Part 2 of our visit with Mom, Meme, and Papa
Cory and I wanted to get out of the house one day so we talked my mom into going kayaking. First mistake, asking my mom to go. Bless her heart. My mom actually worked with someone who knew the river and her husband rented out kayaks and canoes. So Cory talked to her and asked how the river was. Not a problem, we take our 3 year old grandson all the time, she said. Ok, mom can do it if a 3 year old can do it. So we head out with our lunch and camera ready for an adventure. First of all the woman's husband was sick and was closed for the day. We should have just turned around and gone home. Second mistake. Instead we headed on down the road to find another place that was open. Ambush Adventures is what we came to next.
It looked promising. So we rented out kayaks and jumped on the van to head down to the drop off. When we get there the driver tells us a little about the river and what turns to make. I never heard rocks, rapids, or small water falls. Cory did. He told me later that once he heard those words he knew we shouldn't be doing this with my mom. Third Mistake. So we get in our kayaks about to head down the river, Cory and I both look up and see rocks.
(see the rocks?)
Cory asks me if I think we can do this. Mind you, I'm still oblivious to water falls and rapids. Ya, we can do this. Were in the boats, let's do it. Fourth Mistake. We should have turned around and gotten out of the river. Here's another kicker, my mom is deathly afraid of the water because she doesn't know how to swim. Cory and I both thought that the river was going to be smooth and no big deal. If we had known beforehand what we knew after, we would have not taken my mom. We would have gone, but not taken her. AND it was our first time to Kayak! Fifth mistake! If I had thought about it, I would have tried to tell my mom some tips before we left. I'm not sure why I didn't.
Mom, scared to death, before the rocks.
We made it through the first set of rocks/rapids, with mom freaking out. The second set of rocks, not so much. When you get to rocks/rapids you are suppose to start paddling hard to help you go where you want/need to go. Instead of paddling she would just put her arms up, yelling and freaking out. We were trying to tell her to paddle, but she just wouldn't listen, therefore she tipped over. I turn around to see my mom literally freaking out in the middle of the river. I can't swim, I'm gonna drown! As we yell, STAND UP!! I finally got her to half way listen to me and was able to get her over to me with her kayak. But I couldn't get her into her kayak wo tipping myself over. So I jumped out and held her boat so she could get back in. Whew! I'm thinking at this point that if this is how bad it is were ok. I was wrong! It gets worse! A couple more rocks/rapids down she tips again. I'm not sure how but she got back in her kayak.
If you think it's been bad so far, just wait! It gets better. We come to a fork in the river. We are suppose to go right but Cory thinks the left looks better. So we go left. But half way down, it doesn't look so good. Some how we paddle back and go to the right. I don't know if this was a mistake or not. We soon come upon huge rocks, rapids, AND small waterfalls. Yes, waterfalls! There's two rows. Cory and I get through the first row, mom does not. I some how purposefully get stuck on some rocks so I can hopefully help mom. Her kayak and paddle are floating down the river and she is standing in the middle on a rock, freaking out. Yelling and flapping her arms. There are moments in peoples lives when a situation comes and you have to either suck it up and do it, or die. My mom said forget it. I'm done. While trying to stay stuck between the rock, the rapids tip me over. I go under water, down the waterfall, while trying to hold the plastic bag that has our lunch AND camera up out of the water. Not easy! (thank goodness I had double bagged the camera so it did not get wet) So now my kayak and paddle and my moms are floating down the river. What am I going to do? I swim as hard as I can and get all four things and take them to land. Mom is still sitting in the middle of the river on a rock. So Cory and I walk back up to where she is. Theres no way we can get to her wo shoes on (Cory had flip flops on and one of mine had floated down the river) because the rocks are too sharp and slippery, plus the current is rushing too hard. So we waited for someone to come down to hopefully help us. Thankfully two teenagers came down in a canoe. We asked them if they could get mom and bring her to land. They swam over and rolled her into the canoe. Safe and sound on land. Only one problem, we still weren't back to Ambush. Thankfully the rest of the trip was exactly how we imagined the whole trip to be, smooth paddling wo
We finally made it back to Ambush. I think all three of us were so happy the trip was over. At the last ordeal I seriously thought one of or both of us were going to drown. Thankfully God was watching over us and helped us through. If you take away the rocks, waterfalls, and rapids it was fun. But I don't think we will ever be able to talk mom into doing something like that again.
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