It was not my finest hour.
Patty had planned a trip to paddle on the Econ, near our Florida home, for Friday March 12. Patty had invited Ed, a paddling buddy we had not seen for several years to come along, and our friend Cyndi. Not to be outdone, I invited TGO friends and fellow pickleballers Karen, Buly and Doris to join us as well. The weather forecast was good and we expected to see a lot of big alligators.
So far, so good. However, I had been nursing a knee injury, caused by daily abuse on the pickleball court. This would be on my left, or non-surgical knee. On March 1 I had visited an orthopedic sports medicine surgeon who diagnosed an "osteoarthritis flare up" which he said is not uncommon with court sports. He recommended rest, which meant no pickleball for a while. It was hard, but I didn't play for about 10 days. Then on March 11, the day before the paddling trip, I was playing and jumped high to hit an overhead smash and something snapped. Ouch!!!! I did something terrible to my knee that caused sudden and excruciating pain. I left the court and went home to ice up and pout.
I probably should not have paddled the next day, but I had invited friends to join us and felt it would be bad form to drop out at the last minute. Since my friends did not know Patty, Cyndi and Ed, I assumed they would not want to go if I didn't go. The knee pain continued the rest of the day, but I rationalized that if I could load the boat on the car I could paddle. This was flawed logic.
On Friday the boat was on the car and all our gear was loaded up, or so I thought, and off we went. We arrived at the put-in and carried the gear down to the water. It was then I realized I had done perhaps the most bone-headed thing I had ever done in my paddling career: I had left our paddles at home. CRAP!!! You can't paddle a canoe without paddles. It would take too long to go home and get them. What to do???? Thankfully, among our group there were exactly 2 spare paddles; a canoe paddle and a 2 piece kayak paddle. Neither Dorcas or I wanted use a kayak paddle, but sacrifices must be made. I took the canoe paddle, but Dorcas still refused to paddle with a 2-bladed paddle; It just ain't right to paddle a canoe with a kayak paddle. Eventually she decided to paddle with half of the kayak paddle, meaning it would be short, and she had no T-grip. Dorcas should have been mad at me, but she was a great sport and didn't complain. All-in-all we were lucky to be able to paddle at all this day.
The rest of the day was without incident. The river level was low, and we had some pull-overs. We saw lots of huge gators, and my knee hurt like a sonofabitch. It was another great day on the river.
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Dorcas using 1/2 kayak paddle
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| Ed and Bubba #1 |
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| Bubba #1 |
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| Bubba #2 |
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| Bubba #3 |
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| One of about a half dozen pull-overs |
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| Bubba #4 |
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| Matilda watching Bubba #5 |
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| Bubba #5 |
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| Immature little blue heron |
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| Bubba #6 |
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| Bubba #6 |
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| Pair of bald eagles |
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| Tri-colored heron |
