The Long Way Home: Impulse Buys and Rafting

When I got home from my trip to the States in May, Stephen had a little surprise for me. I am not sure if all guys are impulse buyers...but Stephen does have that tendency. He has reigned in his compulsion for random things, but it slips out from time to time. In a moment of weakness, or should I say brilliance, Stephen purchased a 2 person inflatable kayak from the local grocery store....yes, grocery store!

I know what your thinking, "are you sure an inflatable boat that that comes in 15 pieces and that was bought from a grocery store can really act as a life saving device while rafting down a river?" My thoughts exactly! I was a bit apprehensive, but thought why not....I mean it did cost 25.99!

So the adventure began the night before as Kristy Spanjer and I inflated the boat with a tiny electric pump on our back balcony outside (sorry neighbors!). The next morning Stephen and I packed a lunch and finished the 15 part inflation sequence. We lowered our kayak over the balcony to our awaiting van (of course we used our handy-dandy extension cord to lower the boat...who needs rope when there is the threat of electrocution).

To our delight (and the horrified expression of our landlord who informed us that many drownings occur in the Rhein River due to current changes) the Kayak was a "prefect fit" in our 9 passenger van! To make the whole experience even more fun and really test our boat we decided that Rob should drop us off at our put-in location. We strapped our boat to the back of his truck and only had to make one stop as it almost flew out and could have killed any amount of poor drivers behind us!

After our multi-test examination you can see our 25.99 inflatable kayak was quite an impulse buy. It floated like the best of them and was surprisingly comfortable.