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| A River Woman and her dog |
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| Her better half |
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| The Newlyweds |
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| The Old Fogies and their water dog |
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| Summer as rescue dog |
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| Pooped Pup |
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| Cory |
Let the rivers clap their hands; let the hills sing for joy together. Psalm 98:8 (ESV)
Husband and I are not very spontaneous. We live in a rut and eat the same places and have the same routine when we are home. When we travel, I usually do so much research before we go that even decisions made on the trip have careful planning behind them. Today, on our agenda was beginning to paint the wood trim around the outside windows and the front door of our house after going to church and a Sunday School breakfast. That was before youngest son called last night at 9:00 to say that he and M. had discovered that they both had three days off work and decided to go camping for a few days at Rainbow Springs State Park and did we want to join them for a day on the river? Hmm. Paint the house or go to my favorite place in the whole world? No real choice there, but it was extremely impetuous thing for us to do! Ordinarily, I would have already gathered the food for a picnic lunch, packed towels and an extra chance of clothes and made reservations for kayak rentals. As it was, we resorted to packing peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and finding a kayak rental while driving to the river. Who knew that our favorite kayak rental place in Dunnellon was not longer in business! Still, despite no planning, we had a surprisingly wonderful day. Cory was in her element except, the water was so cold for her little body yet. She would dive in and come up shivering. She swam so much we finally put a life jacket on her. You could not keep her out of the water, but she was so tired she could hardly keep her head above water. She loved riding in the kayak and leaning her head over to watch the waves. She would put her paw in and pat at them. She got so confident she tried to stand in the bow and fell out of the boat. Summer was there and demonstrated her life saving skills pulling both me and younger son to shore when we pretended to be drowning. She rides so nicely in the canoe and looked so regal as they floated along. Both dogs garnered lots of compliments both about their beauty and their calmness. People didn’t see how crazy things were when we first started out with Cory in the canoe with Summer. She kept howling and tipping the boat until we figured out she wanted to be with me in the kayak so we switched her over. From then, on, she was very happy and snuggled up to me several times and fell asleep in my lap. I asked youngest son how he got Summer to sit so nicely and quietly. He said it took lots of practice when she was young to teach her. I guess I need to invest in a kayak and give Cory lots of practice boating. And be spontaneous more often!
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| Summer, all grown up |
Yay!! for spontaneity!! that place is beautiful and I still thank you for telling us about it!
Congrats on the paddleboarding too. I've wanted to try that for some time also.