This is one trip that I have been excited about, but also terrified about. I have enormous respect for how powerful this river is, and very much aware of my limitations as a swimmer. But a chance for another fun adventure with the boys. We left late on a Friday evening around 6:30PM, and after a couple of pit stops, finally rolled into our camping around right at midnight, and then we began putting up the dining flys and unloading the trailers before we started setting up our tents. So it was a very late night, I think I slipped into my sleeping bag around 1:30AM.
And the next morning began at 6:30AM as we still had a 40 minute drive to the outfitter. It was funny that all of the boys were up, and we were about ready to go, when we talked through riding assignments, and one of the adults was still sleeping. But Sean quickly awoke and joined our crew. We stopped at McDonalds for a quick breakfast, everyone getting a combo meal (Even after I had to tell JP no, to his order of 2 pieces of sausage).
At the river, me and the boys all got into different boats, and my guide was nicknamed Mayo. Mayo loved the Orlando Magic, and seemed to be a nomad traveling across the country picking up random jobs here or there. A strange life that seemed to work for him for about 18 years. The Ocoee was definitely more intense than the Chattahoochee, and all of our boats got a chance to hang out in some rapids and fill the boat with water. I don't think any of our boys fell into the rapids, so that was good.
After returning to the campsite, we had a quick lunch, then went tubing down the taccoa river (same as the ocoee, it just has a different name in Georgia). Now, I have never been tubing before, and could never really get comfortable on the tube, but it was pretty fun...for the first mile, then we had 5 more miles of tubing to go. Then the rain started, and I mean it came down hard...so the tubing was rather miserable. I saw Sam at one time, and just busted out laughing, he was obviously having as much fun as I was...he was laying awkwardly across the tube staring off in the distance, looking like a dead fish. I think he was visioning exactly what I kept thinking about...Where is the end of this tubing ride? But there were moments of some pretty good rapids which was interesting in a little tube.
After the tubing, we started drying off and getting supper started. I think Davis patrol had red beans and rice and some sausage. Sam's patrol had conecah sausage hot dogs with chili, and the adults had some massive ribeye steaks. It was a great meal, then the rain came, and came and came. Davis, in his frog toggs helped me rig up my tent to avoid a large puddle that gathers on top of my tent, we both used a small stick to remove the low point. And as he was helping me, he bent down and ripped his pants, haha, I captured this right afterwards below. We were able to load the trailer before the rain got to heavy, then all just sat under the massive dining flys, waiting for bedtime. I think Sam, Cole, Noah, and Brandon all sat in Sam's tent playing cards. I went to bed early at 9:30PM, and that night it rained hard, probably the hardest rains our troop has been in before. Another great reason to always have a powerade bottle in your tent.
We woke up the next morning with a short break in the rain, so we packed up our gear, had a good devotional from Luke Rumsey, and headed home. I did skip over the Grant Dabbs stories. One he shook up his Dr. Pepper in the back of my car to "help get the fizz out". Another after Foster explained jokingly that leaders should never wear ziploc shoes, Grant immediately told him "But you are wearing them". We also passed a billboard that basically said "You lived well, now you can die well...Cremation with Confidence". And before we left Friday evening from church, I farted, and tried to get out of the car quickly, but it had already settled and was lingering towards the back of the van. Which also prompted Grant to ask "Who farted" at each and every smell. Oh and Matthew Kirby asking random strangers to hold his phone while he went tubing. Always fun, but I can't remember anymore...I think i was just too tired. And it took a long time at the house to unload everything and let it dry.
No comments:
Post a Comment