A couple of years ago, our friend Mary Muncil (she married us) introduced us to tubing on the Battenkill and we got  hooked. I rushed on Amazon to buy some tubes and a small rubber boat came that could have taken us to Hawaii. Maria intervened and we sorted out the tubes. We love tubing, we put in at our neighborhood swimming hole and ride down to Shushan or Rexleigh Bridge. Once we put in in Vermont and had a great three hour ride back home. Steering is the thing, you can sweep into tree trunks and brush if you’re not alert and I got a paddle and am pretty good at it by now.

We saw a bunch of small kids zooming down the river with their preserver vests, the river is their back yard.

We went down to the Battenkill to check things out before our maiden run tomorrow – the rains have been so heavy it wasn’t safe to tube until this week. Tubing is simple, and great fun, it is a spiritual experience to lie back and let the river take you someplace, the Battenkill is beautiful. When it hit 96 degrees today we just grabbed our swimming trunks and ran down  there and plunged in. Very nice, restorative, the first time this week I haven’t been sweating and hot. Our swimming hole belongs to a farmer who lets people park on his land and use the water. In turn, we take good care of the place.

Can’t wait to hit the water tomorrow (storms permitting.) This is definitely one of the sweet spots of rural life.