Canoe ownership has been my husband’s dream for years. Jeremy searched endlessly on Ebay and Craigslist for the perfect one at just the right price. And he couldn’t drive by a garage sale without wondering,”Any canoes?” Me? I’ve always been against one. I tried canoeing when I was 16 and I remembered tipping. A lot. But when Jeremy found an old 14-foot aluminum canoe for just $250 I gave in.”It’ll be fun,” Jeremy said.”And if we don’t like it we can sell it. I bet we’d even make money off of it in this river town.” How can you argue with that?
April 12 was supposed to have a high of 73 degrees so we took our inaugural paddle that morning on Lake Yankton. I was nervous as we eased the boat along the dock into the little lake below Gavins Point Dam. Unsteadily, I got in first. Then Jeremy told me I had faced the wrong way.”Why didn’t you tell me before I got in?” I exclaimed, rocking the boat as I scooted around.”I hate this!” I yelled, mostly joking.
Jeremy seated himself with little fanfare and we found a rhythm to our paddling. Lake Yankton is around 250 acres and is generally calm since motorboats aren’t allowed. Surprisingly we were the only boat that beautiful day; I thought for sure there would be kayakers. We rowed into a narrow area with no breeze and glided under a tree where two bald eagles perched. Jeremy offered to paddle alone as I sipped coffee. Painted turtles sunned on logs, ducks and geese flew by, a turkey trotted along the bank and frogs serenaded.”O.K. I don’t hate this,” I admitted.”I love it! I was totally wrong. Good job buying a canoe!”
I paddled to help when we decided to turn back.”What a beautiful morning,” I thought, smiling to myself as we slipped into shallow water. But suddenly we started rocking and — you guessed it — tipped. No wonder there was no other canoe or kayak on the water. The water was cold!”What happened? I didn’t do anything! What happened?” I exclaimed, scrambling to stand up. It took Jeremy a moment to admit he had dug his paddle into the lake bottom in an effort to move us faster. It seemed like a good idea until his paddle got stuck and he lost his balance.
I don’t know if you’ve tried to right a canoe while it’s still in the water, but I believe it’s impossible. We nearly lost a paddle, ruined a smartphone and tipped again before dragging the canoe to shore and walking about a mile to our car on frozen feet. I hope the people fishing from shore got a good laugh, because we did … eventually. I’ll go canoeing again, but not until July.
