the river wild

i know, i’m slow on my blog posts this year and it was recently brought to my attention by my sister that my blog is “so last year”.

excuse me….no part of me (including my blog) is 2010.

i’ve got 2011 written all over me….and maybe a little of the 1980’s since the fashion world is taking most of it’s cue’s from what was popular then, into what’s fashionable now.

but I digress…..on to my second new activity for the year.

whitewater rafting!!!

this has been something that has always been on the list of things i’ve wanted to do. in fact, most people i told about the trip were surprised i had never been before....

we don’t have rapids in texas, people. everything else, yes.

actually the whitewater rafting trip was a very sweet birthday gift from my boyfriend, tim. 

since tim had been whitewater rafting before, I wanted the scoop on what people usually wear and he mentioned that I should get some water shoes.

i scoured birmingham looking for “cute” water shoes…they don’t exist.

and unfortunately they didn’t have any in pink in my size.....

 the first weekend on august, tim and i headed north to ocoee, tn for our fun adventure. 

as soon as we arrived at high country whitewater rafting, i had a flashback to sky ranch summer camp where i was a counselor. all the college kids working at high country, were decked out in their chacos, headband bandanas, and sports watches. 

tim and I went to check in and signed all the “if you die, you will not sue us” agreements. those are always fun to read.

then we sat down with a big group and one of the guides went over the rules of rafting. the main rule, I took from it was if you go overboard, do not put your feet down.  apparently, you are more likely to be drug under or your legs will break. a broken leg….no thank you, duly noted.

we were each given a paddle, helmet and lifejacket and told to board a school bus.  as the bus made it’s way to the river, I could see the rapids out the window and my stomach began to sink.

“wow, those are intense.”

and then the bomb dropped, as soon as we got out of the bus, tim mentioned our first set of rapids would be a “class 4”.

for those of you who are unaware of the classes of rapids (i was too), rapids run from class 1 to class 5, 5 being the toughest.

“what? we’re going on a class 4 the first round?!?!”

apparently, they don’t have kiddie rapids that you can practice on first.

tim and i were partnered up in the same raft with a tennessee family- a mom and dad and 2 college aged girls. apparently, they go whitewater rafting every summer…fun tradition!

the two girls were in the front of the raft, tim and I chose the middle and the parents and guide were in the back.

and we were off!

the first rapids came and went so fast, it wasn’t nearly as scary as I had anticipated…in fact….

IT WAS SO MUCH FUN!

i loved every minute of it! the weather was perfect and the ocoee river scenery is amazing.

some of the funny highlights from our trip down were:

1. each section of the river has a different name. for example one of the sections is called, “the broken nose”. someone in the raft asked the guide if he ever makes up the names if he forgets them….of course he does. i think i know someone else who did that when they gave tours of the capitol in dc....oops!

2. we got stuck. several times going through the rapids our raft would get stuck on a rock. we’d all have to gather in the front of the raft and try to push it forward. i’d love to have seen a video of that.

3. i didn’t fall out….but tim and i did jump out when they let us go swimming in the river!

we rafted down the river for about 2 hours and then hopped back on the school bus and headed back.

it was a really fun experience and i’m so glad that tim took me to celebrate 21…I mean, 29.

love,

alison