A Canoe Trip

Good morning!
It's cloudy. Again. So far this month we've had 4 days of sunshine, and 4 days with just a little sunshine. I'm missing the sun. And we don't even have snow to make up for the lack of sunshine! We've gotten snow several times this winter, but it's never been enough to cover the grass though the rest of our state has gotten lots of snow.

I've been writing this week. It's been fun to work on a different story. :) I'm hoping to get more written tonight since I probably won't write anything tomorrow evening.

Let's see, this week hasn't been that busy. I've taught writing classes, graded papers, worked in the nursery Wednesday night, written over 3k words, read, posted a controversial blog post, and proof listened to more of one of my audio books.

This story was written around 9-10 years ago. I was given the instructions to write a story in diary form, and this is what I wrote. It's short, but next week we'll start a longer story.

A Canoe Trip

Dear Diary,
I still can’t believe I agreed to this trip. Here I am nearly 75 years old, and I’m off with a group of girls for an overnight canoe trip. Right now I am sitting on a log on the beach waiting for the girls to stow the supplies in the canoes. There will be three canoes for our party. All three are a bright red and while two of them have white edges, mine is entirely red. The water of the lake is placid, reflecting the snow covered mountains and the lush green of the pine woods. We will see how the river is when we get into it later. The five girls consider this the greatest lark of their lives. I’m not sure but they are right. But dear me, imagine letting five young things go off into the wilderness with no one but me along.

It is night now, and finally the last laggard is in her sleeping bag and slumbering. We didn’t pack tents, so we are all out under the stars tonight. To my utmost surprise we arrived at our camping site with no accidents. I have a feeling in my bones though that this state of things will not last. We’ll see what tomorrow holds.

Dear Diary,

I really didn’t forget you, but you see, my bones were right in saying that something was going to happen. Since it is all over now, and has been for nearly a week, I will tell you all about it.

I was awakened in the morning with a wild shrieking. I sat up quickly to find Cathy jumping up and down in the water. It turns out that two rocks were pinching her toe, and she was sure it was a crab about to eat her. How the other girls laughed. While we were eating breakfast, Sandra burned her hand with the bacon grease, and we discovered no one had packed a first-aid kit. Thankfully I’ve had experience with burns like that, so we managed to soothe it. All was quiet and calm during our Bible time, but packing up camp was a different story. I don’t know who started it, though I have a pretty good guess, but before I knew it, I had a free-for-all pine cone fight on my hands! They were all shouting and throwing pine cones. How thankful I was to have thought to bring along my husband’s ship captain’s whistle. One shrill blast on that brought a lull, and we finally managed to get the canoes loaded. The girls were in wild spirits, and for a while water was splashing everywhere and canoes were turning in circles. Linda and Jane managed to tip their canoe over. Thankfully nothing was lost as most of it was tied in. After a good quarter of an hour at least, the canoe was righted, and the girls were once more inside it.

After that, they all settled down, and we made good time. It was almost noon when the storm hit. Without warning it came over the mountain tops and was on us before we could prepare. Everyone paddled hard for the shore, but we were drenched long before we reached it. We pulled the canoes up as high as we could and huddled together under a tarp I had pulled from my canoe. Sherry said it wasn’t supposed to storm. Her brother is a weather man, and he had said it was supposed to be nice. Well Diary, it certainly wasn’t very pleasant there in the storm. Thankfully it left almost as quickly as it came. The sun came out, and we looked around us.

I think it was Cathy who noticed one of the canoes was gone. I didn’t think it would be hard to find it with its bright red paint, but I was wrong. There was no sign anywhere of the missing boat. The girls were all clamoring to know how we were going to fit six of us in two canoes along with all our stuff. If they had been larger canoes, it might have worked, but as it was I wasn’t going to risk it. I told the girls to start thinking. And think they did. I always knew that girls could use their heads for more than primping and giggling. Jane made the suggestion that we build a raft to tow behind the canoes and haul the supplies. Sherry improved the thought by saying that if we were to rig up something to stretch across from canoe to canoe, like a platform, we wouldn’t have to worry about it floating. Also, the person in the middle of each canoe could help keep things on. This plan met with great approval and everyone fell to work. It took some doing, but at last it was in place and the supplies securely tied on. I cautioned the girls that we would all have to work together or it wouldn’t work. It took quite a little practicing to get the hang of it, but when Linda started singing it was easier to keep together.

It was more difficult to travel attached as we were to each other and carrying more weight, so we moved slowly. I was thankful we were going down stream to the lake and that when we reached it, it was calm, and we could make fairly good time. However, it was after dark before we landed to be met by a search party with lanterns and flashlights about to start out to look for us.

And now, Dear Diary, I must end this and get some sleep. The girls are going on an overnight hiking trip tomorrow, and I said I would go along.

The End

Have you gotten much sun this month?

How does this story rate compared to my writing now?

How has your week been?