I suggested that we try swamping
and verify the manufacturers claims.  Sandy and I tipped it over and
it floated nice and high and was easy to turn over with several inches
of water in it.   Then we completely swamped it.  It took four of us
to drag it to shore and empty out all the water.  I hope the exercise
was enlightening.

After getting back to the put-in Sandy went off to get the car while
a few of us played around a bit in boats.  I got to try that Impex
Serenity. It was a nice boat and felt quite a bit narrower than the
advertised 23.5".  It was pretty tippy but had very good secondary,
especially on a deep sculling brace.  It was then we found out that
not only did Sandy have a flat tire, but Marinell's van had a flat
tire as well.  I thought it might have been an anti-paddlers conspiracy
but we discovered later that one of the flat tires was due to a broken
valve stem and the other from a nail.  As was the case for most of
the weekend we were running late when we headed to the airport to
pick up Bob and Joan Volin.  They were easy to find in their matching
Paddlewise t-shirts.