ONE MORE STORY

Adamas - Cutest Boat

(Picture taken  while sitting at our table in a sidewalk restaurant.)

Adamas, again. 

Kleftico

At the Bus Stop, that's where.  Where did you think we were?

At the Acropolis

A Pretty Red Convention Rose

Meanwhile, back home I had a husband who has not been on vacation for the last two weeks. Instead, he was working through the summer heat without a break, painting containers and making evening container deliveries and pickups in addition to trying to handle the monthly billing and a few glitches that appeared in my absence.  Let's just say he was more than a little overwhelmed but handling it very graciously. 

I arrived and had every intention of paying the bills and doing bookwork, but he was dealing not only of back pain which he had endured throughout the course of several days, but also was miserable with a summer cold.  It was not surprising that he was in the general emotional range of slightly to very cross.  On Tuesday morning I suggested we take a break - and take our kayaks out on the Shoshone River.  So what happens next?   This was the gist of my email to Mindy with a few added details.

Dad and I had quite an afternoon.  Dad has been needing to take a break so yesterday he decided to postpone one appointment and take the kayaks out on the river for the afternoon.  I wondered how the going would be with perhaps a different water level than we had seen before.  

The directions were produced to seek the correct amount of air to fill the boats and in the process I read on to see that they don’t recommend using the rudder apparatus for white water because it is harder on the bottom of the boat.  So we decided to give it a try.  The boats do respond well to the paddle as you know.  

Anyway, had two dunks in the Shoshone, one at Coulter Falls when I got turned sideways and couldn't get it straightened, so a huge wave of water gushed, lifting me up and out, and another when I ran into a rock on an attempt to sideswipe it.  Instead it overturned and I ended up in the water with the boat on my head, but managed to grab a black seat strap and floated through the rapids with a firm grip on my boat.  Walked and swam over to the edge where the current was not quite as strong and after three attempts, got the boat turned over and me in it.  

Sent Dad to rescue the sunscreen that was floating away.  We lost two water bottles but found one floating…mine because I had drunk some of it.  My phone was along for pictures in a plastic bag.  Ineffective.  (Bag leaked.) So I had taken it apart and stored it in the side of my life jacket which is not water proof.  It’s drying out in rice and pretty sure it won’t survive two dunks, but we’ll see. 

I hadn’t fitted my helmet right, so it smashed down so I could not see, which did not help although it’s hard to see much when you’re under a boat, anyway.  The first time when I went over the falls, I was pretty overwhelmed by the whole experience and let my kayak go on without me once I got out from under it, hoping Dad would catch it but he got dunked too. 

Noticing that he was watching me as my boat floated by him, I said,  "I am okay, go get my boat."  I floated down the river in the current quite a ways, hitting rocks with my thighs most of the way.  There was no way I would have been able to fight that current. 

Watching him, I could tell going after my boat was not as easy as I thought.  The second time I got dumped, therefore, I grabbed something and hung on for dear life - the adjustment/fastening strap for my seat.  Guess we will have to really work to keep our boats straight without the rudders.  Anyway it made me kind of mad that I got thrown out.  

She replied that she thought we would have to use the rudders (skegs, actually), so the next trip out we took them along to put in just before the dam/Coulter Falls.  The river level was quite high and "thick" rolling green- we couldn't see the bright green vegetation growing under water, and the edges of the river were floating over the tips of the long grasses that were bent to the water's edge. 

I had been recalling in vivid detail my last dips underwater, fighting for air, swallowing part of the river, giving in to the current and all the bumps - feeling a little fearful as we drove toward our parking area.  Typically, I said nothing of the sort as we unloaded and aired up the kayaks.   Once we were on the water, however, I found smiles that kept bubbling to the surface, not that I could have explained exactly why. 

After installing the skeg, I asked Jerry to go first over the "dam".  He didn't tip over - even without his skeg inserted.   I paddled hard, aiming my boat across the current and at almost the last moment turning towards the main large wave, fighting to keep the kayak straight as the water swept me along into the highest crest.

I knew full well that it would take all my strength and determination to position my boat in time to meet the wave head on and only moments to find out if I could ride it out.  The kayak, with me in it, hopefully, would be standing on end as if headed for the depths for one heart-stopping moment. Then the trust of the wave met the kayak and the boat, instead of floating me out on a huge wave of water and flipping it over, rode right over the wave. 

After the big one, I fought the oncoming waves, jabbing hard and quick on either side of the kayak with my paddle in the effort to keep the boat straight for the rest of the rapid.   Did it.  There were a couple more rapids downriver that surprised me with their ferocity, but that makes it exciting. The river was different with this depth, and I don't know how it will go next time.  The river keeps you guessing.

Night is a world lit by itself.  

~Antonio Porchia, Voces, 1943, translated from Spanish by W.S. Merwin

Let there be sunsets.

Mindy led us to Notos Studios in Adamas for our last two nights on Milos Island because the owner had been kind enough to answer a touristy question a few days earlier.  We enjoyed the peaceful view from the balcony and left the patio door open all night to cool our delightful room.