You never step in the same river twice

  

  

   This summer, Amy’s parents wanted to experience Preacher’s Point with us, so we planned a 4-day weekend camping trip together. One of the things we love to do as a family is take our 11 ft inflatable boat out and fish. Last year, we went out on the lake several times, fished, came back, and never had any issues. This year was different!

   To set the scene, it was windy, and the river was flowing fast!
The river you experienced last year or last week isn’t the same river as today. This was the revelation I needed… Nevertheless, Hannah, my 11-year-old daughter, Truett, my 6-year-old son, Andy, my father-in-law (age unknown), and I figured it would be a good idea to head out for a boat ride.  Now, I could tell Andy was slightly unsure of this little adventure we were embarking on, but my confidence from years past seemed enough for him to come along for the ride. And like I said earlier, the water level was roughly 50 feet lower than last year, meaning the slow, deep, lazy river of last year was replaced by a fast-rapid ride.

   As Grandpa, the kids and I hopped in the boat, I got the 8 hp Evinrude fired up and we were gone!  When your flowing down the river and the two stroke is purring, you think everything is fine. It wasn’t until my son Truett said, “Hey Daddy! Turn the engine to full power!” and I said, “That is full power,” that I realized we might have a problem…  This really came to light when Grandpa turns and says, “That’s all she’s got? … Will we make it back up the river?”  and my response was a sure-sounding, “Well, we got back no problem last year,” knowing right after I spoke that the river and lake were completely different the year before.

   In case I forgot to mention it, I also had my father in law on this adventure, which makes the temperature of the water not the coldest thing in the boat… But we had a problem and needed to solve it, so thankfully there was no time for petty things like blame and accusations.  At this point, we felt the best course of action was to go over to the shore and walk the boat back.  The one critical detail we should have discussed a bit more was which shore to go to…  Decorated with big banks and rocks, the side we were camping on seemed treacherous, while the other side was relatively flat and unobstructed. So, solving one problem at a time, we went for the easy side. There is a saying I’ve coined over the years and that is, ”
Adventure starts when things go wrong!” … At this moment, it was clear we had embarked on an epic adventure!

   If you caught my tongue-in-cheek mentions about Grandpa, you can only imagine how thrilled Grandma was about our adventure. But by the end of the journey, everyone was back at camp, safe and sound, maybe a little more tired and sore than anticipated for a simple boat ride to Abraham lake.