Just go ahead and jump in!

I'm going to use this blog to record the exciting adventures of Bill and Susan and their transformation from Chicago "flat lander" workaholics to Florida retirees about to learn a completely new and foreign lifestyle - in spite of their advancing years. Bill, 62, and Susie, my trophy wife, have decided to jump right in. Never fished, never boated. So we bought our first fishing rod, $20, and it even came with some tackle! Learned how to cast this morning, after I figured out how the spinner reel worked and how to tie the little rubber wormy thing to the line. Actually, I didn't do too bad. Only got the line tangled a couple of times and managed to catch lots of seaweed. But I finished fishing without losing the lure, so I figure that's pretty good. Maybe one day I'll actually get a fish on the hook.

We picked up an inflatable kayak/pontoon/catamaran type boat to take up and down the canals behind our house and maybe take out to the local river and streams. We both love nature, so we're looking forward to that. We bought this model, the Sea Eagle Paddleski, because it will accommodate a small motor, which we also picked up, just in case we get tired of paddling, or we want to cross a larger body of water. So we received the boat and the first thing I wanted to do was put it into the pool and see how hard it would be to re-board it if either of us accidentally fell off. Should have had a video of that. Found out its not easy at all to climb back in over those pontoons. So we went and bought a small rope kind of ladder and we'll try that tomorrow in the pool. Sure glad we tried that in the pool before we went out on the big water. Now we know what to expect. I guess my years as an Army Safety Officer have made me somewhat cautious. I hate to see us kill ourselves on our first voyage.