Ever had a spontaneous purchase lead to a whirlwind of unexpected adventures? That's exactly what happened during our recent visit to Perdido Key, FL when an impulsive kayak buy clashed with unrelenting winds. We kick this episode off by sharing how this mishap ignited an unexpected new excitement for paddling, setting the stage for Michele's surprise gift from Matt — her very own Old Town kayak. Join us for a spirited chat about our meticulous preparations, from intense workout routines to essential safety measures, all in anticipation of our future kayaking escapades. Plus, we reflect on our unforgettable experiences at Jazz Fest 2024, where we reveled in the electrifying performances of John Baptiste and The Killers, while bemoaning missing out on Neil Young and Crazy Horse. (We also explain why we intentionally skipped out on The Rolling Stones performance.)
As we ventured north into the Carolina's, we take you on a virtual trip with us to Aunt Sue's, a quaint ensemble of connected cabins offering mouthwatering food, tantalizing treats, and live music that captures the heart. Relive the magic of our serene canoe trip at Table Rock State Park in South Carolina, where Michele was accompanied by a graceful yellow butterfly—nature's little surprise. We then head "up the mountains" to recount our semi-urban paddling adventure at Lake Julian in Asheville, North Carolina, a unique blend of scenic canals juxtaposed with the striking Blue Ridge Mountains and Duke Energy plant backdrop. From the tranquility of natural settings to the vibrancy of semi-urban landscapes, this episode encapsulates the excitement and serenity of our memorable paddling journeys and what our "intentionally unintentional travels" brought us.
Keep up with our adventures - and misadventures - by bookmarking our MMO WEBSITE. Thanks for listening and traveling with us!
Be sure to visit BizRadio.US to discover hundreds more engaging conversations, local events and more.
Ever had a spontaneous purchase lead to a whirlwind of unexpected adventures? That's exactly what happened during our recent visit to Perdido Key, FL when an impulsive kayak buy clashed with unrelenting winds. We kick this episode off by sharing how this mishap ignited an unexpected new excitement for paddling, setting the stage for Michele's surprise gift from Matt — her very own Old Town kayak. Join us for a spirited chat about our meticulous preparations, from intense workout routines to essential safety measures, all in anticipation of our future kayaking escapades. Plus, we reflect on our unforgettable experiences at Jazz Fest 2024, where we reveled in the electrifying performances of John Baptiste and The Killers, while bemoaning missing out on Neil Young and Crazy Horse. (We also explain why we intentionally skipped out on The Rolling Stones performance.)
As we ventured north into the Carolina's, we take you on a virtual trip with us to Aunt Sue's, a quaint ensemble of connected cabins offering mouthwatering food, tantalizing treats, and live music that captures the heart. Relive the magic of our serene canoe trip at Table Rock State Park in South Carolina, where Michele was accompanied by a graceful yellow butterfly—nature's little surprise. We then head "up the mountains" to recount our semi-urban paddling adventure at Lake Julian in Asheville, North Carolina, a unique blend of scenic canals juxtaposed with the striking Blue Ridge Mountains and Duke Energy plant backdrop. From the tranquility of natural settings to the vibrancy of semi-urban landscapes, this episode encapsulates the excitement and serenity of our memorable paddling journeys and what our "intentionally unintentional travels" brought us.
Keep up with our adventures - and misadventures - by bookmarking our MMO WEBSITE. Thanks for listening and traveling with us!
Be sure to visit BizRadio.US to discover hundreds more engaging conversations, local events and more.
Hello and welcome to another episode of Matt and Michelle Odyssey. I'm Matt Mattan, I'm Michelle Sheave and we are so happy to be with you again today. And I realized after our last episode about Jazz Fest we never said any of the bands we saw.
Speaker 2:
It never even came up.
Speaker 1:
We didn't even talk about the live acts. And well, because that's not like the focus.
Speaker 2:
It sounds weird because there's so many amazing bands, there's just so many bands that are there while you're there, it can be, you just enjoy it.
Speaker 1:
I just enjoy it, know should we mention some john baptiste the killers. Um, oh. I do want to mention, though yes, didn't realize until after we'd already got home that neil young and crazy horse, yes, played at jazz fest. Which hell or high water I would have been at that show.
Speaker 2:
Right, I did not realize, either we didn't. I think they got added on after we got our tickets early, because I saw nothing about that. I would have definitely wanted to do that as well.
Speaker 1:
So something else carried over from the last episode. So in the last episode we talked about getting down to the Gulf Coast the coast. You know, we always, we always stop at our coastal home away from home, perdido Key, whenever we're going to Jazz Fest. And while down there, the conditions were so perfect for spring inland fishing, saltwater fishing, fishing, and we didn't have any of our boats with us, our canoes, so I ended up buying a kayak while there and then, we had after jazz fest.
Speaker 1:
We got back to florida and we had 35, 40 mile an hour winds the whole time.
Speaker 1:
The rest, of the time we were there and they never got a chance to get out on the water and you also mentioned in the last episode about how, you know, I was like, oh, you know I. I was like, oh, you know, I've been talking, we've been talking about for a while, and you're like no, you've been talking about it and, like you've been thinking about it for a while you know, and it wasn't an us thing, but you know, when we got home and and weather just has not allowed me to get out on the kayak, it just you know it just wasn't working.
Speaker 1:
And the more I was falling in love with the idea of having the kayak, the more I was really mourning the fact that we wouldn't be in a boat together. Because, for years. Every time we're out, we're in the canoe together. Sometimes we're both facing front. We're paddling, we're fishing.
Speaker 2:
Other times you've got your Cleopatra set up and you're looking back toward me listening to music reading, just scanning myself as I float along, as I do all the paddling River, nile, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:
And you know, really celebrating your Egyptian heritage.
Speaker 2:
My 1% Egyptian blood I found out from it's there.
Speaker 1:
You know. So, upon getting home, I think I mentioned in the last episode too that I've really gotten into shopping for deals online and everything you know, and I've gotten a lot of stuff. Actually, we've talked about in a few episodes how.
Speaker 2:
I've gotten really good at finding amazing deals as I build up our outdoor capabilities and our adventure trekking capabilities our capabilities and our adventure trekking capabilities.
Speaker 1:
And so we got home and I continued doing what I'm always doing looking for outdoor deals and upping our equipment game and all that kind of stuff and I was like I really don't want to be out on the water without Michelle with me and but I really do want to get out on a kayak. And so I had this idea of like, well, what if I went ahead and got Michelle a kayak? Now, mind you, I had not talked to her about this at all. It never came up, I never talked about it at all and I happened to be browsing and searching and looking for deals and all of a sudden this really nice looking old town kayak, a loon kayak, popped up and researching the stability of it and the use of it and all this kind of stuff, and it was a cool color pattern, but it was also an old-town, which.
Speaker 1:
I have mentioned Right.
Speaker 2:
I have an affinity for old-town and yours is an old-town.
Speaker 1:
My new kayak is an old Town Heron Angler Edition and so it was a good deal and I saw it and I went ahead and I contacted the folks and I made an offer Again, still not having talked to Michelle at all about any of this and they accepted the offer, and so I grabbed a screenshot of the kayak and and I saw it, and I love it. I texted Michelle and I'm like hey, I got you something. Yes, we pick it up tonight.
Speaker 2:
It's so beautiful, I love it and it's very exciting. I'm very excited about kayaking now, so I've been working out to paddle, adding weights to your exercise routine.
Speaker 1:
Yes, added weights to my arm routine, so I've been working out to paddle Added weights to your exercise routine.
Speaker 2:
Yes, added weights to my arm routine.
Speaker 1:
We've been watching all kinds of instruction videos and what not to do in kayaks.
Speaker 2:
Exactly so. It's very exciting.
Speaker 1:
Yeah.
Speaker 2:
A little bit nervous, a little bit nervous, a little bit nervous yeah.
Speaker 1:
So my Angler Edition kayak has built-in safety flotation stuff in it already. And well, yours is really buoyant too. It just doesn't have flotation stuff in it.
Speaker 2:
If it rolled it has a chance of sinking. It can be hard getting back up.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, and it'd be an issue, and so I went about trying to find good flotation stuff for it, and I ended up finding some. I ordered it and it kept getting delayed. We've talked about it on a couple of episodes how the weather pattern in the southern Appalachians has been beautiful.
Speaker 1:
during the week it's been storms on the weekends and we had a day where it was forecast for rain and storms all day long and everything. It's like okay. So I I ran over to my mock and I was like I'm just gonna go hang out at the mock and, you know, drop off some stuff that I picked up for my canoe, I mean for my kayak, that I got you know some more stuff and everything, and, and we and we picked up your kayak.
Speaker 2:
Absolutely love it and they're the same size both of our kayaks, but different designs.
Speaker 1:
Right, you know, but very suitable for our, for our individual uses. Yes, and we've been wanting to get out but we haven't been able to because we wanted to make sure we had all the safety gear. So we have this really bad rain forecast, storms all day, and I'm like I'm just gonna run over the mock. I had bought some more stuff for your kayak and I was dropping it off. By the way, if you're new to our show, the mock is Matt's Outdoor.
Speaker 2:
Center. Yeah, that's right. I forgot to even mention that. I'm going to say what the mock is.
Speaker 1:
That's all we call it now One of the great destinations that is in the southern Appalachians is the Nantahala Outdoor Center. Right outdoor center. Right, well, we have Matt's outdoor center. Yeah, yeah, and so that's what that is. And, um, and I was over there and I'm hanging out and the rain had not started. It looked like it was going to start. But I'm working on gear, I'm working on equipment, I'm setting up some lines, I'm doing different things and a few hours or a couple hours roll by and the sun starts popping out and I'm upset now because know forecast was so right I mean, even the morning of it was so complete.
Speaker 1:
It was like 90 chance of storms all day long. Yeah, we didn't get any rain and the sun's coming out, so I decided to go fishing for a little bit and I went and took a few casts, didn't get anything and I came home around lunchtime or something like that, and and uh and heard about how long I was gone yeah, I was pissed.
Speaker 2:
I was like you know I'm kidding, but I was. I was like.
Speaker 1:
I was like she texted me she was like so did you leave for good?
Speaker 2:
yeah, are you ever coming back right, because I was just gonna run some stuff off.
Speaker 1:
Yeah it turned into a few hours trip, right, but um so uh. The next day we're forecast for the same exact thing. It's supposed to be a horrible day of weather.
Speaker 2:
Horrible day, and I look, now we know how to handle a horrible day. And meteorologically weather-wise why can't I say the word meteorologically, meteorologically? Oh, I just said it Meteorologically. I'm not going to try to do it twice.
Speaker 1:
Meteorologically, yeah, but I was the one struggling, of course, you is the one struggling, of course you meteorologically, so I look at the next day's forecast and it you know it did rain by nighttime on on the saturday um, and then sunday. I'm looking at it same exact situation. So I tell michelle, I'm like how about we just get up early in the morning? Right and we're gonna load up everything. I loaded all the gear the night before. We still can't take the kayaks out, so I loaded one of the canoes.
Speaker 2:
Actually, we took providence, which you mentioned in the last episode that was the canoe that I bought um spontaneously on our acadian national park trip and we bought it in providence rhode island, and it's the smallest of your canoes it is, and it's also the strongest, and and it's wonderful, I think the Old Town, canoe is a little bit smaller. Is it? Oh, I guess it is. It's a little bit broader, but it's shorter, Right right.
Speaker 1:
But yeah, so we went ahead, loaded everything up and we got up in the morning and we're going to do this and the weather's going to have to force us not to go out.
Speaker 2:
We planned for it no, and we decided if we get rained on, we brought a change of clothes. We just decided we were going to go rain or not. No matter what, we were going out, yeah.
Speaker 1:
And so the way that I typically plan trips.
Speaker 2:
I wore my water shoes, my new water shoes, yeah, which I still did not have until just a couple days ago, yeah.
Speaker 1:
I now have water shoes, another thing we needed for the kayaks. Getting in and out of kayaks is very different than getting in and out of canoes Right. And so the way that I usually do trips, when I'm planning our trips, because I map them out.
Speaker 1:
I chart them out, figure out where we're going to go, how we're going to do it and everything is. I usually wait till the morning of and I look at the wind trends, Right, I look to see where the dominant winds are. I try to figure out what waterways, based on the weather conditions are going to be best for us, paddling-wise, but also fishing-wise. So even though we manifest like we are going tomorrow, we don't know until that morning where we're going.
Speaker 2:
Where we're going, yes, unless it's a road trip, and that's always the fun too, but if it's a day, trip.
Speaker 1:
We don't know until the morning of, and so we decided on Table Rock State Park in the upstate of South Carolina, which isn't too far from us I mean it's the next state over but it's not a bad drive at all from where we're at and it's a beautiful ride. Beautiful ride. They have two different water bodies within Table Rock State Park.
Speaker 2:
Yeah.
Speaker 1:
And so one of them is near the campground and everything else and they stock it with trout and it's a real good time. We've been there before.
Speaker 2:
Right.
Speaker 1:
And the other one is a lower elevation, kind of finger lake thing, that has a motor restriction.
Speaker 1:
You can only bring trolling motors or paddle boats onto that paddle sport type things and there is a launch fee and everything. So if you're hearing us talk about it. But we decided to do that one and we went there and we knew we weren't going to have a whole lot of time, right, but we were like, let's go, and we only have a couple of hours by the time we get down there and we had to come back for some other stuff going on. But we did. Yeah, we got to go out and we were paddling around and, lo and behold, got some fish. Yeah, oh, yes.
Speaker 1:
I caught some bass, which is always a bonus. I didn't get skunked Right. You know, and it's just a beautiful area. And while we were there, you know they have a visitor center right there on the lower lake.
Speaker 1:
That's a really nice place to visit and they have fishing visitor center right there on the lower lake. That's a really nice place to visit and they have fishing rods available for kids to use, and so if you're looking for a place to go for a weekend camping trip, or for a day trip, or a day trip to. State Park. You've got all kinds of trails. You've got a couple of different water sport options.
Speaker 1:
They've got a beach. But also at the lower lake, which is called Lake Illinois, at the visitor center they have fishing gear that kids can use. Yeah, that's amazing so even if you're not an angler and you don't have things and you have kids or grandkids and you want to take them, this is a place you could go and you know there's an option and they have a couple of different piers and things, so it's a really great setup that they have there.
Speaker 2:
It's really fun.
Speaker 1:
And then right nearby there's a what would you call Aunt Sue's. How would you describe Aunt Sue's?
Speaker 2:
It is. It's a retail, and eating complex. So it is a yeah, it's a restaurant store, ice cream and candy store and it's, you know, all like built, cabin built.
Speaker 1:
And a long Connected cabins.
Speaker 2:
Yeah connected cabins so it almost kind of snakes along and so you can go there. It's fantastic, it's really fun.
Speaker 1:
They also have a grass field with a stage, yeah, where they do live music.
Speaker 2:
They do live music and they were having some good bands that they were promoting, I think Cane Creek, cane Creek, yeah, the grass band was going to be playing there the night.
Speaker 1:
We were there actually. Yeah, or the next night, but it's just a good destination. So I just wanted to mention it in this episode, that, um, it's a really good short trip, or, if you want to do a little bit longer trip the camping, and I had a yellow butterfly who followed us and this was the manifest beauty moment I was gonna talk about, okay, so as as we're out paddling around and we're enjoying it, and and um, just you just soaking in the nature around us.
Speaker 1:
Like pollen is really thick, right now in the southern Appalachians and foothills, and so there was like floating caked pollen. Yeah, yeah, yeah, it was almost like I was having to fish through duckweed when it was pollen Right and it was fun because that made it fun for topwater fishing and actually all the fish I caught were all on topwater for that trip for topwater fishing and actually all the fish I caught were all on topwater for that trip.
Speaker 2:
But this butterfly, this yellow monarch butterfly comes out into the middle of the pond because we were paddling toward a feeder creek.
Speaker 1:
We wanted to paddle up the feeder creek, which we often do when we're out paddling, we want to go up the creeks that are feeding the lakes we're on, and so we're heading toward it and this butterfly came out and it just kind of flew around Michelle for a minute and everything.
Speaker 2:
I was like, oh, you got a friend. Oh, how cute you usually have little friends.
Speaker 1:
It's usually dragonflies. The dragonflies will hang out with you and ride along with you, but this butterfly, it just kept circling very closely around Michelle's head and her shoulders and it just kept circling around and fluttering and it was really beautiful. But as we continued to paddle, it stayed with us.
Speaker 2:
It just stayed with us For a long time, for a long long time, and that was wild. It was so beautiful yeah.
Speaker 1:
It was really special.
Speaker 2:
And we never did look up to see what the spiritual meaning of the butterfly stuff is.
Speaker 1:
Because we do that. Anytime we have what seems like intentional kind of unique animal encounters we like to look up indigenous meanings to things. And usually it leads us to conversations that I would say provide us insights and ideas. The conversation inspires that, and it starts with recognizing and acknowledging animal encounters that we have. But it stayed with us for the longest time and then I think it got windy for a little bit.
Speaker 2:
Remember the wind picked up, we had to paddle into a headwind.
Speaker 1:
And then we got into a different cove and lo and behold the butterfly came back. It was still there, it was back. It was still there, it was back and it started circling. Michelle again, it didn't care that I was only six feet away from you. It could care less about me, but it just circled you the whole time it felt special, for real. I mean from my perspective. I'm sitting behind you at the stern of the boat, so it looked like a little moon a butterfly moon orbiting you for like. Yeah 20, 30 minutes.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, it was beautiful and I have a butterfly tattoo, so it means stuff for me.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, it was beautiful, all right. The other trip that we did we got two canoe trips in here, that's right.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, we did an urban trip Right.
Speaker 1:
So we did an urban paddling trip to Lake Julian in Asheville, North Carolina.
Speaker 2:
Right Very, very popular destination.
Speaker 1:
Often called the Paris of the South.
Speaker 2:
And a lot of people go there for the food and the beer. It's the quickest place to get on the water.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, to where we live it's the biggest, quickest body of water we can get on that doesn't have motorboats yes, that doesn't have motorboats.
Speaker 2:
It's really got some beautiful parts.
Speaker 1:
There is a Duke Energy plant. Yes, you've got to ignore that, but it's very. It's reduced from what it used to be. Yeah it's much better it doesn't have the smokestacks anymore, but they used to be thermal lakes, cooling lakes for the power plants.
Speaker 2:
So the whole body of water has changed, because it's no longer heated, it's actually three lakes that are joined by canals. Yeah.
Speaker 1:
The canals are gorgeous yeah, they're really gorgeous but when you're out on the lake, something you don't see from shore is because the lake is elevated up. If you've ever driven into Asheville on Interstate 26 and you're going along there and everything, you're down near the French Broad River. Right, which is that honestly, is the water destination that people go?
Speaker 2:
to when they visit Asheville.
Speaker 1:
Yes, there's tubing, kayaking, canoeing.
Speaker 2:
And they're just now, they're about to open whitewater rafting on the French Broad that they have built, you know, in Weaverville, which is right, woodfin, yeah.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, Woodfin, which is right outside of Asheville and so Lake Julian locals go there a lot, Right, you know, because there's a nice park picnic tables, playgrounds and all that kind of stuff.
Speaker 2:
You can get passes to go. You can get passes, yeah.
Speaker 1:
And there's launch fees there and you need a fishing license from the state, but you the lake right, so there is cost involved on going there yeah but as a paddle destination, because it's urban, I don't think it gets a whole lot of paddling right. You know, um, there are uh, what do you call it? Punting the long narrow racing boats yes, there are a lot of those. There's a club on the lake that has a like little punting marina on the back side of the front lake, and so they're out there practicing and racing.
Speaker 1:
There is a marina that is run by the local government and so there are some small sailboats like sunfish size sailboats and things like that. But we went out there. We decided we wanted to go ahead and get some time on the water. So we did a close urban trip and it was wonderful and I got to call my shots and I forget how many fish I caught.
Speaker 2:
I think it was nine, and there was one huge one that I saw come up and it was a really big fish and you almost got it. It came out of the water and it shook itself off your pole.
Speaker 1:
It was the biggest one of the trip, but thank you, that was very gracious of you to be the one to let people know that there was a really big fish on my line and then you saw it, and then it came off.
Speaker 2:
I saw it.
Speaker 1:
If I had started with that, yeah, you know, it would have been like, of course right, but no, no, I saw it and it was amazing.
Speaker 2:
I mean, it was really actually very beautiful for my own enjoyment.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, I want you to talk a little bit about how I kept calling my shots.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, so there's an underbrush around the whole perimeter and one of the things we were doing was canoeing, you know, the perimeter of the lake, the section we were on, and so there's all this underbrush, there's different spots. So there's all this underbrush, there's different spots, but Matt's been a fisherman for so long that he can tell what especially bass you know enjoy and want to be at where they're going to be, and so he would. He would call a shot and he would just very expertly flick it under the underbrush and, sure enough, you were catching fish all day long.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, all day. And just to point out, it's not like, oh, I'm going to catch one along this bank.
Speaker 2:
No, I'm saying like 20, 30 casts into it before I do my next one.
Speaker 1:
I say right under that branch right over there.
Speaker 2:
I'm going to throw it up under there and I'm going to get one. So we weren't even to the branch yet. You just had seen it it's coming up. I say, see that one? Yeah, that's where, that's where I'm gonna catch one. Yeah, and I did every day, every time, every day long. It was so fun, it was really fun and then.
Speaker 1:
The highlight of that trip for me, though, was the ferocious gargantuan killer guard.
Speaker 2:
Little puppy dog, that little baby dog shore he was so funny Because before we even got to that bank we could hear this dog barking.
Speaker 1:
Like a purse dog sound.
Speaker 2:
It was like woof woof, woof, woof, woof, woof, woof, and so we were commenting on it. We love dogs and it was just really funny. So there's private property that is on part of the bank and throughout the lakes. You know there's some private properties that we go around and this one, you know, had this little guard dog that the entire time we were going around a cove, like not a cove, but like a peninsula that the dog was following us and barking the whole time.
Speaker 1:
And then it would go back up.
Speaker 2:
Its owner was sitting up on their back porch and it would be like, look mommy, look how great I'm doing, and then run back and just it's adorable, it couldn't have weighed four pounds. Not even four. Yeah, but it had the attitude of a king lion. It was really funny. Yes, you know.
Speaker 1:
yeah, in africa I'm doing my job and it was so intense, but it you know, we were sure I was fishing the shoreline yeah and so it took us a while yeah it never let up yeah but it was really fun yeah, and we got to see some some nice wildlife, seeing some birds. Birds and the other encounter we had there is we're not entirely sure. I think it might have been muskrats or something, where we saw some there was some mammal that was fishing.
Speaker 2:
There was something that was thrashing, I think a fish in its mouth.
Speaker 1:
And I don't think there's otters in there yeah. And it seemed too small to be an otter. That's why I'm thinking like a muskrat or something.
Speaker 2:
And it could have just come in from the shore, yeah, up in underneath, yeah, so we couldn't actually see it. See it, but it was definitely something that was not just a fish, it was, it seemed like a mammal. It was a mammal that caught a fish and was trying to return it somewhere.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, but anyway. So there is wildlife to see out there and there was one time I was paddling the canals and saw a black bear at Lake Julian. So even though it's an urban lake, if you're- visiting Asheville, which I know what? 17 million people visited Asheville last year, or something like that. You know, lake Julian has some rental boats too.
Speaker 2:
They have rental paddle boats. They have rental paddle boats. They have rental paddle boats and, as a bonus, if you are paddling around, you can go to the. What is it? It's not Hot Wings.
Speaker 1:
What is it? Buffalo Wild Wing? Buffalo Wild Wing. Yeah, you can paddle right up on the beach right in front of it.
Speaker 2:
You can park there and go up and get your lunch. Yeah, from the boat, From the boat which is we've done before, yeah, but anyway.
Speaker 1:
So there's a little urban gem. So that's, that's our two canoeing trips, hopefully by the next time we talk to you, we will have been on the kayaking trip. That's, that's. That's our hope, yes and anyway. So we appreciate you tuning in, as always, going along with us for our little adventures and misadventures, and, uh, hopefully we'll see you on the waterways or pathways soon all right.
