Life Lessons from a Winnebago VI

Today we focus. We focus on the surprise adventure. There is only one destination the girls don't know about, but today they will know. We are heading through Wyoming, destination Fort Collins, Colorado. And there it is, A1 Whitewater. We are going whitewater rafting.

The guide tells us the water was snow ten hours ago, so it's COLD. 30 degrees he estimates. Since my life may be in his hands shortly, I don't point out that 32 is freezing and at 30 we would be riding on a glacier.

But before we can jump in the river, we must pass the Safety Brief. The five of us stand there in our corsets, which double as wet suits. I always wondered what it's  like to put on spanx, and now I know. We have very nice blue helmets and orange PFDs which also help limit our lung capacity. The guide commences with the brief, and puts the fear of Neptune in everyone's hearts. It sounds like there are 50 ways to end this trip disastrously. We pass the brief and chug off to the launch point in a beat up old yellow bus. 

The potential disasters don't occur and we have a blast. We all got completely doused by bone chilling 30 degree water. In the first big splash, so much water is forced up my nose, I need to blow it out my ears. They told me I should be in front of the raft since I am strong, but I now realize that I was a sucker picked to help shield the others behind. We have a great time with splash fights, forward rowing, back rowing, and lots of white water.

We have a great picture trapped on a CD-ROM. Sorry.

The guides told us that one of the important rules in rafting is that the two in front need to stay in sync. If they stay in sync, everyone behind can follow their lead and all row together. But if the two in front are out of sync, the whole boat will be out of sync. I suppose that has a great application to parents. If the parents can be in sync together, their chances of keeping the family boat rowing in sync are much better. 

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