Cruise Down the Creek

BRANDYWINE CREEK, DELAWARE - September 8, 2006 -- The Action News morning team tackles its latest adventure: a two-hour canoeing trip along the Brandywine River. We started the journey dry. By the end, we were all wet.

Here is Tam's account of our adventure:

Row Row Row Your Boat

We had traversed Pennsylvania to get to the heights of Mt. Davis, the highest point in the state. We'd frolicked in the Garden State, trying out the world's largest wooden roller coaster at Great Adventure in Jackson Township. We decided we couldn't let Delaware, the First State, think for one moment more we didn't love it equally.

So we made to plan to float down the Brandywine Creek, that jewel of a waterway, enjoying the early fall greenery and bucolic scene. And, oh, yeah, it would be boys in one canoe and girls in another, giving Tam and Karen a chance to thoroughly thrash Matt and David.

We arrived on a sunny Friday at Wilderness Canoe. They strapped us into safety vests, ones that made the men look like they were giving mammaries a try. We then drove 15 minutes to the river. Karen, David and Tam headed to the water's edge, while Matt stepped away for a moment to be, um, one with nature. We got our canoes and we were ready for our big adventure to begin.

But there was one huge problem: Neither Karen nor I had ever even been in a canoe. We questioned the opportunity to assert female domination versus the reality that without a little man power we may never get home. It was not a good sign when Karen asked the instructor how we were supposed to even hold the paddles. He promptly announced he thought the women would be going in circles all day.

He was on to something. Karen and I found that the trick to canoeing - the law of opposites, with each paddler paddling in opposite directions - was hard to pick up. We ran into two banks, while David and Matt just sailed past.

The guys would have probably left us behind, but they didn't want to spend all afternoon waiting on us to go home. Matt pulled us onto a spit and we switched boats, Tam and Matt in one, David and Karen in another. I guess you could say it was now News against Weather. Karen's victory was her ability to continue to stay in the back of the boat as the powerhouse rower.

But that may not have been such a good thing, since David and Karen ended up in more banks than the earlier team of Tam and Karen. Tam and Matt sashayed down the river, talking politics and wedding planning (Tam was very anxious to get to the end of the trip; her wedding dress was waiting in South Philadelphia, with a shop owner who was about to leave on an international trip. The pressure!).

When the two boats met up, there were hijinks, like water fights that left Karen with curly hair. When we were separated, we enjoyed the beautiful homes along the banks; the wildlife - like the two great blue herons who gracefully swooped ahead of us - and the placid, tranquil flow of the river.

Tanned and a little tired, we started to see the end. We passed under a covered bridge, our last landmark before reaching the end.

But then the two boats met up. Unfortunately, there's no video tape, otherwise we'd know for sure whether it was Matt or Karen who started the tussle that led to both boats capsizing. After a lot of laughing and fingerpointing, we drained our boats and dragged ourselves to the shore. We smelled like the swamp, our feet were squishy and David's wallet was totally waterlogged. But we'd survived and had a great day on the Brandywine. We'd highly recommend it for some weekend fun or as a different way to see fall foliage. As for who won, well, it's a draw. Just getting our tired bodies into our cars and heading home to start the weekend, we all felt victorious.

Tam

Get more News »

• Email
• Print
• Report a typo
•