Bobbie sipped her coffee and looked at the flyer for the Rocky River Rafting company that had established itself across the river from the motel. It rented canoes and kayaks to experienced people that wanted to tackle the Rocky River rapids. Below the rapids, you could rent rubber boats and giant inner tubes for amateurs to drift down the river. It looked really fun and Bobbie remembered ‘tubing’ down the river when she was in high school. She texted Barb. “Remember how much fun it was to tube down the river on summer days? Well the company across the road rents tubes. Why don’t you bring your cut off jeans and tube top over and we can go tubing this afternoon? It’s dead here.”

Barb called her. “Ha ha. I haven’t worn a tube top in 40 years. I have to work until 3 today, I’ll bring my cut offs and bathing suit and see you around 4 to go tubing though.”

Bobbie was still chuckling about the tube top reference when she walked downstairs to tell Mark what she was planning. “Hi Mark we’re not exactly busy, after all that bad press, so why don’t we shut down early and have some fun and go tubing down the river.

“Hi Bobbie, that sounds really fun. What time are you going?”

“I’m headed over there right now to see how it’s all done. We can wait and do it after tea. Say around 4.30 pm. That should give us a couple runs before sundown. Then we can have a barbecue on the patio.”

“I’m off to write an exam but will bring back my swimming trunks and stuff and we can be there by 4 for sure. I’ll get Gina and Sipho to mix up some hamburgers for the barbecue. We have some sourdough buns that should be used too.”

“I can make some salad and I’ll pick up some dessert.”

“We’ll have a lot of stuff we can have for dessert Bobbie, and we have salads. We will probably have a lot left over from tea.”

“You’re right. Good luck on your exam! I’ve asked Barb and Johnny will come. We should ask the rest of the staff but the babies are a little young to go tubing so maybe Quinn and Ray can bring them to the barbecue. I’ll text Joe. I’m not going to call my sons. I can have all the grand kids another time. We can make it for the motel staff, we deserve to have a little fun after the last few weeks.”

Bobbie left the restaurant and put on her sunglasses. She hummed as she walked towards the river rafting place. She could see people arriving at the mouth of the river and parking under the low highway bridge and thought, they must be people protesting the pretend super port. When she got to the river rafting grounds, she saw 2 guys in front of the building that looked like the office.

“Hey.” Bobbie called out. “Are you the fellows that sold their business to the Chinese government?”

“Not today lady, we’ve had enough of that bullshit, you can just be on your way, we don’t want trouble.”

“Aww, I’m just messing with you, I didn’t mean to trigger you. I’ve been dealing with all the same crap over at my motel, I’m Bobbie Orlov I’m pleased to meet you.”

“Man, we’ve had some crazies come by here, there’s a bunch camped at the mouth of the river having a protest. I suppose you deal with that over at your motel too. We’re Chuck and Beau we grew up in Small harbour and have lived on the Rocky River all our lives. We decided to take a run at starting a business. We saw you were building over there and figured more people will be drawn out this way now.”

“It’s true. The Chinese investor story has just about killed our business. Right now most of my customers are airport travellers or people I know. We have nice hiking trail and even rock climbing and with your river rafting we might attract more active guests and be a destination rather than just an airport stopover.”

“We might draw people to the motel with the big event we’re planning. See the field out behind us? It’s about 5 acres and we are organizing a tubing festival. We’ll have the river stuff, a small stage for local music, and we want booths for food and crafty things. We are aiming for next month and we really want to get a farmers market going for the rest of the summer. The festival will kick it all off.”

“Wow, I’m so glad I came over. You have so much planned. In the mean time, I want to arrange for a tubing session for today. My staff were thinking about coming over around 4 or 5 for a couple runs down the river. Can you tell me how it works.”

“Sure, it looks like it is a nice afternoon. We have a slipway and parking lot up the river, on your side about 10 km up the road, just below the rapids. You pick up and launch tubes there and pay for the run. We then drive you and the tubes back up in our minibus from here. We have a 20 dollar, day long bracelet or we charge 10 dollars a run.”

“That’s great. We’ll be over, I’m expecting just over a dozen of us. We will likely have a 10 year old with us, will that be a problem?”

“It should be fine. Insurance is probably our biggest expense. It’s a good thing we love the river life.”

“Do you guys live on site?”

“Me and my daughter, Brit stay in that RV.” Chuck pointed to a small trailer.

Beau said. “And me and my gal Dorey are in that one. They are out arranging to buy pea gravel and lights for the site.”

“You all should come over to the motel for our staff barbecue this evening. We’d love to have you and we could talk about your big plans and how our businesses could work together.”

“That sounds great.”

Bobbie walked back to the motel. She saw a bigger group of people at the protest and a news van was onsite. She just shook her head.

She got back to her apartment and looked up the portable bathroom people. They’ll need at least two at that protest; then she texted Johnny and invited him for lunch. They shared some left over gluten free lasagne.

“I can’t believe I’m eating lasagne and I’m enjoying it. Before I gave up gluten, I dreaded heartburn so much I wouldn’t have even tried to eat something like this. And who knew gluten free noodles could be so good.”

“They’re not exactly the same Johnny. I think I have to experiment with cooking times or something.”

“They are a little mushy but I think it tastes great anyway. So what’s this I hear about river rafting anyway?”

They all grouped together in the parking lot around 4. Mink and Rose closed up the restaurant and the bar completely and Mark was finished his exam and was on his way. Quinn and Ray were still in a suite, on maternity leave. Mink and Chase arrived and the two Jessica’s and Gina. Drey, Effie and Roger came next. Rodger was excited. Johnny, Barb, Sipho and Denny were last.

“Drey, I think we can all go in the shuttle bus.”

“All Aboard.” Called Roger and they all loaded in.”

They chatted on the road up the hill. Mink had a little cocktail in their water bottle and so did Barb. They were both sitting with Bobbie and sharing. “I think we can buy drinks for a ridiculous price at the launch site. We have to sip something as we drift down the river. I’ll treat.”

Bobbie noticed Mink had a Gopro camera hanging around their neck.

It took a few minutes but they parked and de-bussed and each picked a tube. Sipho’s little brother Denny had a slightly smaller one. Bobbie paid the tab.

Mark arrived on his bicycle. “I think my exam went well now let’s have fun. Hey where’s Joe​​”

“I reached out but he says he’s going to get a case of beer and wait for us by the pool.”

Mark laughed.

They each sat in their tube on the slipway and Chuck pushed them into the river. They were all in the water by 4:45. It was slow water for the first few miles and they had fun pointing at wildlife and when the river was close to the road, they waved at people driving by. There water got faster and they all had to hang on and were spinning a bit. Mark was clowning around and fell in.

Roger was very concerned. “Stop goofing around Mark. You might get too cold or you might drown!”

Mark climbed back into his tube. “OK buddy I’ll be more careful. I’ll come over to you and tip you over and you’ll get your hair wet.”

Roger was shrieking with laughter and Mink got a few good candids. Some were staying quiet, dragging their hands through the water and other’s were splashing each other. The 2 Jessicas were soaking Johnny and he was splashing back. There was a full on water fight until they moved into even faster water and really had to hang on.

They reached the end around 5:30 and they all agreed it was a great trip down the river and they were getting hungry and wanted to get cleaned up to go back to the motel for the barbecue.

Bobbie said. “Drey, Barb and I can walk back and after they take you back for the bus, can you drop everyone home too?”

“I’ll drop everybody off, then Effie, Roger and I can go home and get changed and then I’ll pick everyone up again.”

Johnny said. “That’s great, We’ll see you back at the motel, I’ll walk home with Bobbie and Barb”

They waved goodbye and Bobbie went over to the small office. “Hi guys, that was fun. We’ve got lots of food and would love to see you over at the motel around 6:30.”