The tubing trip was to be held in two parts; one in the morning and one in the early afternoon. The starting point was at the 'fork'; which was where the local river divided into two courses. The morning trip would be down the eastern, easier fork with not much more than plenty of rocks and small rapids. After lunch, the more adventuresome would get to go down the western fork with its more exciting rapids. Both excursions would last about two hours, unless you wanted out earlier. There really was nothing dangerous about it; only that it would be more exciting. You simply either provided your own inner tube, or rented one at the bathhouse.

     Early the next morning, arriving at the starting place, Emily read the sign, "Positively no bare feet!" She had packed only high heel shoes after seeing the pictures; expecting to be able to go barefoot at the water activities. She had not been tubing since she was in college. She had forgotten the need to wear shoes for this. She looked down at her black pumps with one and a half inch heels; she really did not want to miss out on the trip, and figured to risk the shoes. The sign did not specify what type of shoes; only that they were required for foot protection.

     Picking up her reserved inner tube, Emily headed toward the river and starting point. She had received a few strange looks, and comments from a few of the other women in attendance. The shells and gravel combination crunched loudly under her shoes. Stopping just shy of the water, she looked at her shoes; the heels showed plenty of wear from the shells and gravel. It was nothing that would keep her from wearing the shoes for less formal occasions or bad weather.

     She did not know if she could walk into the river in her shoes, so she went to a low wall and put the tube in the water there. She then carefully sat down into the tube and pushed off from the wall. Now, unless somebody pushed her back to land, she had no option but to get her shoes wet. Reaching the first rocks and rapids, she learned that she also forgot that you do not let your rear end hang through the inner tube in these places. The term, "hightailing" came instantly back to her! When she went to lift her feet out of the water, she could feel how heavy the shoes had become from the water they had soaked up. They were not as heavy as the sport shoes she wore in college, but they were heavier than she thought they would have been. After a while, she could see some scuffs and scrapes on her shoes; these could no longer be worn anywhere in public, now.

     Upon reaching the stopping point, Emily joined the other women squishing to meet the bus for the trip back to the center. She noticed her shoes did not squish as loudly as the other shoes, as they did not hold as much water.

     She had since gotten over the shock of having to ruin her shoes, so, during lunch, Emily was anxious to go on the afternoon trip.

     At the bathhouse, she noticed something was different; it was noisier. More precisely, the other women were making more noise when they walked around. She looked for a moment, and saw that most of the women were wearing high heel dress shoes! Included among the high heel wearers were the association president and all the officers. Emily was officially informed that they did not want to be left out of any fun. Actually, only a couple of women did not wear their high heels; they did not pack but one pair, and did not want to be squishing around during the evening's seminar. They all promised that next year they would pack extra shoes.

     Emily was surprised to see that many of the association’s leading members seemed to be intentionally hitting their shoes against the rocks; many shoes received unnecessary scuffs and scrapes. Some women seemed to be in competition to see who could smack the rocks the hardest with their fine dress shoes.

     The afternoon trip had 83 pairs of high heels getting soaked and generally torn up by the rocks in the rapids. Some fisherman downstream might have wondered about the occasional shoe or heel that floated past over the next few days!

     Back to the narrative; the association president was the owner of one heel that stayed somewhere in the river. She enjoyed herself so much that she wore the same pair of shoes to the seminar. She loved the lopsided up/down motion as she walked on the shoe with then without the heel. Emily noticed that during the break, several women left and returned in their freshly soaked and ruined dress shoes.

     Everybody fully expected that the next year's attendance would be much higher! They voted to extend the next year’s conference by one day, and there was talk of adding a special event.