As soon as we got to Bend I ripped open my bag to be sure the ring hadn't miraculously disappeared since I last checked on it a few hours earlier. I'd been anxious ever since I moved the ring from the hiding place where it spent the previous 10 months, and even though I was getting ready to take it down river on our canoe I didn't quite trust myself with this very small and very important piece of my family's history.
I planned to steal Shannon from her family and paddle a few miles down the Deschutes River for dinner at the Trout House; somewhere along the way I would ask her to marry me. I was nervous for a number of reasons. I didn't know how long it would take to get to the restaurant. I wasn't sure I'd be able to stuff a bottle of champagne and two glasses into my pants, and I had no idea how safe it was to get on one knee in a canoe. Over the course of the weekend I tested my canoe skills and solved the champagne problem with a tightly wrapped towel. I thought I was smooth and was sure no one was the wiser until Shannon's sisters both slipped me sideways smiles when I mentioned our dinner plans.
When I thought I had handle on the variables, all I had to do was wait for my scheduled departure time. Shannon's parents had a couple over for h'orderves so Shannon and I joined everyone on the deck. It was just after the guy finished a tremendous story about the medical clinic he operated in Ethiopia that I realized my departure time was in jeopardy. It's never easy to pry Shannon away from her family, and I definitely didn't need the world's most interesting couple to make it any harder. My departure time came and went. After we finished watching a documentary about said clinic, I had no choice but to use the introspective silence that followed to hastily mention that we had a fancy dinner reservation to get to.
Once in the boat Shannon told me that I didn't have to paddle so hard, that a missed reservation wasn't the end of the world. I agreed, of course, but because I had no idea how long it might take to get to the restaurant via canoe I was mainly worried about the encroaching darkness.
When we hit a calm spot on the river I muttered something about having to stretch to explain why I stopped paddling and why the boat rocked a bit. I slowly moved up the belly of the canoe and tapped Shannon on the shoulder once I was safely balanced on my knee.
