A Day in Our Family Vacation ~ October 5th, 2006

Katy and I awoke that morning to the smell of breakfast cooking. Mom made eggs, bacon and toast, oatmeal if you wanted, and fruit. I ate several slices of bacon and a piece of toast. After eating I washed dishes, and we all began to prepare for the family rafting trip that awaited us. Dad, Katy and Nathaniel all ventured into the garage to pump up the raft while Mom was busy finding shoes, jackets and filling the cooler with water and snacks. I was slowly rushing around (if there is such a thing) getting ready and trying to make decisions about what I should wear on the excursion. I finally decided on a t-shirt, jeans and slip on shoes that weren’t mine instead of my tennis shoes that were likely to get soaked one way or another. After walking out the door and back in several times to retrieve forgotten items (such as the rubber bands for my braces) we were finally off.

We drove about 8 miles to an embankment where we could get started and after carrying everything downhill to the river we were set to push off. Katy boarded first to the middle, followed by Nathaniel and me to her right, mom in the front, and dad in the back (not to mention the two oars, cooler, air pump, and shoes that had already been removed before stepping into the icy water). It was a somewhat tight fit, but doable. Everything was going splendidly until we started feeling wet. Our pants were all soaking up water except for Nathaniel. He was seated higher up on my knee and disgruntled at the life jacket he couldn’t get out of. We comforted ourselves into thinking the water must have been from getting into the raft. Everyone was having fun. Nathaniel was even enjoying himself after getting over the life jacket and also after I handed him to mom so I could re-adjust my sitting position. Somehow before getting him back however, I had the other oar and helped a little in getting the raft back on course. A few more minutes passed and it seemed my pants were soaking up even more water so I started looking around for an explanation of where that water was coming from. Sure enough there was a tiny hole letting in a small but steady stream of water. It became Katy’s job to try and block the leak with her foot…but we were still letting in water.

The water was restful until we rounded a corner to find some not so restful water waiting for us. Mom was sure we needed to veer to the far left, but we didn’t have much time to do so, not to mention I wasn’t rowing the same time direction as dad which sent us in a circle. Before we had time to say oops the water was far to shallow and we hit a literal rock bottom that sounded if might tear the raft in two. We, or more correctly, dad, worked at getting out of the rocks and finally we moved forward only to be swept into the speeding current which dropped the raft and threw it back up soaking us a long the way. (Except for Nathaniel who thankfully escaped the freezing water) As we made it through and the water became restful again we examined the damage and decided we needed to empty the raft of unwanted water, fix the leak and hopefully dry off a little in the process. We rowed toward the edge and stepped out of the raft onto what had looked like a rock but ended up being a sandy embankment. After that whole experience and getting his shoes damp the fun ended for Nathaniel who sorrowfully wanted to know “where my nana (pacifier) is?”

We were wet and sandy. I dug in the cooler for the glue as dad propped the raft up against the sun and discovered not one leak, but at least five letting in streams of sunlight. Dad dried the raft and then smeared on the glue while informing us that we weren’t going to wait the recommended two hours for the glue to dry. All of a sudden mom yelled for dad to hold still because of a giant spider on his back! Dad isn’t scared of much but the thought of a giant spider on his back (which I later recognized as the one I had just previously suggested killing) sent him jumping around and yelling for someone to “hit it good instead of piddling around with it!” Mom swung, and to dad’s dismay, missed the first time, which sent the spider dashing for it’s life to the opposite side of dad’s back. The spider wasn’t so lucky the second time and mom single-handedly knocked it onto the ground all while still holding Nathaniel. The spider’s real end came when dad shockingly used his bare foot and smashed the spider into the sand.

Katy during our time stranded on the sandy bank had to go to the bathroom and was sure someone would see her from afar. We finally convinced her to go and of course dad had to scare her with some comment about someone watching the scene.  Mom continued feeding Nathaniel’s bottomless stomach with cheerios, m&ms and almonds. We laid everything out to dry, took a few documentary pictures and by this time Nathaniel was falling apart. Mom suggested climbing up the ‘moutain’ and walking back to get the van so she could take Nathaniel home for a nap. Dad proceeded to climb up the steep hill covered in pine needles. He was gone for about twenty or thirty minutes and when he got back he took mom and then Nathaniel up.

Katy and I started getting things back together, and dad climbed back down and finished up. Our jackets weren’t of any more use since they were soaked, and the temperature had dropped due to the sun being covered by rain clouds. But still we packed up the raft and rinsed off as much sand as possible before heading out into the river again. It was relieving to see that the raft wasn’t letting in any water…the glue must not have needed two hours after all. As we were going along the clouds kept getting darker and darker. We asked a man on the bank of the river what time it was and to our relief it was only going on two o’clock. At times we barely moved and at other times we picked up speed. We had to choose which way to go around little bits of land in the river, and we quickly learned to prop ourselves up on the sides of the raft when the water got too shallow and ran across the rocks on the bottom of the riverbed.

The clouds were getting darker and darker followed by droplets of rain, and after a flash of lightning we worked our way to the edge of the river and dad made a shelter. The first raft turned shelter didn’t last long, but the second one worked better, one side propped up on the rocky side of the mountain and the other side with one of the oars. We all got under and waited for the rain, lightning and traveling bursts of thunder to stop. It became windy and cold. Dad only had to fix the shelter once and we laughed off and on at how funny the whole situation was and at how ridiculous I’m sure we looked. Dad finally commanded the storm to stop and a few minutes later the storm broke, the blue sky was becoming visible and the sun began to peek out from behind the clouds.

Before too long we were back in the raft floating down the river and enjoying the rays of sun that were still trying to fully come out. As we floated along we discussed how far we should have been by then and how far we probably had left to go and of course what time it might be and what mom would be thinking at that moment and what good, hot thing she would have ready for us to drink on our arrival.

We saw different kinds of birds, fish and Katy saw a bear that ended up being a black cow. I was sure there would be a surprise waterfall where we would all get thrown into the river sooner or later or somehow tip the raft, or spring another but more serious leak, but nothing major happened and we floated along a little hungry but happy. Later on we got caught in the shallow water again and the current sent us straight for dead tree branches and brush hanging over the water. This happened four times, two of which we had no control over and the branches scratched over my part of the raft. It brushed across me, but nothing was hurt. The other two times dad skillfully turned the raft just in time to avoid hitting or running under the branches. Another time the current swept us straight into branches, brush and other stuff that had washed up into a huge pile. I ducked once again, and Dad was using the oar to try and keep us from running up onto it. Just as we were starting to get out of the mess dad’s leg began to go into a spasm and sent him into yelling, “Lord, have mercy!” Thankfully it stopped before it really started and we were saved from dad rolling off the raft into the river.

Just as I was beginning to give up the hope of arriving before the sun went down, the mountain started looking familiar to dad and we saw the rocky bank where we had all stood and thrown rocks into the water one evening. Our cabin on the hill was in sight and dad got out of the raft and led it to the bank. We stepped out, miserably cold, wet, and ready for hot showers. Mom and Nathaniel waved as we walked up the path. We undressed on the front porch, had showers, hot soup and sat around talking.

All in all, it was an incredible day.