Perseverance. What a wonderful character trait it can be!
Dave and I have been planning all week to go kayaking at James River State Park today. We know the float from the canoe landing to Dixon landing, having done a tubing trip down that route last year.
I made several phone calls to the canoe livery during the week finding out things like how much it costs to get someone to help us drop the vehicle off at the take out spot ($2.10, believe it or not!) and what the weather looked like, etc. Since it's about an hour and a half drive from here, we wanted to have our ducks in a row before we drove all that way.
J had to work today at her restaurant job, so it was just to be Dave and me. That was fine, especially since J had vowed to never do a trip over a mile again after the Rivanna fiasco.
As the week wore on, the weather forecast became more and more ominous. Yesterday it started raining and continued to rain pretty hard through the night. We decided at bedtime that we would make the call this morning, still hopeful that it would be clear enough to go on with the trip.
This morning dawned gray and drizzly. However, the forecast was for scattered showers and a 50% chance of rain, morphing into scattered thunderstorms late. We decided to go for it. So we hit Subway for lunch to take with us, packed everything up and got the kayaks loaded, and headed for the state park.
We had just about crossed the bridge at Bremo when the heavens opened up and it began to pour rain. I mean, pour. Headlights on, wipers on full blast, POURING rain. All we could do was laugh. And we decided to keep driving and see what happened as the distance and the day wore on.
When we arrived at JRSP, we stopped for gas just outside the park road. As we ran through the rain into the mini mart, I told Dave that if he just wanted to turn around right then and go home I wouldn't object. I was so disappointed, but I knew that even a 2 mile paddle in pouring rain would not be enjoyable in the least.
He surprised me by saying "Let's go on into the park, eat our lunch, and see what it's like when we're done." So we did. We drove the four miles or so up the park road to the main entrance and paid our $3 to go in. We drove down past the horse campground we stayed at last year, and parked at the canoe livery. We ate our subs sitting in the car with the air conditioning on, and just as I finished, I realized the rain had stopped. It was still overcast and gray, but it was definitely not raining.
By the time we got the yaks unloaded, everything organized, and got the truck shuttled up to the take out spot, there were actual spots of blue sky showing in the distance!
We ended up having a lovely paddle. There was just a little bit of sun from time to time but never glaring or direct. It was mostly overcast and very comfortable. The trip went very quickly compared to the tubing last year, and we would have actually liked to go right back up and do it again. But since the sky was looking like it might start pouring again, we decided to count ourselves lucky and be done for the day.
We never did get even one drop of rain on us!
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| Dave on the river |
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