Alexander Springs, Florida
December 8-December 12, 2006

Logistics:

Places seen: I-95 from Dunn, NC down to somewhere in or past Jacksonville, Florida. Alexander Springs, Florida.

Restaurants: Ate a Quizno's sub on the way down for lunch. YUCK! Not good. It was a Prime Rib with cheese and the meat was very fatty. Then we ate mostly at camp (thank God Dave brought like, real food and stuff to cook). What did I take? If I'd been by myself I would have had to subsist on 4 Snickers bars and some Diet Coke and Water. On our last night there, Dave and I headed out to Natale's which is where all the locals (the park people) assured us of how great it was. Eh. It was alright but I'm pretty picky about my italian food. On the ride back up I had a subway tuna sub. and a donut for dessert.

Money: Since I rode down with Dave, my only real expense was half the gas (maybe $125 or something like that??) and half the fare for the campsite (total for the camping was $51 for three nights, two people.) Oh, and a $5 fee for me to enter as a dive student.

CAMP SITE PHOTOS:

The tent. I slept on the right hand side (if you are facing it.) We set it up in the dark and it was easy as pie to do so. I think it only took us 20 minutes to get it out and up AND it was dark out when we arrived. I'm not sure what kind of tent it is but it wasn't hard at all although I think it had a lot to do with the fact that David is way smarter than the average bear (me) and tested it out in the daylight before the trip.

Chilling at the camp Friday evening. The man on the left is Dave (my instructor), the guy on the right is someone Dave knows that came over to work on his Dive Master certs that he's getting through Dave. The funny thing about that guy? He used to be my Mom's boss about 10 years ago. SMALL world!!!

I am a big frozen goofball. Sitting back at camp on Friday evening. Freezing my butt off.

My intrepid instructor: Mr. Dave Waechter of Capital Scuba. Not only does the man know diving, the man knows how to camp!!! My meals did not suffer for the lack of electricity. He pulled out that little propane stove and whipped up all sorts of things like pancakes, sausage, eggs, mac and cheese, even melted special cheese to dip tortilla chips into one evening. I hadn't been tent camping since I was probably about 10 or younger and was a bit daunted by the whole thing but I have found that if you have the correct supplies, it's all good. I loved it.

What made it bearable (hah! no pun intended) (considering how chilly it was), was that he had a little squat propane tank that had a heating element that you attached to the top and we used that at the beginning of the night in the tent to get warm and the tent was huge, sleeps 7, and vented well and when I was sleeping in my sleeping bag (he had a queen size air mattress under his sleeping bag), I was toasty and warm and actually very comfortable.

RANDOM CAMPGROUND SHOTS:

I love this picture. Palms and Live Oaks in the campground.

I took this of myself (that's a bit obvious!) FREEZING down there. It was like 50 degrees or less at this time. Did I take appropriate clothing for the weather? Of COURSE not. So I had on like, 3 shirts and my two little hooded jackets. Did I mention it was COLD?

Allygators.

Parking lot in front of the concession area.

Shower and bathroom facilities near beach/concession area.

Bears. ACTIVE Bears.

I think it was the first night there, I walked to the restroom, which is about 100 feet or so from the camp one evening, in the dark, and saw when I got to the restrooms that the trash can had been tipped over and it's contents strewn over the ground. I grew up in PA. and have had a few run-ins with bears and seeing that? In the dark? It DID not make me a happy camper. When I came back out, I heard a bunch of leaves moving and some rustling going on in a little section of woods that I had to pass to get back to camp. I was freaking out a little bit, thinking that maybe it was a bear but it ended up being a cute little armadillo rooting around in the leaves looking for food. Thank GOD for that! I can handle an armadillo....bears freak me out. I am very happy to report that I didn't see not ONE bear. That's a good thing!!!

BEARS!!!

Live Oaks and other shrubbery down near the parking lot at the concession area of the park.

ALEXANDER SPRINGS SHOTS:

There are steps leading from the beach in the far corner...to the left of where the arrow ends for beach access, that go down into the water. Watch out for that last step as the water flows over it and it's slippery as hell and being my normal, graceful self, ended up slipping and almost busting my can but there is a hand railing there as well. Good for that!!!! At least I didn't have my BCD and tank on because there would have been no save on that one!

Another shot of the beach.

This taking a shot down the left side of the beach access. Love the spanish moss in the trees.

Dive area.

That's nice..... They post a sign telling scuba divers that they are not allowed to take any knives or objects of that nature on their dives. And then the sign right below it? ....They proceed to go into detail about the alligators that live there. Hah!!!

The visibility was great on our first day there (Friday). Because it was only 55 freaking DEGREES, there weren't many other people around. The following day, there were already about 10 or so divers already in the water when our group arrived and you could definitely tell because there were a ton more particles in the water and visibility was not quite as good as the day before being 80+. It was still very cool though.

There is only a small area where only divers are allowed. From the red buoys back isn't that big of an area. Where the water looks like it stops at the far end, there's actually a rope there that you aren't supposed to go beyond because it turns really marshy and the alligators all get together and have parties back there. We were told many times, do NOT GO past the rope. I don't think they appreciated it when I asked, "I don't plan on going past the rope but, why is it there?" heh. As soon as they told me about the alligators, I told them they should really have NO worries about me going beyond the rope.

DIVE PICTURES:

The best scuba instructor ever, getting our gear ready before the first dive.

I used Michael's DUI BCD (buoyancy control device) for my first dive (the gear I used is on this side of the picnic table) and I knew it may not work but I wanted to give it a shot. It's a very technical diving BCD and my level of experience just wasn't enough to deal with it and use it effectively.

So after the first dive when I had some issues with buoyancy and using the BCD, I switched out to another type, still not the jacket style BCD which I hated and used in my pool training sessions but not as difficult to use even though it was a technical back thing BCD. I think Dave called it a hybrid or something like that the other day.

Photo credit: Larry Barry

Yes. I know that my octopus is not secured to my side. Yes, I am aware that it's a bad thing. Yes, I plan on making sure it doesn't do that again. My only defense is that nobody had told me WHY (I had another instructor that didn't supply a lot of actual important information, before I switched over to Dave) I should always make sure it's connected to a little rubber gripper thing that is on the strap of my BCD. I know now for future reference.

Photo credit: Larry Barry

My hands are not supposed to be where they are at the point this photo was taken. They should be behind my back or clasped in front of me. You are NOT supposed to swim and use your hands.

I was still working on my buoyancy at this time and DID use my hands to keep from plopping down to the silt. It's still an exciting picture to have! I love it. The regulator looks like it's a might too big for my mouth and I did notice it would pull to the side but that may also have been happening because I wasn't biting down hard enough, all the time. I'd definitely like to invest in a regulator that I can get a fitted mouthpiece. I think that would help a lot.

The only pieces of equipment that I do own are my own mask, fins, booties, gloves and head covering. Basically, the cheapest components of diving gear. But I love my fins (I think they are Scuba Pro brand and my booties (also Scuba Pro), my Mask is a Genesis I think but it fits great and I love it. I need to get a snorkel to go with it and I definitely want one with a purge valve on it. My mask doesn't have a purge valve but that doesn't bother me, I don't normally have any problems clearing my mask when water gets in. And if you smile, water definitely gets in because it breaks the seal of the bottom part of the mask.

I know this because at one point I was working on my hovering and there was a vent behind me and I sort of didn't hover very well and floated over it and that sucker pushed me up and I fell over backwards on my back. Totally undignified but it cracked me up.

Photo credit: Larry Barry

That's my instructor Dave with his back to the camera and me in the front...I have no recollection of what I was doing at this point but it was some sort of exercise/test thing.

THE TIMUCUAN TRAIL:

Sign on the Timucuan Trail.

This totally reminds me of Jurassic Park or something. Very cool looking.

EATING OUT:

The only place that we actually sat down and ate something hot. In a place that had ELECTRICITY and HEAT!!!!

That little blip of light in the upper left corner is the space shuttle that launched on Saturday evening at approximately 8:47 PM. I saw the space shuttle in the sky!!!!!! Very cool. The building in the photo is the restroom facility nearest our camp site.

Going home. I think we're about to enter South Carolina here.

The Savannah River.

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