Many of my friends have begun blogging and I LOVE to read their stories so I thought I would try it out. Please excuse the immense amount of posts about food, my excessive use of quotation marks and explanation points, and my horrible grammar!
The last year (since graduating from Auburn) has been a pretty crazy time, starting a “real life” job, being in/going to more weddings than I can count, and moving back in with my parents has been quite an experience. As loco as I thought all that was the past 5 1/2 months have been even crazier and have taught me many things in life...
1. “The best-laid plans of mice and men often go awry” …AMEN!
2. You truly have to live everyday like it is your last (Tornado realization, I’m so blessed)
3. Your friends and family are beyond a doubt your best gift in life (I already knew this one, but I would be so lost without them!)
4. Nothing cures a bad/sad mood like hearing children laugh and say “I love you” (Shout out to my little people Lee, Madison and Kennedy!)
5. TRUST GOD. You never know what he has planned, and the surprises make life worth living!
One of my best friends Amy suggested I start my blogging with my “River” story. Apparently it will be more entertaining than the awesome food I ate this weekend! Anyway I’m sure anyone reading this knows just how “outdoorsy” I am. Pretty much if I’m not by a pool, ocean, or occasionally the lake I would rather be inside. Well with deciding to follow #2 from above I have to begin to try things out of my comfort zone. So when Matt said we were going to float the river. I thought to myself “Okay Kerry, Courtney has done this, you can do it!”
So Matt has never floated down the Chattahoochee, but two of his good friends Robbie and Ryan (who I refer to as “the gypsies” and lived on the Appalachian Trail for 6 months) had been down quite a few times. So me, Matt, Robbie, Ryan, Jenna, and Anthony pack into our cars and head to the river at about 4 pm. On the way there they all discussed where we should get in at, I was very close to saying “Whichever is shorter,” but regretfully being the new girl I kept my mouth shut (big mistake). Thankfully everyone knew just how outdoorsy I am and how “excited” I was about this trip.
For those of you who don’t know what “floating the river” is (like me!), it is when you get in the river with nice tubes and rafts and let the rivers current push you down the river, supposed to be peaceful and usually you drink quite a bit! Well most people take nice tubes and tie them together in a circle with the cooler in middle, not us! They had bought the $2 tubes from Walmart and a kiddy float to tie the cooler on. “Redneck Yacht Club” kept popping in my head LOL! Luckily, Matt got a nice tube for me (such a gentleman) so I was in pretty good shape. Plus he kind of owed me since he didn’t tell me what to bring from home so I had no shoes to wear, therefore I had to walk through the woods barefoot, ew!
As we are nearing the river, a man and his children come up and ask if they can watch us get in the river. Everyone thought, “um okay, it won’t be that exciting but SURE!” Man were we wrong! They have nice places where you can get in with like little platforms or beaches, but not us we are going to hop in the middle of the woods. So I am watching all 5 get in screaming about how cold it is; I step into about a foot of water and my feet are sinking into mud (I hate outside) and the water feels like it is about 50 degrees! Needless to say the man and his children got quite a chuckle out of watching 6 adults scream like little girls.
And were off! The water is freezing, very dirty, ducks are coming straight for us, but the sun is out and it’s not bad. About an hour goes by and of course I ask, “So as soon as we get out we are eating right? Cause I am getting kind of hungry” and I get blank stares back. Finally someone says, “Well that is going to be awhile, the current hasn’t really pushed us very far.” At this point I realize everyone else is feeling pretty good but I don’t like beer so I am alone in my hunger and pain. That is when we hit the first set of “rapids” or as Matt says “just shallow part with rocks not real rapids”. Everyone is yelping and getting hit, but I am in the nice tube so I am good. A little bit further down the river we have to make a pit stop and this is where Matt likes to say it got “real”.
As soon as everyone is back in the freezing water Robbie and Jenna begin to paddle and leave the rest of us behind. Before we left I told them it was supposed to storm, but to them that would make the trip more “fun”. Well the wind starts to pick up (making it even colder), and we pass a couple of old men who say “I hope you have enough beer because a storm is headed our way!” At this point the guys decide they should probably start drinking more just in case! Well we hit the next round of rapids and Anthony falls off his tube into the freezing water! Matt thankfully catches his tube but this makes us have to take another pit stop. I am standing on the side of the woods huddled in a ball shivering. At this point Ryan and Anthony are so cold they are refusing to get back in the river so we start hiking, barefoot, through the woods on a tiny trail carrying tubes, life jackets and a cooler. After about 50 yards Matt is over that and he says we are getting back in the water, and he is convinced if he gets on the nice tube and I sit on his lap I won’t be cold (riiiiiight).
If ever I could have been filmed in my life I wish this was the moment. I am sitting straight up on his lap with my arms locked trying to keep our balance/navigate. We hit another round of rapids and almost fall off/get stuck many times and Ryan and Anthony who are hiking along the river at about the same pace we are floating are pointing and laughing at us. We get through all that and realize that we must have finally gotten ahead of the other guys because we can’t see them. It is then we realize that we don’t know where to get out! Robbie and Ryan had given us a brief description but of course I am freaking out! The sun is going down at this point and we are approaching another bridge that they did not say anything about so I am thinking we passed where we are supposed to get out. Luckily, Matt calmed me down and we hadn’t passed it.
So 4.5 hours into our 2 hour float we see where we are supposed to get out! We had to walk on some pretty uncomfortable rocks for about 100 feet to get out but we are on land! We meet back up with Jenna and Robbie who have been waiting for about 30 minutes, and realize that Ryan (who is not back yet) has the keys. So we can see the towels but cannot get to them…torture! 30 minutes later Ryan and Anthony make it! We all pile in the car for the 15 minute ride to pick up the other car. In the car my hands begin hurting really bad and I realize that they were numb and were just getting feeling back (after being out of the water for almost an hour!) Soon as we get back I claim the shower (never felt so dirty in my life) and I bathed 3 times LOL. Finally at 11 pm I get to eat a hamburger and get to go to bed! The next morning I woke up with a huge, painful bruise on my hip and my whole body was sore. I had every muscle flexed for 4.5 hours since I was so cold and I must have hit a rock on one of our close calls but couldn’t feel it because my whole body was numb.
So Matt was right (MAN that hurts to say!) it may have been miserable at the time but if everything went smoothly the story would not be half as good! Am I glad I agreed to go? Yes. Would I ever do that again? Absolutely not! I definitely need a break from outside before I’m ready for another adventure/disaster!
