Went with Paula and her 'posse' (in-laws) on the Hiwassee River in TN 'tubing' on Sat., but we did not actually get in 'tubes, though it was inflatable: a canoe? Yes, an inflatable canoe! The parents-in-law were in one, Paula and Chad were in one, and Uncle J. and I were in the third.
I thought we might want to try the kayaks, but thankfully got outvoted: I saw lots of people overturn, dunked along the way, when they went over shoals and lost control, mostly because they were sitting on top, precariously perched on the hard plastic, with a too-high center of gravity to be easily managed when the water was not smoooooth and traveling slooooow and eaaaasy.
There were several times Paula reported looking over at me and seeing cartoon words: "*&%@" and "!@##" coming out of my mouth, though they were across the water too far away to actually hear them, she knew precisely what I was saying, from the shape of my mouth was making....when we got to the part that you would look up and not be able to see where you were going next - a drop off, that looking ahead you could not tell how far down you would 'drop' until it was 'way too far to change your plans/approach. Kinda like those maps you used to see that would just taper off into nothingness at the edge of the known world, with the words 'There be dragons here', since no one knew what comes next!
The water was not nearly as fast, chaotic, lumpy, bumpy, too high, too low, too cold, too exciting, too stressful, freaking-me-out as the trip in July on the Ocoee when we were white-water rafting with six of us plus a River-guide guy. So the speed and excitement, activity were just about right for what I was prepared to endure, and now that the summer's mostly over, and it's too late to try to go again for this year, I'm ready for more fun...
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