I was still determined to get a paddle and life jacket today for my kayak, so after our early mass I was on the phone seeing if any local stores had anything that could help out. I did find a life jacket in our farm store, so I snagged that. Then I also found out that in town I could get a paddle that would be the right size for me. Score! So after I got everything all packed up and Daryl got changed, off to town we went to pick up the paddle and head for the water. It was going to be really hot today, so the water would be a perfect place to be. Once we finally had everything that we needed, we went to rent another kayak for Daryl, and found the shuttle to take us to the river. The lady who was shuttling our kayaks started to apologize for the ruts in the gravel road that we were driving on, and how bumpy they were. We said that it wasn’t a big deal because we also lived on a gravel road. She started talking about how many people that she’s shuttled over the years that have never been on a gravel road and that even some of them get so scared and overwhelmed that they have cried. What? OK, I can see about being maybe nervous when you’re getting shuttled to the river because the gravel roads wind almost around each other, and there can be a lot of traffic.. but crying? Anyway, we got to the river and we decided that we had enough food to last us if we got lost for about a week.
The maiden voyage for my kayak
Even though it was pretty warm when you weren’t on the river, there was a really good wind blowing from behind us that not only kept us cool, but also kept the kayaks going. The river is fed by so many springs and they were really running today.
There are so many springs that feed this river.
When you are around them on the river, it lowers the temperature and it really feels great when it’s hot out.
I try to get on the river a couple times a year, and I saw something today that was a first for me. Now I’m not freaked out about cows in the water with us, and they sure looked like they were enjoying the cold water from the springs. But I couldn’t help to remember the story about some people who was so scared when they were on gravel roads, I wondered how they handled cows in the water with them 🙂
Even the cows were trying to stay cool today
After spending the afternoon just floating on the Upper Iowa River, we finally came to the end of the trip and started to head home.
Daryl just hanging out on the river today
And just our luck we had to drive by the Whippy Dip when we were going home. OK, ok, we purposely drove by it to get some ice cream to eat on the way home. But it sure tasted good and it was a nice way to end the day.