Our Family River Adventure

We took the kids floating down the river this last Saturday for the first time this summer. It turned into such a beautiful, hot August day, and a summer without at least one river float feels as dismal as a winter without a least one ski adventure.

We missed out on going with a bigger group that planned on starting earlier in the day. Our float trip was not so much the product of good planning, as an impulse brought on by a warm, unexpectedly free Saturday. So, instead of the usual large floating group, it was just our little family of four and our friend Parker.

Since this was very possibly the only float trip of this summer, we decided that we'd make it be a long one. We were looking forward to a least three hours on the water, enjoying the hot sun, the cool water, and all of the junk food we had packed away in our cooler (which also had it's own inner tube).

We all carried our tubes down to the water, and put them in it, gasping at it's chilly-ness. The boys all got ahead of Kloe and I, so I held on to her tube's rope with my foot and paddled us both out to where the current was a little faster. She allowed herself to towed along with much grace.

Whenever we float the river with our kiddos, we always have them wear lifejackets, and we always link up our tubes into a big caravan so we can be together and safe. When we caught up with the guys, we all linked up and relaxed. Tubing is the singularly most relaxing thing one can do.

Well, it's one of the most relaxing things you can do UNTIL you find yourself caught in a current,  hurtling toward the side of a mountain with no brakes (brakes on river inner tubes would be a very cool thing). We all paddled our arms furiously against the current. Well, Derrick and I paddled. The kids mostly voiced dire predictions of what our near future would entail, like hitting the mountain.

I hit the sharp points first, with all of my family's and coolers weight hitting against me as their buffer. My tube managed to survive the first bounce. It did not fair so well on the second bounce. The rocks punctured it and it deflated immediately. By this point Derrick had pushed himself, Derrin and the cooler back into the current to stop hitting me against the rocks.

Without all of the bouncing against me, it actually was a lot less dramatic. It was fairly easy to stand up on the rocks (pointy though they were) and deliberate about my next move. I still had Kloe and her big tube with me. It was a pretty easy choice; either take a long walk back to the car for a different tube (with girl in tow) or climb on board with the girl and share a tube for the next two and a half hours... um, maybe not such an easy choice, but a logical one.

So, we set off together, side by side, for the rest of the float. It was actually pretty great getting to be right there with my girl, eating Twizzlers and Whoppers. FYI, Whoppers happen to FLOAT. We unwittingly set several little round brown whoppers free on our journey, to the interest/disgust to any river floaters coming up behind us, I'm sure.

Kloe complained dutifully about the unfun-ness of sharing a tube with ones mother, but it was pretty apparent she secretly enjoyed telling me how and where to paddle in fast water areas.  She was very focused on pointing out any potential inner tube popping rocks, which she now assumed I had a complete inability to avoid without a LOT of guidance.

Anyone who has ever made a long river float will tell you that you will NEVER see anyone getting out to use the bathroom. It is just a quiet understanding that like the fish and all other river life, you will become one with the river in that sense. It's fine that we all do it, we just don't need to talk about it. Well, Kloe never got that memo, or maybe she was trying to be polite, but she informed me that she was indeed going to 'become one with the river', as I sat there with her, side by side, in a tube. Yippee... it would have been much nicer to have just remained unaware of what was happening, but I had the privilege of full awareness. And you are WELCOME for that little tidbit.

Two and a half hours later we made it to our destination. It turned out to be a pretty fantastic day, and maybe by some miracle we'll get to do another river float soon.