The Things You Do For Your Husband...Once

"This isn't a princess cruise, gentlemen!" That is what the Boy Scout leader was shouting to his troop of about twelve 10-12 year old boys as they pushed into the Brazos river to start their canoe adventure. He added, "You pull your own weight and help along the way, and NO HORSEPLAY!" I looked over at my best-friend, Jill Hair, and said, "Well, that isn't what I signed up for on this little adventure...I signed up for the Princess Cruise and a lot of horseplay." And cocktails. ;) Then a little boy scout snob told us we were cheating because we were using trolling motors on our canoes. Hey kid, I am not trying to get my Canoeing Badge or anything, I am just trying to make it through this alive.

Jill Praying We Make It Through This

Brent and my best-friend's husband, Randy Hair, cooked up the idea that it would be "fun" for the four of us to go on a 20-mile, 2-day canoe/camping trip down the Brazos River off of Possum Kingdom Lake. I basically agreed to do this because I will pretty much try anything once and Brent was so excited about it. What they hey, right? Wrong.

Funny Jill pretending she is falling out

The beginning of our trip was pretty great, Brent was steering the boat and I was kicking back enjoying the ride.

Everyone having a great time at the beginning

This didn't last long. About 6 miles into our trip, the patch Randy had added to one of his canoes got knocked out by the rocks with Brent and I sitting inside. We were sinking rapidly and both bailed out before we sunk the whole canoe. We pulled it to the side of the bank and we were strategizing what we were going to do with a broken canoe.

Hmmmm, what to do?

HUGE gaping hole!

Brent, my awesome hubby, had the forethought to grab a roll of duct tape as we were headed out the door for our trip. They allowed the boat to dry off and Brent taped up the hole.

Duct Tape solves everything

That great patch job helped Randy and Brent get the broken canoe the rest of the way down the Brazos with some manual water pumping along the way. Lesson 1 and 2 while canoeing: Bring Duct Tape and a water pump.

Things just kept going wrong as we went along the way. The river was pretty low so we ended up having to get out and pull our canoes across rocks. Jill and I ended up in the unbroken canoe while Brent and Randy got cozy in Ole Leaky. They were sitting as close to the back as they could get to keep the duct tape patch job out of the water and away from the rocks...they looked hilarious!

Might as well have a beer, right

One of our trolling motors broke and then the batteries we were using started to go downhill fast.

We finally found a campsite along the way, set up camp and started to make dinner.

Our campsite

But, we forgot the plates. Oops! So we all ended up eating family style out of one Styrofoam container that the corn on the cob came in. We made due.

1st course out of our "plate" - a camping staple, Baked Beans

2nd Course - Corn on the Cob

Main Course - Bacon Wrapped Filets

The next morning we woke up with the sun and started our last leg of the trip.

Randy - starting the morning right

At this point, we encountered "The Death Trap." This was the point of the river where Randy and Jill dumped their canoe on a previous trip so we were pretty leery. The water is rushing fast at this point and the current is very strong and pulls directly into a tree that is sitting out over the water. There is pretty much no way to avoid it. Randy and Brent went down first and they went right into the tree but made it out ok on the other side without dumping the canoe. Jill and I stayed back and watched and when we saw them hit right into that tree, we decided we didn't want to do that. Brent and Randy pulled their canoe to the bank and Brent came back to save us. He walked up and said, "You two walk down together and I'll take this down myself." What?! I was pretty nervous having him do that by himself because we had ALL of our stuff in our canoe so the guys wouldn't have any extra weight in Ole Leaky to deal with...so it would be pretty easy to tip it if you weren't careful. Brent jumped in and took off and the current took him straight to the trees.

Brent taking the canoe down "The Death Trap"

Randy trying to help Brent stay away from the tree

A view from the safe side...tree is on the left, you can see the water rushing toward the tree

Randy was there to try to push him away from the trees but it was almost impossible to go against the current. Brent ended up sailing right below a small tree branch and came out on the other side unscathed. Yeah, he's awesome and he's my husband. :) Lesson 3 while canoeing: Bring Brent.

After about a three hour ride this morning, we made it to the bridge where you end the 20-mile trip. Ohhhhh, so happy to see this bridge!

The Bridge at the End of the Trip-What a Sight to See!

Jill told me before we started the trip that on their previous canoe trip she discovered one of the fundamental differences between women and men. For men, if there isn't any DANGER, you aren't having any fun. After this trip, I have to agree with her. Brent and Randy were having a great time, while Jill and I were stressed out that someone was going to get hurt or we were going to have to find a way for all 4 of us to get home with one canoe and all of our stuff. When we saw the bridge, Jill and I breathed a sigh of relief, Brent and Randy were still thinking about how awesome that trip was. :)