Tubing Gone Wrong

Our last week in Delaware, we went tubing down the Delaware River with the whole family. I wasn't feeling too well at the time (I had a serious sinus infection - my cheek was swollen and I was in pain), but I wanted to go anyway. When we started, I felt very uneasy and wanted to get a move on. We were going really slow and it was just bothering me for some reason. I decided to try to relax and enjoy. 

Well, about an hour or so into our ride, it started raining...hard. Like really hard. The rain was cold. There was lots of lightning. There was smoke coming out from the trees all around us where lightning struck. We decided to keep on going because there was no point in stopping. We wanted to get out of the storm as soon as possible. But then we got shocked by lightning. It was bad. We all got pretty scared and decided to stop. We waited for about 10 minutes to see if the rain would get better. It didn't. So our only option was to continue to the exit. At this point, we had all separated. Blaine and I were by ourselves, close to a tree when we were struck by lightning again. This time it was much much worse. We were in our tubes and I couldn't move. I didn't feel anything. The current was taking me and I was shouting to Blaine saying that I couldn't move. So he had to let go of his tube and come get me. I was probably paralyzed for a good 40 seconds. Those were the most horrible 40 seconds ever! My biggest fear is being paralyzed. When I was screaming out to Blaine, I just saw so much fear in his eyes and at the same time, so much love. He looked so worried. He came to get me and dragged me to a small piece of land. At that point, the storm had passed. A boat from the tubing company came to announce that another storm was coming through in 15 minutes. We were supposed to get some food. We had a voucher that came with the livingsocial we had. But we decided against staying and waiting for the food. We were all so tired and didn't want to get stuck in a storm again! 

But before the storm, we did have a good time. Here are pictures before it got hurricane-like:

Lex & Kerri

Eileen & Blaine

Check out the swollen cheek!

Connor & Lex got creative and stacked their tubes

In-laws <3

Kevin!

Most of the group

Then the storm came!

So that was my first river-tubing experience. I'm not sure if I'll do it again for a while. I guess I'll go as long as there is no forecast whatsoever for thunderstorms!