We met at Harold's Landing in Moline, and quickly realized how high and fast the river was. Katie was so excited that she already had her life jacket on. She just didn't understand why she had to take it off so quickly.
Not knowing if we would be able to paddle up river, we decided to drive down to the Back Water Gamblers site and leave a vehicle. After dropping off the van, asking Katie to take her life jacket off again, and climbing into Andrew's truck we headed back to Harold's Landing.
On the drive back to the start, Andrew was talking to me, I was listening in on Katie and Collins conversation, it went something like this;
Collin, "What if your van gets broken into?"
Katie, "It wont, its locked."
"They can break in the windows."
"No, the windows are strong."
"Well, they can break in the doors."
Some how this transitioned into "gluing the metal doors back together."
Ah, here we are!! "Katie, got your life jacket? Oh, you already have it on . . . never mind."
I snapped this one photo just before launch, and decided to leave the camera behind (just in case). We hit the river and decided to try going up river to see if it were possible.

After paddling hard for a minute, focused on the river ahead, Andrew told me to stop. We looked to the side and realized we were moving backwards and gaining speed.
After turning around we had a nice lazy time on the Rock River.
It was a beautiful day and we all enjoyed out ride on the river. Andrew and I are already talking of the next time we can push off.
BTW, the kids were thrilled to see that our van had not been broken into while we were gone.
1 comment:
I'm so glad to hear that no metal adhesive was needed with the van doors! What a great adventure for Katie to have memories of for years to come!
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