T is for...

It's day twenty of the A to Z Challenge. :-)

Today's topic is Tubing.

When I was little, we moved a lot because my mom was in the Air Force. The only place in my world that was constant was Grandma G's, out in the country.  She lived about 20 minutes outside of Covington and just below Gathright Dam and Lake Moomaw.

In the summers, which were hot, we'd cool off by playing in the Jackson River, which flowed through her backyard. We'd splash and look for fun stones to skip. Mostly, though, we'd climb into big inner tubes and float down the river. There was this one access point where someone had tied a rope to a tree. We'd reach the access point, climb out of the water with our tubes, leave tubes on the shore, and then swing out and SPLASH into the river at a deep spot.

Jackson River Access Point

Isn't that just inviting? Don't you just want to jump in and cool off? Okay, maybe not yet, but come back and look at this picture in the middle of the sweltering summer. Yeah, it'll be inviting.

 

Anyway. Once we'd finished with the swinging out on the rope and swimming back to shore a bunch of times, we'd hoist up our tubes and walk up the Access Point road (I use the word road loosely, it was just gravel) until we got back to Natural Well Rd and then went up to the spring.

 



Spring






If this image seems familiar, it should. It's the cover to Pieces of the Soul. This place was such an intergral part of my life, it was only natural that I used it for my book cover.






So, we'd walk to the spring, tubes on our shoulders or balancing on our heads (I was a kid, remember?), and we'd gulp the fresh spring water. Oh, it was nice and cold and it hit the spot! The spring is just off the road, in this well shaded area. It's cool and inviting. That old cooler you see in the picture, you can actually step into it, if you're brave enough to submerge your feet in the FREEZING cold water.

After drinking our fill, we'd walk back to Grandma G's and start all over again. It was the best way to spend a summer day at her house.

Do you have any places that tug, not just on your heart strings, but on your soul? Tell me about them!