When is enough?

WhiteWater

I love to put a kayak in moving water. I am not an expert extreme whitewater kayaker mind you, just a suburban family man that is drawn toward moving water with a mesmerizing pull. I live in Connecticut, and we camp, hike, bike, and Kayak in The Adirondacks, or New England. I have 2 teenage daughters that are adventureous, and a wife that is not. So we are ususlly in flat water or up to class 3 rapids.

What tends to bother be about all the activites that I love, is it seems that there is never enough. We pack up the trailer, load the kayaks on the roof of the car, hitch the bikes to the back of the trailer, and head out looking like a cross between Robin Williams RV movie, and a Chevy Chase vacation flick. We travel a few hours, then spend an hour or so setting up. All this time the anticipation of kayaking is building like some wild sexual foreplay. But now is evening, and we have to wait until tomorrow to get in the water.

Tomorrow comes, we take a run or two, and then it is over. I always want to go back and do it a few more more times, (like sex) but to transport kayaks up-river, and go through the whole ordeal, always ends up being too much work, so we don’t bother, ( like sex). I usually end up dissapointed rather than fulfilled, ( wow,,,like sex,,, i never realized the parrellel before now)! So why do my favorite activities always leave me hungry for more???

Well I finally found where enough was enough! We were visiting my sister and her family in “Boone NC”. They have a log cabin on the New River. We dragged all of our gear, (and trailered my Softail) all the way there. The New River was barely a trickle, we all spent about 6 hours dragging kayaks over gravel and getting sunburned trying to have fun. The next day my sister decided we were going to have fun inspite of ourselves.

We drove about 2-3 hrs to Tennesse, and hired on to a river guide company to “Shoot the Upper & Lower Nolichucky”. 4 old farts, 2 college girls, 1 high school girl 1 middleschool girl & boy. Most of us elected to take “FunYaks” because they would be fun!

13 hours later,,,,, beaten, bruised, shivering, shaking, cowering, and smiling from ear to ear, I finally said, “I’ve had enough, let’s go home”. My hat goes off, ( and I did lose one that day) to all the “real atheletes” that can do this stuff all the time. I fantasize about being an outdoor adventurer but usually only dabble in the benign parts of these sports. It all looks like such a blast, but I found out, you need to be in shape, have energy, and stamina, and be willing to go all the way, ( like sex) to call yourself an adventure seeker. I guess I’m just a dad that doesn’t like to mow the lawn. Next life perhaps!

Visit www.realeyeslifeoutdoors.com for gear and supplies.