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Day 2
It was six o'clock the next morning when Jim and I woke up. We went to the others' rooms, knocked on the door, and left a verbal message that we were going to the restaurant. It started to sprinkle when we were putting our things away in the trailer. When we stepped out of it, the sky opened up and just poured on us. We ran as fast as we could to get to the restaurant.
Jim and I ordered our drinks and waited for the other six to arrive before we ordered. 10 - 20 minutes later we were able to order. I ordered a cheese omelet with hash-browns and toast. Expecting it to be a small meal, I ordered a ham, bacon, and cheese croissant. I've got to hand it to Florida hospitality, though. When they brought out the croissant it was nearly as big as a dinner plate and half as high!
I finished off the omelet, hash-browns, and toast with no problem. I slowly began on the monster croissant that could've fed a whole army. About ten bites in, I had to stop. It was just too large to finish off. I must've looked like a fool to the other guys.
We loaded up and headed to Ginnie Springs, our first dive site. It was a whole lot further than I thought it was. When we got there, we filled out all the legal mumbo jumbo. Jim forgot his instuctor insurance so we waited for the fax from up north. We later found out that he had it all along. In the meantime, we looked through the hut-style dive store. Then all of us, save Jim, went down to get suited up. We weren't students so we were able to get in. Randy, Tim, and I descended the stairs to the spring basin as Jim was gearing up.
The water was quite chilling at first. We floated over the basin until we got used to it. My new fleece was doing great. A couple minutes later we were swimming down the run to the Sante Fe river. It wasn't as murky as I thought it would be. We descended to a depth of about thirty feet. I was impressed at how easy it was to equalize with the Oceanic ProEar 2000 mask. We messed around for quite a while. After thirty minutes of fun, we made our ascent and swim back.
The flow out of the spring basin was amazingly powerful. Half of the whole dive time was spent fighting that flow. We went up to the trailer, afterwards, and doffed our gear. Randy and I went up to the dive store. I needed some batteries for my dive light and Randy needed to fill his super-80 (type of tank). As soon as I had paid, I went back down, expecting Randy to be right behind.
I got back to the trailer and loaded up my batteries. I then sat down to fill out my logbook. Then I realized, Randy wasn't back. I didn't think anything of it and continued to fill out my logbook. Twenty minutes later he returned and I found out why it took him so long. Jim had forgotten to put an inspection sticker on his tank. The guy at the shop had to inspect it, again.
About forty-five minutes later we were planning the cavern dive. We entered the water as my excitement began to boil. Final checks were a go and we headed down the stairs. We plunged into the dark depths of the cavern. The cave entrance itself was at fifty feet and was covered by a grate. Randy's light illuminated the passage another twenty feet into the cave. I was surprised at how powerful the current was. We continued to explore the cavern another twenty minutes until it was time to turn back.
We were back at the surface and I was filling out my logbook, when I realized, or at least thought, that I had passed my decompression limits. I later found out that I was ok, but it kept me from an awesome sounding drift dive.
It was about an hour and a half later when we were packing away for Crystal River. We pulled up to the dive store for the last time to get air fills. Eleven to be exact. We loaded the tanks and split. The drive to Crystal River seemed long but really wasn't. We stopped at a souvenir "store" along the way. (I use the term "store" loosely, because it was one, big building and a half acre of piles of various souvenirs). No shark teeth, though. We loaded up and headed out.
Two or three miles down the road there was a Ma's Diner type restaurant. I ordered the seafood platter, as did Randy. After the main course, the others and myself ordered dessert. I got a piece of strawberry shortcake. It was on our walk back to the Suburban, that Matt, Tim, and I realized how cool the air had become.
We reached Crystal River at about 9:30, but we still had to find the hotel. I nearly got the group lost being the navigator, but we managed to find the way. We walked into the lobby at quarter 'til ten and checked in. It wasn't that easy, though. The hotel only had us down for 1 room. In the meantime a couple of us were raising a noxious stink to high heaven. Randy, Steve, and I had this thing where if it were a good enough noise and stink, than "It's a ten." I raised ten fingers and mouthed the words "it's a ten" to Randy. At first he nodded his head "yes", than he busted out laughing, which caused him and I both to fart. Pretty soon, all of us, except a few, were laughing so hard we had to leave the cramped lobby.
We got everything worked out with the lobbyest and we got four rooms for two nights at the price of one night. We dispersed to our rooms after we had gotten our things from the trailer. Some of the hotel had yet to be renovated including our room. A set of lights didn't work and there wasn't a TV. Jim got the larger room with the bed and I got the sleeper sofa, which didn't bother me one bit. Jim called me out to the balcony. There was a barfight at the tiki bar across the marina. As it ended, we saw Randy go in. A couple others from our group went in, but we couldn't tell who they were. We watched two or three more barfights until Randy came up to our room. We were going to decide on a dive on Monday to make the drive back a little more interesting. It was alright with me as long as I was able to get up the next morning for school. We turned in as soon as Randy had left.
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