It's Valentine’s Day, the time of year we celebrate love and happiness. This is when we embrace the joy of what our significant other brings to us. It is also a time to reflect on the memories we have made together.

For Jennifer and me a lot of those memories have to do with the great outdoors, water, and a tent. We love to camp, and love to take our kids camping. Yes, we do like the campgrounds like you find at a state park, the ones with the beach on a lake and shower facilities and things for the kids to do. When it is just the two of us, we prefer a more primitive style of camping.

This is where we found our love for paddling. We borrowed a canoe from a friend and set out on Green River for an overnight excursion. While neither of us had floated Green before, we had talked to people that had and so planned our trip for a two-day paddle. We were also told of a good spot to camp halfway through.

With the canoe loaded up with a tent, cooler, air mattress, extra clothes, and a couple fishing poles, we set out on our maiden voyage. It took all of about half a mile on that beautiful river to know this was something we wanted to do together the rest of our lives. In that same distance, we also figured out we had a lot to learn about paddling. By that time Jennifer had knocked a Zebco rod and reel overboard, I had hooked her in the back of the neck, and the blankets we had stuffed behind my seat were soaking wet.

After our trip was over, we bought our own canoe. That canoe has now been sold, and two kayaks have taken its place. This way she won’t get hooked in the back again, unless she manages to do it herself.

We have already been making plans for camping trips this summer; it looks like our house will be an empty place on the weekends this year. If you want to find us, look for a tent on the side of a river somewhere in Kentucky. If you find us, stop and say “Hi!”