American River Whitewater Rafting Adventure

Let me highlight a recent trip as I reflect on the importance of adventures and relationships in our lives. It brought out so much emotion from me and really shines a light on how important relationships are and what a short weekend getaway of adventure can mean in our lives!

I had been going stir crazy during the pandemic of Covid-19 and really needed to get away and have an adventure in my life. I had taken my daughter whitewater rafting 12 years ago on the middle fork of the American River and had very fond memories of that trip. It was a blast and the river has several class four rapids that provide a nice thrill ride! The water is cold and the weather is hot and it is just a great day in nature where there is a wonderful history of the old gold mining era.

I decided to plan it with my daughter Erica and we set a date. I had a random breakfast with one of my best friends Scotty and mentioned what we were doing. He was all over it and called me a couple of hours later to say he and his family were going to join us. I spoke with another very close friend of 25 years. Mark and his wife Lori about what we had planned and they were going to be in the area an hour away from the river seeing their daughter that weekend. Coincidently he is also very close to Scotty and Anna who were already joining the party so they signed up to jump in the fun! Now all of a sudden I have my beautiful daughter and two of my best friends and their families meeting for a day of rafting a thousand miles from home on a Saturday morning during the pandemic. Priceless!

My daughter booked an Airbnb that was incredible, with deer running through the back yard while we had our morning coffee, and we had a terrific evening before our big day on the river. We all met at the pickup spot at 8:00 in the morning and got into a big van to traverse our way up to the starting point for the rafting journey. We spent the day going down the river, splashing each other and laughing endlessly. We followed that with some great Mexican cuisine and cocktail hour telling old stories and reminiscing about how much we all meant to each other in our lives. All of this came out of one spontaneous thought and a quick bit of action to make a plan!

My daughter and I drove back to Santa Cruz to stay the final night with great joy in our hearts!

In the middle of the night, I got a text from my Mom that her older brother had passed away. My uncle Richard had moved on to the other side and Mom needed a shoulder so I called her at 4:30 am and we ended up having a wonderful conversation with some tears and laughs and I felt like I really made a difference in her grief and healing process. It felt good to be there for Mom in her time of need and although it was a difficult thing to go through, we both felt better after our talk.

My take away from this Friday to Monday period in late September really hit me on how relevant it is to the Prosperity Project in my life. I had been very full of the Corona Crazies and going off the rails a little. I spent three days with my daughter, best friends, and Mom on a call, and it completely flipped the script on how I felt and where my head was. I felt incredibly fulfilled and will never forget the time we had together.

This is the power of relationships in our lives combined with adventure. Absolutely a powerful combination! We need to have these on a regular basis and not sit dormant without making them part of our life plan. I will consciously seek out more of these gems for the rest of my life and highly recommend you do the same!

by John Lohrenz the Author of The Prosperity Project.

The Prosperity Project is available now on Amazon and Barnes & Noble, If you are interested in finding your own formula for building abundance and a map for a life well lived check out The Prosperity Project.