Chey the human pinball

Since we arrived in Colorado, I have heard that we needed to go tubing on the South Platte River, which runs about an hour from us in the mountains. Well today we did just that. I was really excited because I really like the lazy rivers at water parks. We packed up the tubes, some lunch, a two-man canoe, and a one-man rowboat and set off. It was me, Matt, his dad, Zach and the neighbor kid Mackenzie.

We got to the river and scoped out a good place to start and stop. We had taken two cars so we didn't have to walk all the way back after we were done. We inflated everything that needed to be inflated and set to the water! The first obstacle for me was the temperature of the water. I'd guess it was between 55 and 60 degrees. It didn't take much to get used to it, because once you were in the water, you were soaked.

The next obstacle was this - lazy river my ass. Basically, this was whitewater rafting with your butt sticking through a donut instead of a cushion of air protecting your fragile behind. The water was at most two feet deep, so I was constantly having my butt slammed into rocks on the river bottom. I quickly learned that it is best to face up river and use your legs to bounce off of any large 20-ton boulders that might be randomly sitting in the middle of the river.

It was a winding 1-mile stretch that we tubed down. It was a lot of fun, no matter how painful. Well, at least the first run was. The second time we went down the river was my worst. I had gotten pretty good at locating the problem rocks below me and lifting my butt far enough out of the water to avoid them. The problem was the ones that I didn't see. One caught me off guard and hit me right in the spine. I went limp for a second. Another time I jammed my wrist on a rock while trying to keep from slamming into said rock while rushing toward it in some rapids. But, I made it through the second run, smiling a little less and wincing a little more.

The third time I did the run I was beginning to tell myself that I'm really stupid. Again, I took a rock in the spine and continued to batter my bottom. I was glad that we weren't going again after that one. However, looking back it really was a fun day and I hope to get to do it again some day. The welts and bruises on my butt will heal :)