Gather around to hear my harrowing tale of the broken swan paddle boat at Lake Eola.
I need to preface with this that I like Lake Eola and that I enjoyed the swan boats 10 years ago when I last went on it.

It was a sunny Wednesday at Lake Eola. We had the day off due to Thanksgiving week. My son and I thought it would be fun to go on the swan boats.

It was going great. We got on the swan boat. My son is 5 years old so his feet don’t reach the foot pedals. I was the only one pedaling. I pedaled near the fountain so I could get some photos. Wow, such pretty views.

Suddenly the steering rudder broke and rotated all the way around. The swan boat pedaling became super hard like I was pedaling through mud. The lake current was taking us into one direction.

I had to muster up all my Wonder Woman strength 💪 to pedal us back to the dock. I stopped pedaling for a moment to take a break. Then the current turned our boat around. The steering rudder didn’t work. We turned around in a circle.

I got us pointed back to the dock. I had to pedal and then take breaks. I was sweating all over my whole body. It was so difficult. The dock was so close. I wondered how much more strength I had to get us back.

We reached the dock. The worker grabbed our boat and tied it up. I tried to stand up and I had to sit back down since my legs were so weak. I stood up. I explained to the workers that the boat was broken. We walked out of the dock and I had to sit for a moment. We still had to walk a mile back to the car. My legs felt like jelly. I felt like I was pedaling a bike uphill for 15 minutes.

Did I get a bad boat? Was it because I was pedaling alone? Why was the pedaling so difficult? I’m not sure what happened. Am I that out of shape? I exercise 6 days a week.