TheBanyanTree: Way Down Yonder on the Chattahoochee - End

[B Drummond]

I'd like to be able to tell you that I, by sheer skill, intelligence  
and determination, conquered the Bush Head Shoals in fine style and  
left that guy standing on the beach waving at me in awe as he watched  
me gracefully maneuver the boat through the impossible.  I'd like to  
tell you that I wasn't afraid or never doubted my ability to make it  
through the shoals unscathed and the boat in one piece.  I was  
shaken, I was tossed, I was slung around, I was doused.

Actually I can attest to one of those points.  The boat made it  
though in one piece.

But . . .  it now has more scars on it than a 10-year-old champion  
pit bull.

How I made it through those shoals I don't know other than luck,  
hanging on for dear life, shifting my weight when needed, jumping out  
of the boat when I had to and staying with it when I felt had to.

I'm rather inclined to think that the fellow on the shore watching me  
probably laughed more than he worried because I must have been  
comical from his  point of view  -- half frightened out of my mind,  
flailing with the paddles, pushing off of rocks, jumping into and out  
of the boat as needed and add to that the sound of the boat's hull  
crunching against rock after rock that must have echoed down the  
river like gunshots.  The fact that the hull didn't puncture through  
is a testimony to the most excellent work of a group of welders in a  
little factory in Arkansas,  bless their souls forever more.

But they say that all that matters in the end is that you make it  
through and I did.  It wasn't pretty and it wasn't graceful and it  
wasn't picture perfect.

But I'm proud to say that didn't lose one item from the boat.

And you may find this hard to believe but after these shoals was  
another set worse in some respects but not as wide and with water not  
as swift.  On their approach I just got out of the boat, took the  
rope and walked, pulled the boat through and fought the currents the  
best I could while I floundered in the water and ended up the victor  
over the last set of shoals that I had to go through before a short  
stint of paddling to end with the sighting, at long, long last a  
bridge over the river.

But as fortune would  have it it was not the bridge at Franklin.   
Nope, it was the new bridge just before the bridge at Franklin.   
They're building a bypass on US27 around the city and this bridge  
will take most of the traffic now.  As I approached it I realized it  
was not the Franklin bridge but I didn't worry at that point.   As I  
paddled pass the bridge the first boat I had seen since the rowdies  
up near Whitesburg came into view.

The two guys sat in a bateaux boat and worked some jigs just off the  
bottom for striped bass and crappie.

"How far to Franklin?"  I called out through cupped hands.

"'Bout a mile down river, " one answered.

Relieved I knew that a mile meant a mile in this case,  eased up on  
the depth of the paddle, and took a little of my back out of it.

"Where'd you put in?"  the same guy asked through cupped hands.

"Whitesburg," I said proudly.

He sat stunned for a minute, watching me closely, looking carefully  
at my boat, the gears in his head turning fast, no doubt.

"You've paddled a mighty long way then haven't you?" he said.

"Part of yesterday and all of today," I replied.

The talked incoherently between themselves for a minute.

"Ja ketch enny fish?"

"Naw, they just aint bitin'," I replied politely.

And finally I worked my way down the river that true last mile close  
enough to Franklin just before dark to have decent enough cellphone  
service to place a  call to my wife.  She soon was  in route to  
rendezvous at the Franklin City Park right on the river, just past  
the (old) Franklin bridge.

My son had come along with my wife so we made quick work out of  
loading the boat.

I was tuckered out and it showed.

I jumped behind the wheel of the car and my son asked, "Well, Dad,  
how was it?"

"Son, I can truly say it was an adventure.  I'm glad that I went  
first to check things out,  and to be honest I would have been afraid  
if you or your mother had been along with me . . .  But  do I have a  
story to tell you!"


End



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