Swollen River Adventures

Over Memorial Day Weekend it rained and rained and rained.  And it had been raining for days and days previous to that.  Don’t quote this as an official number, but if I’m adding things correctly, I believe that in less than a week we had well over seven inches of rain.  When the sun came out for a few hours on Memorial Day, I decided to load up the kidlets and embark on a little adventure to Jay Cooke State Park, because I had heard the river was rushing, and I do enjoy turbulent water.

It has been awhile since I had the gumption to go on a hiking adventure with all of the kidlets by myself.  They were reasonably agreeable, although it took a bit of persuading to get YaYa on board.  Luckily the drive to Jay Cooke is right around 30 minutes.  My squabbling kidlets can usually survive a car ride of that length without driving me completely batty, and to my credit we arrived in one piece with minimal meltdowns on my part.

I strapped Mr. Trouble on Two Feet to my back so he’d stay out of trouble and we headed for the swinging bridge, a suspension bridge that sways over this crazy water!  It was really rushing underneath our feet, and we loved watching the water until it made us feel like the bridge was moving.  The loud, wild motion of the water coupled with the swaying of the swinging bridge could easily have been enough to make someone who struggles with motion sickness loose their lunch.  Luckily I’m not one of those people.  Mr. Trouble on Two feet, my cautious toddler, was NOT excited about the swinging bridge and rushing water.

Upon arriving on the other side of the bridge, we decided to go on a short hike on a very greasy trail.  And this is where things began to fall apart, because my mud-loving, adventuresome Mr. SP was in his element, exploring and slipping and sliding and having a great time.  But his SISTERS were convinced he was going to somehow inadvertently propel himself into the river and die.  There was drama.  Oh, was there drama.  Mr. SP was completely safe, far away from the river, but they would not stop fretting and giving him directions and telling me I was a terrible mother for not holding onto him at all moments (never mind that I wasn’t holding on to them either; I was too busy trying to stay upright on the greasy mud with a wiggly toddler on my back).  Rest assured, no one was in danger of falling in the river.  If any of us went down, it was going to be directly in the mucky mud puddles we were dodging.

And then YaYa, who is fairly low key usually about bugs, was convinced that the mosquitos (that I couldn’t even see) were going to swarm and eat her alive.  More drama.  I’m pretty sure she made a fuss just to get The Banana, who IS deathly afraid of mosquitos all worked up.  But The Banana came prepared, dressed in a sweater the thickness of a winter coat with a hood, hat, AND mittens over her hands to protect herself from mosquitos, so she didn’t really get too worked up.

Soon we ran into a place where the river was rushing over the trail, so we turned around and came back.  When we got back to the bridge, YaYa relaxed, and everyone enjoyed their crossing over the turbulent waters (except Mr. Trouble on Feet).  We stopped at a picnic table to eat a snack of apples and string cheese.  That’s where I spotted a wood tick on YaYa’s sweatshirt and made the mistake of saying, “Oh, look!  A tick!” as I pulled it off the fleece.  The word tick, which any smart mother would not have uttered, sent her into a hysterical tizzy.  On and on she fussed, convinced that she was going to contract lyme disease!  We were all going to contract lyme disease!  We would be paralyzed!  Dead before anyone could even notice!

It doesn’t matter how many times I explain about lyme disease and how it’s carried by deer ticks and not wood ticks and how her own FATHER is extremely experienced in recognizing the symptoms of the disease, the word “tick” just sends that girl into a hysterical fret.  I ended up having to stick her in the front seat on the way home away from everyone else because she was worked up, and she didn’t calm down for hours upon arriving home.

It all made me wonder why I thought the adventure was a good idea in the first place.  But the rushing water really was fun to see, and after being cooped up in the house for days with the kidlets, we needed to get out and get a little fresh air.