Not being blessed with athletic abilities or coordination skills, I find any activity that requires much of either to be a nightmare. Things that seem like great fun to other people – dancing! skiing! playing tennis! – are nothing but an exercise in frustration for me. Probably as compensation for all of my physical deficiencies, I’ve taken a special pride since I was a little kid in my sincere belief that I am a superstar in the art of floating.

The rest of you may be able to hit a tennis ball or clap in time with ease but, hey, when it comes to keeping myself afloat in the water, I’m a champion. Looking back, I have to wonder if the adults in my life were going for a 1950s-style version of self-esteem building for children. “Look how Barby can stand on her head in the water! Look at Pam’s strong back stroke! Whoa, look at Susie float!” If they weren’t actually as impressed as I imagined but just trying to boost my ego, it worked because I still feel a sense of pride in my ability to float for long stretches.

An inherent part of my nature is to “go with the flow.” It’s possible that my love of floating is a reflection of my personality and my tendency to let the fates carry me where they will. Whatever the reason, bobbing along peacefully on a raft is my idea of heaven.

For all of the hours I’ve spent floating in the ocean, I’d never tried river tubing until June 15th, the day after I turned 60, when my daughters and I set out for the Dan River in Rockingham County to celebrate my milestone birthday with a fun new experience. It’s been a stormy summer in North Carolina and a particularly severe weather system came through the Piedmont just a couple of days before our adventure. Driving to our destination, we passed many downed trees and overheard some locals at a convenience store complaining that their power had yet to be restored. If we’d been a little more experienced with rivers, we might have realized this was a clue that our river ride was going to be less placid than we were expecting.

My easy-going nature can be both a curse and a blessing. When we started down the river in our individual tubes, my daughters expressed concern that it was difficult to avoid large tree branches or to steer away from the steep banks. I scoffed at their worries figuring that, if there were any real dangers, someone would have warned us. As it turned out, this was an occasion when we would have been better served if my don’t worry, be happy attitude consisted of a little less being happy and a little more worrying. With the water much deeper and more rapid than usual, a series of scares and mishaps turned the peaceful float we were expecting into a hair-raising experience. After getting grounded on sharp rocks, dunked into water over my head and separated from my tube, and then tangled in a maze of branches and vines, I was just grateful we survived.

Rockingham County itself was beautiful…and so was the Dan River when viewed from afar.

June 15, 2013, County #18 – Rockingham