South Carolina to the Florida Keys

(Posted by Caitlin)

After the zipline in North Carolina, we proceeded southeast to Charleston, SC (no pictures of Charleston...it wasn't that great) and followed the coast down to the Florida Keys.

South Carolina

We hiked 6 miles in a national flood plain 

Tree roots poking out

We saw several cardinals...my favorite birds

Savannah, Georgia

Florida

A National Wildlife Refuge near the coast

Just outside of Fort Lauderdale, we spent two nights with the Larry and Gina Korda. When Steve (Andy's dad) was ten, he and his family left Hungary during the revolution of the 50's to come to the US. Larry Korda was also ten and his family temporarily took in the Sego's. And the Korda's took us in for a few days. Larry gave us a tour around Fort Lauderdale and suggested numerous of activities to us. They took us out to dinner at a great seafood place and their daughters, Shawna and Becca, made us pancakes with fresh fruit!

Thanks again you guys!

 Hollywood

The Keys

We went snorkeling 6 miles of the shore of Key Marathon for almost two hours at the best reef in the Keys. Here's a video someone else made of their snorkeling experience of the same reef.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ljgY0ZcD-rY

We saw all kinds of fish and corral, a sand shark, dozens of barracuda, and a large moray eel.

Two manatees popped up while we awaited our snorkeling boat and were enticed by hose water

 Plenty of mid 70 to 80 degree water for swimming

The supposed "Southern Most Point" of the continental US

Hemmingway's House

Key West Wildlife

Key West Performers

This guy trained his dog to take money from people while he played the bango...and people actually participated

a few of these guys

This one made fun of the audience continuously as he did an escape trick (he intentionally dislocated his shoulder)

The actual southern most point

Lots of scooters in Key West

A dessert only restaurant where they actually charge $9.69-$12 for slices of cake  or whatever

7 Mile Bridge

Some of the best memories on this trip occurred in the Keys:

-Snorkeling at one of the top reefs in the world

-Sitting on the beach eating a coconut Samara found and shucked for us

-Drinking thick, strong Cuban coffee with a delicious pulled pork sandwich from an immigrant Cuban

-Riding around on a Honda Metropolitan (49cc)

-Swimming in naturally warm waters in December

Next stop: Everglades National Park

Help Exchange and Zip Lines in NC

(Posted by Andy)

In this edition of On The Wings of a Dolphin, you’ll see pictures of Caitlin and I in full-body hazmat suits, zipline body harnesses, and even a llama!

Caitlin discovered a program called Help Exchange, a website that provides the user with a list of people all over the nation that have farms and ranches and are looking for people to help them for 4-6 hours a day in exchange for 3 meals a day, room and board. What a great gig! We have just completed our first Help-X experience in North Carolina with our host Karen Rund. Karen has about 20 acres, almost half of which is wooded, that is home to a dozen goats, 3 Clydesdale horses, 2 white and fluffy dogs, 3 cats, a llama, and us for 9 days! There are pictures below of most of the animals and us in our hazmat suits. Cause of the suits: Karen had purchased 3 almost empty industrial drums for storage purposes. The part that wasn’t empty was a few inches of solidified pork-lard from the restaurant industry. Our mission, to clean! A messy and photogenically hilarious endeavor, this was an experience not soon forgotten. For anyone that has the same food driven sense of perception as Caitlin and I, the hog fat did not smell like bacon. Since Caitlin and I are interested in eventually purchasing our own land, these ranch-hand experiences are very beneficial to our knowledge of what it is like to actually own land and animals. A previous thought of owning milk goats has been shot down with our stay at Karen’s for financial reasons mainly, but we are now very keen on owning a llama or two of our own for backpacking aid and general good company. Thank you Karen for opening your home to us, we look forward to more Help-X work!

I

’m letting a goat eat hay out of my hand when my dad calls and says, “Son! You gunna be in Greensboro? Wanna go ziplining?” Uhh, YEAH! With about 10 different zip lines and over an hour of “flight”, Kearsy Valley Zip Lines was an experience of a lifetime. I’ll never forget whitewater rafting in Rishakesh, India, and we’ll never forget flying through the woods in North Carolina.

I’m not sure how many times we’ve said this in our posts, but Thank You Steve Sego, my dad!

We’re now making our way down to Florida, where Mr. Larry Corta an old friend of my father’s, Key West and nude beaches await us. A side stop though has put us on our ass`; Price’s Chicken Coop. Consistently rated some of the best fried chicken in American (and a 10 on the Cardiac-Richter scale), this was some damn good, damn greasy chicken. Now off to Florida, after this grease coma wears off!

Mikey

Pogo

Goats

Cricket

Karma (9 months old, daughter of Dharma) 

Karen

Dharma

Roo

Views from our zip lines

Caitlin climbing to the end (didn't make it all the way)

She's mine.