Sunday, July 25, 2010

We decided we were going to kayak Clear Water before Janet left. It took us all afternoon to get ready. Dad put the fishing boat in the water and Mom, Janet and him drove it. While Scott and I took the pontoon boat with three kayaks on it. When we finally arrived we got into our kayaks without incident and took off upstream. It was beautiful. Janet was enjoying the water lilies. It took us one hour and fifty minutes to get to the bay. Once we were in the bay Scott got out his pole and Janet and I paddled out of the bay. The water was fairly rough. Mom and Dad took Charliegh and went to scout places to camp. Eventually, we headed back. It was very peacful and much easier to paddle downstream. It took us one hour and twenty-five minutes. Toward the end, Mom convinced Janet to hold on to the boat for a little. She was in a double kayak so it was only her weight on the back. As he began to pull the back of the kayak was sinking in the back. As they turned a corner Janet noticed a large rock coming straight toward her but instead of letting go she just held on and Dad took her right over the rock. I was ahead of them but I could hear Janet screaming.


When I reached the destination I threw everything up onto the pontoon and got in position to get into the pontoon boat. That is when everything began to go downhill literally. Scott grabbed one arm and I was almost on the boat when the kayak slipped out from under my feet. I was yelling at Scott not to let go. Dad was yelling at me to put my feet down but I refused b/c I didn't have my shoes on. Finally, I took a dive for my boat but missed and landed in the drink. I stepped on the weeds and it scraped the bottoms of my feet so I lunged for my kayak and sat in it. Then Janet came along (worried about Charliegh because she hadn't used the facilities all day) with Charliegh in her kayak, I heard a noise and glanced over just in time to see both of them fall off the kayak. I was worried about her being hurt but she was laughing so hard I decided she was okay. So she tries to step on the ground but it bottoms out and she "falls" in further. Meanwhile, Charleigh is swimming around trying depsarately to get into one of the 4 boats. Finally, Scott grabs her by the handle on her life jacket and pulls her onto the pontoon. Mom, laughing, points to the pontoon boat and tells Scott he might want to pick up our towels. He looks back and starts laughing. I look on the boat and see Charliegh wrestling with the blue beach towel. She is rolling around on it but it is wrapped around her. Then Dad tells Scott to put the ladder up. Brilliant. If I had remembered there was a ladder this would never had happened. The problem was that the ladder only worked on the other side (not sure if I believe that!) so we had to get around the other side of the pontoon boat. Janet calls me over to that side and helps me get my shoes back on. Then she instructs me that there is a ledge and it was very narrow. She said that I had to stay on that ledge all the way to the ladder. So I take my paddle and use it like a walking stick to check the depth in front of me. I took a step and it was good. Then I take another step and my right leg fell into a thirty foot hole. So I yelled, "I just fell into a thirty foot hole!" The only thing that stopped me was that I had my other foot on "land" and my paddle. I used the paddle to get up and once I was up I felt something pulling my paddle. I yelled, "Something has a hold of my paddle." Then Scott yells, "It's me! I'm trying to take it for you!" I looked straight up and saw him standing there holding one end of my paddle. I yelled at him to let it go because it just saved my life. Janet and I were laughing so hard we could hardly move. Finally, I make it to the ladder and climb unto the pontoon boat. Scott told me to sit down before I cause anymore trouble. I look over at mom and dad in the other boat, who were being soooo helpful, and they were doubled over they were laughing so hard. Then Scott tells Janet to get on the boat. She says, "I'm not going to fall in that thirty foot hole!" What do you think happens to her? She takes a step and her entire body goes into the thirty foot hole. Scott is laughing, Charleigh is running around the boat. Finally, we are all on the boat. Scott gets all of the kayaks loaded and Dad turns us around with his boat. Thank goodness it started right up and we started the trek home. We pulled out our peanut butter sandwiches and all kind of collapsed. Janet and I compared injuries on the way home. She had the most blood and I had the biggest bruise. It only took 50 minutes to get back to the dock. We unloaded the kayak and Scott and I took a bath and headed up. Dad burnt all the garbage so we could have a lovely evening with a smokey cabin.