Florida or bust!

DelawareJim · Post by **DelawareJim** » Tue May 08, 2007 12:22 pm

I'm out.

We're hosting my parents 50th wedding anniversary, and I need to save for ECS.

Cheers.
Jim

mab · Post by **mab** » Wed May 09, 2007 9:43 am

By my count we have six -
Kris, Ghazanfar, Rodney, Michael, Sean and George (our cichlid expert).

Do we all want to pile into my Honda Odyssey mini-van with the roof rack loaded or do we opt for two vehicles? George has offered his small pick-up as a second vehicle - it would provide space for our driftwood haul!

Is it safe to assume that we will divide up the cost of gas? That's what I'd prefer - I'll just fill the tank(s) as we go and then divide the cost by six once we return.

I have a mini-refrig for the van to keep our "water" cool. It runs off a cigarette adapter and then can go into our hotel room to run off AC.

I have two dipnets, two collecting buckets and one battery operated air-pump. George has another dipnet and various collecting buckets. (Just starting an on-line inverntory of our gear).

Mike

Ghazanfar Ghori · Post by **Ghazanfar Ghori** » Wed May 09, 2007 9:59 am

Doesn't sound like Sean is planning on coming along - Sean - are you in or what!

Appreciate the offer on the minivan and George's pickup - very generous of you
two. I think we should have two vehicles, esp if we're planning on hauling
back fish - coolers take up a fair bit of space.

I have a dip net and medium sized cooler and 2-3 5G buckets w/ lids
I can bring along.

If you guys have snorkeling gear - bring that with you.
Other items
Bug repellent and SPF10,000

Kris - don't think we need to haul two cameras down there. If you're planning
on taking yours, I'll leave mine at home.

Post by **krisw** » Wed May 09, 2007 11:21 am

Yeah, I think the two vehicles idea is just fine. And I don't mind splitting the gas, or even paying for the gas entirely between the non-vehicle owners.

I can bring my camera along, again, good practice for Peru. I don't have an underwater housing, however, for snorkeling, so if anyone has one of those, that might be fun. I also have a couple 5G buckets with lids, a medium sized coolor, but unfortunately, no dip nets.

What kinds of shoes/boots/etc do you guys recommend?

Aaron · Post by **Aaron** » Wed May 09, 2007 11:25 am

Someone can borrow my wader boots if they need to. Size 10. They go all the way up to your hips.

mab · Post by **mab** » Wed May 09, 2007 12:57 pm

Thanks for the reminder on cameras and snorkeling gear. I plan on using the river shoes that worked well for me in the Amazon. Cost $30. Here is a link to the one's I purchased http://www.sportsmansguide.com/cb/cb.asp?a=260789 - they even have another brand that costs $20.

Don't forget a good wide brimmed hat. Here's the one I bought from the same place - http://www.sportsmansguide.com/cb/cb.asp?a=181569. They have others.

rodcon00 · Post by **rodcon00** » Wed May 09, 2007 3:41 pm

I am willing to drive my Xterra for the trip. It can hold three comfortably including the collecting equipment.

I will bring along a compact digital camera (Sony DSC-W7 7.2MP) and underwater housing. I may have an additional digital camera and housing by the time of the trip (provided a digital camera is actually released on its current release date). I will also have a small hand held 2MP snorkeling digital camera available for anyone who wants to use it.

I will also recommend the use of a couple of large sweater boxes for us to sort through the stuff picked up by the dip nets. I'll bring a large cooler, some smaller hand nets and an assortment of different sized fish/plant bags.

Should we bring along some larger collecting gear (think rod and reel)?

Ghazanfar Ghori · Post by **Ghazanfar Ghori** » Wed May 09, 2007 4:14 pm

I can bring my light tackle - sure. Let's reel in some of those larger cichlids!

DelawareJim · Post by **DelawareJim** » Fri May 11, 2007 7:45 am

Don't mean to be a spoiler here, but you might run into some delays or travel restrictions down there because of wildfires. I had a meeting with some folks in the Forest Service yesterday about the status of droughts around the country and was told Florida has had about 50 wildfires so far this year and eastern Georgia is catching up fast. 22 have been big enough to be named, meaning they are over 100 acres and required activation of the USDA Incident Management Team to coordinate responce activities. A couple temporarily closed I-95 and I-75 as fire crews were fighting them on both sides of the highway.

http://activefiremaps.fs.fed.us/lg_fire2.php

Jim

Ghazanfar Ghori · Post by **Ghazanfar Ghori** » Fri May 11, 2007 7:55 am

They've got plenty o time to put those out.

Florida or bust!

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