River Ride

I grew up beachside in Florida and the only river I ever did a float on was the Wekiva in central Florida. I thought they were all like that, lazy floating on the currents, the occasional little whirlpool spinning you around, like that. What we did on my birthday was sort of like that but not really at all. First of all, my float (since I couldn't kayak with my arm wanting to sob just looking at the paddles) was for two people, not one, making it a little unwieldy. Second, the kayak people basically had to paddle the whole time. Like four hours of time. Against the wind. It was enough to induce guilt in the coldest of slave owners whose slave happens to have been my son. However...I persisted. 

photo credit: Alliena Shipley
Nothing to do but ride, lift my butt over the shallow parts,
ford the REALLY shallow parts and be the
birthday queen. Fun for awhile, then the urge to do SOMETHING
looms large. 

A small part of our flotilla

O checking out the water

And the rocks. There are some beauties.

 I woke up very early and my first thought was, it's freaking COLD here, the water is going to be wicked cold, what the hell was I thinking?? But Dave assured me that the Eel River is nothing close to as cold as the Mattoll and he was right! By the end of the afternoon with the air cooling, the water was still much warmer. It's amazing that two rivers so close to each other can have such different temperatures.

Dave at the start

Onward, son!!

Dave is towing the drinks and food cooler.
We found this crazy float thing in the market, made for this common size of cooler.
We NEED this at home!

Elijah and I talked about the first people here, how it must have felt.
And then the settlers came. But it's hard to change a river and
water for the most part is used wisely out here. 

Dave pulling ahead with the drinks cooler. We never let him out of our sight.

Allie towed O and held the baby in front of her, both in life vests, yes.

Break time!

Are you ready, Mama? 

Judy and Dave rafting up

I don't know what made this photo the way it is
but I wish I could make it happen on purpose!

And no one got hurt!

I have no idea what they were looking at, as in
"I don't remember, Officer, I was looking the other way."

It was a beautiful day with family and friends. I was too wired to sleep. We'll have to do it again but next time I want an inner tube. With a pocket. And a wine cooler. And a sushi chef at the end of the ride. We have to have dreams!

Thanks, family!!

Have a saturated Saturday. Do something sumptuous.