I'm Back & My Tubing Disaster
Hey y'all, I'm back after a reaaaaalllyyyy long hiatus. Like since last year... well now I'm back and ready with some yummy stuff. So I'm gonna dive right into my story so I don't have to go through those awkward introductions again.
Okay, so last weekend for the fourth of July, my family (including my dog, Blizzard), went up to New Hampshire with a bunch of friends. We went on Saturday and we came back Monday afternoon. The whole trip was really fun: We went hiking, got ice cream, my friend and I stayed up late playing games, the house we stayed at was great, we went to a water park, the parents drank a lot of classy alcohol, it was great. All up until Monday. So on the way back from hiking on Sunday, we spotted a "Saco River Tubing Company". Our interests piqued. None of us had ever gone tubing, and it sounded like fun so we decided to look into it. We went back to our place and searched the place up, looking into the details. I don't know about anyone else, but I got SUPER excited. From the pictures and descriptions, tubing sounded great. But, from the title of this post, you can tell, that's not how it turned out.
We booked a trip for 10:30 am and they said it would be about 2 hours, so we would still be able to leave for home at a reasonable time. I should also probably mention that we were going to bring Blizzard on this tubing trip as well. We realized our first mistake when we arrived: we were poorly dressed for the trip.
When we got there, we saw everyone in their bathing suits and swim gear. I looked around at our crew to see people in khaki shorts, leggings, and jeans. Smartly, I wore a light shirt and shorts, so the issue wasn't the worst for me. What none of us really realized prior to the trip was that our butts were going to get 100% wet. So we lumbered down to the Saco River starting point on a bus accompanied by an employee who explained the whole ordeal. He kept it very short; too short for most of our likings especially because we were all so brand new to this as well as unprepared. In summary, he told us, sit back on the tube, relax, and let the river "just float you". Our trip was the exact opposite of relaxing.
Where do I start? So one of the families that came with us, has a semi-autistic child and he insisted that he would go by himself, meaning untethered to an adult. Bad decision on all our parts, but it was too late.
Then he got stuck on a bank.
While everyone else kept moving forward.
He doesn't know how to get unstuck and it would be too hard for one of us to explain it to him. Also, he isn't a good swimmer, plus the water became very deep a couple feet away from him, so he wouldn't be able to walk to us. Also, none of us could turn around to get him because we couldn't go against the current in our tubes. So we all drifted away as he got left behind and he was screaming and panicking. His dad doesn't know how to swim so he couldn't get to him. Eventually, one of our other friends, jumped off her tube and swam to the boy, who was about 30-50 feet away. Then she couldn't get back because she had left her tube, so now both of them were stuck! The woman's husband, my dad, and the boy's father shored up on a bank to wait around and help. So now the issue was how to get the boy and the women back to us. One way or another, she swam close enough to get the boy to us. Then the husband decide it was best he be tethered to an adult. And then the husband fell into the water.
Before.
Tethering.
The.
Boy.
And so now the boy was floating away. Again. Now it was my dad's turn. My dad swam into the water and retrieved the boy, finally shoring him up onto the beach.
That was only the beginning of such frustrations. Soon after, I got stuck in some very icky sludge. There was litter and gross stuff and there was no way to maneuver myself, and I was trying not to gag. I needed something to get myself out as I was floating more and more into the sludge. Thankfully, my friend was nearby and was able to throw me a stick which I used for steering. I used that and I got out of the situation.
The trip was 4-part-exhausting and no-part-relaxing. Everyone got stuck on the banks, and there was no way to steer yourself in the right direction. The river currents were very quiet but at the same time, very merciless. Blizzard was sitting on a cooler raft the whole time, while tethered to my mother's tube. She probably got the most exercise out of all us. She got stuck every 5 minutes on a bank, and the woman who originally saved that boy, had to keep on steering herself towards the banks just to save my mom and dog. I probably had the most trouble at the end. We had a large group of friends but by the end we had mostly drifted apart. One large group got off 10 minutes before me at the dock, while the other group (including my parents), were about 5 minutes behind me so I was all alone. Right at the end, I got stuck on a rock, and there was no way for me to get on the dock unless I climbed over the rock or swam around it. The rock was too slippery to climb so that option was out. I tried to get my tube to maneuver around the rock, but the current kept pushing me away. Eventually, I gave up and dove into the water (getting off the tube without getting hurt was actually harder than I expected). A kind man asked me if I needed help, and I declined (later I asked myself why I hadn't just accepted his offer), but I asked him to keep my bag on the shore so that my phone etc. wouldn't get wet. I dove into the water and swam with my tube to the dock. Thankfully I didn't get hurt in the rocky area, aside from a small cut on my toe. I later found out that there was supposed to be an employee waiting at the dock to help. The group that got off before me was pulled in by the employee, thus not having to get onto the dock by themselves. It would've worked out a lot better if I had gotten that help. You know what stinks too? I had managed to keep myself dry the WHOLE time just until the end. Most of the people in our group somehow fell in or got wet. The bad news doesn't end there. I later found out that my dad's phone was in his pocket when he jumped in to save the boy, and because he had no where to keep it for the whole trip, his phone was wet and damp for two hours. It's still in rice right now, but since it was in water for such a long time, we don't think it's going to recover. And his iPhone 6s was so brand new too! It really stinks, but I think it was worst for my dad.
Blizzard
So that was my tubing disaster! I took a bunch of pictures which are shown above. From the pictures, you won't be able to tell at all that we had such a hard time. Thanks for reading!
-hurricane
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