Monday, August 14, 2006

Monday Memories



Monday Memories: Did I ever tell you About the Time We Went Tubing?


Yesterday we went tubing down the Shenandoah River with some friends. The river was low, but we had no idea what that really meant...

We hopped on our tubes and immediately hit the first set of "rapids". They weren't real rapids, just places where the river was actually moving a little quicker. We bounced through - no problems. Then we stopped.dead. We floated around for a while and then we realized that this 3 mile trip was going to take a little bit longer than we expected.

We decided to paddle a bit more... We finally started moving again and hit some more "rapids". This time, the rocks under the water were just barely under the water and we got a bit stuck. We had to get off of our tubes and push them along. Fortunately the water was warm. We laughed, we chatted, we had a great time, but the 1.5 hour ride took a bit longer than we expected.

There are campgrounds and picnic areas along the riverbank. Our friend, J, decided he needed to relieve himself and climbed up on a small island in the river. He was just about to um... pee, when he realized that there were people on the riverbank - less than 50 feet from him... We howled! Ooopsy!!

We got through the last set of rapids and again, came to a complete stop. I think we were a mile to a mile and a half away from the landing site. LLB was getting tired. She grabbed onto my tube and I pulled her along as I swam the rest of the way. It was a great workout, but man was I tired!! #1 Son and Mr. Bug made their own way to the landing - I wasn't pulling them, too! I haven't swum that far in years - but it sure felt good!

When we finally reached the landing there was a long walk straight up the hill to the parking lot - with tubes and lifejackets in tow. I definitely got my exercise!! I will do it again, but I'll make sure the river is a little bit higher or I'll bring some fins! Mr. Bug says he'd do it in a canoe...

LadyBug

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3 comments:

Katherine said...

Fun! I've been thinking about doing that on the James River. Sounds like a great time.

Unknown said...

LadyBug - I've been tubing before and I didn't have a lick of fun doing it. Sounds like you had a much better time than I did, even though you got stuck in some parts.

Renee Nefe said...

Sounds like a blast! Here all the rivers are full of snow melt and freezing cold...but folks still go out and tube or kayak them. My blood isn't that thick. Burr!