45th Anniversary (Part I)...

This is the first in a series of articles about a recent vacation Pam and I took as we celebrated our 45th wedding anniversary.  Even though we are retired now, we are not the kind who take vacations all the time so we pack as much into one as we can.  I hope you enjoy the articles and get a sense of what a fun time we had.

Actually, this article will highlight the final thing we did on our trip -- we canoed the Platte River.  I can't remember if one of Pam's friends told us about it or if we just picked it up on a vacation flyer, but however we got wind of it, it was pretty fun.

This was another one of those drives to the actual canoe livery that stumped our GPS.  It seems there are lots of these going on lately -- maybe "Doris" (my name for the voice that so aggravates me -- "recalculating!!") needs a vacation.  We sure saw a lot of pine trees and winding roads on the way to the starting point. 

  

The gal who greeted us at the rental stand said we might have a better experience if we rented a kayak rather than a canoe.  We have a canoe back at the pond where we live, and know a bit about them but we've never been in a kayak and were a bit unsure at first.  It worked out great.  The river was very shallow in places and a lot of the people who were in canoes had to get out and walk their craft past the sandbars.  We just kinda scooted on through them.

The trip was 17 miles (I think), but we probably made it 20 miles by going back and forth a lot.  

With temperatures hovering around 80 degrees, there were lots of people taking advantage of this beautiful, tranquil river on such a pleasant afternoon.  Canoes and kayaks were scattered all over the whole length of the Platte, but the groups who seemed to be having a "we've been here before" experience were the ones who took several inner-tubes, tied them together, put a piece of plywood on top of one or two of them and placed their coolers and music players on top, and just floated down the river with mother nature supplying the movement forces.  I was also puzzled why the people in the canoes and kayaks were the 50-60 yr. old set or the people with young kids, while the "rafters" were the 20-35 year old set.  Hmmmmmmmmmm.  Maybe they have something there!!

The ice cream cone I am eating was my reward for completing the trip and not dumping us out in the river.

I must say, this was a really fun thing to do on a trip such as this.  Although, I will admit, I never quite figured out how to keep the water from flowing down the paddle-thingey and down my arms.  I am sure there is a trick to this, but I must have missed it in the instructions we might have gotten back at the rental place.

The mark of a successful trip is having spent an entire day between the banks of a river without feeling guilty about it.

Hooah