Poor Mom! When we got into range, I’d had a series of texts from Josh during the night. He ended up bringing Mom to HCMC, where she had an MRI and they found a hematoma. She had emergency brain surgery that night! Thankfully, the surgery was a success and she should heal fine. I feel horrible that I’m so far away. Mom, if you’re reading this: I’m so sorry that you got
injured, and I’m so glad that you’re going to be okay! We couldn’t talk to Mom because she was
still in ICU. Josh said he’d give us her number once she was moved to a room. So we’ll be going back into range tomorrow to try to connect with her.
Since there was nothing more we could do to help Mom or Josh, we went for another run on the Tellico. I was still reeling a bit from the awful news and feeling a bit guilty for kayaking when my Mom was in the ICU, but since there really was nothing I could do, I put on with the others. Missy had brought her creek boat to dust the cobwebs out. At the last minute, she changed her mind to her 4Fun. But then we discovered that the locks were accidentally left with the scootie. So I said the 4Fun would fit in the truck cab. BOTH Missy and Jeremiah scoffed at me and said no way it would fit. But it did! HAH! Those people who know me know that I am horrible at estimating distances and measurements, so this was quite the moment for me!
The river was a bit lower this time. Each level gives the river new character and challenges. Luckily, we had perfect weather! Sunny and mid 70s. No names, but the person in the blue Villian
S had a bit of an issue on the first drop and ended up going down a drop sideways. The person in the Monstar said the aforementioned person had a chance to decide to take the correct line backwards, or the wrong line forwards. But the person in the VillianS dilly-dallied, and the river made the choice for her: broaching on 2 rocks. Pull and a swim. The Villian got lodged right above the last little drop in the line, so I pushed it when I passed by and it came free. No injuries
to boat or boater, so we continued on. I was having a blast in my Allstar. I was a little nervous at the start to be doing a beginners creek run in my playboat, but it was a blast. There was just one other tiny incident where the person in the VillainS got screwed by the lower water and couldn’t make a sharp left curve between rocks. She pitoned and failed her first roll attempt. Whilst upside down, she slammed into another rock and dropped her paddle. Pull and a swim. Too bad, these
drops are super-friendly pool drops, so she totally could have gone for a T-rescue from the guy in the Monstar. We had a lovely float in the nice weather.
Afterwards, we headed back to camp. Missy and Jeremiah indulged in showers, and we are having another fire tonight (where I am currently composing this entry). Tomorrow we’ll check up on Mom, hopefully get to talk to her, and then make decisions on whether to stay at this campsite (which is private and wonderful for non-paddling activities) or seek out a new
campground closer to running rivers. (BTW- I finally remembered to take the camera to the river
today…and as I was about to take a picture of a group of 15-20 yellow monarch butterflies, the camera turned on only long enough to say “batter dead” and then it shut off. Grr.)
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