The early summer sun alternately blasted in the side window and windshield of my car as I wound around the twisty back road. The road ran along the top of the ridge overlooking the current river, over three hundred feet below. It wouldn't be a good place to go off the road, but the view was breathtaking, looking over a series of ridges that stretched for miles, the river twisting and turning like a snake through the valleys. It was a view my wife and I enjoyed many times as we came down to the river to canoe. The segment that I was overlooking now was our favorite stretch of water, lots of small riffles and rapids that were not difficult to navigate, and the slow spots still having enough flow so you didn't have t work hard to keep moving. Over the years we had floated this section dozens of times in all seasons, including winter.
I started down the long hill, losing the view as the snaky road made its way down to the old ferry crossing that served as one of the largest canoe outfitters in the area. I pulled into the almost deserted headquarters building and went in to reserve my canoe. On a weekend this place would be packed, but mid week it looked like I would have the river pretty much to myself. In a few weeks all the schools would be out and even weekdays would be fairly busy, but today looked to be peaceful. I arranged with the lady behind the counter for a single person kayak, something I had always wanted to try. Normally I would have been with my wife and we would have selected one of the nice old town canoes and enjoyed a relaxing float, but that was now a thing of the past.
In some ways I wasn't sure that this was a good idea, there being so many good memories of her doing things outdoors with me. But my friends pushed me over the last year to get back to doing what I loved, being outside, and to stop making my life miserable. When the heart attack took her nearly two years ago it was a shock, and even now there are days when I expect her to come walking down the hallway in our home. But two years is a long time and my friends insisted that I take a day off and go enjoy the outdoors like I used to. I think they secretly hoped it would get me out of the cycle of either being melancholy or bitchy.
The lady told me the bus would pick me up in a few minutes out front, so I thanked her and headed toward the door to go park in the floaters parking and get my small pack and cooler. A pair of ladies came in the door as I held it open for them before heading out to my suburban. It only took a few minutes to park and get my stuff back and I was headed back toward the building to meet the bus. The ladies I had held the door for were standing under the tree where the bus picked up, waiting for their ride as I would soon be.
One was a bit older, maybe mid thirties at most, and what I presumed was her sister, based on similar looks, seemed to be about ten or twelve years younger. Both were similar height and reasonably thin, with the older of the pair being slightly heavier. Even so I doubted she would tip the scales at more than a hundred and forty pounds for her roughly five and a half foot frame. The two had medium length blond hair that was done in similar styles, framing smiling attractive faces. Their legs were long and slender, looking well muscled and tanned, but between the faces and legs it was hard to tell much. The older of the two had what looked like a conservative dark blue one piece swim suit on, covered by an men's long sleeved dress shirt, while the younger was wearing an oversized t-shirt that covered her down to her thighs. There were a couple pink strings hanging out the top of the shirt, indicating she probably had on a string type bikini. I didn't really have much time to look more as the small bus arrived pulling a trailer loaded with canoes and my kyak.
I queued up to the door of the mini-school bus behind the sisters, waiting for my turn to climb in. As the younger one climbed in a tube of sunscreen fell from her bag, unnoticed, so I stooped and picked it up before climbing into the bus.
"I think your sister dropped this." I said handing the tube to the older sister , who was sitting on the aisle side of one of the bus seats.
She looked up with an odd smile before replying "thank you" with a pleasantly melodic voice. I dropped into the seat across the aisle from them after handing her the tube and got situated for the ride as the driver climbed in.
"Everyone ready?" he asked as he started the engine. We all replied we were and he started off, heading down the twisting turning gravel road that was a short cut to the paved county road that we would use to travel most of the way to the put in point.
The ladies seemed to be fascinated with the scenery as we wound around through the trees and over the hills.
"First time down here?" I asked the older sister, trying to keep my mind off the fact this was the first time I had ever made this trip alone.
"Yes it is!" She replied. "It's beautiful!"
"If you like this, wait till you get on the river! You and your sister will love it there."
She looked at me with that odd smile again before asking me. "Have you been her often?"
"Yeah. My wife and I made this float a couple times a year." I answered.
"OH. I didn't see her get on, couldn't she make the trip this time?" She asked me politely, clearly looking at my hands rather than my face.
"Um. No." I answered quietly. "She passed away almost two years ago."
Her gaze moved to my face, causing her to pause for several seconds before she responded. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to stir up things."
"It's ok. It's just the first time I have been down here since then. In some ways it's kind of hard."
"I can imagine." She said with a knowing tone in her voice.
We rode the rest of the way in silence, both of us lost in our private thoughts.
The bus arriving at the put in point was almost a surprise, I was so lost in thought. I stayed seated while the ladies got out first, indecently giving me a pretty good view of the older one's backside under the shirt as she bent over to pick up her bag. I followed them out as the driver was unloading a canoe, finding the two ladies looking a bit lost.
"Have you canoed before?" I asked the older one.
"Some, but not around here." She replied.
