November 6, 2018
Hello friend! Today I want to share a story with you. I promise there’s a reason for sharing this with you. One that God put on my heart today to share and made me laugh about when I considered the metaphor.
This past summer a friend of mine, Tori, invited me to go kayaking with her at a nearby river with a group of Veterans as her guest (she’s the Veteran). The same place also was hosting a relaxation yoga class that day. I accepted her invitation and showed up to the event looking forward to spending the day with my friend. I had been kayaking once before and even have a kayak at my house. You’d think I would have gone more than once since I have a kayak at my house; right? That’s another story for another day. Ha, ha! Anyway, it was late August and it was early in the morning. I’m not much of a morning person, but I had to leave my house on the day I took off work before 8 am. So, you know she’s a good friend! While I have a kayak I was told not to bring mine because the place already had them available for use.
Well, when we got to the river the staff assigned us which kayaks we would be using. Tori and I were assigned a different kind of kayak than everyone else, and one that is different than mine at home. I have a sit on top kayak and she and I were both assigned kayaks that you actually have to sit in, not on. The opening is larger than those that you see on TV that the professionals use, but it was still something that made me feel a little uneasy. The staff told us to just use our arms and advised us to not move the bottom half of our bodies or we would risk tipping over. Just what you want to hear; right? I decided to hand them my car keys for safe keeping just in case that happened.
Well, after a very brief instruction on how to ensure we were all using our paddles correctly we were sent along our way for our trip down the river. The only real information we were given was that we would know that we were close to the end of the trip when we saw the bridge above us. We were told that after we saw the bridge to make our way to the left side of the river to exit with our kayaks.
I was surprised that it was a self-guided kayaking adventure and not one where any staff were at the beginning or the end of the pack. There were approximately 12 of us in the group. My friend and I were almost at the end of the group, but there were two other people that entered the water behind us.
We were told before we entered the water that it was a 2-mile trip and that it should take almost an hour and a half. Tori and I set out and were excited about our adventure ahead. The river was about 15 feet wide and the water was a bit murky since it had rained a lot recently. But, it was still a serene setting with the banks of river rising high above us. There were large green trees lining each side and the ground was at least 10 to 15 feet above us at most points along the river. All we could see was the exposed red clay of the Earth and a tree growing into the river here and there. It felt like we had been transported to another place and that the hustle and bustle of the town where we entered near the river was far away. It was relaxing.
Tori and I had gone about 100 yards before we each decided to take pictures of each other and the surroundings before we went any further. You know – capturing the moment. I had my cell phone in a handy-dandy waterproof case that hung around my neck and she had her cell phone in hand with her GoPro video camera attached to her kayak.
(I’m realizing right now that this is going to be a multi-post blog!)
After we finished taking our pictures we continued down the river and noticed that the current was faster than expected. I guess where we entered the river was a bit calmer than the rest of it. Anyway, Tori’s kayak floated over something in the water… a thick branch about the size of a large man’s arm. It caused her kayak to tilt one way and then to the other – before she knew it, she was in the water. We hadn’t even gone a quarter of a mile on our trip when it happened. Now would be a good time to mention that Tori wears hearing aids… yeah, water and hearing aids don’t mix. Also worth mentioning is that she has a pace maker. I wasn’t concerned about that though; I was worried about her being in the river! There were more tree branches and logs in the river than expected – some really were large!
She began yelling for me to help her; but, the current of the river was taking me down the river so quickly that I was unable to help her. I was yelling that I couldn’t stop but that I would try to get to the side of the river to wait on her. Well, about 100 yards down the river I was able to fight the current enough to get to the side where the water was calmer. Somehow, she was able to swim her way towards me with her paddle and kayak to where she found a very small patch of ground on the bank of the river so she could dump the water out of her kayak. The ground was barely big enough for her to stand on and tip over her kayak. It took about five minutes for all the water to empty out. Her kayak was very heavy; she couldn’t just turn it over to dump it out.
At one point, when she was dumping out the water, we saw the two kayakers that were behind us from when we began. We told them to please tell someone at the end of the trip that we might be a little behind in getting to the end and to please not leave us. They said that they would relay the message. We just had to trust that they would do that though – we didn’t know the people.
It definitely put a damper on the start of our trip. However, I was relieved that she was okay. She was concerned about her hearing aids being wet but stated that one was still working okay and the other was half-way working. She also realized that her really expensive phone was nowhere to be found. She surmised that it was more than likely at the bottom of the river. Unfortunately, I had to agree that she was probably correct.
Well, after emptying her kayak of water she got back in and we began our journey again. But, as luck would have it, she came upon another really large branch in the river and her kayak bumped into it just enough for her to roll over again into the water. I estimate that we had gone about half a mile into our two-mile trip at this point. I could hear her cry for help again but the current was even faster at this point of the river.
However, I saw a really large tree that had fallen across most of the river and I thought that I could probably hold on to part of it to stop myself from going any further down the river. I’m sure experienced kayakers are laughing at me right now. This novice kayaker found out the hard way that it was a dumb move. I held on to the tree, but my kayak began to roll over in the water. Before I knew it, I was also in the water and I could tell that I would soon be under the water if I didn’t let go of my kayak. So, I let go and my kayak went under the log and popped out in the water not too far away. I, now also in the water, floated off to the left and around the tree.
Now, Tori and I both were in the river. I could still hear her trying to make heads or tails of what was going on while I was trying to grab ahold of my kayak and paddle before they both floated away. About a minute or so later she and I were able to reunite further down the river – although I’m not sure how. Both she and I had our kayaks and our paddles with us in the water, but we weren’t in them, just holding on to them.
Stay tuned and God Bless,
Penelope G.