Paddle!

Today is my “rest” day from the EA Active, (thanks Sassy!) but instead of enjoying a warm bath and a cup of hot tea to ease my achy muscles, I will be heading out with the hubs for the evening to search for camping gear. This weekend, we, along with our crazy pup, Tex, will be joining our friends, Brett and Amy, and about 15 friends of friends on a two-day, 23-mile canoe excursion into the great unknown. And what’s unknown is what scares me! I wish Bear Grylls was going to be a member of our pack, since I really don’t know anything about surviving in the wilderness. The one time I would have had the full experience of being woodsy, since my family chose cabins over cloth huts (thank you for that), was in fourth grade when I joined a Girl Scout troop. The night before our big camp out, I got my plastic utensils, Ziploc-encased clothes and extra-large can of mosquito repellant all packed in my knapsack, and of course, I woke up in the middle of the night with a fever and sore throat. Bummer! Lucky for me though, I didn’t get stuck in the rain like the rest of the scouts, eating burned spaghetti. Ha Ha!

Now don’t get me wrong, I love spending time outside. When I was younger, I rode my bike all over the place and played hide-and-seek with the neighborhood kids until our moms called us in (for the third and fourth times) for dinner. In middle and high school, the big thing to do was ride four wheelers through the muddiest parts of the river, to which, I ruined my friend, Sara’s, mom’s leather jacket. (Sorry about that, Tammy.) But, as I’ve gotten older, I have to admit I’ve become more of a lady of leisure on the weekends. I love pedicures, lunching with my family, antiquing and getting together with friends for a little din and drinks. So to trade all that for a pair of water shoes and a two-person tent is slightly daunting for me. But, in the spirit of being a supportive wife and trying new things, I’m going to hang up my heels, put fresh batteries in the ‘ol flashlight and jump on the boat. Not to mention burn some serious fat cells! Thirty little minutes paddling down the river burns around 120 cals, so 23 hours comes to a grand total of 5,520…oh yeah! Maybe all that rowing will keep my mind off bears, snakes, no bathrooms or showers, and mad men with chainsaws stalking us through the woods…wish me luck!