The Perfect Summer Day (even though snakes were involved!)

Blog Prompt: Describe your perfect summer day.

This was the perfect prompt for me today because today was my perfect summer day. My hiking group was taking a break from hiking today to go tubing. We went to the Green River in Saluda, North Carolina. When we got up this morning, it was overcast and a little breezy so I was afraid it wouldn’t be a good day to go tubing. We packed a picnic lunch and went to meet the group anyway. We got there around 10:15 and it had warmed up and became sunny as well so I was relieved. We all grabbed our lunches and sat by the river to eat and enjoy the day. We couldn’t get on the river until noon because they don’t open the dam up river until a certain time and you don’t want to try tubing when the water is low. While we sat on rocks sticking out of the water, someone yelled, “Snake!” Right out of the rocks came this snake! Needless to say, we had our fill of the lunch spot and went back up to the shack that sells tubes. Soon we all paid our money ($7 for a 2 hour ride) and got our tubes but we still had to wait about 15 minutes before we could leave. They told us when the water covered a certain rock it was time to go so we all watched the rock. I brought my digital camera and kept it in a double Ziploc bag when we went over the rapids. Twelve of us floated down the river and enjoyed spinning off the rocks when we got to the fun parts. It got so hot at times I had to keep throwing water on my legs and arms. I did see about 5 snakes along the bank. At one time my hubby and I were holding on together until he saw the snake. Then he almost dumped me out of the tube and ended up accidentally pushing me straight into the snake. Luckily I pulled my legs all the way on top of the tube and practically over my head when the tube hit the branch with the snake on it. The tube bounced off the branch and spun away with me screaming. The others said when they headed towards the same branch that snake was hissing! After that I made sure I stayed away from the banks and only held onto my hubby’s tube when the water was calm. Everyone had a blast and we enjoyed visiting with each other as we floated down the river. It was relaxing at times and exciting at times too. By the time we got to the “get out” point, I was tired and glad to get out of the water. This was a perfect summer day.