While they were floating down the river I went to Betty's Country Store, which, despite my having been to Helen many, many times in my life, including quite a few times with Anna and a few with Anna and the girls, I had never been to.
One of the things I love about stores like this is that they often have a good section of local books:
They also had a big ice-filled cooler of the kinds of soft drinks I love--Sioux City Sarsaparilla, Cheerwine, Fanta Orange, and several others:
They also had Brach's Chocolate Stars, which I have a great fondness for:
I bought a drink, some chocolate stars, and a mini Moon Pie, and sat outside for a few minutes to have a snack:
I was disappointed in my drink, but didn't realize the reason for that until several hours later when I was home and looking at the pictures on my computer. Can you read the bottle? Blenheim -- usually a very good drink -- DIET Ginger Ale.
Diet?!
Somehow I totally missed that when I was picking the bottle out of the cooler (I was just excited to find a Blenheim), but also while I was drinking it on Betty's porch, and then driving around Helen with the bottle in my car. Well, at least I saved a few calories, I guess.
After this, I went to the bridge by the Troll Tavern to watch for Anna and Elyse to float by. I walked around that area, scanning the river and inspecting every pink tube that I saw coming down the river. I walked and watched, and walked and watched, and walked and watched, for about forty minutes, doing time-math in my head -- "It's been an hour and thirty-five minutes since they first started down; they should be here any minute now. Now it's been an hour and forty minutes..."
Well, I totally missed them. The young woman who sold them their tickets said it usually takes an hour and a half to get to the bridge, but Anna and Elyse were going down the river pretty fast and made it to that point in less than an hour and twenty-five minutes, or I would have seen them.
But while I was waiting under the bridge, not knowing they'd already gone by, I took this picture of a really nasty street lamp:
I hung around the bridge until it had been two hours since they first started out, then, figuring they couldn't be going that slow, I went to the end point to pick them up. They were already there waiting for me; they did the whole trip in about two hours! (The Helen Tubing people say it usually takes two and a half.)
As I learned when I picked them up, Elyse and Anna had one unfortunate misadventure on their trip down the river: they lost hold of the Helen Tubing pushing-off stick (which we bought when Jessica and Anna went for their first tubing adventure in 2014) at a deep part of the river and couldn't get it back. This really upset Elyse, who has always had trouble containing her emotions and recovering from disappointments; she was probably the only person in a pink inner tube crying on the river this morning. We assured her we would get another one next time.
We'll be going back in a week or two, or Anna and I will, at least, so Anna can make another trip with Jessica.
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