hey sweetpea,

i will keep this short! I think of you often, but the
last six weeks have been on again/off again vacation.
I went to detroit area, henry ford museum. then to
mackinaw island, very cool, island has no motorized
vechiles, everything horsedrawn. think it's on lake
michigan.

then to metropolis illinois, home of superman!!!!

My life is going good(for me anyway) I'm back in
church full time but may switch back to catholic, you
never know.

Here's what I've learned from your updates. You did
winter and summer backwards. where you got frostbite
you should have been paddling in florida, and now that
it's hotter than hell you should be paddling where you
got frostbite.

Also watch out for those sharks. especially if one of
the hurricanes lifts a shark or gator and drops it in
your canoe.

I know you must be talking with God daily on your
journeys. Here's one I would suggest you tell HIM,
Lord increase my odds from 50/50 to 99/1 or better
yet, just think of this as a tempest in a teapot!

If you're not writing a book of this you really need
to do so and at the same time and I'm not kidding sell
the rights/screenplay to either disney, dreamworks,or
one of the other pixar like companies. you
should/would then be set for life.

God Bless you and keep you!

Your friend in Christ,

Katie!

--- John latecki <john@...> wrote:

>
> This update is coming from the small town of Lanark
> Village, FL
> located on the Florida panhandle about 45 miles
> south of
> Tallahassee. Please excuse the poor grammar and
> misspelled words
> because I am writing this fast. The most pressing
> situation
> currently is the looming Hurricane Dennis heading
> into the Gulf of
> Mexico. The track of Dennis as of Thursday July 7th
> ranges from
> Louisiana to the Florida panhandle. A few minutes
> ago I heard on CNN
> that tourists are being ordered to leave the Florida
> Keys.
>
> The paddle from Sarasota to Lanark Village was like
> nothing I ever
> experienced before. It was business as usual
> paddling from Sarasota
> to North of Tampa, and then it all changed. The
> water was very
> shallow even several miles from shore. Near Inglis,
> FL I was
> paddling about three miles from shore and the water
> was very
> shallow. The tide was going out and soon the water
> got so shallow I
> could hardly paddle and then all the water was gone
> and I was stuck
> in the mud. The tide would not be coming back in for
> a few more
> hours. It was impossible to walk in the mud without
> sinking up to my
> knees. It would not have been that big of a deal to
> wait for the
> tide to bring back the water except for the raging
> storm that was
> heading right for me. Normally during a storm I try
> to seek shelter
> along the shore off the water. My only option was to
> sit in my canoe
> and take the storm head on. Lightning streaked
> across the sky the
> thunder boomed and rattled the inside of my chest.
> Even when I
> closed my eyes I could see the bright flash of the
> lightning the
> rain came down with a driving pounding force that
> took my breath
> away until my body adjusted to the cold rain. I
> never would have
> believed it would be possible to be stuck in the mud
> several miles
> from shore off the Gulf of Mexico. With all the
> lightning and
> thundering crashing across the sky I wondered if
> this could be the
> real end. I was not scared of even little nervous,
> having been
> through so many storms and other weather conditions
> the odds are
> 50/50. If this would have happened during the first
> few months of
> this trip I would have been terrified. After
> spending many stormy
> days and nights shaking with fear you sort of get
> used to it. I
> always do my best to seek the safest situation and
> at that point it
> becomes out my hands. I spent the storm with my arms
> across my chest
> waiting for the storm to pass knowing there was
> nothing more I could
> do. It was a 50/50 chance, I was either going to get
> struck by
> lighting or I was not. Thankfully the lightning
> never did hit me.
>
> Finding dry land was very difficult through many
> stretches of
> western Florida. During one stretch I spent three
> and a half days in
> my canoe. At night I would pull my canoe into the
> grassy swamp in
> most cases there was enough mud to keep my canoe in
> pace and I could
> stand up and stretch my legs. Sleeping in my canoe
> on the water can
> sometimes be a challenge. Wind and the rising and
> lowering tides
> freed up my canoe a few times and I would wake up
> drifting aimlessly
> in the Gulf. Finding water and food was very
> difficult. Tows are
> set way up rivers and most of the time I am several
> miles offshore
> near small islands. I have seen many sharks
> patrolling the shallow
> waters in search of food. Some sharks are very
> large. So far the
> sharks have always swam away from my canoe There
> have been a couple
> of shark attacks recently here on the Gulf side of
> Florida. A 14-
> year-old girl was killed and a boy fishing in waist
> deep water lost
> his leg when they were attacked.
>
> The town of Cedar Key turned out to be an oasis
> from living in my
> canoe and the constant storms. My water was getting
> very low and my
> food supply was not to far behind when I reached
> Cedar Key. I
> expected Cedar Key to be only a state park hopefully
> with bathrooms
> so I could fill my water up. Cedar Key had a lot
> more than a state
> park bathroom. There was hotels, restaurants, seven
> eleven stores,
> banks, and a grocery store. Not to mention a marina,
> boat tours,
> three kayak rental places. I filled up on water and
> stocked up on
> food. Having a good supply of food and water has a
> way of boosting
> moral. I decided to celebrate with a beer before
> leaving Cedar Key.
> I stopped at the Island Hotel and Restaurant for my
> beer. Cedar Key
> is a friendly town; Charlene Lynn Watson was working
> the bar.
> Charlene is a true Florida girl her mother's side
> moved to Florida
> in the 1890s and it goes even further back on her
> father's side and
> of course being a true Florida, girl she is a cutie.
> Charlene told
> the owner Andy Bair about my canoe trip. Long story
> short Andy let
> me order anything off the menu (I ordered the thick
> island burger)
> paid for my beer, and let me stay in a room for
> free. The island
> hotel is the nicest hotel on the island. You can
> imagine how good it
> felt to sleep in a bed after all those days sleeping
> in my canoe. In
> fact the last time I slept in a bed before Andy
> hooked me up was
> when I met my father in everglade city over a month
> ago. I also got
> treated to breakfast in the fine dining restaurant
> of the hotel.
>
> The days in Florida are very hot and muggy. The sun
> beating down
> zaps energy. Sometimes I paddle late into the night
> to avoid the hot
> sun. The wind seems to be against me almost all the
> time. To
> complicate matter even worse my phone quit working.
> I had to find a
> payphone and make arrangements to get another phone
> and have it sent
> to my father and get him to find an address in an
> upcoming town to
> send the phone. When I paddled into Lanark Village I
> was down to my
> last few swallows of water. A strong wind kept my
> speed to less than
> 1 MPH. There was no chance to eat in the canoe. It
> was all I could
> do to set the paddle down long enough to scoop out
> some peanut
> butter. A small opening led back to a boat club. It
> was the first
> time in ten hours that I was able to set the paddle
> down and rest. A
> man and his two children were hanging out by the
> boat ramp and he
> asked me where I was headed and I told him my story.
> I went into the
> small store their ATM machine was not working. My
> main reason for
> stopping was to get water, but a sandwich and
> Gatorade would really
> hit the spot. The guy came up to me and gave me
> seven dollars and
> told me to get some food. I went back out to fill up
> my water jugs.
> Some guys in a bass boat came up took out while I
> was messing with
> my water jugs. The guy who gave me the money for the
> sandwich was
> talking with the boater and next thing I know the
> boater walks down
> to me and hands me $20.00 and says don't worry about
> it
=== message truncated ===




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