I knew today was going to be hectic and busy - I was coming in a little early… shooting a story for today and one for next week… packing for my trip to Blacksburg after work tonight… all while a rain cloud dumping buckets of water followed me around the entire day… so I made the most of the morning time I had… with a 45 minute kayaking adventure in the drizzle…

Matt just bought the bright yellow kayak last night… we have been wanted one or two I should say for a while now… when Matt told me he took it up to the cliffs last night I was a little jealous… so I got up this morning… ate a quick breakfast and pondered whether I would be able to make the same trip… the weather looked gray to say the least… our back deck was wet and I knew it likely wasn’t going to clear up… my time was running down… then I started wondering what kind of wimp would miss out on a kayak adventure because of a little rain… I am on a lake for goodness sake… as long as there was no lightning I was going to be fine…

I walked down to the dock… buckled up my life jacket… hoisted the kayak into the water and carefully climbed aboard…

Turns out the best time to take a kayak trip on SML is when there is drizzle… I was the only one out there… just the sound of my oar cutting through the water… I packed a Diet Dr. Pepper to have when I got to the cliffs… it tasted so good… cold and bubbly… I looked around and just took a deep breath… looked at my watch and decided it was time to trek back home…

Then, about 3 feet in front of me a small fish jumped out of the water… and just after that a large very graceful bird that looked like a blue herring and might have been for all I know… flew so close to the water it could have snagged that fish if it wanted to… acting as if it was unaware that I was even there… the rhythm of the oar stroke like the pounding of my running shoes on the pavement is so therapeutic… like a natural metronome that is set to your perfect pace…

That kayak was my “happy place” today… we all need one to go to at some point during the day… sometimes we get more time there than others…

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