...away you rolling river

my dear friend, keno, flew in on monday from chicago.
i picked him up from the airport and we both ingested sufficient amounts of coffee
as we drove to harpers ferry, west virginia to go TUBING!
i have always wanted to do this.
i have listened enviously to stories of lazily drifting down the Shenandoah river on hot summer days.
i have often driven by the river/tubing/rafting places on my way to and from the western maryland mountains, curious as to how one goes about it all.
monday, my wondering came to an end!
we arrived at river and trail outfitters , parked and went inside to purchase our day-o-fun. keno purchased river shoes (only $16.00 and good quality!) and were given directions to where we had to park and get our rafts (about 4 miles down the road)
upon arrival, we met berkely.

he instructed us to jump in the back of his pickup. he tossed our tubes and life-jackets in behind us and asked us to stay seated. i looked at keno nervously as he started to hum “dueling banjos”.

berkely drove us up the road a spell and pulled over.
“usually we take you further up the road. but, since the water is low, i will drop you here.” our driver explained, “if you aren’t satisfied, i’ll take you up again once you return.”
after being instructed to stay on the far side or near the middle of the river (so our butts wouldn’t be scraped off by big rocks in the low tide), we scrambled down to the river’s edge and launched off.
i looked back and waved goodbye to berkely, who was watching us and puffing on his corncob pipe.

the next two hours were perfect.
we saw purplish-blue dragon flies galore.
we chatted and performed water-ballet as blue herons watched us curiously and geese preened their feathers.

with the warm aftenoon sun on our faces, we sang the folk song written for that great river at the top of our lungs.

upon a perfect landing, berkely requested in his west virginia drawl, “if you were satisfied with your trip, tell all your friends. if you weren’t, don’t tell anybody!”

so…go one and all to harpers ferry and say hello to berkely for us!