Almost two weeks ago (Not last Saturday but the one before. {In case you wanted to know EXACTLY when this all went down.}) my darling husband and I decided to be good members of our ward family and participate in the ward social. This fun little get together would involve canoes, inflatable rafts, kayaks, the snake river, pulled pork for lunch, and I seem to be forgetting some thing... oh of course! THE SUN! Now being a true blue Arizona girl, you wouldn't think this would bother me, and it didn't. At least not for the first 2 hours.
{Allow me to Explain}
For this activity members of my ward would be getting together for lunch made by our wonderful bishop (Who, might I add, teaches classes about meat and how to make it taste sinfully good. Rather the contradiction, eh?). Those that wanted to could meet up before lunch and float (a.k.a paddle yourselves using your brute strength, because clearly rivers don't flow or anything..?) down the river. Sounded just like the kind of fun Ben and I are all about!
Eventually we found the people that we are supposed to meet up with so that we may caravan to our "put-in site." Through this experience I have learned that this means either 1) an area where grievous errors are made or 2) the site where individuals start their journey down the river. I'm leaning towards the former. After we all got settled in our water-craft of choice (The hubs and I went with a canoe. I wanted to go on the raft, but I decided to support him in all his righteous endeavors. Later to find out that that was a good move on my part. I'd recommend it to a friend.) our bishop sent us off!
I don't mean to make this seem like it was a terrible experience the whole time. For the first hour and a half, heck, maybe even two hours it was a grand ole' time! The company was great, the river was even flowing (off and on. but mostly off) thus helping to propel the canoe (a little). It wasn't until I got hungry, tired, cranky, and sunburned that I was ready for the landing to be just around the next bend...or the next one, or the next one, or the next one, or please Zeus let it be around the next bend! (classic case: too much of a good thing.)
What was I saying.... oh right. Sunburned. OH SO VERY VERY SUNBURNED. By the time we had gotten back on dry land because we had finally reached the "yep, this is way too far point" to call our bishop, Ben and I were burnt to a crisp. So burned we cracked when we walked. On the upside lunch tasted extra good.
Looking back on the whole thing we believe that even though we had gone too far we hadn't gone too far by a long shot so we figure we must have "Put-in" at a spot further up the river than we had intended to. After we got home, Ben google-maped our approximate distance and he estimated that we canoed (with little help from the river I'll remind you for the third time) anywhere from 12 to 16 miles. Originally planned on an 8 mile ride. Almost two weeks later, our sunburns are mostly better. However, one of us is pealing of in sheets and the other is flaking like a buttery croissant (except that instead of delicious, it's, well...not.)
{Moral of the story}
Get out of a (figurative, and also literal) sinking canoe sooner rather than later.
ALSO
I'd probably do it again if I had a sack lunch, water, good nights rest, and lots and lots of sunscreen. SPF 3,000.
