For the first time since last summer and Uncle Butch's stroke. Besides myself and Uncle Butch his 2 daughters were there and a granddaughter. Also 6 children. One daughter has a health issue and could not help in getting her dad into and out of the kayak. Things went pretty well for a while then suddenly Uncle Butch went off kilter and into the water he went. Of course, he did this in a mucky bottom deeper section and since he refused to wear his PFD standing him back up in the current and corralling his boat and paddle while keeping ourselves from falling out or losing our paddles was an experiment in managed chaos. His daughter_in_law also tried to help but she was holding her 20 month old baby.
During all this one of the younger boys in his own kayak started crying because he was suddenly alone and floating downstream. We finally convinced his mom to leave us and go "save" him. (Incidentally, all the kids wore their PFDs).
In the end, some tubers came over and helped out by picking up his kayak and his daughter's to empty the water out and re-float them. (Her kayak had filled up when she jumped out to rescue him.)
Other than that little incident the trip itself was nice. The day was hot, blue sky, big clouds, very pretty. We were supposed to leave for the river at 10, didn't get on the road till 11:21, and didn't get to the water's edge till 1:21. We didn't get off the water till 5:30 and not back to the house till a little after 7 pm. Longest kayaking day I've ever had for what is normally a 2.5 hour water trip.
It's possibly the only time I'll be able to get on the water this year though, so I'll try to remember the good parts.
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