I have so much to be grateful for here in Vermont. One reason is I live about a quarter mile away from a significant body of water known as the White River. In fact, pretty much anywhere I drive is along the White River.
And as the weather began to warm up, we began to notice that the White River was the place to be during the summer months and we were severely missing out. There were people fishing, kids swimming, couples sitting around and dipping their feet in the water, and entire families tubing down the river.
Now, we weren’t about to let this obvious peak summertime enjoyment pass us by. When in Vermont, do as the Vermonters do, after all! So Tyler quickly ordered water shoes for the whole family. And 4 tubes for us to use.
We were set for all the tubing action.
However, every time we had a weekend where we could take a moment to float down that river, it would rain on us. It seemed quite obvious that fate was not interested in us floating down that river.
I had all but given up on the idea when Tyler exclaimed last week that this was it! It was our last weekend in summer, the weather was supposed to be semi warm, and we were tubing down that river if it was the last thing we did!
Well Saturday came about and, of course, there was rain in the forecast. Right about when it was due to warm up. And by “warm”, we are talking 75 degrees.
It was not looking good.
But then, by some miracle of Vermont nature, the sun came out. It was HOT! We were outside sweating up a storm, dreaming about how nice a float down the White River sounded. And by an even bigger miracle, the forecast no longer said rain.
This was it! It was happening!
We ate our lunch, blew up the inner tubes, and prepared to set off on a great watery adventure.
Now, the plan was, I was going to drive the car while Tyler drove the RV with the tubes in it. We would drop the kids and the tubes off at the beginning (we’ll call it point A) then Tyler and I would drive the 2 vehicles the 2.5 miles to the end (we will call it point 
, leave the RV there, and drive the car back to point A. That way, when we floated to point B, we could drive the RV back to point A, pick up the car, and drive home.
, leave the RV there, and drive the car back to point A. That way, when we floated to point B, we could drive the RV back to point A, pick up the car, and drive home.Perfect plan!
Except we did not take into account that someone had left a light on in the RV for the past 2 months and the RV was deader than dead.
And for the next 30 minutes, Tyler preceded to bring the Happy Glamper back from the dead. While the kids and I twiddled our thumbs and complained how we could have been doing about 300 different things during this time, Tyler attempted to resurrect our sad vehicle. But apparently his voodoo chanting worked because lightening crashed and angels sang and we got that thing going.
After that, the whole car positioning plan went perfectly. We got the vehicles in place and were finally at the River. At this point it was 3:30. But it was all good. Sunset wasn’t for another 3.5 hours and it would only take us about an hour to get down that river.
We all pushed our tubes out into the water and fastened them together so no one would go floating off into the underworld. And we all jumped into our tubes, ready for the adventure of the summer.
It was at that point that we simultaneously let out a shriek so loud, they heard us back in Utah as our bums hit the water. That water was so cold, all our hind quarters froze in place and shrunk as they made contact with the frigid waters.
We weren’t going to let this stop us, however. We were in this and it was happening one way or another. It occurred to us that if we stayed completely still, the freezing temperatures were mostly tolerable. So we sat, unmoving like a parade of statues, and did our best to relax as the current took us down the river.
Except we were missing one vital part of this adventure.
There was no current.
As we lay in our tubes, taking in the scenery, we realized that, on this particular day, the water had little to no current going on. Our tubes were floating at approximately 1 mph. Through the frigid water. And we realized this might take a bit longer than we thought.
But we were on our way and by God, we were going to make the best of it.
It wasn’t long before we realized another important factor.
The river was quite shallow in many places. These places just happened to be where the current picked up speed. So we would be floating on, relaxin all cool, and suddenly we’d be speeding along, thrown onto a rollercoaster of rocks, bouncing on rock after rock, with only our bums to cushion the impact, until finally coming to a full stop. And we’d have to all get out and pull ourselves into deeper water, slipping and sliding as we went along.
This is how we continued until around 5.30. We’d been in the water about 2 hours, so clearly we should be nearing the end. We checked our GPS and it screamed at us “MY GOD YOU ARE IN THE MIDDLE OF THE WATER!” and told us we had gone approximately halfway. And that was when Donovan started screaming that we were all going to die.
So here we were, in the middle of a river. Both of our vehicles equidistant from our location, night is getting closer and closer. Donovan is certain of our impending deaths. And we look up at the sky and see an ominous looking cloud coming toward us. Being stuck in the middle of a freezing river wasn’t enough, it had to rain on us as well.
That was when we got out and started walking through the river. Dragging the tubes behind us. Desperately trying to get as far down this river as humanly possible so we could get home. We dragged until the water got deep, jumped back in, floated until it got shallow again, and dragged some more.
We did this through the rain. We did this when the water temperatures dropped another 5 degrees. And then when the sun started going down, we were still doing it.
And now we were in the middle of a river and it was getting dark. And there was no one in sight.
It did, however provide a lovely sunset view on the river. So we had that going for us, even if it was likely our drowned bodies were going to washed away by nightfall. But at this point our thoughts were only on home, dreaming of a warm shower and pizza take out.
Just after 7 we finally made it to Point B. We got out of our tubes and started walking over to the bank. I say walking but in fact, we were wobbling our way to the bank. The rocks at this spot were covered in algae, creating a slippery ice skating rink of sharp rocks.
Tyler, always looking out for us, kept telling us to get back in the tubes so we wouldn’t slip and he would pull us in. We weren’t having any of that. There was no way we were getting back in those tubes after having survived that ordeal.
And in the end, it was Tyler who took the sacrifice. Suddenly there was a big splash and we see Tyler in the water, feet in the air. His body making contact with the rock floor. He hobbled back up, bruised and battered but otherwise in one piece. We made it to the RV and collapsed in exhaustion.
And that is how we almost died on the White River. Or that’s how Donovan tells it. And we kind of can’t wait to go again next summer!
Great content! Keep up the good work!
Thank you so much! I appreciate you stopping by!