Aug 15th: Riding through rapids!

A lot of great experiences happened today, including a fun trip to the mini-putt course, and being introduced to the amazing burgers at the Anchor Bar & Grill – one of the featured restaurants on the Food Network show “Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives.” If you ever find yourself around Superior or Duluth, I encourage you to make the trip!

But as amazing as those experiences were, I think I’m just going to focus on the awesomeness of our annual down river canoe trip that took place this morning.  Mostly because I was really excited but very nervous going into it (more than usual) because my sternmate was one I’ve never had before, and one who didn’t have the best reputation with being in the stern.

Let me preface to say that the down river trip involves a lots of obstacles like rocks and fallen branches that make for a lot of rapid sections, including some parts that are affectionately called “The Wall” and “Little Joe”.  Over the years many of our canoes have either run into or gotten stuck on these obstacles and some have even been flipped over, forcing the riders to take an unintended and sometimes painful swim in the river.

Part of the reason I was nervous for today’s trip was because of the disadvantages we already had against us.  Neither of us had ever gone down river together before.  Neither of us had the best of reputations in our canoeing abilities.  And we were going down in the biggest, heaviest, and most beat up (though also most experienced) canoe available to us: BENT BETTY!  To know Betty is to love her.  She’s a big beautiful woman, and while she doesn’t handle well, being able to conquer the river with her is an awesome feeling, so we accepted the challenge.

Turns out neither of us were nearly as bad as we thought the other might be.  Yes – it turns out that despite our differences, Jamie and I can actually make a great team.  And Betty was a champ.  I can’t say it was a flawless run, as there were a few dings (one very obvious one that I take full responsibility for) and moments of having to shuffle in our seats to get ourselves off of something.  What I can say is that it was one of my smoothest rides down the river.   And considering that 2 of the 5 canoes that went down river ended up going for swims, I think we can be proud that ours wasn’t one of them. Though I should probably give Betty some credit for that.

Thank you Jamie and Betty for an awesome down-river ride.  I’d be happy to do that again with either of you, anytime!