We sat in the back of the school bus listening to the young ones rattling on about all things young. With just under an hour of our journey left to reach our destination, we popped open a can of beer each as we figured we would last the distance without having to ask for a pit-stop.
It was an early start for us, meeting the Jax Fray group at 8am, not knowing what to expect on the organised day trip out. Garrett put us totally at ease when we arrived at the bus pick-up place and told us about the Fray social club and all the different events we could sign up for; softball, volleyball, kickball, basketball, anything else with a ball, darts, cornhole, cross country.... we were spoilt for choice with the variety of leagues to join and most importantly, they were for adults, with no experience. Perfect way for us to meet new people and have fun learning a new sport at the same time. Ginnie Springs day trip was our first outing with them and when Garreth said there were a couple of others in our age group, along with mostly 20's / early 30 year olds, we relaxed a little.
The rain was torrential on the way there but when we arrived it began to clear up and the sun shone brightly as we walked with our tubes to the pavilion where the Fray group would be set up for the day. We glanced around and noticed that Garrett seemingly had included us in the "couple of people" in our age group, but, not to be outdone by the young ones, we popped open more beer and packed a few to carry with us on our tubing experience down the river.
Ginnie Springs ~ "A slice of pure Florida".
Picture yourself floating lazily downstream on a big blow up tube in the aquamarine, crystal clear waters of the Sante Fe river shimmering in the Florida sunshine, beer in one hand, camera in the other.
Someone mentions alligators; your eyes widen and you realise your fu$ker of a husband is gradually floating away from you. So you drop the camera, paddle one handed getting nowhere, yelling for fu$ker to come back, realising he is just saving himself. Finally I was able to grab his big toe, pull him close so at least the alligators would have a choice on the menu, hold on tight and pop another beer. The young ones at the back of the bus were floating nearby and they called us over to hook up with them. Appetisers, mains and desserts for the alligators sounded appealing to me so we linked tubes and shared our beers. Floating happily down the river again, chatting to the young ones, telling life experiences, learning new lingo, places to see, things to do etc in Jacksonville and realising that age is just a number when we stopped off to jump in to the alligator and turtle infested river from the swing rope. An hour or so later we exited the tube experience. I laughed so hard at fu$ker trying to get off the tube that my sides hurt. He went under several times, I laughed. He held his beer up, trying not to lose it, he went under again, yet still I laughed. He held a hand out for me, taking big gulps of water, yet I continued to laugh. The young ones helped him out, minus a shoe, but no major injuries and the beer intact.
But seriously, we saw no gators, lots of turtles, made friends, watched volleyball and other games, ate the lunch and drank the beer provided by the Jax Fray club and hopped back on the school bus totally happy and relaxed after an amazing, fun day out.
We made a pit-stop on the way home, grabbed more beers for the return trip to the starting place and as the school bus came to a halt, we looked around at everyone waking up from their slumbering snoozes.....
Heck, we were the young ones after all!
