That first night on high adventure I slept really well for camping, so that was awesome. We woke up to more grey and gloomy weather. And, when I retrieved Craig's phone from where I'd left it charging, it was completely dead! (At the time we thought it was actually broken, but it revived once we got home, so I guess it just didn't want to be camping any more.) But this means we got NO pictures of the day. So this post is going to be all words-- I'm sorry!!! Regardless of the weather and phone situation, we were still going whitewater rafting, so off we went! Putting on your swimsuit at 8am in the cold and damp feels very wrong. (Unless you're on the swim team, I suppose?) But once we were outfitted in our life jackets and helmets it wasn't too bad.
There was about a half hour bus ride to the river, and then we had to divide into various rafts. I went with the older teenager girls and they put us with Christine, the only female guide on the river, so that was cool. Yay, girl power! (And she was great-- we really liked her!) One of the girls, Jadyn, had never rafted before and was pretty nervous starting out. I've gone rafting a bunch, but I still get a bit nervous! But we hit our first rapid and it was fun and then everyone was just happy. During a calm spell in the river, Christine told us we could jump in and swim around. She assured us that she could pull us back into the raft, which was exactly the thing I was worried about. For all my exercising, I do NOT have a lot of upper body strength, and pulling yourself over a giant inflated tube while wearing a bulky life jacket and with no floor to kick off from is HARD. But with Christine's encouragement, we all jumped in!
And the water was GREAT! It felt so nice swimming around in that river! I found out later that the New River actually winds its way through North Carolina before arriving in West Virginia. The area it covers in North Carolina is very flat, so the river spreads out, becoming very shallow and getting warmed by the sun. Most of the rivers I've ever swam in are comprised of recent snow melt so this river felt wonderful!
We paddled around for a bit and then, true to her word, Christine managed to yank us all back into the raft. I watched her technique and was able to help pull a few of the girls in, too. Then we did something I'd never done before-- we surfed the same rapid about five times while a photographer stood by grabbing shots of us. Basically, we'd go through the rapid, then swing around to the side where the water eddied and paddle back upstream and into the rapid and stay put as long as we could. It was really fun, screaming and getting drenched with that not-too-cold water!
So yes, we surfed the rapid for quite a bit and that was awesome. Then we continued on down the river. Around noon we pulled off the river and the guides set up lunch for everyone. Barbecue chicken and pulled pork sandwiches with veggies and hummus and a brownie for everyone. As we were waiting to eat, the sun had come out and day just turned glorious. One of those moments where I was sitting on a rock munching my food and realizing that everything felt perfect and right. How often do we get to recognize those moments when we're in them? I was so happy.
Once the food was gone it was time to get back in the river. More rapids, more swimming, a little more surfing. We got to go under a huge bridge and learn about how they catapult people off it once a year for some festival. (In case you were wondering, West Virginia is still wild and wonderful!) And we stopped at a big rock and whoever wanted to could climb up on it and jump into the river. I figured I had filled my quota for scary heights stuff the day before, so I just stayed in the raft. A couple of the girls did flips off the rock-- just watching that terrified me-- but they didn't hit their heads on anything, so I guess it was all good.
And then we finished up with a few small rapids after that. The river was so fun, and it was a much longer rafting trip than I'd ever done before. It was perfect.
We headed back to our campsite, built a fire now that everything was nice and dry, and let the kids roast hotdogs for a very early dinner. Once they'd eaten, they all headed to Ace's water park to play. I stayed behind to keep an eye on the fire and wait for the other group to return. A few of the kids were pretty nervous about this rafting and had opted for an easier trip on the upper river. Their trip left and returned about an hour later than ours, but since there was absolutely no cell phone coverage, we didn't really have a good way to communicate with each other. So I was the messenger!
I sat in my camp chair enjoying my book and the breeze and the birds singing and I may have even nodded of for a bit, which is absolutely weird for me (I pretty much only sleep in my bed). But the peace and quiet were so nice.
Once the other group returned, I told them they could cook hotdogs, too, and then get going to the water park, but they decided they didn't want to waste any time eating when there was a fun park they were missing out on, so we headed out immediately. You can see a few pictures of the place here, if you're curious. But basically, it's a manmade lake with a bunch of inflated obstacles and such to climb around on. I did a bit of the obstacle course and it was hard-- I think if you're a kid and lower to the ground and weigh less, it's probably easier? But it was hilarious watching people stumbling around and falling into the water all over the place! It also was awesome watching Craig launch Ryder off the blob. Most of the boys in our group settled down on a large float and started wrestling and throwing each other into the water. They were pretty crazy, but no one got hurt. Boys are weird.
I stuck around for an hour or two and then went off to shower. That felt pretty nice, although I always hate trying to get dressed while I'm still half wet and trying to not touch anything or drop my clothes in the puddles. Better than YWs Camp where I didn't shower the entire time!
We ended the evening with more kids roasting hotdogs and eating anything else that was around while Kendra helped Megan make peach and chocolate-cherry cobbler in Dutch ovens. While those cooked we had a very long devotional, and it was really nice, drawing some great gospel analogies to our experiences rafting. The stars came out and you could see the Milky Way (or rather, why it was called the Milky Way!-- every star you've ever seen is part of the Milky Way galaxy), and that's one of the things I love most about being out in nature and away from all the light pollution of civilization. The devotional ended right as the cobblers finished cooking and they were probably the best thing I've ever eaten that was cooked in a Dutch oven! Then we let the kids hang out until way too late, but it's so hard to shoo them away from a nice campfire and so many stars and a chance to socialize when they aren't staring at their phones!
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| This photo is a little blurry-- one of the other moms took it, and apparently our phones don't play nicely together... |
It was a really great day.
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