Without a paddle

When I was growing up, we spent a considerable amount of time in the water — from riding our bikes to the city swimming pool on a daily basis to boating and water skiing.

As we were raising our own kids, that wasn’t really something on our radar.

We had an above-ground pool in our backyard they could enjoy on a daily basis through the summer and on special occasions, I’d get them to town to ride the ‘swim bus’ to Colfax for an afternoon at the city pool.

But we have now embarked on a new adventure. We’re kayakers!

Don’t go picturing us careening down some white-water rapids, performing Eskimo rolls and freestyling our way to the take-out. You’d be sorely disappointed.

Let me bring you up to speed.

Earlier this spring our youngest son, Carson, had started talking about getting a kayak and spending his days off enjoying some time on the water.

To be honest, we kind of poo-pooed him on the idea. I love the kid to pieces, but he tends to fall victim to his own daydreams at times. Seriously... he drives a Ford sedan. How in the world did he think he’d transport a kayak to any body of water beyond the pool at his own apartment complex?

Jump ahead a few months to one evening in May.

Avery was home hanging out with her dad and me. I don’t remember how the topic came up but the next thing I know, we started Googling — in other words, we were all sitting there, smartphones in hand, heads tilted down, fingers swiping across the screens, looking at kayaks.

We found some on sale at Dick’s Sporting Goods store. Naturally, we had to call the store to find out what they had in stock, including lengths, brands and most importantly — colors.

I called Carson at work, told him to come to our place once he got off work at midnight, and we’d all head to the Jordan Creek area bright and early the next morning.

Once there, we ‘tried on’ different kayaks — sit in and sit on — and paddles. We had the aisles littered with blue kayaks, purple kayaks, tie-dyed kayaks, patriotic kayaks and fluorescent kayaks.

We finally made our purchases.

Now the tricky part — how do we get them home? We hadn’t thought that far ahead.

Obviously we had the truck with us but we not only had four kayaks but also four paddles, four life jackets and a cup holder. The cup holder was for me. I was already thinking of ways to trick out my kayak. We just needed to figure out the best way to arrange things.

Once home, we figured we’d make our maiden voyage in a farm pond.

Farm pond one — people fishing. They said we wouldn’t bother them, but let’s face it, I really didn’t want anyone seeing me doing this for the first time.

Farm pond two — more people fishing.

That meant down to Lake Red Rock and guess what we found ... more people fishing! Oh well, we were going to have to get our feet wet sometime.

And we did... literally. Not only our feet, but basically every thing from that point north — and not a one of us even fell in! (Paddles take some getting use to.) Even soaking wet, we deemed our outing a complete success.

Our oldest son, Josh, and his fiancée, Kaylee, live in Colfax, so a few days later, I called and suggested they meet us at Quarry Springs Park with our grandson to do some kayaking.

It was a beautiful evening. We got the kayaks unloaded from the truck, I was settled in mine on the edge of the water and asked for someone to pass me my paddle.

Ummmm ... no paddles. We forgot to pack the paddles. So hubby turned around and headed back home to retrieve them from the garage. I know — rookie mistake.

So anyway...

Forty-five minutes later, we were gliding along on the tranquil waters at Quarry Springs Park. It was so serene as the sun was slowly making its decent and we just floated freely on the calmness of the pond. It’s become our Wednesday night “go-to.”

We’re old hands at this evening kayaking thing now and it includes a picnic, all the kids (if you see a blue Ford Five Hundred with a patriotic colored kayak on the roof, it’s Carson), lots of laughing, plenty of relaxation ... and paddles.