Another Before and After and My Weekend River Exploring

 Well, I had a great weekend!  It was filled with rivers and exploring and meeting new people.  It was so fun.  I have met some really nice women (and a few men) in the hiking club I joined Jan of 2019.  I have been really blessed to find this group.  My DH likes to relax and stay home more than i do, and now that we have 4 dogs, one of us pretty much needs to stay home.  Now, I have told DH several times, if he makes some friends and wants to kayak or golf more, then I would be happy to stay home with the dogs too.  But so far, it is mostly me who explores and i am grateful.

A few weeks ago, one of my hiking friends said she was going to Southern Missouri to kayak and wanted to know if I was interested.  Well, I decided I should go before it gets cold and enjoy some time on my kayak!  The Chief first game was Thursday night, and since I had to get up at 4am, I went to bed and did not get to watch the game.  

This was taken as i was about halfway to my friend's house.  Since she does not have a truck, we took DH truck and she is on the way anyway.  About 45 min from me.  I got to her house about 5:15am and we loaded her kayak and were about 3 more hours away.  The rest of the group camped Thursday night and did one river Thursday, but we missed that river.  So, on Friday we met them at another river and we had about 9 kayaks and 1 canoe.

This first river was plenty of flow, but had low spots that acted like rapids due to the rocks and logs being flowed over quickly.  There was enough water to float, but one did have to pick our route and be aware of all the submerged rocks.  The sound as the water rushes over obstacles is loud - it sounded much worse than it was.  There was one place on this river where we went down about 3 feet on a "ledge" water fall - I was lucky enough to be in the middle, so a few of the other paddlers pointed out the best route and I made it through just fine.  I was too excited to take a picture of that particular area though!  Oh, and I did get to see an otter exit the river and run across the gravel bar into the woods.  It was cool!

Some of the group camped in tents and a couple had campers.  Few of us like my friend and I rented a cabin (a dry cabin), but at least it had AC!  It is still in the 80's during the day, but cools at night...yet this time of the year it is still pretty humid.  Even though it was 80's or so during the day, the water we were on was mostly spring fed - so the rivers were COLD!  I did not get in.  But i was in tank and shorts the entire time - we had mostly overcast skies, and just had a brief sprinkling one day, so we put our rain jackets on for about 20 min and then the sun came out for a little while.

During one of my earlier kayak floats this summer, I saw a gal with a dry bag that had big handle, like a tote bag, so I looked for one on Amazon.  I ended up getting one like a backpack, so can put most of my gear in one bag and keep it all dry.  I also got a waist pack to put my phone and my money/keys in that will stay with me and won't get lost if i end up in the river.  I can keep a jacket and a long sleeved shirt in case I need more coverage or get chilly.

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After floating Friday, my friend and I were pretty tired since we were up so early, so we fixed a quick and easy meal in electric skillet, showered and went to bed.  Next morning, Sat, we did another river and it was a beautiful float.  

It was mostly sunny on Saturday and this river had more water, again cold and spring fed - so we did not get in (on purpose).  Luckily, none of us were dumped either.  This river was a little more crowded, as it was bigger and it was Satuday.  But it was still a very nice float and I managed to stay in the middle of the group and have some peace and quiet to study the flora and fauna.  Saturday, we saw some birds, lots of butterflies.  We really enjoyed this cave.  We could get about 10 kayaks a time in the cave and paddle around in the dark - it was a little eery.

Saturday evening, we put together all our food and had a smorgasboard.  It was nice.  I still went to bed pretty early, because Sunday we were up early to pack for immediate departure after a shorter trip.  Friday we floated slightly over 10 miles, Saturday 8 miles and Sunday we only did about 5.  Sunday we were ready to head home after our final river, at about noon.

This last river, was the one that I found had more "strainers".  That is an area where the river either changes direction or has a feature that traps logs and roots to gather and then creates an obstacle for river navigation.  This particular strainer was a tree caught over on the left side and facing upstream with much of the main trunk/limbs still exposed, so when I about ran into it, the tree about took my head off!  After this, I asked one of the other paddlers with experience what did wrong and she said that i mostly did everything correct, sometimes, you just get caught up.  I probably should have paddled away sooner than trying to turn away at the last might (you want to keep your nose pointed downstream, so you don't get tipped over) and then when I hit the tree I pushed off (which is evidently wrong) but by trying to push away, I was at least properly leaning toward the object, instead of away.  When you lean away, your opening goes low and water gets in, flipping the boat.  I got away just breathing heavy, but breathing!  My strategy of following the experienced kayakers and going where they were going had served me pretty well, all weekend.  I think in the spring (sans pandemic) I will take a class for some formal instruction and learn some technique.

Anyway, all in all, despite it being such a long trip and being up so early every day, I was so glad I went.  But, GLAD to get home to my DH, my dogs and my own bed.

These last few photos are of my guest room make over.  I have 2 guest rooms, one we have set up like a sitting room, with a sleeper sofa and my office and in between the sofa and chair - I have room to do my yoga.  The larger one, we have a queen bed and couple of chests and a couple of new pieces of furniture from IKEA where we can now fit twice as many sweaters, sweatshirts, fleece and flannel and blankets/throws.  It is a little busy, but we need it to be roomy enough for guests but functional.

This was the room as it was in the listing when we bought it.

And now, it is a little more crowded, but our guests have a large queen and satellite TV!  And I can do my treadmill in there on really hot or cold/rainy days.  I love it.

Our house is a mix of small and quaint and function.  I am still getting rid of stuff, replacing with stuff that suits our new life now and improving the look and function of our possessions.  I am OK with keeping stuff that we LOVE, has value or works for us in some way (function).  Anything not fitting these categories I am slowly getting rid of (selling or donating).  I have listed several more pieces of our motorcycle gear and another 2 coats we don't need anylonger, but haven't sold any clothes in quite a while.  

Last picture is a mural on an old grain silo in a little southern Missouri town, called Monett.  It was pretty cool and it getting quite a bit of attention!  We waited behind a man from Nebraska to get photos and behind us were a daughter from Oklahoma and her folks from Texas.  Enjoy!