Canoe Imbue

I guess I have a bridge fetish. My photo album is full of photos of bridges from about 14 states. One of these days I will organize them all into a pictorial. This concrete bridge caught my eye because I liked the way the arches were mimicked in the waters of the Edisto River in South Carolina.

The Edisto River is the longest free flowing blackwater river in North America, flowing over 250 meandering miles from its sources in Saluda and Edgefield counties, to its Atlantic Ocean mouth at Edisto Beach, South Carolina.

For a unique experience on the Edisto River, you can rent a treehouse to vacation in. The catch?  It's on an island in the river, you can only reach by canoe. The tree houses are off the grid with Tiki torches, oil lamps, rocking chairs with a treehouse view of the river with soft futons to sleep on in the treehouse loft. Talk about stepping back in time and thoroughly communing with nature. It sounds ideal.

Aaahhh... Take me away... to another time.

But back to reality...

The last time I went canoeing was with a one-legged man who lived on a canal. I kid you not. He had tragically lost his leg as a very young child in a really bad car accident. At this point, I can't remember how or why we flipped the canoe, but we did. It will come back to me, I have it all written down somewhere, just can't think of it now. My one legged friend wore a prosthetic leg which slipped off when we tumbled out of the canoe.

He had on long bluejeans, I had on a real cute bluejean dress. Both were severely weighted down by the cold waters as we struggled to grab the canoe and dog paddle.

We swam ashore to a private dock attached to a residence while towing the inverted canoe. The homeowners came out to see two soaking wet people climb up their ladder, but my friend hopped up on his one good leg in his long wet bluejeans and said "Oh my leg! I have to go dive for my leg!"

The man turned pale, the woman gasped in horror. They thought we were delirious or that we had been attacked by an alligator. A few minutes later my friend was swimming back to the dock, carrying his leg.  He plopped down on the edge of the dock to strap it back on.

The couple just stood there in shock.

We asked them if we could leave the canoe there temporarily because in all the confusion of flipping over, losing the leg, swimming ashore (before the alligators could find us) we had lost not one but both the paddles.

The shocked homeowners had to unlock their side gate so we could traverse through their yard, split splat soaking wet.

We walked all the way back to his house a few miles away where our fateful trip had started.

That was the last time I recall paddling about in a canoe. Years later, I would paddle a row boat to and from my sailboat anchored offshore. I actually got really good at rowing.

That was then. This is now.

Today I am parked at an RV repair shop. Yep.  It seems to be this old motorhome has started acting her age. I'm dead in the water.

Well, 3-4 years ago when I bought a 15 year old camper to call my home, I knew repairs, maintenance and upgrades would possibly be in my future.

Hmm...  ya think?

I figure I better write this before I see the repair bill and faint dead away. Maybe I should just be lying down when they hand me the invoice. I think I will go lay down right now.

Can't fall far that way.