07.29.01
Logan and I went floating yesterday and had just about the best time ever! Friday night we drove down to Steelville to camp overnight before floating Saturday morning. As usual, the whole time was filled with little “adventures” First, it rained almost the whole time we were driving- so the campground was mostly mud. We found our campsite and proceeded to survey the area for a prime spot for the tent. Once we decided where to put it, I began unpacking and unfolding the tent, arranging it so that we would have a good view of the fire I would be building next. So I arranged the tent ( one of those dome-style tents with the nine-foot poles that bend parabolically to support the ceiling) and went to grab the support poles when I noticed that they were not in the canvas tent-bag. Hmmm… No poles. Now what? Well, we could rent one of the cabins they have on site. Nope- those were all rented out. We could just sleep in the car. Yech. We wanted to camp. So, a fifteen minute drive back to Sullivan and a quick stop at the local Wal-Mart and viola’ We have a new (albeit tiny) tent! On the way back to the campsite (which was completely devoid of any burnable material) we stopped at a roadside stand and purchased some firewood for the campsite. Once back at the campsite, we proceeded to put the new tent together in the dark. Once the tent was up, the next step was to build a roaring fire! Unfortunately, the wood we bought was completely soaked from the earlier rain. So I spent the majority of the next two hours getting the fire going. By 10:00pm, it was going just enough for us to barbecue some brats and later some marshmallows. Around midnight, we finally gave up on the fire and went to bed. As we lay there, a small glow began to fill the campsite. It kept getting brighter, until finally, I had to get up to see what it was. Our little fire, which took all my energy to just keep a flame or two had decided that now was a good time to burn. And burn, it did! We had a roaring blaze for most of the night- so of course, we missed it. The next morning, it was quite a bit easier to get the fire re-started (I had placed several pieces of wood around the fire in the hopes that the heat would dry them out) After I stoked the fire, I made bacon and eggs (and toast) for breakfast. Boy, that sure beats powdered donuts!
After we packed up camp, we headed out to the pick-up site to be bussed out to “Butt’s Slab” (yes, that really is a place in Missouri- go figure) where we would get our canoe (which is the only way to really experience the ozark riverways!). We were told to arrive at least thirty minutes early, which we did as did most of the other floaters. The driver was about fifteen minutes late, and once we had gotten the old school bus loaded up and left the campgrounds, we had to turn around and pick up another group of people who apparently thought that twenty minutes late was the same as thirty minutes early. Between that and the twenty minute bus ride, we didn’t actually get in our canoe and on the water (we floated the Cortois Creek -a small tributary of the Meremac River- which I didn’t think that I had ever been on before, but the put-in place looked exactly like the place I was at with Charlie and Tracy a couple of years back- Charlie- do you remember? I thought we floated the upper eight of the Meremac- oh well) it was nearly 10:00 am. It rained most of the first two hours, but only lightly. We spent nearly five and a half hours canoeing, and not once did we tip over! Mind you, it got awful close on several occasions, ( I even ended up having to chase an oar downstream twice) but we never tipped! That’s pretty darned good on the Cortois (pronounced “cort-a-way”) which is very twisty-turny and filled with fallen tree type obstacles. Logan took the front of the canoe and managed to do a great job steering us through the obstacles and preventing collisions. He did a great job rowing and was even able to keep up with me paddling most of the way. Towards the end of the float, there were way too many other people on the water. Rafters and a few other canoes had created a traffic jam for the last two miles (of a ten mile total) to the point were we had to back-paddle more than a few times to try and avoid the drunken rowdies that surrounded us. As crowded as it was, everyone seemed to be having a really good time! A mere 50 yards away from the end of the float, I noticed a small brown object hurtling towards me. Someone had thrown a football and it had come up a bit short. At first I thought we would be able to get out from underneath it by paddling a bit faster. Heh, not even close. So as the ball came down, I reached up with my right hand to catch it (it was a football after all, and it was coming in close! I had to try!) and tried to counterbalance with the oar in my left hand. The ball came down in a nice tight spiral as it grazed my fingertips. I knew if I stretched just a bit more, I could get it! so I reached and stretched as far as I could, my fingers closing around the ball- I had it! Not quite. I had stretched too far, and my left hand with the oar had passed the mid-point of balancing. My feet went up, my head went back and in to the water I went. The canoe went one way, the oar went the other, but I had that football! Logan had turned just in time to see my feet go up and over and wondered “Why is dad getting out now? We are almost finished!”. Afterwords, we had a quick shower at the campgrounds and headed home. This trip went by faster than any other event in my life! We had such a great time, I can’t wait until we can go again!
July 29, 2001 9:39 pm 
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