adventures up river

Josh (we teach Sunday School together) and I went kayaking this afternoon. My left arm became quite heavy by the time we reached the bridge (essentially around the first corner). I think that was about 20 minutes into the afternoon. We found ripe raspberries and headed up river to find whatever we would find up there. Josh asked where we were going - but since I didn't know I didn't give a very satisfactory answer. Through the shallows Josh got out and walked, I think this was one way of letting me get ahead a little. I kept telling him that pet alligators had been released into that water or a snapping turtle would bite a toe off, he completely ignored both comments and kept walking along when he felt like it. These stories may, however, have something to do with the fact that I have a very difficult time walking in water where I can't see my feet. I was thankful that the hot day had become overcast and it was actually quite pleasant weather-wise. I have been dropped off at a boat landing up the way we were headed and I thought we may find that there were lots of alligators and turtles there. (I even released a turtle there that I had rescued from Hwy 25, but I have never heard of a painted turtle biting off a toe.) We eventually came across another canoe and when asked they told us that the boat landing was behind us. So at that point we were further up river than I have been before and that had been a one way trip. Forty minutes after I had begun to notice that my left arm felt like lead we headed up the Hay River against the current. Somewhere in there I decided that I had various parts of my arms, wrists and hands that hurt enough that we should head back. (Josh was able, this whole time, to paddle against the current fast enough to continue to move upstream not paddling more quickly than I was paddling. He was good enough to periodically paddle with his hands (when he wasn't walking) to let me catch up.) We floated gently and lazily back downstream and as we left the mouth of the river the fact that it had become overcast began to look more like it may rain. Getting a little wet while kayaking doesn't bother me. Sitting like a lightening rod in the middle of a lake during a thunderstorm bothers me. We 'raced' the storm back to the cabin. I really had no options regarding the speed I was going to be going. I was amazed I was still paddling at all. I must've looked beat because the boaters that we met on the way back asked about my arms. Maybe it was in comparison to Josh who still looked like he was politely waiting for me to eventually catch up. Crossing the Elk Point resort bay, the wind began to pick up. The sky overhead looked like the set for the movie 'Twister'. The encroaching black and green tinged clouds did serve as a bit of an incentive to attempt to keep going.
So we did make it. The neighbors were happy to see us back. Josh pulls boats in and stores them as intuitively as he does everything I need him to in Sunday School. If a person can be gifted in seeing what needs to be done and doing it - he is. (Maybe the skill will rub off a bit.) We made it to the car just as drops were beginning to fall. I dropped Josh off at home in a deluge of water. When I got home, there hadn't been any rain yet.
Tired arms can't compete with a family of ducks, a deer and Great Blue in the same bay and all the beauty of the river banks. Although 'keeping up' was never really an option, I wouldn't have made it as far as I did if Josh hadn't gone along - I can only be glad that he didn't know where we were going, he would've been there and back again before I left the bay.