This is an event that happened to me about a year ago while tubing with friends. Enjoy, like and follow.

The cold dark water pulled me into the mocking mouth of the mountain along with my tube. Yelling for my friend, who was closest to me, while frantically thrashing toward the small island on my left, I was pulled in and sucked under the water. Unfortunately, I had slid down in the tube so that I could only see the tops of the trees and the rocks. After I had gone under the water twice, my friend was close enough to push me toward the small rocky island, but it wasn’t that easy. Pushing against the cruel water I finally felt the squishy mud underneath my toes, I fell to my knees gasping for air because of how tiring it was to push against the current. I sat at the edge of island with my rubbery tube trying to get a sense of what was happening when I realized my friend was being pulled into the whirlpool. While I started directing him towards the shallow murky water where we could rest before heading back to camp, my legs felt like cooked noodles, flimsy and weak. While I sank back into the water, I dreaded the moment of heading back into the strong current, but it was the only way to get back. Swinging my legs over the tube I paddled to the middle of the river, with my hands like a puppy learning to swim. As the current was pushing us toward land, I could smell the warm homemade pizza that I was ready to dig into. The platform to land was so close. It was close enough that I could touch it with my feet if I tried, but I was too tired. My feet looked like dried prunes; the grass was comforting to feel on my wrinkled toes.  I learned an important lesson that day: always have a friend by your side when exploring.