Our Timelines

Daisypath Lilypie Lilypie Trying to Conceive Event tickers

Monday, July 21, 2008

Seacoast White Water Rafting 2008

Thursday night I dropped Lucas off at Tony and Lori's house with a bag of clothes, a bag of toys, some snacks, and his sleeping bag. He was so excited to be over there he didn't even care that I was leaving. I had to chase him down to get a kiss goodbye. I headed to dinner with a few friends and then I headed home to pack for our trip.

Friday morning we got up a little after 5AM and got dressed and made sure we had everything ready. We were on the road at 7 and were at the White Water Rafting place in Tennessee about 12:30 pm. We went and ate lunch, set up camp, and then went swimming in the river.

The water was so clear you could see the bottom and you could watch the fish swim under your feet. We took a water proof camera with us and I can't wait to see the pictures we took. We got out of the water a little after 5 and just as we were drying off the rest of our rafting crew arrived. Less than an hour after we were out of the water the dam up the river opened and the calm shallow river was now a lot deeper and faster. When we were swimming everyone was climbing this tree that stretched over the water and with the dam opened it was completely underwater. We were all glad we were out of the water before the dam opened!

Most of the group ended up going to this place 20 minutes away to go swimming again but Curt and I were so tired we stayed back and just hung around while the hamburgers for dinner were being cooked. Once everyone got back we ate dinner.

After dinner everyone sat around the campfire and introduced themselves. There was a total of 28 of us and not everyone knew each other since a lot of people had invited friends or family. Then it was time for s'mores before we all headed to bed. I was so tired that the minute I laid down in our tent I was out. I woke up once because I was cold (which is a NICE problem in July) and crawled in my sleeping bag and feel right back to sleep.

In the morning we all got up and started to get ready to go White Water Rafting. We knew we needed to eat breakfast so we headed up the hill to this little Cafe on site to eat. They had these really cool swings for chairs at the table.
We all got together for a short orientation on what to do and not to do and then we all picked up our helmets, life jackets, and paddles and loaded up on a bus. I was so excited but when we actually got out of the bus and saw the water I was actually getting kind of scared.
Once we got into the water we hit our first rapid pretty quickly and it was a lot of fun. The water was a little chilly but it felt so good because I'm sure we were all sweating from working so hard to paddle.
Our guide asked for a volunteer to sit on front of the boat and hold on to the strap around the raft to "ride the bull." I'm glad someone else volunteered because there was no way I was going to do that!

Everything was going smoothly when all of a sudden our raft hit a rock and wrapped around it and all of a sudden the water was rushing in and we were all holding on so we wouldn't fall out. For a minute there it looked like Curt was about to be swept down river. Our guide knew what to do and we got the raft back in the water with all of us still in the raft.
When the raft was righted most of us ended up in different seats on different sides of the raft and we had no time to adjust to paddling on a different side before we hit more rapids.
Near the end of the trip we hit a big rapid and the two big guys on the front of our raft go flying in the air out of the boat. We had to pull them back in while still going down the river. I think we were all glad that we were wearing helmets and life jackets.
When we were back on land I was very glad that we had gone because I had a lot of fun but I decided that I could go a few more years before going again. Curt who didn't originally even want to go wanted to go again the second we were out of the boat. He told me "I'd go again next year." So we might very well be doing this again in a year.
We loaded back up on the bus and were taken back and turned in our paddles, helmets, and life jackets before heading back to camp. Everyone changed into dried clothes, took down their tents and packed up. We loaded back in the cars and headed back to Savannah. We got caught in traffic a few times so to entertain ourselves we just started taking random pictures. It was just so much fun!
When we got home a little before 9pm we found our cars vandalized. We had to wait for the cops so we could file a police report before we could pick up Lucas from Lori's house. We ended up picking him up a little before 11pm. He had a blast with Lori and Tony and I don't even know if he missed us at all. I hope this is the first of many kid free trips we get to go on. Our next camping trip (with Lucas) is in September and I think we are all looking forward to it!

3 comments:

Unknown said...

How fun...looks like a blast. Kenny and I love doing adventerous stuff like that. But I've never been white water rafting before :(

Jonathan said...

I am sorry to hear about your car being vandalized. I am glad you had fun on your trip.

Kirsten said...

I always thought I'd like to go rafting, but now I know that I DON'T! How scary. I would die if I fell out of the raft. Water is scary.

I'm glad you and Curt had fun! I think Lucas is a lot like his dad. Hearing that Curt wanted to go again immediately after reminded me of Lucas!