Hi everyone, sorry for the long delay in posting. It’s been a busy couple weeks with limited access to the WWW. But, I will endeavor to catch you up on our activities...up first...the 5th Annual Allison / Jones Rafting trip! Yes, it had been five years running that we have been rafting with an outfit called Echo Canyon near Canon City, CO. Bottom line, we love this place...and the kids do too! All of the cousins are now old enough (Berk being the youngest) to participate and actually enjoy the ride. This year the attendees included all “kid” cousins, three 40+ Jones siblings (myself included) and one 82 year old Grandma. Yes, you heard me – Grandma! My mom is terrific. There is nothing that will keep her down, not even a fall with stitches.
(Side story –If you recall from a prior post, my mom fell a couple of weeks ago and had to go to the ER. She cut her elbow and ended up with stitches. While there, she continually asked the MD how long it would take to heal. I asked her WHY it was so important…and her response…”because I want to make sure I can go rafting with everyone”)
Given moms arm and little Berk in the raft I thought getting a guided raft (with them doing most of the work) would be a little bit safer. We still had plenty of chances to row, albeit at our discretion to some degree. It had been raining a great deal the prior few days so we became the lucky recipients of two class 4 rapids along the journey, which is normally NOT the case for the “family” joy ride. It’s usually quite tame, except for the day we decide to visit of course! Prior to starting the trip we had a long discussion about raft “seating strategies”. Believe it or not it really does matter… where you sit determines how likely it is you get dumped out of the raft, or how splashed you get, or if you will have an easy time getting back in after a quick swim, etc. My mom and my brother’s wife and I ended up in the back, while my brother was in front with all of the kids. I had a feeling he was in a better seat.
We had been rafting for an hour or so – got comfortable with the raft and enjoyed all of the surroundings. In fact, I think we also got a little cocky related to our new rafting skills. The guide told us the first class 4 (which was only a class 2 the day before) was coming up quickly. He told us all to row four times as quickly as we could to help get our speed up as we entered the rapids. As I started rowing, I looked around I noticed that only Brian and I (both on the right hand side of the boat) were rowing…NO ONE on the left was! Unequal rowing is a cardinal sin in rafting! All of the oarsman must be rowing together in order for the boat to move forward. If you only row on one side you end up putting the boat in to a circular spin – NOT what you want when entering a class 4 rapid!
The end result- the boat was kicking like a bucking bronco in the back (which is where I was watching over my sister in law and mom), the girls were all screaming with excitement in the front (with my brother trying to hold them in) when all of a sudden I saw this wall of rock coming right toward me. The guide made a quick move of the oar and we were able to swing around this gigantic bolder – but SMACKED right in to a smaller rock that made the back of the raft POP up like a cork in a Champaign bottle. Grandma, Jenny (my sister in law) and I bounced up and almost out of the boat. Thank goodness I had both of my feet lodged in to the foot straps. Mom and Jenny ended up grabbing a hold of me in hopes of staying in the boat! As the rapids slowed down I was finally landed in a hunched position over the guide, mom was literally hanging off the back of the boat – backwards, and Jenny was across moms legs trying to grab a hold of something. YAHOO! What fun! We made it through our first class 4 rapids and no one ended up swimming with rocks!
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