This year she reached 70 and refused to let ANYthing get in her way. She was doing this.
We had planned to do this last weekend, but the logisitics of the situation pushed it back a week. Considering that last week was the Fourth of July weekend, the re-scheduling, planned or not, seemed to be genius, in retrospect.
So anyhow, we did it this past weekend. One of megan's roomates' ex-boyfriend worked at a rafting place nearby so it was all set for him to be our guide. I like Fletcher, he's a nice guy
Heh. all the well-laid plans of mice and men .... two days prior Fletch sprained his ankle and his boss would not allow him (smartly) to run the river, despite how much he begged. Heal well, my friend.
We got signed in, and then Melissa remembered that she had forgot her shoes, so Megan who drove them to the site of the rafting place from their campsite, was commissioned to go back to the campsite to pick up what was forgotten.
It took an interminable amount of time and we were close to being bumped to another bus because she still had not returned as we were prepping to leave. Luckily, she showed just before the bus took off. While we missed Fletch, our guide, Fuller, was friggin' awesome!
We go through the normal liability dissertation of don't be stupid out there, you could get hurt, and after getting out of the bus are reunited with Fuller who shows us the proper way to sit in the boat without getting launched into the water (remember this point).
Amongst that dissertation is the explanation of the different classes of rapids. Six is insanity and those people just are adreanaline-junkie nut-job types. Five is really crazy, really fun. Four is more manageable. Three is rather mild. Two is almost boring and one is flat water, followed by a hearty "BOOO!"
We were the last raft in the water The transport bus carries six rafts per trip. Fuller was great. She is living the life as she spends her summers as a raft guide and her winters as a ski/snowboard instructor. I just wished I was half as smart when I was her age.
That gal is living the life and getting paid to do so. Awesomeness!!
We *finally* got in the water and within about 5 minutes (not even) we hit our first of four class 4 rapids. The following pictures were taken here. Sean and I (up front) learned quickly to not have your mouth open unless you wanted a mouthful of Pigeon River down your throat.
What a great introduction to what to expect! Already I'm liking it! This was good stuff!
The stretches of rapids were rather brief and we spent most of the trip floating from one section to the next with brief moments of exhilaration tossed in. Just prior to arriving at the second class 4 rapid section, you could see the group up ahead doing "doughnut" spins in the rapids.
That looked fun. Fuller said we could do the same and told one side to paddle backwards while the other paddled forward. We did and mid-turn Fuller and Isaac were ejected into the water. Julie almost joined them but between her grabbing Sean and Melissa grabbing her leg, she managed to remain in the boat.
Fuller couldn't believe she fell out. She was regretting getting back to base and the hell that the other guides were going to give her for such a rookie move.
She explained that she will now have to buy "swim beer" for the Thursday night meeting they hold. She said it is usually the rookies that have to do that. It seems that if you go swimming you need to bring a case of beer to the meeting. She won't live this one down anytime soon.
Anyway, we got the raft over to the bank and Fuller and Isaac swam over to us. We all got back in the boat and continued on.
At the next rapid section she wanted some redemption, so we did more spins and this time everyone stayed in the raft, followed by a high five where we all hold our oars over our heads and touch them together. She was fun.
We hit one other class 4 and then it was mostly just floating along. That was nice as well. It was rather peaceful and beautiful to just slowly move along. We got to one area and the guides told us we could get out of the boats and swim if we wanted. Melissa took her up on it, but was the only one from our raft to do so.
After the swim, and all the boats had all their rafters back in, we had found ourselves ahead of one of the others. They in turn, came up behind us and started a splash fest, to which we returned the favor. We probably looked like a bunch of children. ; )
It wasn't long before we had gotten back to the place and the trip was over. What a great way to spend the day, though.
Additionally, it has been a long, looong time since we have done anything as a family. That was nice/
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