Peaceful Canoeing - The day we didn't die

Well peaceful is what it was supposed to be! I thought it would be fun to go canoeing down the brandywine with Tim this weekend so we packed up my parents canoe and set out for an organized trip from a canoe company in the area. They gave us a little speach about how the water was high and to watch out for any downed trees along the way because of the recent storms. So about 5 minutes into the trip, after i'd just said "I think this is going to be my new favorite thing to do!", we saw a large cable in the water. We didn't know what it was, whether or not it was live and how to avoid it! so we did the most helpful thing and panicked. we hit the cable broadside as we leaned away in a last effort not to be electrocuted. well that was a great move because we immediately flipped the canoe and the current pushed us into the cable. after realizing that we didn't die, we scrambled to grab the canoe and all our belongings as they floated away in the fairly rapid current. we managed to grab most of it and steady the canoe on a downed tree. we lost our map, a seat cushion and an oar! the banks were quite high and very muddy and so we weren't sure how to empty the water out of the canoe. tim threw our belongings up into the field and nearly got swept away, i think he was grabbing our cooler at the time. tim managed to hike the canoe and me up onto the bank as well. we were completely soaked, our lunch was soggy, our ziploc bag with extra clothes had broken at the seam (but congrats to ziploc for making the zipper part so strong, it stayed shut). so with one oar, no lunch and wet clothes on a fairly cold day we decided it would be best to call it quits. tim used our fortunately still dry cell phone (it was in two ziploc bags!) and called for the outfitter to come pick us up. we were pretty far from the road though so tim had to drag the canoe through a bog and over a field to get there (i wasn't much help, i thought the muddy bog was gross). our camera did die though, from the less than clean water we subjected it to. when we returned the staff explained to us that the cable had actually been there for a while, previously underground but now exposed due to erosion. needless to say they'll be adding an explanation about the not deadly cable to their informational speech. so that is the story that will long be remembered as the day we didn't die!! (at least we've got bruises to prove it!)