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Hey, Meat! Get In The Net!

When Bryan was a kid growing up just outside of New Orleans proper, his dad owned a small shrimp boat.  He has lots of little-boy memories about waking up before dawn and trawling for shrimp.  But the boat was gone long before Mandy and I were part of the family.

Louisiana shrimp boat at dawn
Louisiana shrimp boat at dawn (not the family boat).

Now Bryan’s dad’s (and brother) bought another little shrimp boat.  He offered to take off work the Friday before Michael’s wedding so that Mandy and I could go trawling.  Mandy was excited, because she loves shrimp and crab.  “Hey meat!  Get in the net!” She thought all this food-catching business was a great idea. Continue reading “Hey, Meat! Get In The Net!”

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Birthday Boat Recovery

Bryan planned a perfect birthday trip for me.  It was completely ridiculous and vaguely useful, and it sounded like a ton of fun.

Someone had found a jonboat pinned in a spot halfway through a ten-mile stretch of Cadron Creek, and we were going to go unpin it and get it out.  It was far from simple:  We’d need to put together a group of people to float down to the boat, then get the boat loose from the current that was pushing it up against a large rock in the middle of the creek.  We’d need to take a kit of rope and webbing and pulleys to unpin the boat.  We’d need to take a motor with us so that if the thing would float, we could ‘drive’ it a few more miles downstream to a takeout. Continue reading “Birthday Boat Recovery”

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Lower Big Piney

Once upon a time, a bunch of friends wanted to go paddling. They scoured the land for a river that was not too dull for the skilled paddlers in the group and not too difficult for the rank newcomers. They  found themselves beset by many obstacles.  Many of the potential paddlers did not have the gear for the journey, and those who had gear to loan lacked space for it in or on their trusty Subaru steed.  One of their number fell by the wayside, while others joined the expedition at the last-minute. Despite the challenges the group faced, through careful planning and preparation, they managed to get to their destination – the Lower Piney – unscathed.

Our group convened at a handy McDonald’s in Conway.  All together we had our family, Mitch and Rachel, Chris, and Cole in two vehicles when we left lunch. Yes, lunch. A late float is often a better float. Continue reading “Lower Big Piney”

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Rec School 2013

Last year, our trip to the ACC’s School of Recreational Kayaking was our first real instruction in boating. Mandy was out of town, so she missed it, but Bryan and I spent the weekend in our first kayaks, the LiquidLogic XPs, and we learned a lot. This year, we approached the school in a much different way. We’ve all become much better paddlers in the last year, but there’s still a tremendous amount to learn. Bryan pitched in as a ‘safety boater’ for one of the basic kayak classes; I borrowed a whitewater canoe and enrolled in the canoe class.

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Mandy’s back kept us from making a decision about what she’d do for the weekend. At the last minute, she got the blessing of her new orthopedic doctor. He had some concerns about the body position required by a kayak – her hamstrings are very tight, which puts her lower back in a strained position – so he suggested a little time in a canoe. On very short notice, she borrowed a Spanish Fly from our friend Cole. She had a great weekend getting to know a new boat. Continue reading “Rec School 2013”

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Crash and Burn

When Mandy was nine, she broke her right femur. Badly. We knew it had healed slightly longer than the other one. About a year ago, her lower back started to bother her. Her legs were still almost a centimeter different in length, so we added a lift to her shoes, and she felt a lot better.

Earlier this spring, Mandy’s back started to bother her again. At first we thought that she might need to be more consistent about wearing the lifted shoe, but when that didn’t solve the problem we took her in to the orthopedic doctor for another checkup. We got bad news: her damaged leg has continued to grow. Now the difference is between two and three centimeters. That’s quite a bit. Continue reading “Crash and Burn”

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Ice Water School

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We’ve been looking forward to Whitewater School since we started paddling with the Arkansas Canoe Club.  As the class got closer and closer, we got more and more excited.  Camping!  In May!  On the Mulberry River!  With friends!  It sounded like a great weekend. We like to paddle, and we like to learn stuff, and that was just going to make it better.

But then it was the week before class, and we couldn’t help but notice that the forecast predicted lows in the thirties for the weekend.  And rain.  Camping and paddling started sounding somewhat less appealing. Continue reading “Ice Water School”

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Pink Granite

It’s nearly the end of the semester.  It’s that part of the spring that finds me sitting in one class, worrying about what I’m not getting done in another.  I’ve been looking forward to spending a whole weekend at home, doing labs for structural geology.  So of course, on Thursday night, when Bryan suggests that we pack up and leave on Friday for the Wichita Mountains in western Oklahoma, I think that sounds fine.

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I do love the Wichitas, and he knows it. It’s been several years since we’ve been there and he also knows that I’m a sucker for a good road trip.  By the time I walk out of my Thursday-night class, our plans are made:  we’ll stay up late packing, pick up Kathy after work on Friday, and meet Mitch and his kids along the way. Continue reading “Pink Granite”

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Safety Season

Our first year in the Arkansas Canoe Club has been a good one.  We’ve been impressed with their emphasis on teaching and on safety.  They organize two big ‘schools’ every year – the whitewater school and the recreational paddling school (which we attended last year).  Less highly publicized are tons of training opportunities for the people who teach at those events, and for others in the club.  There are workshops and certification for kayak teachers, and canoe instructors.  There are rescue classes at different levels.

This culture of knowledge and safety is something we’ve really benefited from. Our family wouldn’t have had the good start we did without those educational opportunities.  We’ve felt pretty safe pushing ourselves a little bit, knowing that the people around us are well trained  will be able to fish us out of the water if we need help.  We think it’s very, very cool to be part of something that feels so committed to keeping people safe.

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This spring, we had a chance to take a CPR/AED course from UAMS, without charge to us – the classes were sponsored by the canoe club.  Now all three of us are certified CPR people.  We have cards and everything.  And we feel a lot more confident about actually providing help to someone in distress, instead of just standing nearby and looking concerned.

Continue reading “Safety Season”

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Seven Boats on the Buffalo

We thought that Monkey ought to be able to paddle her new boat the day after she bought it, and we thought that her dad might like to go with her. The Buffalo River wouldn’t challenge the girls much and it certainly wasn’t the ‘funnest’ place for a new playboat, but it was a place where Mitch and Jarion and Kathy could paddle comfortably. And who doesn’t love a trip to the Buffalo? No matter who you are or what you’re paddling, the Buffalo is beautiful.

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We met at eight and loaded up Jarion’s trailer with all seven of the boats. We headed off, disorganized and inefficient as usual, with stops to buy groceries and gas and to pee and to run shuttle. We managed to get on the water at the crack of 2pm. Continue reading “Seven Boats on the Buffalo”