Rafting the Ocoee

Woke up at 5am to pack up my car and head down to GA to meet up with Kellye, SHOE, Leslie, and Joan. The 5 of us had an appointment with a raft and the Ocoee River. Woo Hoo! Along the way I picked up Kellye and Joan and we made it to Rolling Thunder Rafting Outfitters by 11am. As soon as we stepped out of my car, SHOE and Leslie pull into the parking lot. After hugs hello and catching up, we checked in with the outfitter. Since we had 2 hours to burn, we decided to walked thru the metropolis known as McCaysville of some lunch. Seriously, we walked the entire town in about 10 minutes. haha! It was a cute little town though. We rolled up on what looked like a town carnival. There were big slides, about 2 craft booths and a guy in a dunking tank. We watched some kids throw baseballs at the target until they hit it and made the guy plunge into water tank. We ducked into a little candy/fudge store that ended up being a huge shop. It had different sections from antique knick knacks, black bear novelty items, a candy/fudge/jam/general store shop, handmade wooden furniture, to a quilt shop. It was pretty interesting. We then made our way to the only Mexican Cantina in the town. I had a quick flash of what eating Mexican food and then jumping into a river full of class 3 and 4 rapids would be like, (puke fest!), but I quickly forgot about it when the chips and salsa came out. :)

After a yummy lunch, we headed back to the outfitter. Once we were there, we learned that they were running a bit late b/c the early morning rafters had a "situation" that they had to handle. Well... this is where I learned that Kellye was deathly afraid to go rafting. I mean she was really spooked, so nervous that she couldn't even look at the "pictures of carnage", that the outfitter had up of all the raft crashes on the river. I thought they were pretty funny, but I didn't let Kellye know. We all gather up to hear the safety rules and get our gear (helmet, PFD, and paddle) then we break up in groups. Kellye goes back to hear the safety rules, again, that the outfitter is giving out for another group. We finally load up on the stinky, wet, school bus and are on chugging along down the road to our output, when we hear this really drunk fool making a spectacle of himself. I have to admit, that for the first 15 minutes, he was pretty entertaining, but it got old after a while. He kept rousing the guide up front and yelling at the bus driver, and making fun of his friends. Anyways, I couldn't wait to get off the bus, not just b/c of him, but when I looked at my knees and hands, there was some dirty muck on them that came from the bus seats. I almost lost my tacos when I discovered it. We make it to the put out spot, get off the gross bus, and find our guide Brian. Immediately I like him. (He's wearing an ITALIA soccer shirt, only my favorite country in the world.) Because of the earlier "situation", there was no practice time for us, we had to get on the river ASAP, so we hauled up the raft and walked it down to the line forming at the river. I looked over at Kellye and I swore I thought I saw her go two shades whiter than her normal pasty self. ha ha! I mean there was no break, no practice time, no nothing. We just got off the bus, grabbed our raft, walked to the output, and BAM! within 5 feet we were in two sets of Class 4 rapids called Broken Nose and Slice & Dice. I hung on and knew it was going to be a wild ride!

After a couple of more rapids, we came to a section that looked pretty tough. The rapids were called Double Suck and Double Trouble. I knew we had to all paddle hard if we were going to make it through, so after Brian barked orders at us, I yelled for us to paddle hard! We coasted off that first ledge of a rapid that felt like we dropped 8 feet down, and got the raft going the right way again. After we made it through the second rapid, we pulled off to the side to spectate others attempting to make it through. Well, just our luck, we saw carnage and before we could even blink, Brian had us paddling hard out into the middle of the rapids to rescue a girl floating down the river. We made it out to her and as SHOE grabbed her PFD, our guide swiftly pulled her into safety and ordered us to paddle hard. I glanced at the girl to make sure she was OK and she looked terrified. I've never seen anyone so scared in my life. We smacked the second rapid and it wasn't pretty, no one fell out, but the boat went over the rapid sideways. All we could do is hang on. After we were in safe waters, we all look at the girl and the first thing she says is, " I lost my flip flops!" After that terrifying event, all she could think about was her flip flops! ha ha! We got her safely onto her boat and we continued plowing down the Ocoee. We were so on point with our paddling that we owned the rapids and I felt like a freaking warrior conquering the Ocoee. I whooped and hollered it up, we all paddle clapped and cheered each rapid. It was so much fun.

Towards the end of the trip, we pulled over to the side of the river so Brian, our guide, could touch base with another boat. Well, I finally got a chance to turn around and talk to Kellye. Poor thing, she had been scared silly this entire time. (Come to think of it, the usual chatter box WAS awfully quiet the entire trip down the river.) I felt so bad for her that I gave her a big hug and promised that all of us would paddle our hearts out so she wouldn't fall out the boat. I swore I saw crocodile tears well up, but it could of been river water. I'm glad she took on the Ocoee and I'm glad she stayed focused and strong. It says alot about someones character when they are in a dangerous situation and they stay focused instead of losing it. (Kind of like I lost it on my first ocean sailing trip. I curled up like a fetus and cried my eyes out til Boo took us to safety. Yeah... I can be a big baby sometimes. But that was a looooong time ago. I can now sail with the best of them.) Kellye stayed strong, contributed to all of our safety's, and endured the ride. And boy was it a wild ride! She can check white water rafting off her bucket list now.

We headed back to the outfitter on the dirty bus, and everyone seemed to be in great spirits. I'll have some great memories of Joan paddling like a wild woman and her wide eye in amazement look about her as she commands the right front of our boat. Then there's Leslie's ever present 1000 watt smile and laugh holding up the right side middle. SHOE's cheesey grin and child like spirit with those foggy glasses manning up the front left side of our boat. An the look on Kellye's face when we pulled out to the rivers edge to end our Ocoee adventure, it was pure relief with a touch of joy. And I'm sure I had a bit of every one of those emotions running through me as well. It was a great adventure with the ladies from GA. What's next ladies? haha! Til next time... GET OUTDOORS!!!