Party of 6

Spoiler alert, we did finish the race all in tact and still happily married. The entire process of getting us there to the end of the race was quite the adventure. Lets start from the morning before after we left our home in Wilmington, NC at 7am. We all loaded up and got in the car that was hitched with six bikes by yours truly the night before. What could go wrong?

Well this. The pin I used to keep the bike rack upright did not hold up and the arm of the bike rack fell down ON THE HIGHWAY. Character building moment as my husband would say. After a few moments of jaw dropping staring, we moved the bikes to the side of the road and drove back to our house to pick up our trailer. We then reorganized our car and hitched the trailer. In order to do this adventure you must have bikes. 3 of the 6 bikes did not make it, which meant on our way to the race in Florida we had to go and purchase bikes, since the race was the next day. So, along the way we purchased 3 bikes and added them to the now secure trailer.

We finally arrived in Florida at our destination around 8 o’clock pm after an original arrival time of 2 o’clock pm.

5 o’clock wake up time starts our Sunday morning. Race day! With a loaded car and trailer we drove to the race. First task, park the trailer and set up camp.

After the tent was set up, the camelbacks filled with ice and water, compasses packed, band aids packed, whistles attached to all camelbacks, and helmets ready to go, we went and listened to instructions to find out what we have gotten ourselves into.

With full confidence, we were ready to begin!

We would begin with the bike portion of the event. In order to begin the race, we had to complete a word search. This would stagger the racers on the course naturally. We were on it! Six people searching for words. We started close to first for the bikers.

And que more character building moments. First, my bike chain was not fully on and Steven had to come back and fix it, while all the other racers passed us up. We close the gap a bit on the trail and then hit sand. A lot of the trail was full on beach sand. Sweet Jovie was pumping her little legs. I went up with the other 3 kiddos and Steven stayed back with Jovie. We waited at the checkpoint that Steven gave us. Then Steven shows up with Jovie on his handlebars and no bike. He had put it on the side of the trail. Unconventional, but it worked out.

The next part of the race was navigating to find points. The goal was to get as many points as you could, but you had to finish in 4 hours. Thanks to Steven’s expert navigation skills (and it was full on, use a compass, find a point in the woods navigation)

This is by far my favorite moment of the trip. Steven giving a class on navigating. His patience and clear directions as all four kiddos (and his wife) intently listen.

The navigating part of the race went smooth and all kids kept up and went strong. With the exception of a small moment Bo got real confident and ran ahead missing a point in the woods. Don’t worry, we successfully reunited thanks to Steven’s fast feet and calm demeanor.

We get a few points. Jovie loads up on my handlebars and we head to back to the front to do the last leg of the race. We are on track for time. We got another point on the bike route. And then comes the time in which the most character building moments took place.

Keep in mind, I have kayaked several times in several different locations. I could not figure out the canoe. It was extremely frustrating. I had the girls in my canoe and Steven had the boys.

Notice, the boys are facing the correct direction and the girls, not so much. Steven patiently went to the side as us girls tried to figure it out. Finally, I set aside my pride and asked for help (even though I have kayaked several times and it shouldn’t be this hard to figure out). He gives a tutorial and also takes Jovie out of our canoe. We somewhat get going and they boys, and now Jovie head down the river. Oh, did I mention we are in Florida? There are gators in that water!

Keep in mind we are maybe a few feet away from the start. Izzy and I get stuck in mess of branches. In comes my bright idea. If I slightly stand up and grab a branch I can turn us around. A canoe is not very sturdy y’all and had I have been in the right mind I would have known this was a terrible idea. I do it and you guessed it, I fell out of the canoe. Then comes my other great idea. Grab the canoe with my daughter in it. Okay, here was my logic. There are gators in here and gators hang out on the side, Therefore, I should not go to the side, which is what you normally would do. I grab the canoe to pull myself back into the canoe. That did not work and out falls Izzy. We certainly discovered that Izzy does not do well in these situations. She is flapping around with a paddle splashing water as to say, “Here gator, gator”

Steven to the rescue. He sends us to the bank (no gators). He comes and pushes our canoe to the side, turns it over, and we press on. This time he now has all four kids in his canoe. I figured out the canoe, also discovering my double sided paddle had one end that was backwards. Also, learning that Izzy and I and need to work on our paddling communication skills for the future. Off we go to find as many points as we can, with much less time than we planned to.

The way back down the river went much better. And we completed the race together and on time.

At this point too, those camelbacks that are full of drinking water, are also soaked from being dumped into the water from our canoe and are much heavier.

We did it!

Thanks to FLX, we had a great time. Memories were absolutely made and character was built.