Labor day River Cruise

By

Gerry Niskern

Is your family looking for a way to celebrate Labor Day?   May I suggest a river cruise like our family used to take in Arizona?

Unlike the mandatory fashionable wardrobe for an ocean trip, let me describe our attire for a river cruise.  I don’t know what you call a river in your part of the country, but ours were not always deep and swift through the desert country.  All we needed was a bathing suit, a pair of cut off jeans; (to keep your backside protected from submerged logs and sharp rocks.) Everyone wore some old tennies and a hat.

We took our cruises on the Salt and Verde rivers here in Arizona. Grandma’s Romel style straw hat had a bill. She wore it like the general when she directed the launching of our summer river cruises. Grandpa couldn’t swim so he didn’t join our floating party. He trucked the inner tubes to the river and met us down stream at the end of the day.

In the middle of August, it wasn’t necessary to be a good swimmer, just a strong walker. You were always glad you had your tennies on when you had to swing your leg down inside the tube and push off against the rocks if you were grounded. In no time at all, you would be bobbing along with the current.

Our kids, along with their cousins, wiggled into their tubes, clomped down the muddy bank and with a whoop and a holler, were on their way.  They delighted in the heady freedom of being allowed to go on ahead of the grown-ups.

The water was pure and cold. It felt like melted snow against our hot skin as we floated away, one by one.

We cruised the low, clear river over water sculptured rocks in ever changing moods and colors. As the desert glided by, we passed mesquite, palo verde and an occasional stand of giant cottonwoods, their green and yellow foliage hanging over deep green pools.

Invariably, as we floated by, we were ambushed by a band of river pirates dropping from the branches above. Waves swamped our river craft and grinning kids who looked very familiar popped to the surface.   Sooner or later, one of the river pirates asked grandma for a safety pin to hold up his bathing suit; or another needed a Band-Aid. Grandma provided the items without fail from her waterproof plastic purse. You name it, she had it.

We floated on past little hidden pockets of lush vegetation. Blue herons swooped above the trees and settled on their skinny legs in the shallow water. Meanwhile, the strong, sentinel mountains held the brooding July thunderheads at bay.

Later, we sailed into a deep, green pool. Shouts and splashes echoed from the nearby cliffs as older kids cannonballed off huge rocks. Tiny rainbows arched through the sprays of wate

In late afternoon, we rounded a bend and saw the orange sunset reflecting off grandpa’s glasses as he stood waiting at our rendezvous point. The river moved swiftly there, so the men hauled themselves out of their tubes and waded us in.

Soon the smell of hot dogs sizzling from supple sticks filled the air. Damp towels hung like limp capes from kids’ shoulders while we listened to the ripple of the river, chirps of crickets and an occasional owl.

The moon rose cool and bright. Reluctantly, we packed up to go home. We knew we would be back to celebrate another Labor Day on the river that enticed us again and again.

So, have you been on a water journeys lately? How soon can you pull your wardrobe together for a Labor Day River cruise?