Floating down a river.

This past weekend I took a time out. I went for a float down a river with New Dude, my brother and his brother.

It was a stressful morning because I NEEDED to run before we went and sat for a few hours. I hadn't been able to run in about 3-4 days so my bitchiness was coming out. So we got up early, went for a run and then had a mad dash of about 30 minutes to get 3 people through the showers, all the towels, drinks and whatever else we needed gathered and out the door. We had to stop to grab some food which, apparently 9:00 is a busy time for fast food places on weekend.

We were running behind, which was stressing me out a little because the way the talked about the reservations we HAD to be there at a certain time or bad things would happened. Also getting 4 people to one place at one time, was a lot harder that I had thought. I still keep forgetting this fact.

As a whole we were a little late but it was okay. About 20 minutes after we were there, we had a map, a dry bag, our snacks and drinks, and were floating down a river.

We went about 6 miles and it took us about 4-5 hours. At one point we were all very nervous that the trip was going to be ending very soon. Only to worry about an hour later that it would never end and that we were lost and never getting home.

The day itself was amazing. The water was calm, the sun was shining, the clouds were fluffy and all different kinds of shapes. There was a slight breeze that took care any little bugs.

We had nice supply of snacks and drinks, no cell phones, and mostly just good company.

While stopping for lunch we found a deer skull, trash and a trolling motor. We kept the skull.

We end up with some stories, like how my brother and New Dude's brother ended up flipping their canoe. It was due to over confidence,  my brother freezing when thing started to go wrong, and it was all done in SLOW motion. Quite funny. New Dude were able to watch and then help them out and flipped their canoe. There was a moment or two when New Dude and I almost flipped our canoe as well.

 

What I really enjoyed was, after getting there, was to sit back, relax, enjoy nature and just get outside with the people you love. Was it a super riveting adventure? Eh, when we almost flipped, but mostly it was just enjoying the day. Really, just sitting on a river, hearing both animals and trains, and enjoying the day. Being there, in the moment.

 

I also learned that floating in a canoe is a great way to learn how your communications skills are with your special someone else. New Dude and I did well, but I was having word issues. I also learned that I like to float down a river more straight then cutting back and forth to correct the direction we were going. I think New Dude was more just let us just float and see what happens.

 

For anyone else still new in a relationship, or even old, I'd suggest a canoe trip to see how it goes. See if you're on the same page and if not can you figure out a middle ground? I'd say sort of. I was up front of the canoe but I didn't really do much to move the canoe. If New Dude didn't paddle, then we didn't move. I don't know if it is the different in weight or my poor paddling skills. Either way, we'll just have to do it again to find out.

 

 

Another weekend has arrived. What are you going to do to make an adventure? If you cannot make an adventure are you going to at least get out there to enjoy the day or the moment? Are you going to really be there or just take pictures/snapchats/picture texts about it?