We’ve been talking all week about freezing down in the river on our sorta annual work kayak trip. Last year it was in the 90s when we took our trip. This week we are barely making it into the low 70s before the sun heads down toward the horizon in the late afternoon. It probably did only get into the 70s this afternoon but it was a glorious day and we had so much fun. We got dumped off at Argo, made our way through the cascades (here’s a youtube link of someone else kayaking the cascades) and then paddled on down to Gallup and here is my kayak as I paddled past Island Park.

I got some much-needed kudos today. I am not a fancy, extreme kayaker in any way, shape, or form. I am a strong paddler but I prefer calm water. I can handle a little bit of bounce and I can navigate the teensiest tinesiest of rapids. The cascades are about my limit and even on those, I take them slowly so I can maneuver myself to hit each rapids as straight-on as possible.

Once we finished with the cascades and got down on the shallow, relatively calm Huron River, I tended, as usual, to end up at or near the front of the pack. This year, I found myself up there amongst a bunch of younger men, not people I know well or at all. In the last quarter-mile or so, it seemed like a few of them were racing a bit to get to the dock. I hung back on purpose. Why? Well. I knew that I would have to more or less roll myself out of my kayak onto the dock and I was wearing a short hiking skirt and, uh, I really didn’t want anyone to see my underwear. I especially made sure that I got to the dock after Tock and his uber-camera did. I know he got some *other* photos of me and if any of them turn out, I’ll ask him if I can share them with you.

This party was not as well attended as some others have been and probably more people decided to hang out at Gallup than kayak and that was okay! There was plenty of food and drink and people were relaxing and having fun. I grabbed a cuppa whine and sat around in my wet clothes (wet by *water*, I’ll have you know) with the LSCHP and other co-workers for a good while. The kudos? One of the boyz that I had been kayaking with, however randomly, made it a point to tell me what a great paddler I was. “You have really good form.” I humbly told him that, although I own three kayaks and have spent a lot of time paddling, I am just an amateur and I always stick to situations I can handle. I really appreciated his words though, being that my last birthday had a goddamn zero in it and this young whippersnapper is probably about my daughter’s age.

Eventually I drove home and reconfigured myself to schlep down to the Oscar Tango where a waitress quietly tipped me off that my tank top was INSIDE OUT! Sheesh! Why didn’t the West Park muskrats tell me that? I do not know. Inside out shirt and exposed undies all in one day.

I’m not sure how coherent all of this was but I think I am done. It has been weeks since we’ve eaten at the Oscar Tango and we haven’t been Porterized in as many weeks. So much fun. Last Friday, we ate at a very similar kind of place on Kelley’s Island. Except for the view. Wish I could walk to the Captain’s Corner pub more often…

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