Sacajawea, meet Kimpossible

Who else do you know, besides Sacajawea, who can kayak through a river rapid while nursing a baby? Are you thinking? Is nothing coming to mind? OK, here's a little hint: It's me, silly!

Yesterday was The Goose's first trip down a river and it was about 70% successful. And since the 30% unsuccessful parts simply involved some whining and repeated attempts to remove the lifejacket (rather than anything REALLY unsuccessful such as, oh, say, tumbling into the river), we were pleased. And also I should add that the phrase "river rapid" is a little bit of an exaggeration, so don't be calling the DHS on me.

The picture above is what Goose looked like after the trip. As you can see, the humidity had taken a toll.

While we were at the take-out point relaxing on the "beach," we met some quite interesting characters. Husband was acting like a kid -- climbing trees to jump into the water and swing off of a rope -- and I was yakking my mouth with the locals.

There were several VERY interesting people at this "Camp & Canoe Rental" place (picture life jackets hanging off of clotheslines attached to satellite dishes on the side of double-wide trailers, lawn chairs around abandoned campfire pits, and signs up everywhere that said, "DO NOT BURN YOUR GARBAGE or use profanity!"). But one girl in particular stands out in my mind.

She was about 14 and was sunning herself on the "beach" when we pulled in. She and I were watching Husband flail about in the water, and she was giving me a play-by-play of all the things he was doing wrong: walking up the wrong side of the bank and thus being in danger of cutting his feet on the rocks, jumping out of the wrong side of the tree, holding on to the wrong knot in the rope, etc.

Then she said, "I used to swing from that rope all the time, until I got scared after my boyfriend drowned."

OK sweetie, you have my attention now.

I said, "Oh my goodness."

She said, "Yeah, you didn't hear about it? It was the boy from down at Vernon Creek. It was on Tuesday."

I said, "Well, we're not really from around here, so I hadn't heard. But I am sorry."

She said, "That's OK, he was going to break up with me anyway. Plus, he was black."

I said, "Oh, OK," or something just as profound and then walked away to yank the husband out of the perilous water.

Wow. And here I was thinking I was going to go to hell for making fun of well-meaning people who, for example, choose to eat non-organic strawberries or live on the side of a river in a trailer with a campground in their backyard, and then I discover that there's someone else out there who can totally outdo me at my absolute worst.

Well I'll be.