7.19.26 Congaree, RFK, Minions

We arrive pretty early in the morning and head out to take our planned hike. We get to the entrance to the park and visitors center and we are absolutely surrounded by Golden Orb Weaver spiders. They are above us, next to us, in front of us, behind us, they have surrounded us completely and there is no way out. If you look up there are at least 10 — 15 above you ready to pounce down and feed on you. I tried to walk quickly and ignore them but Adam and Gideon kept pointing them out and taking pictures. I took a few deep breaths, reminded myself I had a walking stick I could smack them with and started walking.

We were warned that the mosquitos were BAD at this park, so we sprayed ourselves like crazy with bug spray before starting. Thankfully, there was only one mosquito incident and the rest of the hike was clear. Most of the walk was on a raised boardwalk through a beautiful forest with tons of gorgeous trees (and more spiders). There was beautiful shining lakes in the park and benches to sit at and enjoy the scenery. There weren't that many people visiting which was great so we had a lot of time to walk slow and enjoy the mushrooms, anoles, trees and birds. We did pass by RFK Jr. (the Health Secretary and worm in the brain guy). Or actually, he passed by us by loudly shouting ON THE LEFT as he power walked by with weights in one hand and a water bottle in the other. His tan leather skin was glistening in the sun and his white chest hair blew gently in the breeze as he said good morning!. This bright orange cone—colored shorts were easy to see for hundreds of feet in front of us so we could track his movements throughout the park. Unfortunately, we were never able to meet up with him again. If we had, I had a LOT of questions for him. If you're wondering what it looked like when he walked:

The walk was about 3 miles in 99 degree heat with a feels like 101. We smelled GREAT at the end! We went to the shop grabbed our usual souvenirs and headed out of the park about 1pm or so.

We are well ahead of schedule so we decided to stop pretty early for the night in Jacksonville, Florida and get a suite so we can all hang together. We booked it in advance after last night's debacle. We get into the hotel with all our gear and the clerk tells us there is no reservation for us. Then she asks if we are at the Residence Inn? We say yes. She points across the street. Tragedy averted and we walk our stuff over and get to our room!

We also decide to go see a movie (minions and monsters) and grab dinner at Ruby Tuesdays. I have missed Ruby Tuesdays SO MUCH and Abby and I were dying for some greens. Don't worry, we checked that there was not an outbreak of that diarrhea here before dining.

And also, since we passed into Florida, Gideon's permit works again! So, we let him drive around an abandoned mall in order to practice parking and turning. By the end, he was an expert parker. The only issue is that it was Florida parking lots, which if you know, are the slanted spots on one—way aisles…but still. He nailed it!

I slept through most of the movie. Gimmie a break. It was 9pm, there was air conditioning and it was dark.

We got home to sleep in our nice beds and get some rest for another day. Feeling happy the first park of the trip is captured and looking forward to more!

Good Deed for the Day: Some travelers from New Jersey were so lost and we let them go in front of us and let them cut us off multiple times. We've been there, Jersey. We get it.

Ended the Day: Residence Inn Jacksonville Airport, Florida

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