Sunday, July 6, 2008

Independance Day - the relaxed way...

Our life here is very quiet and very relaxed. We don't have a social life.. period. We have nice neighbors and on rare occasions we will socialize with them, but it is rare. Which is fine. Cap'n Steve is not known as a social butterfly. Me, on the other hand, well I like a bit of socializing. So when my friends (what few I have) decide to venture up to the cabin, spending the 2-8 hours that it takes to get here (depending on origination point) I get excited. It is like a breath of fresh air to hang with my girlfriends. It's a wonderful break for me and the same for them. So when two of my favorites decided to come up for the 4th... I was thrilled. Rebecca and Christiane are two sisters that I love dearly and vicariously live a career through each of them. You might recall my Memorial Day post about Christiane and I hanging with our buddy the timber rattler... Well Rebecca took a break from doing good in the world and finally made it up this past weekend. It's been far too long, and she has had a rocky road these past few years, but this spring things started to really look up and now she can look forward. She looks so great - the best I have seen her look in three years. These two girls are gorgeous, smart, artistic, smart, caring, smart, insightful, oh did I mention smart? Spending timing with both of them together is such a treat. They arrived on Friday accompanied by their "3rd sister", Cheryl - who loves Marines - and who grew up about 45 minutes from here. When they arrived we had a beer and loaded the tubes in the truck and off we went to launch for our 2 hour tube trip down our little river. Drinking beer and slowly floating, keeping cool on a hot summer day.. that's about as far away as you can get from their high pressured careers and there were smiles all around. Coming off the float I made my signature margaritas while they prepped dinner. These girls can cook. I have nicknamed them the Silver Palate girls. They were kind enough to bring up all the fixins for an absolutely wonderful meal.. I am still stuffed... We then took up on the lawn while Cap'n Steve entertained us with a small showing of our leftover fireworks from a couple of years ago. What fun. Wish we had more - it was a short display... it is so much more fun when you have an audience... I guess I just can't ooh and aaah enough for Cap'n Steve to play pyromaniac just for me..and we didn't really think to go get any...but alas it was a wonderful relaxing day and I do believe everyone sleeps very well here at the cabin. Most guests choose to sleep on our porch, where they can hear the rapids that are just upstream. High class camping to say the least! The next day, after saying our goodbyes to Cheryl who headed for her parents, we headed for the Ocoee whitewater center. We brought our cameras and beverages and enjoyed a beautiful afternoon whatching the rafters and boaters. I really miss running the Ocoee with Cap'n Steve. We had a lot of fun in our boat. We still run the Nanty a couple of times a year but no more Ocoee... boo hoo.. Also I won't guide our friends down. I don't feel comfortable doing it, and I would hate to make a bonehead move and hurt someone.. Told the gals next time they came up - we would grab a guide from one of the companies and we would all go down.. so looking forward to that...So here are some shots from the afternoon...

These guys must have thought they were out west... an oar rig and no helmets are much more common on western rivers... Eastern rivers are known as narrow and rocky - western rivers are wide and only rocky in the major rapids. You wear a helmet because the chances are very good that if you come out of the raft or boat - you could easily slam your head on a rock - so brain buckets are standard... usually..These guys also had a dog with them - can you see him? Remember you can click on the pictures to see a larger version. Nobody said paddlers were smart...



This looks like guide in training or private boat - can't tell for sure - they all have good form and look like they know what they are doing... I am jealous to say the least...




We decided to hike upstream from the whitewater center and decided to stop at this small rapid, seeing how there appeared to be some recent carnage here, we thought there might be some action to come..Rafts pinned and abandoned lead to many tales...




The looks on guides faces were priceless - and the customers going by are wondering WTF? I can hear those guides now.. spinning some tale...

Here lies good ole raft 17 - it was a workhorse until that new guide from Sunburst threw it under the bus...



Uhh, they told me there would be days like this..



Man, I am glad it was them and not us...



I wonder if they still tipped the guide?




And last but not least.. The guide pointing to the raft and talking to his customers.. "Now this is what will happen if you don't do what I tell you- NOW PADDLE FORWARD - HARD"...

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