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Monday, September 6, 2010

Let the adventures begin! T-minus 3 days left!

Wow I can't believe we're leaving on this coming Thursday morning . . . you know like 3 days from now! Ahhhhhh! Peter is currently cooking up a storm. You might ask what delectable food is he making his darling wife? I bet you would never guess it was dehydrated pasta bark!

We borrowed my parent's old dehydrator and have done some fruit and chicken jerky which I can fairly handle, but I had never heard of potato bark, pasta bark and corn bark! It's basically a dehydrated meal that you simple put in some boiling water and voila! a hearty meal (hopefully not theoretical)! We'll let you know when we taste it how it turns out.

Onto our pre-adventure that we had yesterday. We thought it would be a good idea to kayak one more time before we go kayaking on the great lakes and in Acadia NP. So I researched some lakes near us and they all made you pay quite a one day permit fee per boat so we said heck with that.

So then I said, hey we're really close to some inlets into the Missouri River and it's free so why not. So we went to Kaw Point which had a good review on paddling.com and said it was cool to paddle so close to all the industrial buildings and see trains whiz by overhead as well as planes. So this sounded pretty cool. We got there and it was already incredibly windy but we thought we'd keep it easy so no worries.

We started out going away from the city and farther towards Kansas. It was quite easy and I started thinking man I could be a paddler for sure! Then I had the great idea to go the other ways towards the city so we could see all that architecture and other stuff the article was talking about. BIG MISTAKE!

Sure paddling down river is really pretty easy because that's what you're supposed to do, then have someone pick you up later down river. We didn't notice just how fast the current was going because at the time the wind was at our back and we liked looking at all the cool stuff. So we finally decide it's a good time to start heading back and that's when it hits us, the current that is. We struggle to the shoreline and inch our way back. Meanwhile I'm already sore and tired so my strength is a little weak, OK a lot weak.

Now is the time I start freaking out because I simply cannot paddle myself hard enough around certain bends without the current taking me back to where I had begun or farther back. Peter is doing his best trying to keep me cool and with some prayers, grit, and excessive cursing on my part we made it. I felt my arms might just fall off and don't get me started on my back.

It made me realize some things. 1. Peter is as cool as cucumber under stress and pressure. 2. When I feel myself losing control in situations that are physically demanding I become a raging tomato who frightens old ladies out walking her dog along the river (sorry lady) 3. It's best to look at situations like this as one step or stroke at a time, because when I saw just how far we had to paddle back I lost it a little again. Tunnel vision is great. 4. Although I am not quite proud of how I handled things, I am tremendously proud of Peter and of myself for getting through it and just putting my head down and going for it. 5. After a hard day there is nothing better than Panera's mac and cheese!

So we are glad we did it and made it through and we are better for it and better prepared for next time. Hopefully when I report our next kayaking adventure it will be less on the crazy side.

Cheers for now!

1 comment:

  1. love the truths you came away with...I am sure you will learn many, many things about yourselves, each other, and your creator during the coming months!
    Debbie Fisher

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