marathon!

A kayaking marathon. It really was a marathon. John picked our route for the trip and picked the 26 mile route on purpose. Now that it's over and done, I can say I am happy about it. But Saturday around 4pm, I was not a happy camper.

This was a fourth of July for the books. We drove to meet the wonderful Eckhardts for a kayak/camping trip. We did a lot of kayaking! Friday night we sat up camp and got little sleep (setting up camp after 10pm is not recommended). The birds woke us up bright and early and we packed up. We then drove to drop off our cars at our ending location, and hopped into an SUV that took us to our starting location. We somehow managed to pack everything into and on our kayak... by everything I mean: food for five meals, a tent, sleeping bag and blanket, two sleeping mats, camping stove, fishing gear, loads of water bottles, and other misc. items. It all fit. I was amazed. Shame on me for doubting my overly prepared husband (by overly prepared I mean he guessed right).

So once in the water, the paddling began. The lake, I mean river, was still as can be. It was not functioning properly, i.e. not flowing AT ALL. So lots of paddling, lots and lots. We completed 16 miles on Saturday! And our bodies were feeling it. There was one mishap this day ... other than the burns and hunger and thirst ... a kayak flipped, and it wasn't ours.

Quite the excitement and it had to happen at least once. Everything was saved and nothing was ruined but a deck of cards. Oh just writing about this 16 hour day is making my shoulders hurt all over again. We pulled off to camp and it was quite the night! Started off with a family giving us cold drinks! We were desperate for something cold (eight hours in 96 degree weather will do that to ya). Pepsi and Mountain Dew never tasted so good.

We then had some dinner, no hick-ups there. Then played a little Phase Ten and all decided it was time to retire by 10pm. So off we went to our tents, and less than thirty minutes later we were all wide eyed and watching a 'coon go through all of our stuff! They primarily wanted Bran's "snack" bag, who can blame them? So we scared them off, and moved things inside the tent, and back to the tents we went. Lo and behold, there they were again. After the peanuts and other random snacks were placed at my feet, I was convinced they would tear through the tent to binge eat. Needless to say, Brandy and I were up most of the night. The husbands had no worries. Call me crazy for being scared of fat 'coons. 

Back on the water we went Sunday. Sun burnt and exhausted, but the day was fantastic in every way. We stopped several times for a swim (we had less miles to travel), and had lots of laughs. We made some great time on the water, and no one flipped over. By the time we made it back to our cars it was 2pm and we all felt very accomplished. We set up camp again and went for one last swim in the evening. Then we decided to shower and GO TO DINNER. That's right, the campsite had a little, tiny restaurant. We came back and played Farkle. Such a great ending to the weekend! Nothing went "wrong" on Sunday. In fact, I slept best that night (minus the wind storm). Overall, I would do it again. With the same people (they are our favorites!). Hope your fourth of July weekend was a memorable one!