Everyone needs a little adventure in their lives. I am not talking about the adventure of not
being able to stop off at Starbucks and having to get your java from the office
coffee pot, or heading down the nearest freeway off ramp onto a road you have
never explored to escape the standstill traffic caused by rubberneckers
watching someone change a tire. I mean
real adventure where you get out of your daily rut and leave your personally
imposed safe zone and do something exciting and unusual that involves a little
risk that you don’t know what the outcome will be going into it. A lot
of times going on an adventure means packing up and heading out on a big trip
but sometimes you can find adventure as close as your own back yard. Adventure waits just outside your door, you
just have to let go your inhibitions, be willing to take a little risk and try
something different.
I have definitely
had my share of adventure in my own backyard on the Cape Fear because there
were times when risks were taken and outcomes were unknown. I can hear in my mind to moon the current a
thousand times over and over and still sometimes lean up river and flip over in
a broach. Local outfitters won’t rent
their equipment to anyone on the river if the water level is above what they
consider “safe” at 3 feet on the gauge, but I have paddled my familiar 10 mile
run in less than an hour when the water was running at 5 feet. I went once at 10 feet in my 16’ sea kayak,
dropped over what looked like a perfectly innocent wave only to see nothing but
sky and then water as the hole on the other side pulled me backwards and sucked the whole boat down. In a panic I popped the skirt a little too
early swallowed a whole lot of water and was just lucky that it spit me, the
boat and my paddle all out at about the same time in the same place. I don’t mind saying that it scared the
bejezus out of me. Anyone who tells you
that they have never been scared on the water is a liar.
Ladybug has had her
share of broaching, wet exits and getting hung up in strainers, all things that
make a memorable adventure on the river.
Her idea of fun does not involve rocks as they tend to attract her like
magnets. She has had so many bad
experiences with rocks in the water that it sometimes affects her ability to
successfully navigate around any kind of obstacle that has a degree to
difficulty to it. I think she sees what
she needs to do to get around it but she panics in the moments leading up to it
and in doing so misses that small window where she can successfully maneuver
around. Fear is a good thing sometimes
because it can keep you out of trouble but in other situations that same fear
can lead to inactions that only further push you into peril. Rocks may be her mortal enemy and chop and
waves are definitely on her least favorite list, but I have seen her make open
water crossings in waves that have kept grown men standing on the bank yearning
for calmer waters. She will tell you
really quickly that it scared her to death, but it hasn’t stopped her from
going back out in unfamiliar waters in less than perfect weather. I have seen that excited look of
accomplishment on her face far more often than she will admit after
particularly difficult or hairy paddling excursions. It is one of the things that keeps her going
back for more.
Adventures don’t always have to carry you to within an inch
of your life. Some of the biggest
adventures Ladybug and I have had paddling together were on the calmest of days
with nary a rock nor wave in sight. We
have paddled among the wild horses at Shackleford Banks and the Feral horses at
the Rachael Carson Reserve. We paddled
out into a lagoon with hundreds of other paddlers and baked in the sun all day
long to watch some people lift off on their own adventure into outer
space. We paddled across a lake with 900
feet of water below our hulls to a long forgotten town accessible only on foot
or by boat. We paddle into a pod of
dolphins that excited us so much we completely forgot to pull out the
camera. Pictures are not always worth a
thousand words, it is sometimes best to leave the camera lens covered and just
watch things unfold with your own two eyes. We took over 200 pictures between three of us
as we sat on Lake Drummond and watch a sunset.
None of the pictures we brought back can ever really convey to anyone
what we actually saw or the emotions unleashed as Laura, Kim and I sat alone on
the lake in our kayaks unable to distinguish where the Earth ended and heaven
began.
Adventures don’t always have to involve sitting in a cockpit
with a paddle in hand, I have had many adventures in my life far removed from
the water. As we have prepared for what
again will be an adventure of a lifetime, it seems though that water has been a
big part of our life for the better part of the last year and a half. Some of the places we have been and things we
have seen we will never visit again or be able to see again. They are unforgettable memories made on other
adventures of our lifetime that we can never truly convey to those who have
never experienced anything of the like.
Get off your tush, and start living life. There is way more to it than a 9 to 5, bills
in the mailbox and cars jammed on a freeway.
You only have one life to live and when it is your time to depart this world
I would really feel sorry for you if your last thought was “What an adventure I
had seeing that guy changing the tire on my way to drink crud from the office
coffee pot.”
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