Rollin', Rollin', Rollin' down the river

Today was my first kayak river trip. I came away mostly unscathed. After four hours on the river my hands got a little burned and my face has a tinge of pink to it. The rest of me was covered and I managed to stay warm. I was surprised by how warm I was at the end, and how damp I was considering how warm I stayed. The instructors awarded me with "best brace stroke" because there were at least a dozen times I should have flipped but managed to stay right side up. One instructor said I was getting "3D" and "jiggy with it" because I usually braced while leaning back, which caused the nose to go up in the air. It's part of a more advanced move, but I did it by accident since the water wanted to tip me sideways I figured I'd get my balance by going back. I didn't really care what I was doing as long as my head wasn't in the water. There were some fun brief rapids. I flipped once while trying to ferry from one side to the other. I tried to roll twice and then used an instructors boat to roll up - known as a T or bow rescue. They said one reason my roll failed was I was swarmed by instructors and my boat caught theirs and couldn't flip back over. We practiced rolls later in the river and I again had to use a bow rescue to get back up. At the very end of the trip there is a rapid right before the takeout that I got caught sideways in and over I went. I was close to just pulling the loop and swimming the remainder but decided to try a roll. I missed the first attempt, and I think my second, but managed to get air and composed for a final attempt, which succeeded. I was credited with a "combat roll" and was congratulated by all the instructors, who were impressed that I managed it on my first river trip. Over all, we had a pretty good group on beginners, who were all glad there was pretty much a 1:1 student to instructor ratio. I was expecting to have to swim a lot of the river, but it turned out I didn't swim any of it. My helmet was christened at the end when it hit a rock while I was under water. Those things really are pretty sturdy. I expected hitting a rock to feel differently. It was the back of the helmet and I promise it in no way hurt.
My other highlight was spending some time visiting with Joy. I haven't spent any time with her since we went to the Carrie Underwood concert last November. I hope to see her again soon. She bailed me out a little by giving me gas money to get back home. Forgetting your wallet is bad when you are low on gas. She's a good one. Her son Carter made me laugh when he came out from bed yet again and said in his most serious voice, pointing at his face "Sammy just threw a ball, at my face!" (or something like that.) I was trying not to laugh, but it was funny, though he clearly found it quite distressing. It's a pity you couldn't see it. He then stated he would be taking all of Sammy's toys the next day because of this infraction. latter on he came out again to say Sammy was being nice again. (Sammy is 2 1/2 and Carter is 4). They're cute boys, but well, they're boys. Joy said she was a good parent until she had kids, which also made me laugh. I'll probably be saying that myself someday.