Day 72 - Floating the Missouri River
Our day today started at around 7:00 when we woke the kids to be prepared for a Float Trip down the Missouri River with several families with Hannaford Street Bible Church. We left our house about 8:15 in order to arrive at the put in spot which was at the Wolf Creek Bridge parking lot. There were a total of about 22 adults and children. There were 2 8 person rafts, 3 single person kayacks, 1 2 person kayack and a 2 person raft. After getting our cars shuttled to a couple drop off locations and back the convoy set out about 10:30 into the Missouri River. As a side note it was 52 degrees this morning and the wind was blowing. We actually ran the heat on the way there. So you can imagine that our expectations were that we might freeze on this river. However, that was not the case. What a blessing it was for us to get to go on this trip. The kids all got along so well. Caleb and another boy Tyler took one Kayak and Joshua and a boy named Justin took another kayak. The girls went in a raft with me, Gretchen, another couple and another lady. The water was amazingly clear. There were these tall weeds that were on the bottom of the river and looked almost like beautiful blond hair floating on the bottom. Christina really liked rowing and splashing the boys in their boats . About an hour and a half into the trip this really nice man who was with us named Keith came over in his single Kayak and asked if anyone wanted to take it for a spin. Sarah volunteered and did an awesome job and just loved it. She even got stuck and got herself out of it.
After about 2 1/2 hours we pulled out for lunch. We had left one of the trucks there with all our food in it. So one of the guys pulled out a handy little grill and we had hot dogs and potato salad. You would have thought we were way down south. We took a nice long rest and then cleaned up lunch and got back in the water. This time we changed around where the kids were. Caleb and his new buddy Tyler took a 5 yr old (Carson) in the 2 man raft while Rebecca and a girl named Callie took Christina in the 2 man kayak. The adults did a little flip flopping of who sat in which boat and a couple of the guys left and went home at this point. As we got back in the water it was a pretty fast current so Keith took his single kayak and went down to stay with the kids as they happened to be way ahead of us all.
On this part of the trip 1 guy in each raft got out their fishing gear to see if the trout were biting. We could see them on the bottom of the river. The guy in our raft (Glen) pulled out all his fly fishing stuff. I have never really just sat and watched someone fly fish until today. This is a lot of work. These guys are the die hard fisherman. he had all kinds of things pinned to his shirt so he could quickly get to them. Unfortunately even with all his tries he didn't catch one. There were also several very deep parts of the river and some people went a swim. By 2 in the afternoon it was around 90-95 degrees. The scenery as we floated was just beautiful. There were many rock walls/cliffs and lots of farm land. We got to see a couple of otters and the kids saw at least 4 snakes to their delight. There were lots of canadian geese and lots of pelicans. Yes they have pelicans and sea gulls here. That was one of the strangest things to get used to when we came here. There was also a big Ospry Nest that had a couple Ospry and their babies in it. There were also these beautiful blue dragon flies that would fly across the raft and sometimes land.
Finally about 4;30 we all ended up at our pull out location (Stickney CreeK).. This was a nice shallow part of the river so everyone was out in the water. The kids had a great time and are now asking for a kayak and to come do this again. All of them got to kayak by themselves at some point (even Christina). (Christina is planning how she gets her own kayak when we kayak with the Shelts ) By the time we got our car and got home it was 6:30. Needless to say we are worn out and ready for some Olympic relaxation. Once again though we got to see the beautiful world our Lord created and we got to spend the day with Believers which was awesome.