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zaichikarkyI'm a big fan of TLC, so I hear that their latest documentary is called "Brace for Impact", which is about the "Miracle on the Hudson" saga. For those of you who don't know, it's about the errant geese flying into both turbo jets of a large aircraft flying out of JFK, thereby forcing the extremely skilled Captain Sully to calmly declare "Brace for Impact" as he landed the plane in the Hudson River, saving everyone on board. Quite a remarkable story! Not every pilot would have been able to pull that off.
Those words "Brace for Impact" are quite dramatic. It's something you'd expect when your plane is crashing into the Hudson River. Or when your boat is nearing the shores of Normandy about to deploy you and your platoon into a horrible Nazi-infested bloodbath. Or maybe Lieutenant Worf yells it as the Romulan Ship decloaks off the port bow and fires its photon torpedo at the Enterprise. But maybe "Brace for Impact is more appropriate during the Canoe trip from hell when your Canoe is... slowly floating towards shallow water.
When I was 13 years old, Nicole, a friend of mine from YMCA Summer Day camp and I first started the pre-teen YMCA summer camps. We had outgrown the Elementary-School-aged Summer Day camp held at the local recreational park in town where we'd met, and moved on to bigger and better things: THEMED Day Camps! Now we wouldn't be the oldest, but among our peers and we'd get to do funner things than walk down to the swimming lagoon. Our first foray into that new excitement was a water-themed Summer camp where there were more day trips which culminated into this weekend camping trip along the river.
Those adolescent Camps, a mix of the long overnight "caravan" camping trips and the Day Camps were a new thing at the time, so there weren't a whole lot of campers. Maybe about 10 kids and 3 counselors, but not all of us made it on the camping trip. Those lucky souls. As I remember, there was Nicole and I, a nice kid who we'll call Josh(though I'm not positive it was his name), another kid we'll call Tom, a younger girl named Jessica, Ruben, a kid I had a crush on named Brandon, and then there was a really serious kid always decked out in army camouflage named Bryce. There were 3 counselors who went down on the canoes with us: Dave, Gabe, and Holly.
We started off with 4 canoes. Nicole, Jessica, and Holly were in one, Tom and Josh in another, Gabe and Ruben in the third and then Bryce, Gabe, and I in the fourth. The canoe-rental company we used was designed to lend us all the equipment, drop us off on one end and then pick us up down river. They mentioned nothing about the treacherous rapids of the Russian River.
The first disaster came when Tom and Josh decided to aim for these large boulders in the middle of the river with a swift current. I'm not sure if they were aiming, or if there were sucked into the vortex, but they got stuck in between the rocks. The Holly-canoe team came to try to save them, but before they could even budge their canoe, they capsized. At that point, the Josh-canoe had a gaping hole in it and they had to leave it behind. The Dave-canoe team were the ones bringing up the rear while the Gabe-canoe team were so far ahead, they didn't notice the drama unfolding behind them and just kept paddling away.
Apparently Josh had managed to injure his finger during the fiasco and 5 of them were down canoes, so they decided to take their chances looking for help at the nearby vineyard. Problem was that Nicole left her shoes in the escapee-Gabe canoe, so she asked to borrow mine since the Dave-canoe team was sent to look for the Gabe team. I quickly agreed, not even thinking twice about the possibility of our own canoe sinking.
We waved bye to the five of them as the Dave team were underway. Bryce headed the front, Dave the rear and Brandon and I just sat in the middle. Thinking that Gabe was just far enough ahead of us to hear, Dave proceeded to yell "GAAABE!!" every five minutes of the journey. When that wasn't happening, we were stopping to let Brandon go to the "bathroom". He went at least 3 times during those 2 hours.
And then there was Bryce. I have never met anyone who took his front-runner canoeing so seriously. While the River was treacherous and raging in some sections, it was really shallow a lot of the way through. Whenever we'd come up on the shallow water, Bryce would give us a stern warning: "Brace for Impact." We'd paddle along another 15 feet and he'd never fail. "Brace for Impact." Though he didn't brace himself for impact, I guess he decided it was important to declare that to us. It was quite a chorus all the way through..
"GAAAABE..."
"Uh I have to go.."
"Brace for Impact."
I'm sure the rest of the Dave-canoe members were confident that we would make it back in one piece, but I guess the reality of the situation hit me when our canoe hit a log in the water.
"We're gunna tip, we're gunna tip!" I screeched.
"No, no. We'll be fine. We won't tip." Dave reassured.
"I know we are!"
And just as I said, we tipped and started floating down the river. We scrambled on the shore, me using life vests for shoes since Nicole had mine, and were walking through another vineyard (Hey, it's Northern California, we have a LOT of those) for a few minutes before we were picked up by a vineyard worker who had caught sight of us.
We thought that the canoe-rental company lose enough of its equipment in the form of 4 wrecked canoes and sunk paddles, but the cherry came in the form of Bryce's astute observation as we were waiting for them to pick us up.
"What are those orange things fluttering on the back of that tractor?" He asked, pointing to a tractor heading down to the grape vines.
"Oh the life jackets!" I exclaimed, laughing. "Guess that's just the last thing to leave behind." Brandon and I left our life jackets on the tractor to dry off.
When we all arrived back, somehow in one piece, at the camp, we found Gabe and Ruben there, waiting.
"Hey where were you guys?" Gabe asked.
After the long saga was explained to them, Gabe said that they waited for us for a "long time" after the first two canoe wrecks, but they just ended up finishing the course without us. I don't know what made them immune to the River's white-water like torrents and while it savaged on the rest of us. Maybe it was Nicole's sandals safeguarding their canoe? Or maybe Bryce's "Brace for Impact" warnings managed to transmit to their canoe instead of save ours. Still, I wouldn't have had it any other way. No one was seriously injured, and "The Canoe Trip from Hell" makes for a great story.
----------------------------------------------------
This is a post for![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
therealljidol.
Thanks for reading. Any criticism is appreciated!
EDIT: This is a special non-voting week where a panel of judges gets to pick who goes through. Everyone wish me luck! I'll really need it. LOL.
Those words "Brace for Impact" are quite dramatic. It's something you'd expect when your plane is crashing into the Hudson River. Or when your boat is nearing the shores of Normandy about to deploy you and your platoon into a horrible Nazi-infested bloodbath. Or maybe Lieutenant Worf yells it as the Romulan Ship decloaks off the port bow and fires its photon torpedo at the Enterprise. But maybe "Brace for Impact is more appropriate during the Canoe trip from hell when your Canoe is... slowly floating towards shallow water.
When I was 13 years old, Nicole, a friend of mine from YMCA Summer Day camp and I first started the pre-teen YMCA summer camps. We had outgrown the Elementary-School-aged Summer Day camp held at the local recreational park in town where we'd met, and moved on to bigger and better things: THEMED Day Camps! Now we wouldn't be the oldest, but among our peers and we'd get to do funner things than walk down to the swimming lagoon. Our first foray into that new excitement was a water-themed Summer camp where there were more day trips which culminated into this weekend camping trip along the river.
Those adolescent Camps, a mix of the long overnight "caravan" camping trips and the Day Camps were a new thing at the time, so there weren't a whole lot of campers. Maybe about 10 kids and 3 counselors, but not all of us made it on the camping trip. Those lucky souls. As I remember, there was Nicole and I, a nice kid who we'll call Josh(though I'm not positive it was his name), another kid we'll call Tom, a younger girl named Jessica, Ruben, a kid I had a crush on named Brandon, and then there was a really serious kid always decked out in army camouflage named Bryce. There were 3 counselors who went down on the canoes with us: Dave, Gabe, and Holly.
We started off with 4 canoes. Nicole, Jessica, and Holly were in one, Tom and Josh in another, Gabe and Ruben in the third and then Bryce, Gabe, and I in the fourth. The canoe-rental company we used was designed to lend us all the equipment, drop us off on one end and then pick us up down river. They mentioned nothing about the treacherous rapids of the Russian River.
The first disaster came when Tom and Josh decided to aim for these large boulders in the middle of the river with a swift current. I'm not sure if they were aiming, or if there were sucked into the vortex, but they got stuck in between the rocks. The Holly-canoe team came to try to save them, but before they could even budge their canoe, they capsized. At that point, the Josh-canoe had a gaping hole in it and they had to leave it behind. The Dave-canoe team were the ones bringing up the rear while the Gabe-canoe team were so far ahead, they didn't notice the drama unfolding behind them and just kept paddling away.
Apparently Josh had managed to injure his finger during the fiasco and 5 of them were down canoes, so they decided to take their chances looking for help at the nearby vineyard. Problem was that Nicole left her shoes in the escapee-Gabe canoe, so she asked to borrow mine since the Dave-canoe team was sent to look for the Gabe team. I quickly agreed, not even thinking twice about the possibility of our own canoe sinking.
We waved bye to the five of them as the Dave team were underway. Bryce headed the front, Dave the rear and Brandon and I just sat in the middle. Thinking that Gabe was just far enough ahead of us to hear, Dave proceeded to yell "GAAABE!!" every five minutes of the journey. When that wasn't happening, we were stopping to let Brandon go to the "bathroom". He went at least 3 times during those 2 hours.
And then there was Bryce. I have never met anyone who took his front-runner canoeing so seriously. While the River was treacherous and raging in some sections, it was really shallow a lot of the way through. Whenever we'd come up on the shallow water, Bryce would give us a stern warning: "Brace for Impact." We'd paddle along another 15 feet and he'd never fail. "Brace for Impact." Though he didn't brace himself for impact, I guess he decided it was important to declare that to us. It was quite a chorus all the way through..
"GAAAABE..."
"Uh I have to go.."
"Brace for Impact."
I'm sure the rest of the Dave-canoe members were confident that we would make it back in one piece, but I guess the reality of the situation hit me when our canoe hit a log in the water.
"We're gunna tip, we're gunna tip!" I screeched.
"No, no. We'll be fine. We won't tip." Dave reassured.
"I know we are!"
And just as I said, we tipped and started floating down the river. We scrambled on the shore, me using life vests for shoes since Nicole had mine, and were walking through another vineyard (Hey, it's Northern California, we have a LOT of those) for a few minutes before we were picked up by a vineyard worker who had caught sight of us.
We thought that the canoe-rental company lose enough of its equipment in the form of 4 wrecked canoes and sunk paddles, but the cherry came in the form of Bryce's astute observation as we were waiting for them to pick us up.
"What are those orange things fluttering on the back of that tractor?" He asked, pointing to a tractor heading down to the grape vines.
"Oh the life jackets!" I exclaimed, laughing. "Guess that's just the last thing to leave behind." Brandon and I left our life jackets on the tractor to dry off.
When we all arrived back, somehow in one piece, at the camp, we found Gabe and Ruben there, waiting.
"Hey where were you guys?" Gabe asked.
After the long saga was explained to them, Gabe said that they waited for us for a "long time" after the first two canoe wrecks, but they just ended up finishing the course without us. I don't know what made them immune to the River's white-water like torrents and while it savaged on the rest of us. Maybe it was Nicole's sandals safeguarding their canoe? Or maybe Bryce's "Brace for Impact" warnings managed to transmit to their canoe instead of save ours. Still, I wouldn't have had it any other way. No one was seriously injured, and "The Canoe Trip from Hell" makes for a great story.
----------------------------------------------------
This is a post for
therealljidol. Thanks for reading. Any criticism is appreciated!
EDIT: This is a special non-voting week where a panel of judges gets to pick who goes through. Everyone wish me luck! I'll really need it. LOL.
