Canoe the Kish

I went home to Illinois this weekend to hang with my mom...a belated Mother's Day celebration. Mom planned a canoe trip a couple weeks ago, and despite the recent rain, we were thankfully still able to go for a paddle.

The trip started off rather interesting. First, when we got to there, the owner had the hood up on his bus and was up to his elbows in grease working on the engine (never a good sign). He told us he'd pick us up at the park once the other canoers arrived (boy scouts). He arrived in a different bus than he was working on (we took that as a good sign). The bus ride was interesting for several reasons, the least of which were the 20 boy scouts. The owner also had his kids with him. His little girl (I'd guess age 3 or 4) was singing jingle bells at the top of her lungs. (She'd love Santa Claus and Holiday World). His little boy was doing everything in his power to tick his sister off- and succeeded. Meanwhile, amidst the mayhem, we noticed the bus was lurching, puttering, and slowing down rather than speeding up. Not good. Just as the driver was calling for backup, the bus came back to life. It happened that the bus worked best as we passed the Buddist temple, so we nicknamed it the "budda bus". I am happy to report that the budda bus got us to our destination.

The "budda bus"

The river was high- and running a little faster than usual. But we successfully launched off (in front of all the boy scouts) and headed downriver. It took us a few minutes to get into a grove. I was in the front and mom was in the back (which made her in charge of steering the canoe). Once we got into our groove, we were good to go- until the wind caught us and pushed us into the bank...backwards.

Despite the wind, we had a great time....and enjoyed the relaxing scenery all around.

Mom waiting for our canoe.