down by the river

This may be my favorite swimming hole anywhere ever. It is a section of the river where two springs join it, one coming from a cave that you can get into (not that I have). There is a giant rock that you can climb up and jump off of (not that I have—and every time a kid does it I start thinking about the nearest emergency room). Or you can blow up a tube and just float around, which is what Frank and I did until dark clouds loomed. As the first raindrops spattered, we packed up the tubes and the chairs and headed back up the road, takin' it easy. Frank wanted to take some of the foliage with him (above).