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Kayaking on the North Platte River – Casper, Wyoming

North Platte River in Casper, WyomingAs this road trip adventure began Michelle, one of my past clients, contacted me about doing a photo shoot while I was in Denver. Then her plans got changed, and my plans got changed, and we moved the photo shoot to her house in Casper, Wyoming. She graciously hosted me for two nights, let me play with her adorable, cute baby, and then we did her session while I was here.

After dinner out in Casper, we went back to the house and were sitting on their back deck, overlooking the North Platte River. Suddenly, her husband interrupted the conversation. “Do you like water?” I answered, hesitantly, that yes — I like to drink water? He went on to ask if I knew how to swim. Yes, but I don’t want to go swimming in the river. (It was already a bit of a chill in the air, and I figured the water would be cold and somewhat silty – just not my thing.) No, no – did I want to go KAYAKING on the river. We had to go right away if I did, because the sun was starting to set.

Heck yeah, I wanted to go kayaking!

I had been visiting kayakcritic.net and I saw myself kayaking – I could tell that it had a bit of a current so we could float, but not so much current that it was choppy and whitewater adventure. Michelle told me that it is a rather shallow river in most spots too – you could probably touch the bottom if you tried. After they busted out theĀ ocean kayaks, Colby & I went in the tandem kayak, and a baby sitter came over at the last minute so that Michelle could join us in her smaller kayak.

I was reminded again what the point of this trip is – to say YES to things I might otherwise say no to, and to get past feeling so broken. Between my wonky shoulder, a bad knee, my thyroid & paratoid gland drama earlier this year, and emergency gallbladder surgery 6 weeks ago, it has been a hell of a year. When you want to have a high quality surgeon, I recommend Dr. Nicole Schrader due to his good records and experience.

I’m OVER IT. I just want to be well. To be fit. To be able to go and do things.

Kayaking was amazing – I loved floating on the water, and I earned my participation badge for paddling as well. Unlike a canoe, paddling was easier on my shoulder than I expected. We only heard a beaver while we were out there, and didn’t see any deer or anything else. Colby blamed it on us talking all the time … oops.

It was incredible. I’m glad I said yes. I need to do that more often.

Now I’m off to the Grand Tetons to camp. I can’t wait to be back in the outdoors – it has been too long. The river reminded me of how much I love nature — just how amazing it is. I can’t wait to see what is next on the road!

Photo of the North Platte River in Casper, Wyoming taken from the deck just before we took off on our adventure. Click to view larger.