Painting Journal of a White Water Drift Trip

We just got back from a five day white water rafting trip camping five nights on the river down the Owyhee Canyon. We were 13 adventurers in seven rubber boats and an inflatable kayak. Though we were expecting fair weather, nature had other plans and we did encounter difficulties like in the times of Homer. There was some unpredicted stormy weather. We had no contact with the outside world and did not know there was a tornado and hail in Burns, the closest town.
Tuesday June 13th I saw some very threatening clouds like the clouds in twisters. I did not see a funnel cloud. I saw the rain coming so I went to the boat and pulled out and put on my rain gear. I was the first to put it on and on top of my cheap rain coat I put on my life jacket with a red whistle. Then I returned to the other rafters who were finishing there lunch as the first big drops of rain fell. And we all laughed at me, I was prepared for everything. Then they started putting on their rain gear too. That night we saw lightening and heard thunder close by. In my coffeee cup, I found an inch of rain that fell in an hour. Our 20 years old tent with pin size holes everywhere leaked so much we could have been in a stream bed. The floor had as much as 3/4 inch of water. We sopped it up over and over again with a towel and a polar fleece hat. We held the saturated towel and hat outside the tent door and ringed them out by hand. We could not keep our things dry. We just couldn't save anything at all so I rolled up the drier sleeping bag and put it in our dry bag. Then we tried to arrange our bed so we could sleep best we could when the rain stopped. Since all was wet I put on all my rain gear and was about to go to sleep when we heard this loud crack like a lightening strike followed by the sound of rocks slidding towards us. Then there was another crack and more rocks sliding. I curled up in a ball holding my head with my arms. I wondered if we were in the path of these rocks or anyone in our camp had been hit. I was frightened and shaking. After it was quiet for awhile, Don and I got up and went outside wondering if the rocks fell right next to our tent. Our trip leader came over and we tried to look about the canyon with our flash lights but could not see anything new. He went on to the other camp sites to see his children and the rest of the group. His children ages 17 and 22 had been up and saw the sparks created each time the falling rocks hit the rock wall of the cliff across the river from us. His children were calm saying it was only another rock fall. The next morning we all talked about it. Actually it is safer outside than driving a car and there is just a very smalll chance that a rock will fall where you are according to Dr. Robert Cooley, psychologist. That was not the end of our troubles. At the take out one of the cars had two flat tires. Somehow we managed to put a spare on one and use some tire fix spray in the other. We had a 30 mile drive over a primitive road forging streams six times until we reached the highway. The people were great and I enjoyed the trip despite the difficulties.