So, when Paul said he thought it would be fun to float the James River with the kids I was all like...YEAH! Actually, I was not like...YEAH! I was more like...how much stuff can I cram into our weekends in order to not have to float down the James River...in a john boat...with three kids. But, I ended up penciling it in on our calendar and knew God was looking out for me when there was a 60% chance of rain for the day we had planned going. Devine intervention! Except...it didn't rain. Not one.single.drop.
Paul had floated the river with my cousin once, and enjoyed it. It's different, two grown men floating a river than...let's say...one grown man, three kids and a pretty much useless woman when it comes to all things water. Bath time...I've got it! River floating...not so much. Paul said my "motherly survival instincts" would kick in. Wait...what? Why would my motherly survival instincts need to kick in!
We originally planned to get up, pack a picnic lunch, and just enjoy a day on the river. It became a day of...how fast can we get on the river and float down it before the rain comes. Paul said it would only take a couple hours, so since we had eaten breakfast, we decided to forgo the picnic. Due to the impending rain, we decided we would just eat when we got back home. I packed some drinks and snacks, for the kids not us...and off we went.
The kids were excited, especially Kristen. She wanted to paddle, Lauren saw a big bird and wanted to go see it. If I were outdoorsy I would be able to tell you exactly what type of bird it was, but I'm not. We did very little floating and a lot of paddling...actually Paul did a lot of paddling. I am very directionally challenged and I apparently have a talent for paddling our boat around in circles. I would occasionally paddle here and there so it would seem as if I was contributing.
We stopped a couple times on the way to explore, which the girls loved. Dallas didn't want to leave the boat, and I don't blame him. River water...yuck! Another thing on my list of nasty outdoor things. Well, as we are floating along I hear...wait...IS THAT A WATERFALL? Ya'll...it sounded just like a waterfall and my worst nightmare. I thought we would get a little rain, but never thought I would be entering the great white rapids. I mean...this is the James River! Paul informed me it was JUST the class 1 riffles. Riffles? What is that? I have never heard of such. And riffles sound nice...like something on my grandmother's bed, NOT the horrorific sound I was hearing. This was rapids and the only way past it was to go through it. I put the life jackets on thie kids as fast as I could and threw one over my head, just in case. You can never be too safe when navigating through...literally...uncharted waters. In hindsight, if I did happen to get pulled under all I would have had to do was stand up, but I wasn't taking any chances. Paul decided it was better for me to wait on a rock while he navigated the kids through the rough waters. He anchored them off and then came back for me. I felt like I was being rescued from a flood. The kids did great, and it added a little excitement to our river paddling.
We ended up hitting another class 1 riffle. We had all remained calm until we were headed directly into a fallen down tree. Paul jumped out of the boat and that is when Dallas got upset. I guess for him, Paul being in the water meant chaos. He kept pointing inside the boat like, "Dad, get in"! Every time the boat would rock he would say, "whoa". Which was exactly what I was saying in my head. Lauren then ended up getting upset, mostly because Dallas had entered the hysterical crying zone. But, Paul being the awesome captain that he is, got us all thru it and I had somehow managed to get in the back of the boat in "the seat". You know, "the seat" that one would sit in if they had to adjust their paddling based on what the person in front of them were doing so they could steer the boat. Based on my awesome paddling/steering/navigating skills this had the potential to turn into a disaster.
We were, or so we thought, coming up on our destination and that'll put some pep in your paddling. And then we hit the last riffle of our journey. We were all able to stay in the boat, but our boat kept turning around...not because of my awesome paddling either, just because of the current. Paul kept telling me that we had to get the boat turned back around. Umm...wouldn't it just be easier to turn our seats around and paddle then us trying to turn the whole boat around. And does it really matter if the pointed end of the boat is at the front? Obviously it doesn't because it was and we still got turned around. But, I remained quiet and started paddling like I knew what I was doing...until Paul informed me I was paddling on the wrong side...in the wrong direction. This is exactly why we need a steering wheel!
Our two hour boat float ended up taking five hours, and Paul paddled the whole way. I can't imagine how long it would have taken if we had actually floated...or if something had happened to Paul's arms and I was forced to paddle us. Kristen said at one point, "I wish there was a motor on this thing." And I couldn't agree more...oh...and a steering wheel.
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