River Adventures with "Toada" and The Bovine Gang

Mission : To recover lost tackle boxes, fish pole and general "man stuff" from an unfortunate "canoe roll" the other day while the men and their friends floated a notorious section of river.
Though the men and their friends had a good time, they were sorry to lose the contents of the boat along with reconstituted lunches for all (which were the kind of lunches not needing reconstitution). They arrived home at approximately 1900 with company and consumed a hearty dinner. There was a substantial quantity of fish to be cleaned thereafter......
Recovery Team :
The Archer - supplies : wet suit, scuba gear, lunch, fishing supplies, water, many back up supplies too numerous to mention all in secured water proof containers.

Art Dog - a similar list of supplies

Outdoor Mom - Magazine, lunch, chocolate cake, dry clothes, tanning supplies

Super Catman - Fishing Supplies, candy, a bowl of water, lunch, extra water

Our Recovery Team Embarked on the mission at hand with a fairly early start, namely noon. As I loaded into the kayak with Super Catman and began swiftly moving down a fast and unfamiliar section of river I began having second thoughts. I wondered if it was too late to hitch a ride back with my husband who was waving goodbye with all too big of a grin spread across his face. He happily jumped into his truck and I could have sworn he was fiendishly laughing to be rid of the lot of us for the day....... just kidding.
I didn't have much time to think about that. The river was taking our kayak and the boys, ahead of us in their canoe, were shouting orders to me. "Hard Right!!" "Veer Left", along with many hand signals was what I was becoming accustomed to. It reminded me of one of those river rafting movies where they go on faster class rapids. Of course there was nothing like that, but enough to keep me on my toes and one wrong move would put Super Catman and I in the icy cold depths along with the contents of our kayak. This motivated me to pay close attention to my instructors ahead.
Finally we reached the treacherous section of river which had sucked my husband and Art Dog into flipping. The boys got out and pulled the canoe onto the bank, we followed suit. Soon Archer had dawned scuba gear and was fighting the violent current to the spot where a large protruding branched had knocked Art Dog flat right before they'd flipped over. Thank God he wasn't knocked unconsciousness. It soon became apparent that nobody could investigate that spot well because of the rivers mighty force. Archer began scubaing down river and I tried to find a spot up river to cross. I thought maybe I could scour the bad side to see if anything was there. It was strong even in the shallow places and I barely made it across. Then there was a jungle of obstacles to get through. By the time I got to the spot, Archer had found the tackle boxes and the pole sitting neatly in a pile at the bottom of the river further down. Art Dog was especially relieved to recover his fishing and hunting licenses.
We spent the rest of the day leisurely fishing, tanning and eating our lunches along the nicer, slower stretches of river. I even caught a couple of fish, but my primary goal was to work on my tan - lol. Super Catman found a creepy toad which he promptly named "Toada" who joined us for the remainder of our trip. "Toada" refused to stay in the first class section of our kayak and mingled often with the working class much to my dismay. Once Toada landed on my feet. I screamed. This caused all boys involved initial concern, then possibly some eye rolling went on. After that Toada tried climbing up my thigh. That was rather disturbing as well. Finally, a loud, deep and squeaky sound was emitted from our kayak. Super Catman informed me the horrid sound had come from his pet toad. I believed him. Later he confessed to having farted. Toada narrowly escaped us at the end of our trip and returned to his care free river life.
We also crossed an expensive looking river tour fishing guide boat a few times. Two elderly gentleman and one woman all wearing fancy white clothing were fly fishing. The boat, fishing equipment, attire and countenance of of the people did not seem to fit in with our day. It was like "Anne of Green Gables" meets "The River Wild". Probably much to their displeasure our our motley band of characters passed by and fell behind them several times. The other oddity was cows, yes cows!! Here we were in the heart of Mountains, river and forest and here is this band of outlaw cows lounging along the side of the river. They may have been a gang of unsavory characters because they mooed obscenities at our wary crew as we passed on. Super Catman had brought a dollar store pumpkin carver along for personal protection. He was ready to draw at any time. Luckily for us, Toada was quite river smart or maybe street smart. He gave them a bulgy eye and the cow gang backed off.
It was fun filled day of high adventure and that night we emerged from the river bronzed and exhausted with prizes including the lost treasures, some extra found tackle and a mess of fish. After a big meal we were soon fast asleep......