Tip-A-Canoe

My weekend text conversations with my sister usually look something like this:

Me: “Hey Al. I’m going shopping. Want to join?”

Allison: “No. I’m going paddling. I’ll be on the river all day. Want to join?”

Me: “No.”

But last Saturday she and I both went with my church’s young professional group to canoe on the Harpeth River. Yes. I canoed. 13 miles. On a river. And yes. It totally messed up my French manicure. But yes. It was worth it. I had a lot of fun. Actual fun.

Tip-A-Canoe

 Al and I

 Our Canoe Group

Remember my recent post about how crazy hot it had been in Nashville? It was so hot and so dry for a really long time.

Nashville, you’re welcome. I washed my car, which we all know brings rain. And it has rained every day since.

We needed the rain so badly.  However, this also means that it absolutely poured on our canoe trip day. We sat in Tip-A-Canoe’s parking lot for quite a while, just watching the rain come down like crazy.

A Rain Delay

Half of our group even left. But we stuck it out, and the rain finally let up long enough for our trip.  It was quite perfect actually. Drizzly and overcast, which meant it was cooler than normal and the river had plenty of water in it.

I was nervous before we got on the river. Water sports just aren’t really my thing (although I had been canoeing once before and I did go white water rafting at Yellowstone). But Allison is outdoorsy. She knows how to navigate rivers and avoid fallen trees and paddle through currents and, most importantly, not tip-a-canoe. Normally I have an “I can do things on my own. Don’t tell me what to do.” attitude. But when we got into the canoe, I informed my big sis, “Please. Boss me around. Tell me exactly what to do and when. I won’t get mad. Promise.”

Allison, of course, was in the back of the canoe so that she could steer!

Not gonna lie, we were a pretty good team. And I was so glad that we didn’t tip because while we did see some cute turtles in the river, we also saw a few too many snakes and one large, unidentified, orange/yellow animal. Either a goldfish ate an entire canoe or there was some sort of undiscovered creature in that river. Eek. I’m just going to pretend it was a life jacket floating downstream. Denial is not just a river in Egypt, ya know.

Call me crazy, but I liked canoeing enough that I just might do it again. Soon.