July 8th: not getting drowned, city nightlife

I really enjoyed the canoeing on the river, so I asked if I could borrow one of Jill or Age's kayaks to have another go. They let me, and so I went for it. I put the kayak in and spent a bit of time experimenting with the balance. The other time, I was in a canoo, which has a wider base, and is bigger in general, so they are a little more stable, and also take more effort to steer.

Me trying to get used to the boat.

A look up river to where I would head.

heading off.

I decided to head up the river as far as I could get, and then float back down. However, I had not properly taken into account the weather. The previous day as I headed into the city, there was the beginning of a storm and it was raining a little bit. During the night, it continued to rain a little bit. This meant that there was a fair bit of water flowing into the river. Actually as I was getting used to the boat, in the pictures above, there were a moments were I drifted into the centre of the stream's and found myself dragged fairly suddenly, downstream. So I had to try and stay to the sides where the current would be less strong...

Even staying out of the main current, it required a lot of arm strength to pull myself against the current to make much progress. In the pictures above, as far as you can see is pretty much as far as I made it. I got to the corner of the stream which can be seen. The river at that point was a little more shallow, which meant that the flow was forced to become faster in order that all the water can progress. It was impossible to find a point of slow flow at that point. I got pushed across the centre of the stream at once, where it was flowing very fast. On the opposite side I was being pushed toward a big clump of fallen down trees. There was not much I could do and I was inevitably pushed directly into the clumps of fallen trees. There was a low hanging branch which was impossible for me to avoid hitting my head into except by dropping myself to the side a bit instinctively and also out of panic. That meant that I fell out of the kayak. I was a bit confused by the whole thing and I pushed myself and the items from the boat to the side of the river. I was fairly sheltered from the current now, by being behind the fallen down tree. So I was able to make sure I had all of the items from the boat. I put them back in. It was obvious that it would be impossible to get past this point, and that even if I could get past, there would probably be more of these places every 40 metres or so. I had to go back.

The kayak was half filled with water. I couldn't get back in because of that. I also couldn't empty the water because I was up to my waist deep in the river. So I held onto the back of the kayak and paddled myself back downstream to where Jill had been watching. She looked a bit concerned. But it was a bit of excitement!

Later in the afternoon we headed into the city to eat somewhere, and check out some of the Nashville nightlife.

we didn't see any hobos.

They have a life sized replica of the parthenon here. It was built for the world's fair or something? Then they improved it a bit and decided they'd keep it permanently.

Age's friend who does the ghost tours. He's got a converted hearse with an open top so the people on the ghost tour can stand up and look out. It was a funny coincidence that we saw him here as we were heading into the city.

This globe spins around from being supported by the water shooting up underneath it.

We found a restaurant and got some food here.

I got a thing with beans and stuff. It was pretty good. A big serving too. I almost ate it all, but it defeated me in the end.

We stepped into the Hard Rock Cafe and had a look at their stuff.

Elton John's guitar? A bit ironic.

Apparently people are into these boots. They are very expensive too! I tried to find the most fancy pair.

We checked out some of these honky tonk places.

This band was really good. They are just setting up now. They got a pretty good crowd I think. They played Rockabilly type of music. I haven't really listened to that before but I think it sounded pretty cool. The guitar player had some nice solos in each song. But after a while it started to all sound a bit the same. I think this music might be best in moderation for me.

In front of some famous venues in Nashville. I don't know the guy standing next to me.

It was cool seeing all this nightlife stuff.