A Lazy Day On The River

Today, I spent 5 hours going down the Duck River in a canoe and had an absolute blast!
There was a group of 22 people (11 guys and 11 gals) from the Kairos that met at Brentwood Baptist Church this morning at 8:30 am. I know...can you believe that I got up? I am so not a morning person, if you don't believe me you can ask any family member and they will tell you. But I love hanging out with people, so I was willing to sacrifice my sleeping in.
We got to the Duck River (in Columbia, TN) around 9:30 am and were assigned partners (1 guy to 1 gal). My parnters(canoe mate, if you will)name was Jacob, I found out that like everyone else in this town, he works in the music business. He manages about 4 or 5 Christian artists/bands. It sounded like a really neat job, although, he really is on call at all times!
We all got in the water around 10 am and headed down the good ole Duck! For the most part, we all stayed together, there would be some that would get way ahead or way behind but in no time we would all be back together again. This was really a great group of people that went. We all seemed to get along great!
One of the guys that I play kickball with was actually swimming in the river and decided to try and dump us, but I informed him that I had no problem with hitting him in the head with my orr! :-) He eventually went away and we were on our way again - tip free!
We came across a couple of rope swings, there was one in perticular that we all tried. Yep, you heard me correct, I even gave it a try. I have seen people swinging on these ropes before in movies or music videos and I have always thought that it would be a lot of fun to do. I had so much fun, I did it twice. My first jump was the best, I was given a score of a 10, beginners luck, I say! My second jump was more of a pathetic jump, I really don't know what happened, but it just wasn't as smooth as the first although I still hit the water. Unfortunately my canoe mate was not as successful, Jacob's one an only jump cut him a little short of the water and he ended up cutting his foot and scrapping up his back and arm and then ended in the water. We all just looked at him not knowing what to do, "should we laugh", "I hope he's okay", etc... He was okay, a little embarrassed but he handled it just fine. From then on, he became known as "That Guy"! You know the stories I am talking about, the one's that start like "Remember that time when "that guy"....
Around noon we stopped and ate, which was nice to take a break and then we got back on the river.
Some of the group had stopped and gotten out to swim. Jacob really didn't want to get out and I was perfectly fine staying in the canoe and just floating down the river watching the others. We came across some cattle in the water and they looked like they were starting to form a wall trying to intimidate us. But as we got closer and the cattle could see that we were not backing down an in fact were pretty good canoers (am I even close as spelling that correctly)...anyway, they decided to head to shore and we went on our way.
We also came across some type of spring, that shot straight up in the air. Apparently there were only a few us that saw it, it was really neat!
I kept telling Jacob that we really should write a guide book because we were such awesome canoers (there's that word again), he was in complete agreement. I let you know when it comes out!
Finally after 5 hours and 9 miles later, we ended our trip and were returned to our cars.
I didn't realize how tired I was until we got into the vehicles and I started feeling sleepy! I ended up burning my arms, surprise there! But I am still confused a how I was able to burn my knees when they were covered the whole time! It's just amazing to me, why would I have expected anything less!
God provided such a beautiful day and introduced me to so many wonderful people that are now friends, what an AWESOME GOD WE SERVE!
There is going to be a white water rafting activity August 9th - I say "Bring it On!"