The very worst sunburn

The very worst sun burn I ever had was back in 1975. I was in the KamiOverlander raft race.

I was in nursing school and the race went from Clearwater to Kamloops stopping for the night in Barrier. The race had several categories and you had to make your own raft. We always went in the theme category, and the first year we went as a MASH unit, and the second year as a floating whore house,

The first year we made the raft on land by stringing together the logs with with very thick wire. We had not actually put it into the water until the morning of the race and it was then we found that it was not very stable and we were partly in the water all day. We were on the water from sun up to sun down, not a spit of shade and (of course) no sunscreen. We dressed up in OR greens. At the end of this race my face was so burnt that it became all thick and brown and crusted. I have to say that perhaps I am suffering some of the effects of that now with this effudex. I thought I would start taking daily pictures just so you can see how the inflammation works

I started using the cream about 4 weeks ago, I started mainly putting it on the right side of nose and right upper cheek, after two weeks I stopped, about 3 weeks ago I started putting cream on the left side of nose and upper lip and stopped 3 days ago. The right upper cheek is starting to heal the lip and left side of nose are just getting more inflammed at this point.

Ken started using it about 10 days ago and figures he will be "peaking" just in time for our show on Friday night at Brewed Awakenings. As you can see from my upper lip, there will be NO WHISKERY KISSES from Ken for awhile.

I can tell you are just dying to hear about the second year "floating whore house".

Well by this time we had really learned that the raft needed a bit more structure, so the second year it was much more stable, with both boards and wires holding it together. We even had an upper floor, we had swinging doors, saloon tables and gingham table clothes.

It was quite timely that we went with the floating whole house theme, because that year all the other theme rafts went as pirate ships.......

So they were hollering out requesting " a little rapin and pilaging ...."

Needless to say we won the theme category.

Like all of my stories, this one does have a sad bit to it. The Kami Overlander raft race, went on for several years, but ended a few years after this one. Many years a few people died in the race, drinking too much and falling overboard. It was not that it was a rapids type of river, but it had many log jams. Apparently what would happen is that a raft would come up against a log jam, someone would fall off and the under current would drag them down under the log jam.

I am a little proud that I participated in such a dangerous sport :) I am usually a scaredy cat.

Scuba diving, rock climbing.....NO WAY.

I can just imagine all the sports Ken would have done if he had married a more reckless girl.

Ken took scuba diving when we were first married, and at the end of the course when he had to go for his ?? "deep water dive" we had to go to Jasper for him to do it.

All the other wives sat in lawn chairs watching for heads and bubbles to come up. Me.... I went shopping.

I also fall off bikes a lot, we used to have tandem bikes and we each had a kid on the back, and our two sons fought for who had to ride with Mom. I do like to have my feet on the ground.

Speaking of scuba, I may be getting a taste of it soon, with the hyperbaric treatments. I will be seeing the hyperbaric doctor on Wednesday morning, so will find out soon.

Will be keeping you posted

Bye for now

Love

Janet

jankenb @ gmail.com