As I sit here enjoying the quiet of our last morning camping, I wanted to share our canoe experience from yesterday! Due to the fact that we were flying down the Coosawattee river, there are not a lot of pictures! I have never had any doubt about how strong a relationship Phyllis Maggard Allee and I have, but if I did, yesterday would have been the proof of all we can survive!! Our trip started in Elijay at around 10 after we had dropped off our shuttle car! We immediately got stuck on a pipe and I had to get out of the boat and push us over! From that point on it was a wild ride!!! As we came to our first serious Rapids, we had a good line and it looked like we were in good shape! Just then a rock came up out of no where directly in front of the boat! Now, when death seems to be approaching my voice rises to a scream any 7 year old girl would be proud to call her own! As the nose of the boat went up in the air and flipped down the other side, Phyllis and I both went flying! The boat jammed on a rock and we both finally stopped moving!! We were standing in the middle of the river watching our shoes and my paddle along with the extra boat cushion floating down river!! After we realized we were alive, Phyllis managed to cross to the bank and walk down the river while I worked my way to the canoe!! After she was in place down river I flipped the canoe off the rock and jumped in! Of course it was full of water!! Amazingly, our ice chest and bags were still strapped in!! After unloading the canoe, we flipped it back over off of a rock and reloaded!! Our spill for the day was over and we were on our way again! As we approached our second serious set of rapids I thought, “we got this!” We found a line and headed down! About halfway through, we side swiped a hidden shoal and over we went, boat, me, and Phyllis hit the water!! This time we were drug down river further, but again the canoe jammed on a rock! Phyllis and I were separated and both had to walk, fall swim to the boat! This time we were on a big rock so I handed all the stuff to Phyllis to hold while I pulled the canoe over the rock and emptied the water! We flipped it back over, reloaded and rested for a few minutes! Now, many people might have given up at this point! We were 2 miles into a 15 mile trip and had already crashed, twice!! Neither Phyllis nor I are most people! When we start something we will finish, dead or alive!!! We found the learning curve! We shot the next two Rapids without incident! We parked on some rocks for lunch, which had survived in the ice chest, then moved on! We had many other near misses, going through a tree as Rapids carried us to the side, getting stuck on shoals, jumping a 2 foot ledge etc., but we never flipped again! It was the most amazing, exhilarating trip I have ever been on!! And, if Phyllis can tolerate my high pitched screams of “we’re going to die!!!!”and “we’re going over;”and I can tolerate the fact that under stress she has no idea which side is left and which is right, our marriage can handle anything!! I am so proud of Phyllis and myself!! This was an accomplishment to add to our list! Even the pain in every muscle of my body doesn’t seem so bad!!!:). P.S. Our lost shoes and paddles, Phyllis lost hers once and I lost mine once, were picked up by very kind Tubbers and left on rocks down stream from us! We ended up not loosing one single item! Even the diet coke were were drinking before the first crash was sitting on a rock with our shoes!! Decided not to finish it!!!:)
2015-09-09