I had a hella cool time in Raleigh last weekend. I took Friday as a vacation day, bungeed a duffel bag onto my bike, and set out around 11 am. The ride was pretty friggin' hard; the longest trip I had made to this point was well under 150 miles, and this was almost 400. 
I had planned to get there about 6 and arrived at 5 of, so that came out nicely. I met Dawn where she works, at a doggie bakery/boutique called "Just Dogs". It's a cute place, shaped like a dog house.
I parked on the side, and as I was getting off the bike, she peeked around the corner then ran back inside. Ooo! Pretty cute. I went in and we hugged, then chatted while she closed the store. After having sammiches at "The Third Place" coffeehouse, we went to the orientation for our kayaking class. We watched some video and then picked out our equipment for the next 2 days. The instructors - John Godwin and Paul Scrutton - I highly recommend; they're good natured, approachable, and most importantly, seem to know what end of a paddle goes where. (Of course, that info's only useful if you're planning to take a whitewater kayaking class in Raleigh).
After the class, we picked up my bike (I'd just left it at the doggie store) and headed to Dawn's house. Her kids were spending the weekend with their father. We just hung out and chatted for a couple hours and smooched a little bit. She asked if I was ready to go to bed, and I'm like "yeah?", and she says "separately". So, we hit the hay and both spent the night with our minds in the other's room.
The class started at 9 the next morning; we watched a little more tape then headed to Lake Johnson. At the lake, we learned the various strokes: forward sweep, reverse sweep, stern draw, draw, and reg'lar ol' forward stroke. The big thing, though, was the wet exit - without demonstrating 3 of those, you don't get to go to the river Sunday. Eh. Piece of cake. You flip upside down, tuck in close to the deck (wouldn't do to have your brains leak out on that rock there, now), pop your spray skirt, and roll forward outta the boat. The only problem I had was that the thigh pads were a little restricting, so I ended up with big bruises on my knees. No big deal. We also learned about "the hand of god" and bow rescues. Lots of fun.
After class, we went back to Dawn's, showered, and napped. When we woke up, she suggested going out to dinner then coming back for dessert. We opted instead to enjoy dessert first....
Then we went for Indian. yummy yum.
When we met up with the class Sunday, we just hopped in the Parks and Rec truck and headed to the Neuse river. While the instructors took off to deposit a pick-up vehicle at our takeout, we cleaned up the trash strewn about the park.
When they got back, we hopped in the boats and practiced ferrying - paddling back and forth across whitewater without being slurped downstream.
We finally took off down the water. A lot of it was flat, so we had to do more work than we really wanted to. But that's ok. Everybody really needed to practice going straight - it's pretty fookin' hard in one'a these - and flat water is the best place to do that. Near the end is where we ran into the biggest rapid of the day. Only a class II, but we only had a whopping day of experience, k? We had to learn to catch eddies. This isn't all that hard, but there's one little thing you gotta remember. When you hit the eddy line, the current reverses direction. If you don't reverse the tilt of your boat, when you enter the eddy, you get flipped. I, um, got flipped. Screw waiting for throw ropes, hands of god, or bow rescuers, I popped my spray skirt and practiced my wet exit. I'm typing this, so everything went a-ok.
We hung out at that rapid for a good long time, practicing ferrying in a strong current. We also learned to surf a bit. Paddling against the current, you have to position your boat where a wave is breaking back upstream. With the breaking wave giving you some upstream energy, you need to expend less effort to hold yourself in place. That was a blast.
We paddled the last 1/4 mile to the takeout pretty languidly. We were all pooped. We loaded the boats and other gear on the trailer and headed back to the Parks and Rec facility.
Dawn and I went back to her place and showered, then went to a Japanese restaurant called Kabuki. She had some scallop dish; I had sushi. This was despite some reservations I had about the place, as their health dept score was a 90, the bare passing minimum. WTF was I thinking?! On the way back to her place, Dawn did some crying. Maybe she wasn't expecting to like me so much, but she was unhappy now about the distance. Join the crew, missy. I just jumped from the frying pan to the fire.
When we got back, we hung out and did "stuff" before hitting the hay. I got up about 7 Monday AM and left there about 8. The drive back was much zippier, owing to the fact that I did 95 instead of 85.
I actually got into work about 2:30 pm, and hung until 9.
Now what? I'm trying to get back there Oct 14 for the NC State Fair and to meet her girls. Yeah, I'm an idiot. But what's to be done?
She knocked my socks off.
I had planned to get there about 6 and arrived at 5 of, so that came out nicely. I met Dawn where she works, at a doggie bakery/boutique called "Just Dogs". It's a cute place, shaped like a dog house.
I parked on the side, and as I was getting off the bike, she peeked around the corner then ran back inside. Ooo! Pretty cute. I went in and we hugged, then chatted while she closed the store. After having sammiches at "The Third Place" coffeehouse, we went to the orientation for our kayaking class. We watched some video and then picked out our equipment for the next 2 days. The instructors - John Godwin and Paul Scrutton - I highly recommend; they're good natured, approachable, and most importantly, seem to know what end of a paddle goes where. (Of course, that info's only useful if you're planning to take a whitewater kayaking class in Raleigh).
After the class, we picked up my bike (I'd just left it at the doggie store) and headed to Dawn's house. Her kids were spending the weekend with their father. We just hung out and chatted for a couple hours and smooched a little bit. She asked if I was ready to go to bed, and I'm like "yeah?", and she says "separately". So, we hit the hay and both spent the night with our minds in the other's room.
The class started at 9 the next morning; we watched a little more tape then headed to Lake Johnson. At the lake, we learned the various strokes: forward sweep, reverse sweep, stern draw, draw, and reg'lar ol' forward stroke. The big thing, though, was the wet exit - without demonstrating 3 of those, you don't get to go to the river Sunday. Eh. Piece of cake. You flip upside down, tuck in close to the deck (wouldn't do to have your brains leak out on that rock there, now), pop your spray skirt, and roll forward outta the boat. The only problem I had was that the thigh pads were a little restricting, so I ended up with big bruises on my knees. No big deal. We also learned about "the hand of god" and bow rescues. Lots of fun.
After class, we went back to Dawn's, showered, and napped. When we woke up, she suggested going out to dinner then coming back for dessert. We opted instead to enjoy dessert first....
Then we went for Indian. yummy yum.
When we met up with the class Sunday, we just hopped in the Parks and Rec truck and headed to the Neuse river. While the instructors took off to deposit a pick-up vehicle at our takeout, we cleaned up the trash strewn about the park.
When they got back, we hopped in the boats and practiced ferrying - paddling back and forth across whitewater without being slurped downstream.
We finally took off down the water. A lot of it was flat, so we had to do more work than we really wanted to. But that's ok. Everybody really needed to practice going straight - it's pretty fookin' hard in one'a these - and flat water is the best place to do that. Near the end is where we ran into the biggest rapid of the day. Only a class II, but we only had a whopping day of experience, k? We had to learn to catch eddies. This isn't all that hard, but there's one little thing you gotta remember. When you hit the eddy line, the current reverses direction. If you don't reverse the tilt of your boat, when you enter the eddy, you get flipped. I, um, got flipped. Screw waiting for throw ropes, hands of god, or bow rescuers, I popped my spray skirt and practiced my wet exit. I'm typing this, so everything went a-ok.
We hung out at that rapid for a good long time, practicing ferrying in a strong current. We also learned to surf a bit. Paddling against the current, you have to position your boat where a wave is breaking back upstream. With the breaking wave giving you some upstream energy, you need to expend less effort to hold yourself in place. That was a blast.
We paddled the last 1/4 mile to the takeout pretty languidly. We were all pooped. We loaded the boats and other gear on the trailer and headed back to the Parks and Rec facility.
Dawn and I went back to her place and showered, then went to a Japanese restaurant called Kabuki. She had some scallop dish; I had sushi. This was despite some reservations I had about the place, as their health dept score was a 90, the bare passing minimum.
WTF was I thinking?! On the way back to her place, Dawn did some crying. Maybe she wasn't expecting to like me so much, but she was unhappy now about the distance. Join the crew, missy. I just jumped from the frying pan to the fire.
When we got back, we hung out and did "stuff" before hitting the hay. I got up about 7 Monday AM and left there about 8. The drive back was much zippier, owing to the fact that I did 95 instead of 85.
I actually got into work about 2:30 pm, and hung until 9.
Now what? I'm trying to get back there Oct 14 for the NC State Fair and to meet her girls. Yeah, I'm an idiot. But what's to be done?
She knocked my socks off.
VIEW 4 of 4 COMMENTS
stuzzy:
good for you man. 
hot_rod:
my senior year of high school