My wife had never been on a river of any kind, much less an early spring heavy flowing river. We had only traveled together for our honeymoon but had a three day weekend upon us and decided last minute to head to the Buffalo. We arrived late at night to find no camping sites nor hotels available. We ended up in a hotel away from the river that was so unclean we use our ground pad and sleeping bags on top of the bed. We were still newlyweds so our enthusiasm was untouched.
We got on the river early the next morning and hit the water. I gave her some basic paddle using instructions and we started down river. The first real obstacle appeared and I in the back yelled to my wive to go left. She turned completely around to say “What?” We smashed the rock, spend half an hour gathering out things back and slowly worked. The next few hours strained our marriage in ways in had never seen before.