We went on a little adventure.
We traveled to a little town in Colorado to visit my sister.
We mostly went thrifting at least 75% of our time there.
I'm obsessed with the local Fruita thrift store.
There are teasures in that little place; it's magical.
This is gonna be a long story.
It might be worth reading.
It's mostly for kicks and giggles for those of us that were on the river at the time...you had to be there.
After a long day of thrifting and talking about floating down the Colorado river we decided it was time.
Mom warned us of the danger knowing our past excursions on moving bodies of water.
Somehow we almost die every time.
Nate said don't disrespect the river more then once.
We bought mattress floaties and I stole little Sierras floatational device for myself.
Grabbed some Gatorades, some fruit snacks and we were ready.
We were lectured before leaving the house.
I received a phone call on the way to the river. My father, who did not accompany us on the trip, asking if I wanted to get married and have kids.
They were over reacting, obviously. We didn't turn around.
The portion of the river we were floating was the calmest part of the Colorado. No white water rapids.
As smooth as the lazy river at Seven Peaks.
Nathan drove us up to Grand Junction and we would float back to Fruita, a three and a half hour glide.
We were pumped and ready.
We pulled out our floats and wasted all of our energy on blowing them up switching off on losing our breath.
The river was as dirty as Utah Lake, my favorite kind of water.
We got in, waved goodbye to Nate, and we were off.
No more than five minutes down did we start to hear "rapids" oh no rapids. Stupid rapids.
Being safe and listening to the advice we got from the expert fisherman we exited the river with our floaties in hand walking on the side. After trekking for a while Lis turned and asked if we wanted to call Nate to come pick us up. I wanted to give in. Who wanted to walk most the way down the river? I sure as heck didn't.
But we didn't give up. We're Craven girls.
Without any rapids in sight we climbed back in the river and didn't leave again. We floated down the...rapids... more like waves...smalllll waves...instead of getting out.
And guess what it was fun!
We were happy chilling in the nice water with the nice weather talking about how "mom would lovvve this" "I know its sooo nice out." "it's just like the lazy river at Seven Peaks." "We should do this with the whole family. Family reunion on the Colorado river, babies and all...so calm, soo relaxing... so nice." "I'd do this every freakin day if I lived here."
We were talking, laughing, and having the time of our lives, honestly, beside getting left behind several times because they had the soft, swift mattresses and me, getting stuck on several rocks by my bum and having those speedy two laugh while I tried to scoot off we had a sort of rockin' time.
We we're incandescently happy.
Sadly it completely changed when the clouds started to hang over us, the thunder started to roll, the lighting started to strike, (yes i did just quote Garth Brooks) and lets not forget the light rain droplets.
I started to us my arms as propellers. I didn't want to get stuck in the storm. I'm sure the end of the river was just around the corner...or an hour later. We hit some soft rapids. Since I was ahead I told them to go left or right to stay away from the rocks so our floatational devices wouldn't pop. By this time we were professional in avoiding the rocks. It was maybe a foot deep tam lost her tube tried to jump on the mattress and missed...haha...it wasn't funny, she was hurt, but Lisa and I couldn't stop...going against the rapids was a no no. We got to the end waiting for Tambam to appear, it took awhile but we saw her lifeless body floating down the waves.
I yelled at her, she didn't move. Crap mom was going to kill us. Minutes later she moved and yelled back; she was okay.
We all caught up to each other.
It started to pour. The rain pelted our poor bodies. I wasn't staying in the dumb river any longer. I got to the edge ready to climb out. Lisa asked if we'd rather walk in the rain waiting for Nate to pick us up or to finish floating. It was wise but dumb. Lighting was hitting right next to the river, if it hit the water we'd have been dead. Including the little one inside Lisa.
I gave in we started to float.
I started to move as fast as I could down the river leaving the other two behind. All of us trying to not hit trees, rocks, or any sort of bad rapids. The rain was coming down so hard I could hardly see in front of me.
It became extremely cold.
I could barely see Tam and Lisa behind me but I knew they were in the water. It was the only way to keep warm in the freezing outdoors.
I couldn't get in. I had the gatorade bottles, fruit snacks, and cellular devices on me.
I was tired, freezing, and shivering to the point where I couldn't stop.
I yelled at my sisters to catch up so I could get in the water.
I knew Tam didn't want to leave Lisa because she was pregnant.
She finally reached me, helping me get in the water.
We were all gonna die if not by lighting then by hypothermia.
But we made it. When I saw the Fruita bridge I wanted to die I was so excited. The end couldn't come fast enough, the towel, the warmth, the hot shower couldn't come fast enough.
As we were getting out Nate stood waiting for us. He looked down at our poor souls and said,
"I told you not to disrespect the river."
We made it out. We made it out alive.
A little over dramatic?
Maybe.
Did the story need to be that long?
No.
Welcome to my life.
