Sunday, August 29, 2010

The Never Ending River Ride

You know how sometimes things start out very fun and you are really excited but then they just continue on too long to a point where you've had enough? Well........ Today was a gorgeous day - my sister and I did not want to waste it. We decided what fun it would be to go rafting down the Credit River. We went to Canadian Tire and bought pool toy floatation devices. The ones you lay down on with the pillow for your head. We were set! We left the house, taking two cars, and headed to our end point to drop off my car. Our end point, we decided, would be Streetsville Memorial Park. We drove off leaving my car there and headed to our start point which was Eldorado Park in Brampton. My sister figured the approximate time of the ride would be 2 hours. I just have to say now: How on earth could she know that!!?? Anyway I figured she must know something and just went along with it. Boy was I naive.
When we arrived at the park we excitedly hopped out of our car and grabbed our rafts. We headed down to the river and guess what? baptisms were taking place. There were over 100 people half on each side of the river singing Amazing Grace while a priest dunked the boys under the water. It looked to me like they were drowning. Anyway we walked a bit further down the river, jumped on our rafts and we were off! It was amazing. The scenery was rather beautiful and very peaceful. Floating down the river and listening to nothing but the flowing water was very tranquil and soothing. I must have mentioned more than fifteen times how wonderful it was and that it was the best idea ever! About an hour in we were already making plans to go again next weekend.
As our ride continued we came across fast moving shallow water and slow moving deeper water. It was fun, for awhile. About 2 hours in we still had no idea where we were and did not see any signs of civilization on either side of the river. So we continued on. What else were we going to do? Just then we hit some fast moving water again and the current took us right into a large tree that was hanging over the river. My sister hit it first, flipped off the raft and was clinging on under the tree for dear life. I got off and tried to help her only to lose one of my flip flops. We regained control and were out of the situation in 3 minutes but now I was minus a shoe. About 3 hours in we started to get very antsy and wondered if it was going to end soon. Still nothing so all we could do was continue. At the 3 and a half hour mark I was beginning to make jokes like "I think this is it for us, we might not make it out alive." I was getting very hungry. I started to imagine that I was lost at sea on my little life raft and was never going to be found. We came to a point where a man was in the river playing with his dog. I asked him where we were and told him where we wanted to go. He said "Oh you are very close, not that much further." This gave me a boost of energy and hope that it would all be over soon so we paddled harder and faster. At 4 hours in we still saw no signs of the park we wanted to be at so we gave up and pulled over to the side and got out of the river. We climbed up a small hill and emerged from the bushes like crazy people. We ended up right on a trail where people were bike riding and jogging. We were walking trough the trail with rafts and I was shoeless (well I had one shoe on - which in my perspective makes me look crazy). we walked through the trail and found a familiar road which would take us back to my car. This walk we embarked on took us just about an hour. Grrrrr. Finally!!! We made it back to my car. The back of our legs were so severely sun burned that it hurt to sit in the car. We drove down the street to the nearest Subway to replenish ourselves. As we entered the Subway the two guys working behind the counter just stared at us. We were wearing shirts and bathing suit bottoms. We were very badly sun burned and I had only one shoe one and our hair was frizzed. We appeared to be dishevelled and worn out. Just as we were paying for our food, my poor sister fainted right there on the Subway floor. I got her up and put her in the car. We headed home and decided that this was it for this year. Maybe we will try again next year - oh and a much shorter distance next time. So much for fun in the sun.

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