Trapped on a boat in a hailstorm

The trouble with boats is…you can’t get off.

Mike booked a fly fishing trip with a guide in a “drift boat,” going down the Green River between those amazing red bluffs of the Flaming Gorge in Utah that we so admired from above.

“You don’t have to come,” he said. “I know how you feel about boats.”

Boats and I don’t get along. I get seasick easily and getting stuck on a boat while feeling ill is the worst.

The biggest problem with boats is that once you’re on one and it’s going somewhere, you can’t just get off and go home when it’s not fun anymore.

But I wanted to feel differently about boats, just as I wanted to about four-wheel-driving. Sometimes boats can be the best way to travel and see something special; certainly, I was never going to be able to take in the view from the bottom of the Flaming Gorge any other way. “I’ll give it a go.”

Mike cocked his head, looking at the sky.  “Seems like it will be a beautiful day on the river, after that storm last night.” (I’ll save the storm story for another post.)

We met our guide, a soft-…