Kayaking Adventures
So, as some of you know, I took up kayaking a few months ago, and I just wanted to tell of some of the adventures I've had as of late. Well, there's two.
On July 22, I went down to the Silver River, and had a grand old time. Actually, I decided to go that day to relieve stress from missing a pretty important exam that day. But anyway, so I'm kayaking, minding my own business, having a good time with David Allen Coe blasting from the speakers on my ipod. It's pretty busy, which is to be expected as it was one of the last few weekends in the summer before school starts. I was turning a corner, and I noticed that a motor boat was heading in my direction. I know the drill- get to the side of the river and let them pass. This time was different, though. All the people in this boat were looking over the side of the boat, including the driver- one person was trying to reach something that had been dropped. I noticed the boat was coming in my direction, so I moved over as close to the bank as I could, but there is no real bank- the trees go out from the bank about five feet the entire length of the river. So I am almost in the trees when the driver of the boat finally realized he was heading toward m e. It was too late for him to turn his boat to avoid me, and I couldn't paddle any faster, and I was going against the current. So in the end, I pulled my paddle inside the boat and braced myself for impact. I was t-boned. I felt myself starting to tip, so I grabbed onto a bar on the top of the boat to steady myself. Done, only now I was being dragged by the boat backwards because I refused to let go. The driver slowed and stopped the boat and reached over to stop my kayak from rocking. As soon as he let go, I had my paddle back in the water, and was continuing on my way. He yelled behind me that he was sorry and that he didn't mean to hit me, and I yelled back that I was okay. Luckily, there was no damage to my boat, and I only sustained a minor injury which was my fault (well, after you get past the part where it was his fault that I was hit. But when I grabbed the boat, my arm scraped against the boat, and left a pretty attractive bruise on my upper arm. I showed it off to everyone until now, at which time there is only a faint spot. But I was so excited, that once I got down the river a bit, I wedged myself between two trees and immediately called my parents, and told them the whole story. Then I called Val, who I didn't get through to, but I did leave her a two minute message detailing every bit.
Then yesterday, Tee decided she wanted to try it. So we rented a kayak for her, and we set off on the Silver River. The trip was fun- we got there at 8 and finishedat 1. It was a very fun day. The best part? When we had about an hour left (We had already traveled the three hours upstream until we got to Silver Springs, where we couldn't do much exploring because there were too many glass bottomed boats around), and were letting the river take us back downstream to the boat launch. I had always wanted to try standing up, so I did. I played Gondoleer(sp?) for a while, and I had a blast. The whole time I kept mentioning how I wanted to jump into the river, but I didn't know if I'd be able to get back onto my boat, or not, so I was too afraid to.Finally we saw a small beach-like area where a girl was relaxing. I yelled to her and asked if it was shallow, and she said it was relatively- a person could stand. I thought, Excellent, I could jump in here, swim over to shore, and climb back in. I yelled back to her, "Thanks. I've been thinking about jumping in..." I turned really quickly, and my kayak started to wobble. A second later, I had fallen into the water. When I got back up, I said, "Well, that will work." Then I realized that the current was too strong- I couldn't swim to the shore while holding onto the handle of my kayak at the same time- it was too heavy. So Tee caught up and grabbed hold of my kayak. On this particular day, I wasn't able to find my swim suit bottoms or a mini skirt, which is my usual attire for kayaking, so I just wore a pair of panties and a mid-shin length skirt. The skirt, not saturated in water, was getting in the way of my kicking legs, so I had to take it off. I did so and put it back in my boat. I floated a bit more until I started hitting falled trees under the water, and I got a little scared. I wanted to try to get back into my boat, but there were people around, and my panties were white. So I held out until we went around a bend, and, amazingly enough, I ws able to climb back onto my kayak. (I was happy at this point, becuase I at least knew that that was a skill I possessed were I to have another spill in the future.) I put my skirt back on, and we paddled some more. Then I was like, that was really fun. I think I want to stand again. So I did. I was up for about five minutes, when we passed soe other people. We had a nice ride by chat with them, then Tee decided to be funny. She pulled her kayak up next to mine, and started rocking- she succeeded. I lost my balance and ended up back into the river. We got to a bend and she called that there were a lot of fallen trees, so I'd have to get back in, regardless of all the people. I pulled myself back in, my skirt only slipping a little. We finished the rest of the ride without incident...
Oh, I have to tell ya. Those types of things excite me. They were the best days ever. Oh, wait. The other thing about yesterday. I just got my eagle tattoo colored in, so I had it bandaged to keep it out of the sun. I know have a large white square on my leg around the tattoo, which didn't look damaged by the water. The only thing I am worried about is that on Friday, I just had surgery on my feet. And while treading around in the river after my spills, my bandages fell off. And they were un-bandaged until we got back to shore, but I think I took care of the wounds well enough that I shouldn't have any complications. Also, it was rel;atively cool when we got out, so we weren't ecpecting it to reach 99 degrees F by midday, and we both got pretty sunburnt. But my body has become accustomed to it, so it tanned over night. You should see me- I'm so dark. I'm gonna get skin cancer one day, no doubt.
That is all. Have a good day :)
On July 22, I went down to the Silver River, and had a grand old time. Actually, I decided to go that day to relieve stress from missing a pretty important exam that day. But anyway, so I'm kayaking, minding my own business, having a good time with David Allen Coe blasting from the speakers on my ipod. It's pretty busy, which is to be expected as it was one of the last few weekends in the summer before school starts. I was turning a corner, and I noticed that a motor boat was heading in my direction. I know the drill- get to the side of the river and let them pass. This time was different, though. All the people in this boat were looking over the side of the boat, including the driver- one person was trying to reach something that had been dropped. I noticed the boat was coming in my direction, so I moved over as close to the bank as I could, but there is no real bank- the trees go out from the bank about five feet the entire length of the river. So I am almost in the trees when the driver of the boat finally realized he was heading toward m e. It was too late for him to turn his boat to avoid me, and I couldn't paddle any faster, and I was going against the current. So in the end, I pulled my paddle inside the boat and braced myself for impact. I was t-boned. I felt myself starting to tip, so I grabbed onto a bar on the top of the boat to steady myself. Done, only now I was being dragged by the boat backwards because I refused to let go. The driver slowed and stopped the boat and reached over to stop my kayak from rocking. As soon as he let go, I had my paddle back in the water, and was continuing on my way. He yelled behind me that he was sorry and that he didn't mean to hit me, and I yelled back that I was okay. Luckily, there was no damage to my boat, and I only sustained a minor injury which was my fault (well, after you get past the part where it was his fault that I was hit. But when I grabbed the boat, my arm scraped against the boat, and left a pretty attractive bruise on my upper arm. I showed it off to everyone until now, at which time there is only a faint spot. But I was so excited, that once I got down the river a bit, I wedged myself between two trees and immediately called my parents, and told them the whole story. Then I called Val, who I didn't get through to, but I did leave her a two minute message detailing every bit.
Then yesterday, Tee decided she wanted to try it. So we rented a kayak for her, and we set off on the Silver River. The trip was fun- we got there at 8 and finishedat 1. It was a very fun day. The best part? When we had about an hour left (We had already traveled the three hours upstream until we got to Silver Springs, where we couldn't do much exploring because there were too many glass bottomed boats around), and were letting the river take us back downstream to the boat launch. I had always wanted to try standing up, so I did. I played Gondoleer(sp?) for a while, and I had a blast. The whole time I kept mentioning how I wanted to jump into the river, but I didn't know if I'd be able to get back onto my boat, or not, so I was too afraid to.Finally we saw a small beach-like area where a girl was relaxing. I yelled to her and asked if it was shallow, and she said it was relatively- a person could stand. I thought, Excellent, I could jump in here, swim over to shore, and climb back in. I yelled back to her, "Thanks. I've been thinking about jumping in..." I turned really quickly, and my kayak started to wobble. A second later, I had fallen into the water. When I got back up, I said, "Well, that will work." Then I realized that the current was too strong- I couldn't swim to the shore while holding onto the handle of my kayak at the same time- it was too heavy. So Tee caught up and grabbed hold of my kayak. On this particular day, I wasn't able to find my swim suit bottoms or a mini skirt, which is my usual attire for kayaking, so I just wore a pair of panties and a mid-shin length skirt. The skirt, not saturated in water, was getting in the way of my kicking legs, so I had to take it off. I did so and put it back in my boat. I floated a bit more until I started hitting falled trees under the water, and I got a little scared. I wanted to try to get back into my boat, but there were people around, and my panties were white. So I held out until we went around a bend, and, amazingly enough, I ws able to climb back onto my kayak. (I was happy at this point, becuase I at least knew that that was a skill I possessed were I to have another spill in the future.) I put my skirt back on, and we paddled some more. Then I was like, that was really fun. I think I want to stand again. So I did. I was up for about five minutes, when we passed soe other people. We had a nice ride by chat with them, then Tee decided to be funny. She pulled her kayak up next to mine, and started rocking- she succeeded. I lost my balance and ended up back into the river. We got to a bend and she called that there were a lot of fallen trees, so I'd have to get back in, regardless of all the people. I pulled myself back in, my skirt only slipping a little. We finished the rest of the ride without incident...
Oh, I have to tell ya. Those types of things excite me. They were the best days ever. Oh, wait. The other thing about yesterday. I just got my eagle tattoo colored in, so I had it bandaged to keep it out of the sun. I know have a large white square on my leg around the tattoo, which didn't look damaged by the water. The only thing I am worried about is that on Friday, I just had surgery on my feet. And while treading around in the river after my spills, my bandages fell off. And they were un-bandaged until we got back to shore, but I think I took care of the wounds well enough that I shouldn't have any complications. Also, it was rel;atively cool when we got out, so we weren't ecpecting it to reach 99 degrees F by midday, and we both got pretty sunburnt. But my body has become accustomed to it, so it tanned over night. You should see me- I'm so dark. I'm gonna get skin cancer one day, no doubt.
That is all. Have a good day :)