Many, many years ago I learned from a good high school friend the joys of taking an old tire inner tube and plopping down on top of it and setting sail down an icy cold Ozark stream! For two to four hours you had your own little world of nature, lazily kicking back and soaking up the sun and ride along on river time.
The only dangers were scrapping your bottom on the rocks in the shallows, gliding too close to overhanging 'tick' trees, slamming into a snag; the tumble of trees and other debris flash floods sometimes leave in the middle of the river and the occasional motorized johnboats that come up river. Though these 'dangers' may lead you to think floating is a little on the risky side, be assured, it's not as long as you are in a small group taking turns on keeping lookout for those blips on your floater's radar. For the most part, you are able to lay back, watch the sky and the banks of the river go by and dream about Mark Twain's journeys on a much, much smaller scale.
So, after thirty some odd years of on and off floating, I've taught my husband and kids how to watch for the 'dangers' and I myself can get some stress-free time just dangling my legs and arms in the cool waters of the Current River, near Van Buren.
Monday we packed up the car with snacks, SPF, towels, a change of clothes, picnic lunch and headed the two hours southwest. The only danger was I had switched on a weather radar earlier at home and noticed several summer bubble-up storms around our area and in-between the river. We debated whether to go. Maybe it was all that stress bubbling up inside me, but I said, I don't care, we're going no matter what. If it rains, it rains, if it's stormy we'll do something else. I was going to get out of town no matter what.
We were 15 miles down the road, when I saw clouds rolling in and everyone in the car groaned. "Not to worry," I yelled, "Look! A rainbow!" And sure enough there in the western sky was a beautiful rainbow. I was sure our trip would be successful!
Twenty miles later we were stuck in the midst of a horrible rainstorm, thunder and lightning, torrential rains; this was sheer madness. Should we turn around? I kept checking my weather app and it kept showing the rains moving away from our trip area. Just keep going...
Sure enough, we got to our destination and the sky was blue and clear. A more gorgeous day could not have been ordered. We had the most marvelous float and relaxing time. Letting go of stress, phones, messages and worries as we floated through God's nature spotting eagles, turtles, waterfalls and trees.
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