RockChalk44: Back to Jacksonville

We made it back to Jacksonville after an 8 day cruise up (south) the St. John River and back. It is really an impressive river, especially in the upper reaches where it becomes a small stream with the banks covered with cypress trees and Spanish Moss. As I mentioned Roger and Carla are big "birding" fans. They were able to spot and identify 24 different types of birds on one island alone. We are still laughing about the baby crocodile we saw and wondering how close we were to being attacked by the protective mother. We were going to sacrifice Shelley and Roger, as they were sitting in the front of the boat.

Roger and Carla left this morning to do some camping in Florida and then head to Texas where they will meet some friends on an island east of Galveston for more "birding". Rock Chalk is all clean and ready to start on the next leg of our journey up the east coast to the Chesapeake Bay. We need to be in Norfolk by May 5th for the America Great Loop Cruisers Association rendezvous. From there we will move on north to New York City by June 7th, where our grandsons', Max and Leo will join us for a month or so.

So we are busy and still hoping for warmer weather. These cold fronts keep pushing down from the north and drops the temperatures into the 60's or low 70's in northern Florida. We heard that it finally rained in Austin and Central Texas. Hopefully that will fill Lake Travis some. Much is happening on the home front, with my sister Gayle and Mark Rolland moving to their new home this week. Mark conveniently broke his wrist this week so he would not have to lift heavy boxes during the move. Good strategy Mark. Actually he is having surgery Monday to fix his wrist and will be in alot of pain and a cast for weeks. Sorry Mark.

Here are some last photos of the St. John's River. Really a beautiful river.