3rd Day Off

Today was a lovely, lazy day off.  I spent the whole day at home aside from one quick visit to the office after two or three calls from work.  I did get outside between rain showers to throw some discs down the driveway.  My throw is getting more consistent and I can throw over 100 feet with some reliability and have the occasional throw that reaches 170+ feet.  The usual length from tee to basket in disc golf is 300-500 feet.  I would like to be able to get up to a 200 foot throw.
I didn't take any photos today.  It was gray and cloudy all day.  Here is a fun misty shot from earlier this week.


Q and A for the day:
"Do you like fiction books that are set in State or National parks?"
I do.  Sadly, I don't read as much as I would like to.  I enjoy books that take place in an outdoor setting or in a park.  It makes it familiar to me.

"What is the funniest question ever asked by any Park visitor ?"
I get a lot of questions that seem funny to me, but are really perfectly reasonable if you don't have certain facts.  Our park brochure and web page both mention the Suwannee river and its the only river in our county.  I often get the question "What river is that?"  It surprises me, but its understandable if you were just driving by and saw the park sign and came in to check it out.  I have had several people ask me "how long has the spring been here?", implying that it was built, dug, or discovered at some point.  Some people find it hard to believe that the spring was likely here for mastodons and saber-toothed cats to drink from.  Sturgeon questions make me chuckle too.  Sturgeon are giant (up to 400 lbs fish) that come to the Suwannee from the Gulf to spawn in the summertime.  The Sturgeon jump out of the water occasionally.  Just like the Mullet, there are theories as to why they jump, but nothing is proven.  Because they are giant fish and they jump out of the water, sometimes there are collisions with Sturgeon and boaters.  Advertising attempts to caution boaters to slow down and be aware have sent some people into a scared frenzy.  I have spoken to people who asked me "Do the Sturgeon really attack people?"  One couple would not venture anywhere near the riverbank in fear of Sturgeon.  Some questions are hard to answer nicely like "Where are the manatee?  We want to ride one."  I really got that one, and it came after a discussion where I had to explain to them in detail how I knew that they didn't pay because they were the first and only people in the park and I was holding their empty payment envelope and the number on the envelope matched the number on the tag hanging in their car.
I think the funniest question or reaction that I have gotten though was when I worked at Ichetucknee.  A local boy around 17 or 18 came up to me after swimming in the Blue Hole Spring.  He was disturbed by the plant life in the water and assumed that it shouldn't be there.  He asked me when we (meaning the park) would get rid of it.  I was in the process of explaining that the Eel Grass was a native plant that we encouraged to grow.  When he heard the name of the plant, he stopped me and shouted "there are eels in that water!?"  I assured him that the grass was named for its appearance, not for actual eels.   At that point, he was done talking to me about anything living in the water.  I will never forget that reaction to the thought of having swam with eels.