Mom, and living the best adventure ever!

by - Tyler Bradt

By KAVU

September 3^rd, 2019

Many times, what we see online and through social media makes us think we need to travel to far away places at the edges of the earth, jump from cliffs, or fly through the sky to have a grand adventure full of KAVU days.

Mom, and living the best adventure ever!

While all of these things are certainly grand adventures...... often full of KAVU Days, it's easy to overlook the adventures right in our back yards with the people we love.

KAVU Days are not limited to these far, wary places and death defying feats. In fact, that's not even the tip of the wedge of the iceberg lettuce!

KAVU Days are anytime we are taking the time to celebrate and love the life we are all so fortunate to live. And, it's certainly a dish served best with our loved ones!

The other day, I was fortunate enough to give my mom her first whitewater experience!

Talk about a KAVU DAY!!

Ha ha ha...... After we called my brother so my mom could "say her last good-byes", a little bit of pre-paddling coaching, and the mandatory mother/son photo, we slid into the warm waters of the Alberton Gorge in our tandem kayak.

Even though I couldn't see mom's face, I could feel her smiling as we came through the first rapid at "Triple Bridges".

We carried on down the river, Mom's confidence growing with every successful rapid. "Split Rock", "Tumble Weed", a little surf at "Surfer Joe"....... we stopped by an island full of beautiful river rocks where I knew mom would be able to do one of the things she loves most, look for heart shaped rocks.

Now, with about 10 pounds of heart shaped rocks in the boat, we continued downstream. An amazing surf at "Boat Eater" and then, on to the last rapid...... "Fang". We took quite a big hit in a wave called "Punisher", right at the end of the rapid and I felt the boat stop as mom went completely underwater!

We popped back to the surface right-side-up, mom laughing and having the time of her life! I couldn't help but smile to myself in the quiet realization that of all the adventures, this would be one of the most special one's of my life, on a lazy summer afternoon, 45 minutes from home.