Life comes at you pretty fast. And for the most part, Americans embrace fast as good. Even our recreation time is rushed. We run when we could walk. We’d rather ride our bikes fast than far. So it was when I first was introduced to the pontoon boat and the lazy Rainbow River, my first thought being, “How fast can I go?”

The answer, it turns out, is “not very”. The entirety of the Rainbow River, located in the quiet town of Dunellon, Florida, is a no wake zone. Not that pontoon boats go all that fast anyway. But the joy that I have found from boating slowly up and down the crystal clear waters of the river has far exceeded what I could have expected or even hoped.

Going fast is fun. It creates a cooling breeze. I can zip up and down the nearby Withalacoochie River as fast as the pontoon will go. But when I’m busy zipping along, I tend to miss the alligators, turtles, birds, and other assorted wildlife that are there for the viewing. When I’m going full speed ahead, the breathtaking scenery is nothing more than a blur in the periphery of my vision. It is hard to appreciate the undeveloped atmosphere, reminiscent of a day long past, when I don’t take the time to look.

On a slow, lazy boat ride I can close my eyes and imagine the time before the big city, before traffic jams and email, when there was just nature. I can drift behind a manatee as it lumbers through the water in search of some leafy meal. I can forget the expense reports and clogged gutters and the baseball games and the parent-teacher conferences. It is so easy to set it all aside for a few hours when my boat is just idling along and there is nothing but water and trees as far as the eye can see.

Next time you’re planning a get-away, try planning something that really will get you away from the fast pace of daily life – if only for a few hours. You’ll be glad that you did.

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