Eventful Morning

This morning for the first time ever, I went kayaking. It was my mother's idea to go. She, for a team building experience has had the pleasure of kayaking before and thought we should give it a go today. Mind you, my mother and I are addicted to 'The Amazing Race'. We have watched every season, which for the past few years, we do over the phone, viewing the show via internet or during the scheduled programmed time. We debate who is the strongest for each challenge and we  talk, yell, and assume that if we were there, we would be at the top of our game, never making the mistakes that the contestants make.

Today's recreational journey was a practice run for the day we finally do make it to The Amazing Race. I have to say, I was hesitant about going. My biggest fear is drowning. Believe me, I have it really bad. I've hyperventilated getting water in my nose and mouth in the shower! But my mommy promised me that she would keep me safe, so I agreed.

I thought the land around Bay Creek Paddling Center this morning would be the last piece of land I would ever see. I was advised before hand the water was only 3 feet deep, but I still stood uneasy at the dock waiting for our turn. Once I was in the kayak...which I kept calling a canoe, there was no turning back. We shoved away from the dock and in an instant, I realized my mother didn't have the expertise I thought she had for our journey. (Sorry mom!) We half floated have floundered to the middle of the creek. Water was running down the paddle and dripping on my pants and we were headed for the plant life. After figuring out that we needed to use the right paddle to go left and the left paddle to go right (and all the other paddlers moved very far away from us) we splashed further out into our serene trip.

I began singing," Left goes right and right goes left," and from time to time my mother would panic as we careened back into the cattail marches. We never really did figure out how to go straight. Thankfully everyone around us seemed to be more experienced and as we shouted, spun in circles, paddled backwards (something we back really good at) and crashed into the plants, they kindly avoided us, all while calling warm welcomes.

Here's a picture of us during a calm moment. Granted getting our phones out of our pockets without dropping the paddles or flipping the kayak was a challenge. In this picture we found a nice quiet place to float for a moment. It was a dead end so you can image use trying to turn around to get back out of there. 

Only my mother would want me to try and spin around so she could take a picture of me.  We crashed into the cattail shortly after this picture, too.

After about forty-five minutes we decided it would take us the rest of the time to splash back to land. By now my jeans were soaking wet and I was questioning if we could make it. I can assure you the trip back was just as eventful. This is also when my mom realized she didn't know how to get us up to the dock. We were out in the open making another big circle and almost missed the dock, again. Good thing my survival of the fittest skills kick in . I may not have had any experience with the out in the middle of the water thing, but I sure as heck wasn't going to  be stuck in that two-man floating box forever. I flailed, got water in my mouth and poured more water into my lap getting us back to the dock. Truthfully, I did a good job of lining us up close enough for one of the employees to grab the kayak while we bailed out of it. 

Me back on land, feeling slightly cocky that I lived! 

All in all, it was fun. I don't know if I would do it again anytime soon. If I did, it would have to be in the same creek (there's no way the water could be any deeper than 3 feet). Amazing Race may need to wait a few more years... 

Thanks mom.