What Was I Thinking

 I'm creating a new blog post category entitled "What Was I Thinking." There have just been way too many times recently where I found myself mumbling this. My last "What Was I Thinking" post was about scheduling my daughter's birthday pool party at 2 p.m. on a Saturday in June . . .at exactly the time when we get our afternoon thundershowers.

This weekend's "What Was I Thinking" moment was a little more serious. Because the Florida State Parks were having a free entry day on Saturday, Beloved and I decided to head to our local park with the canoe and paddle around a bit. Now I have not been in a canoe in about 2 years, maybe longer. But I thought a couple of hours wouldn't kill me. (Suwanee Refugee, stop reading now! I'm too embarrassed to admit this to a paddler like yourself)

The young park ranger gave us a hand-drawn map of the waterway and pointed out a "3 mile loop" she suggested we try. Three miles, I thought, I could do that. That's about 2 hours of paddling. Sounded perfect.

So off we went armed with towels, lots of sunscreen and a large jug of water. We launched the canoe just before noon. At 3 p.m. I thought I might die without ever making it back to civilization. Hungry, hot, exhausted, sore and more than a little concerned for my physical safety, we finally got back to the boat ramp at 4 p.m.

How did this happen you ask? Approaching  the 2 hour point in what was supposed to be our "3-mile" canoe trip we realized there had been a mistake. We kept checking the map and thought we were farther along than we turned out to be. After 2 hours, and without being completely sure of our location, the choice was to turn back or complete our route and hope for the best.  I knew turning back meant another 2 hours in the canoe. We pressed on and hoped for the best.

By that point I had begun to sing the Gilligan's Island theme song over and over in my head "A three-hour tour, a three-hour tour . . ." And because I was starving (I had a smoothie for breakfast), I busied myself going over ingredients in recipes I was planning to make this week. Shrimp, onion, orzo, don't forget the lemon, olive oil, vinegar - what kind of vinegar? 


I wish I could say it all worked out fine because we got to enjoy the natural flora and fauna of the waterway. Not! The only wildlife we saw were a few birds and a lot of fiddler crabs (which I began to imagine were just waiting to pick the meat from my bones).

It will be a very long time before I agree to go anywhere near a canoe again.