Canoe, can you?

I had my first experience with a canoe this weekend. I loved it. Being outdoors in nature.
Learning something new and being with my Brother and Sister in Law (She is much more like a sister) . I love hanging out with them. You can really feel thier love for one another and it is so inviting to be around. (I Love you Guys).

We are in the process of planning a family reunion and one of the activities will be a canoe trip, the campground that we are going to offers them, so we thought that we would take it just so that we would be knowledgable if anyone wants to go. It was an 8 mile 4 hour trip down the Brazos river in Glenrose Texas. The river is not very deep in most places, so the danger of tipping over is there, but if you did you could also just wade thru most of it with no trouble. We stopped on a little island and had a picnic lunch. We waded and stopped along the way to hang out in the water to cool off.

Then, we hit this one spot (Brother called it the chute) It was a spot where the water was rushing pretty fast and it looked to be about a foot deep. Of course I got the canoe stuck on a huge rock ( I was blissfully unaware of the need to navigate and be the lookout for big rocks) Sis and I got out to push the canoe off the rock. Brother had been doing this task most of the time, so this time, we thought that we would give him a break and take on the task. This was a Mistake......

The canoe took off, once we got it off the rocks, and lightened the load, with Brother still in the canoe. Sis and I though we would just wade thru this spot. Not a smart idea...., the current pulled us down, and we bounced off the rocks on the bottom, just like in the movies, bouncing up and down in the water (Life jackets still in the canoe) The water was about 3-4 foot deep, but the rush was such that you could not stay up. I went down first, Sister went down right after me. She yelled "Keep your butt up", how you are supposed to do this is beyond me, I had my feet in the air, my hands on my glasses and I was bouncing said anatomy off the rocks (Ouch!) I was going feet first, she was going head first, she hit a big rock with her hand. I was able to get my feet down eventuly and I was able to get out of the current and make it to the side (I swallowed so much water, I was coughing quite a bit) Sister zoomed on by, and stopped in the water that was much stiller. Then she told us about her hand. We thought it was broke, because she could not touch it, but It got a little better, so maybe it is just bruised really bad. It throbbed the rest of the trip.

We got back in the canoe and went a ways furter. Most of the river is concealed from the outside world with steep banks that go up several feet, so you really feel like you are out in the wilderness, even though there are houses all around. We saw horses drinking from the water, and a crane eating a fish. One large crane was sitting on the bank and did not want us to pass him, so just as we would get close to him, he would fly a little further up from us. He did this for about a half hour.

It was a fun trip, but about an hour too long. The last leg was hard. We were tired, the current was not very strong the last bend and we were having to really paddle. If I were to do it all over again, I would take the 3 hour trip instead of the 4 hour trip (the canoe rental place also offers a 6 hour trip. (I don;t think I could do that one)

Looking forward to doing it again and I can now recommend the trip the family at the reunion.

Little achey today tho. Wheres the Tylenol?