My weekend floating excursion went well. A group of more than 40 of us took our annual trip to Huzzah Valley in Steeleville, Mo. and had a blast.

Although we were unsure at first how our float would go because it stormed most of Friday night the weather turned out beautiful on Saturday. What was especially great about it is that my canoe partner and friend, Rebecca, didn’t tip our canoe once. Although there were others in our group who did we managed to stay upright the whole time. That is a considerable feat since the last time she and I canoed together we went over and lost a lot of our beer and my dog nearly drowned.

Cole and Rebecca’s daughter, Jordan (she’s 14 too) canoed together and Rebecca’s boyfriend, Gary, went with another member of our group as to keep the peace between the two of them.

If you’ve never floated before then one of the rules you should know is that you should never float with someone you love because by the end of the trip you want to whack them with a paddle. I’m only kidding. Most of our group floats with people other than their partners because if something goes wrong they will not scream and shout at the person. It’s happened too many times to count. If a new couple joins the group the next year they float with a new partner. Not all do, but most want to enjoy their trip and keep the peace.

I will say that the only complication Rebecca and I had was that three women in a raft wanted to kick our butts after we yelled at them to stop throwing their beer cans and trash in the river. They screamed profanities and called us names so bad we pulled over with a group of people to avoid the nasty confrontation. We were trying to be nice, because it’s a $500 fine for littering on Missouri’s waterways.

Once we were done it felt great to get cleaned up and have dinner, but like always Cole didn’t listen. He wouldn’t wear sunscreen and got burned so we left at 9 p.m. Saturday night and drove home so he could sleep in his bed rather than in a tent again. I’m looking forward to our trip again next year because Huzzah always makes me happy.

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