It is always an adventure when our family tries to do something fun and a little bit wild. First we couldn't decide between Seven Peaks or floating down the Provo river. As a family we decided that it would probably more cost friendly if we floated the Provo river. Then there was the task of finding tubes. We had four, then Brad and Janae found two from their friends in their ward. Kyle and Alyssa then bought 2 tubes, one that could fit 2 people, and one that was just a tire inner tube. Later we found out that if we did not have life jackets we could get in trouble, so, Dad being the hero, went to Big 5 and bought the beautiful bright orange life jackets.
Being Jackmans though we had got a late start. We had planned on getting in the River around 3 or so. But with all of the commotion we go on the road around 3:15. When we were almost there we called Kyle to see where he was at. He was still 20 min away at his in-laws in Spanish Fork. He then called us to say that one of the tubes that he had just purchased was missing the part that you hook up an air compressor to, to fill it up. So, they just decided that they would share a tube. Once everyone had arrived at the destination it was time to get in the water. Me, being the adventurous one in the family, jumped right in, ready to have fun. But, it wasn't very much fun when I realized that I was the only one on my tube and moving, and I couldn't find a way to stop. And it was super cold. Everyone was screaming because the water was not desirable to immerse your body in. I was already far ahead of the others and all by myself. So Brad and Janae jumped on theirs and followed me. Then I look back and see everyone coming! Oh what joy, I was not on my own anymore.
I don't know how, but somehow they had all gotten in front of me so could see what had happened next. There was a big tree sticking out into the river right where the river makes a sharp turn which forces you into the tree. Kyle and Alyssa (who were on a very lopsided tube together), were the first to enter into this mess. I saw them go under the branches and Kyle and the tube popped out of the water (separately) but I could still see Alyssa hanging on to the branch for dear life. Kyle was screaming at her to let go of the branch because it was just making the whole situation more difficult. Then Skye somehow got stuck in the branches also, lost his tube and had to chase after it. I could not stop to see the rest of the situation but I could hear Alyssa struggling. Also I could hear a man who was sitting in his backyard say to Kyle "this is going on Youtube!" He had a camera and knew that that was the spot where everyone got stuck. How cruel! (we will have to check for it on Youtube later this week).
While floating down the water I saw Kyles sandal floating down the river and I grabbed it, and then saw the other one, but it was too far away to reach. I managed to stop next to a campsite where a grandpa and grandson were fishing. Brad and Janae had stopped with me also. I told them I was going to wait for Kyle and Alyssa to see if they were okay. So, Janae and Brad were on their way again, along with Mark, Summer and Skye. Sitting there on a step to this family's camp, I was getting a little worried. I had been sitting there for about 10 min, and I had decided that they had gotten out and decided to walk back or something, so, I asked the man if he had a cell phone and if I could borrow it. Reminding you I was all alone and I had the thought that no one was going to be coming up behind, to float down with me. Right as the man went inside to get his phone I saw Kyle and Alyssa rounding the corner. Yelling back to the man "Never mind, they are here, I gotta go!" I jumped on my tube just in time to float down with them. Hallelujah! Prayers do work, and everyone was safe.
About 5 min of floating passed by and just then we saw Skye on the side of the riverbank. We tried to stop but it was hard. We were freezing cold and I could not feel my bottom or my toes. In the event of stopping, I watched Kyle struggle to get out of the water. He had no shoes and his feet were almost frozen. I watched as he did the army crawl out of the water because his feet were numb and had no feeling. Once we got out, Skye had told us that he was freezing, and he thought he had the first stages of Hypothermia and so he got out to do push-ups and curls in order to warm up. Now that we were all out and trying to warm up we decided to start walking because the river was not fun anymore. In our event of walking I remembered that Kyle only had one sandal and offered him mine. He denied, but I could tell that it hurt to walk with only on shoe on, on the rocks that were on the trail. So, I suggested that he use my life jacket as a sandal and strap it on. So, in need of relief from the pain he put his tube down on the grass and strapped the life jacket on. When done, he went to pick up the tube, but before he touched it, it popped. So, he picked up the popped tube and we made our way. Kyle looked so funny, but it was worth it. It ended up that we stopped about every 20 steps in order to re-adjust the makeshift shoe.
Making our way up the trail we noticed, a hill and Mark was at the top. They had gotten out of the river to wait for us, and they sent Mark out as the "Search and Rescue" guy to come look for us. We still has a little while to go, to get to the other members of our group, and the life jacket shoe was not working. So we tore off a part of the popped inner tube and the rope that we had to make a shoe, but that wasn't working either. So Kyle just stuck his whole foot into the rest of the inner tube. While walking to get to Brad, Janae, and Summer, we walked past a lovely bee farm! How delightful. Once we realized that it was a bee farm we started running.
Once we had reached the group, who was sitting on the bank of the river, Brad had informed us that a lady had come by and told them that there were government people patrolling the trail, and if anyone was found more than 3 feet away from the river they would give everyone a $100 dollar ticket no matter what your sad story was. There was no way that we could walk next to the river. There was either bushes and trees or a cliff. So, if any of the police came by they would give out 8 tickets, $100 each. Man were we worried! So we got on our way walking to where we had planned to get out of the river. we could see in the distance that there was the bridge that we had parked by but, there were also a lot of people surrounding the train tracks. As we approached we saw that there was a horse on the train tracks with a bandage on his foot and there were the police that the lady was talking about. Lucky for us the police were otherwise occupied with horse so we snuck by, not wanting to get a ticket.
We all jammed in Brad's van, with our tubes and headed off to Vivian park to meet Mom and Dad who were babysitting the kids, and who had a picnic ready for us. It was all good from then on out. Well except for one thing... I took of my shoes and headed over to the table to get a nice big glass of water and then all of a sudden I feel a nice wet squish in between my toes! Dog Poop, how awesome...
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