Watch Out For Dead Man's Curve!

Our good friends, Misty & Michael (left), invited us to go canoeing with them this past Saturday, as a final "let's get away and be out in nature" activity, before Misty and I had to dive back into nursing classes (which started back today, and are going fine so far... thank you for asking).

I was very excited to go! Paul wasn't as excited to canoe, mainly because he has never been before, he dislikes being wet, and I think he has a "safety above all else" chip constantly processing information in his brain. Which, by the way, I definitely appreciate.

But, he also wanted to go have a good time with our friends and to get out, and I wanted to go really bad - so we went. We even bought some cool water-shoes for $3 at Walmart.

See the cool shoes? Mine were black.


It was about a two-hour drive to the Spring River in Arkansas. We had a good time talking about various things and singing to classic country songs on XM satellite radio - which is TOTALLY AWESOME.

A side note:
I used to listen to country all the time when I was younger... it was my "thing". I don't listen to it much now, but after Saturday I will probably take it up again if I can find a worthy country station.

Oh, and I LOVE when a song comes on the radio and I know the words to it. I feel "cool".

Back to the canoeing story...

First of all, it was very fun for me to be out on the water. I haven't been canoeing since I was a young teenager, and we went canoeing for a young women's activity for church. Paul and I don't do very many "outdoorsie" type activities, other than go to the park once in a while, mainly because there aren't any close places around where we live (that we know of) to do anything like camping, canoeing, hiking, etc. Also, we don't have a lot of time to do it with work and school right now.

When we got to the canoe rental place we were immediately approached by a nice Arkansonian man who I believe owned the canoe renting facility. He was rather hairy, had green teeth, a strong southern accent, and spoke of "Dead Man's Curve" a lot during his explanation of the different routes we could take on the river. It was all rather confusing really.

I don't know if we encountered "Dead Man's Curve" on our journey down the river, but we survived the awful fate if we did. You can see how rapid the water was...

See my awesome fanny-pack?

It being Paul's first time, and a long time since I had been, we decided to do the short two-hour trek down the river. We were warned of the different rocky waterfall areas, and to follow the signs directing all canoers to a specific side of the river at a certain point - or we would surely suffer a horrible fate.

Regardless of the inaccurate, and vague warnings from Mr. Canoe-man, we got stuck on the rocks a few times, and Paul bashed his shins up pretty good because we didn't turn fast enough after coming down one of the little waterfalls. It led us, at lightining speed, right into the side of the river and into a tree. The force of the impact threw me onto my buttocks and threw Paul into the wooden bar, which was located at the center of the canoe right in front of him.

This is BEFORE the shin bang. He was so happy.


Paul also hurt his ankle while trying to stop the canoe from going over some rocks sideways. He is definitely a SUPER TROOPER!! He was still in good spirits afterward.
Michael helped us out of a couple spots too, which was very much appreciated.

Although we got a little bashed up, we both had a good time. I think we all had a fun time canoeing.





It also rained pretty much the entire time we were on the water, but that was okay. It wasn't a heavy rain, and we knew we were going to get wet anyway, so it wasn't that big of a deal.



After the canoe ride, we changed our clothes and stopped off at a "Corner Booth Restaurant" for some lunch.


Here we are at the Corner Booth restaurant


Then we walked up and down the main street of the small town we were in. We looked at a small art gallery of local artists, and we stopped in a candy store so Paul could buy some red and black licorice.

Then, we headed back home.

All in all, it was a lot of fun. I wish Paul hadn't gotten hurt, but that was really the only negative part of the entire excursion, and he is just fine now.
I hope we can do it again sometime.