Cheers to New Experiences

One of my favorite things is to experience new adventures and try new things. Especially when it’s something I’ve always wanted to try. And it’s even better when I get to do those things with the people I love.

I had the opportunity to go river tubing last week with a few friends and a couple of their kids. I had to get past the way the river looked at first, because I don’t like being dirty. (Kind of ironic since I love motorcycles, the ocean, ziplining, horses, quads, etc.)

The river was muddy and the water was straight brown. It looked a lot like… well… crappy water. Literally. However, it was all muddy because of the storms that have recently came through Nevada and Utah.

We loaded into a little van and got dropped off at a certain point on the Virgin River in Virgin, Utah. We grabbed floats, some of which had cup holders, our inflatable floating cooler, and a few other random things and started floating down the river.

Some of the kids went ahead of us as we got situated with the cooler and adult beverages (you know, important things). One of the guys had a portable speaker playing music.

It seems like the more we all tried to stay together the more we kept getting separated a little bit. It was fun, nevertheless. We ended up with a bit of a little convoy for most of the floating.

There was a lot of quiet time, just enjoying being a part of nature for a little while. Tons of dragonflies were flying around. They were beautiful and fun to watch. Some were mating. That sounds kind of weird, but I know what it looks like because of my tattoo journey.

(The tattoo I have with two dragonflies in a heart shape is actually how they mate. I thought it was beautiful so I chose to go through with the tattoo. Plus it’s kind of funny to me.)

We also had tons of laughs. Just hanging out enjoying the moment, making observations, and making jokes. Of course we laughed when someone tipped into the river. (One friend did it a few times, though the rest of us aren’t sure how it kept happening.)

The river was pretty shallow, despite the recent storms. There were a lot of rocks and shallow spots we had scoot across. (We have battle wounds aka bruises to prove it.)

I think it was a great place to have our first river tubing experience because it wasn’t super deep or fast or crazy.

Until the end, that is. There was a lady standing in a shallow pool area to let us know that was our end spot and grab our tubes to hike up a little hill to the pickup spot. At that point, the river picked up speed and went down into another section. The current was extremely strong, especially coming right out of a calm spot.

I was laughing because the lady was yelling, “Can someone please get that tube?” in reference to a tube that got away. I didn’t realize one of the girls in our group tried to get the tube and got stuck in the rough spot.

The next thing I knew, I was on my back in the water trying to flip over and get my footing. Some guy grabbed my arm to try to steady me in the calmer water, but I got swept away as well. I was holding a waterproof backpack, a can of whiteclaw, a water bottle, and my cellphone that I had taken out of the waterproof case to get clear pictures.

Then I was under water, being ravaged by the current and rocks. My water shoes were trying to come off of me. I was able to stand up and hand my stuff off to some friends. My other friends were trying to help the two of us that swept away. As we were making a kind of human assembly line to get everyone to safety, a kid was being swept away.

We all grabbed the kid and got him to safety. As we started working on our group again, another kid came by. That poor kid went under twice. One of the guys in our group lost his water shoes saving the kid.

Somehow, we all got to the shore and hiked up the hill to gather ourselves. Adrenaline was pumping and we were checking out our little battle wounds. We were all okay, despite being dirty, muddy, and some bruises.

We got back to the location and hosed off as good as we could. (You’d be surprised at how much dirt and sand can wedge itself in places you really don’t want anything wedged.) Part of the group was camping nearby, so they went back to their campsite. The rest of us jumped in the car and headed south. We stopped for dinner, then headed home.

After the first dropoff, we decided to stop in a local tattoo shop where one of the guys has a friend who works there. The remaining three ladies in the car decided to get our noses pierced.

That was something I always wanted to do, but wasn’t sure how it would look on me. (My mother isn’t thrilled lol.) I like it, and look forward to keeping it.

I hope you’re finding new experiences with the people you love, as well. It’s definitely one of my favorite things!