Wow! I know it’s been a while since I last wrote a post, but I have an excuse. I just got back from a mini-vacation which came right on the heels of our cruise.

Early this Spring some friends from church and I had been yakking about going white water rafting sometime. Well, the “sometime” was earlier this week.

We headed up to West Virginia early  (very early, 6 AM early) Monday morning in order to get there for our afternoon Canopy Tour. Doesn’t that sound nice? Canopy Tour. Maybe like hammocks hung in the trees or eating little sandwiches. WRONG! It was an extreme zip-line, sky bridge and rappelling nightmare. Did I mention I’m afraid of heights? The highlight of this tour was that I finished it. Alive!!!!! Well, we did have nice guides, Cullen and Katie who tried their best to make us feel comfortable 100 feet in the air. Oh, and thanks Cullen for shaking the last sky bridge so much. That only added to my sheer terror delight of it all.  Would I ever do it again? You know, that’s a great big no maybe!

Well on Tuesday, I was feeling great relief to be on the ground with only a “little white water rapids trip” down the Lower New River. Okay, first of all, it turned out to be a 6 hour-long trip (lunch was included though, yeah!) Secondly, it included class 1 through class 5 rapids. Thirdly, we had to listen to a 15 minute speech by one of the guides on the bus ride to the put-in spot. His speech wasn’t bad except there were so many instructions on “what to do” and “what not to do” I thought my head would explode. Then there was the TERROR. All the information that made me consider my sanity for even wanting to take this “little white water rapids” trip. What happened to my feelings of great relief???? I was consoling myself with a tidbit of knowledge I picked up who-knows-where. “Drowning is a pleasant death.” 

Well, about 1 minute into the trip I realized I LOVE WHITE WATER RAFTING!!!!! Every rapid is different and our guide Chris (the best guide ever) gave us clear and easy to understand directions on how we were going to take each rapid. As we approached the first rapid, everyone on the tour was told to get out of their rafts and swim through the rapid and then get back in their rafts. The point of this little exercise is to see if you are comfortable “saving” yourself. If you were not comfortable, there was still a chance to exit the tour. After swallowing half the New River, I did make it to my raft. There was a little problem though, I couldn’t hoist myself up and in it. Never fear, Chris to the rescue. He grabbed each of us by the life vest, hoisted us out of the water and tossed us into the raft. So much for dignity. I was flailing around inside a slippery, rubber boat that seemed to be moving at the speed of light. Laughing hysterically didn’t help either. Well, I had to be hoisted again later in the trip when I decided to join a bunch of other people and jump off a big rock into the river. Since I lost all of my dignity after the first “hoist” I really didn’t have any to lose this second time. It did, however, inspire this page for my art journal.

Lost Dignity

This post could go on forever (don’t worry, it won’t) because I have so much to say about white water rafting. The bigger and stronger the rapid, the more I like it. I actually experienced PURE JOY while rafting. I’ve got the bug. That’s all I can say. So here is a page from my smash book about my rafting adventure.

Smash Book Page

If you have never thought about white water rafting, think again! And if it helps, here’s a tidbit of knowledge for you. “Drowning is a pleasant death!”