Bucket List: Item #7

When I was a child, my family would go visit my Grandma Perkins' house once each summer. She lived on Lake Coeur d'Alene, at the north tip of Idaho. From our house in Northern Utah to her house in Northern Idaho, it was a 12-hour drive. We always broke up the 12-hour drive into 2 days. The first travel day was our favorite, because we would drive for just 4 hours to Boise and stop there to sleep at Aunt Candi's house. But we always dreaded the second travel day, because most of the 8-hour drive was through winding canyon roads. And being in the backseat of the van while going around corner after corner was awful. But the best part of the second travel day, my personal favorite part of the whole drive, was driving through the central/west section of the state of Idaho, through the towns of McCall and Riggins. Those towns are situated on rivers. They are absolutely gorgeous towns, and in the summertime, they are alive with people and boats and rafts and kayaks and fishermen. McCall and Riggins exude excitement and fun and I always wanted to be a part of it as we drove by. Whenever we went through that part of the state, my face was glued to the windows, trying to take in as much as I could, and my soul was filled with wonder and delight.

I am now a resident of Idaho, and I haven't been through Riggins since I moved here! I've lived in Salmon now for 10 years. Salmon is a lovely town on the beautiful Salmon River, in fact it's the same river that flows through Riggins. And in all these years, I've never rafted on the Salmon River. Josh and I have taken innertubes a few times and floated down a short stretch not far from our home, but I've never been white-water rafting. Every year, we talk about rafting the river, but that's about as far as it gets.
Tonight, Josh took me on a date. We went for a drive down river--a stretch of road along the river where the whitewater rafting takes place. It was a peaceful and gorgeous drive. And once again, we talked about taking a rafting trip in the summer. I've wanted to float the Salmon River ever since I was 9 years old, when I first saw people floating the Salmon River along the drive to my Grandma's house. And someday it's going to happen, and I'm adding it to my bucket list to ensure that it does!!!

Bucket List Item #7: Take a rafting trip on the Salmon River!