What I learned...

My son is better at this than we are. He is 4 out of 4 for staying in the boat.

I can raft the Nantahala River without a guide.

Stay in the middle when you see the takeout after the "bump".

You can avoid the bump but there is still a bump, might as well get a big bump!

My wetsuit rocks!

When in doubt, stay in the middle, apparently.

Less weight in the boat = you will get not stuck on rocks.

Fall into the boat, not out.

Our first mistake was not lining up in the middle, or straight going into the final rapid (Class III).

You see that rock? Yeah, we were supposed to be on the left of it, not on top of it. This caused us to nose dive, hard.

And this is where is all went wrong...

Some how I managed to save my hat! Sarah and I both caught the rope thrown to us. I managed to get out mostly unscathed, Sarah has a sore behind but that did not stop us from doing it all over again a couple hours later.

Nothing makes me feel more alive than whitewater. I absolutely love rafting. I think it might be more fun in the kayaks but it was cool to knock rafting without a guide off the bucketlist. You are never too old to live out your dreams.