Take 4 morning people. Add some kayaks. Mix in a dollop of sunshine and a dash of breeze and you have the makings of a beautiful Saturday. My new kayaking buddies (I have kayaking buddies!!) and I headed out this morning at the obscene hour of 8am to New Weston (or West Newton. I'm still confused.) and hopped into the Upper Mississippi. So much FUN!!
We paddled around some backwaters through huge "fields" of lilly pads. We saw a few species of cranes. Saw some other massive pterodactyl size birds and saw clams that were the size of my fist. Nancy and I belted out a great rendition of 'Happy Birthday' to Tony... So much more! I got beached. I got stuck in a "swamp". I got myself out of a swamp. I got myself un-beached. I dodged a speeding boat and relaxed on a beach. We even regaled each other with boating stories. (Think big-fish stories but with kayaks!)
Now it gets hard. My boat is more recreational than traveller. It's short and fat (the way I like my men! :D j/k). So I'm already working about 3x harder than everybody else just to keep up and to get through the lilly pad fields and swamps. But now we need to paddle up river back to portage. We enter the main channel of the Great Mississippi and I'm pushing. I'm pulling. I'm digging. My forearms HURT! Tony offered to exchange boats with me, but everybody was being so great in taking it easy that I was able to mostly keep up and not keep us back too much. Tony is really cool about reiterating that we paddle together for social reasons, not to race. It's always great to be doing something you love without getting a guilt trip!
We saw a group of kayakers heading down river and that was cool. They were impressed that we were heading up river. Actually, everybody who talked to us was impressed. I was impressed! We even received a few compliments on our sweet sculpted arms!
The only dim part of the day is that I DESPISE my carrier system. I pulled over so many times to tighten my tethers and to reposition the kayak on top of the car. I felt like a complete idiot. I cannot WAIT to get a different, BETTER system. There were so many times that I thought the hook at the end of a tie would swing up and crash into my windshield or that the kayak was going to slide off the roof!
Afterwards, we headed up to Slippery's in Wabasha and had some great chow along the river. I also found a few camping/boating places that I want to check out! What a great day.
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