Day Six—Cia & Gloria

On Saturday, our group woke up extra early to drive to the start of our rafting trip. I asked Mike to go straight to phase 3 for waking me up, which means that he came into my room really quietly and whacked me incredibly hard with a pillow, which immediately woke me up. On the way to the Trinity River, we did a lot of singing and the ride passed very quickly. When we arrived, everyone lathered up in sunscreen and the majority of the group pulled their wetsuits on because the water was freezing (the air was hot though, so the temperature balanced out fairly well). The two guides gave everyone an overview of how to paddle and how to get through the rapids and water safety and then we set off. We were split up into two boats and my boat's guide was a 14 year old, which was really interesting to me because I didn't know that you could even be a rafting guide at 14 years old. However he had lots of experience. My raft had a hard time rowing because our two people in the front had a hard time paddling at the same time but we made it work and got through all of the rapids safely. When we finished our rafting adventure, we all piled into the car and drove back to our house and picked up some fish tacos on the way. After such an exhausting day, all of us were incredibly tired and went to bed early.

This was an incredibly fun day. Rafting is a combination of excitement, stress, anticipation, and lazy floating. We'd have long stretches of easy river, during which we'd swim, play games spinning the boat, or pull the raft over to jump off rocks along the bank. Then, all of a sudden, our guide would tell us to rush to our station and paddle for our lives as we approached a new rapid. Some more notable instances include almost hitting a rock because we weren't paddling hard enough, Henry getting stuck on the wrong side of a rapid while swimming, and me lingering for 5 minutes on top of a tall rock working up the courage to jump off (Caroline saved me by holding my hand and jumping with me).
One thing that impressed me almost as much as the river herself was our guide. His name was Clayton. His father, Aaron, owned the company, and Clayton was spending his summer working on the river with him. Clayton was the best 14 year old I've ever met. I didn't think it was possible to have a young teenager so competent, personable, professional, friendly, and funny. Not only did he expertly guided the us along the river, he also chatted, joked, and interacted with us with more social awareness than many adults. He did the menial tasks (like lunch and raft prep) with his father, never complaining or showing signs of resentment. I do not know if it was the natural majesty of the river, the semi-rural area he lives in, the way his parents raised him, or just his natural personality that gave him this grace and maturity, but whatever the secret is, I'm sure many parents would kill to know it.