Took a van across America, with some strangers. As you do... - Part Two

So where were we...?

 

Click on the map to enlarge

We'd just headed out on the trip, moving from New York to Washington DC where we all got to know each other and spent our first nights in the tents before heading on through Virginia into Tennessee.  Here's a map of the trek so far:

A = Hilton Hotel at Newark Intl. Airport
B = Cherry Hill Park, Washington, DC
C = Warrior's Path State Park, TN.
D = Adventures Unlimited, Ocoee, TN.

 

 

 

 Here I am, on the road again...

They weren't kidding either...

Another big 3 hour drive lay ahead, taking us another 200 miles into Tennessee.  While we were on our drive, we stopped off at a service station so that Andrea could refuel the van and we could stretch our legs.  It was here that we found the Worlds Biggest Fireworks Store (or at least the biggest one I've ever seen!).  Justin was practically weeping with joy as, apparently, fireworks are illegal in Australia except for Bonfire Night and government sanctioned events and he REALLY wanted some fireworks.  We wandered around the store, taking in the sheer amount of fireworks these guys had.  They ranged from tiny little rockets to gigantic tubes that could have probably taken out a helicopter.  The guys who worked there were friendly and helpful and knew the camp that we were staying at, so they could advise Justin of the size and scope of the fireworks he could buy.  So after Justin had stocked up on his arsenal, we hit the road once more, headed to the Ocoee river where we were going white water rafting.

Once we reached camp, we all hastily and excitedly set up our tents, got our swimming stuff on and headed down to the camp office ready to go rafting!  I'd been excited about the rafting since well before the trip started.  I had a little experience in boats, I've been canoeing before, for instance, and done a little kayaking (is that even a word!?) but that had all been on the calm and tranquil waters of the Lake District.  I had no idea what to expect here and was dying to get going.

We got split into two different groups, with each group in a different boat.  The guys and girls in my boat were Justin, Natalie, Megan, Daniela, Rudy and Andrea.  We met our river guide, a guy called Woody who not only had a great beard, he was also thoroughly entertaining throughout our ride downriver.  After we'd grabbed an oar, a helmet and a life jacket each, we shuffled onto the bus (which was an old school bus; kinda cool because I've never ridden in a 'genuine' American school bus before!) and headed out to the river.

I swear to god, it felt like one of the longest rides of my life.  I was so excited, I just wanted to get out there on the water and the drive was a proper teasefest.  What made it worse was that as we drove there, we got little glimpses of some of the rapids we'd be rafting through and they looked amazing!.  I was chomping at the bit to get out onto the water by the time we arrived at our destination.

Going downhill 'rapidly'.  See what I did there?...

 

We eventually got our boat off the top of the bus (each bus had about three of these massive dinghies on its roof!)and carried them down to the water.  I remember thinking that the water was cold as I waded in but it was such a sunny day and warm that the river felt good around my ankles.  Before we set off, Woody gave us a few instructions designed to keep us alive (and in the dinghy) as well as explaining the various instructions he would be shouting.  For instance, if he shouted "3 forward!", we'd all paddle forward three times.  "3 back!" meant paddle backwards three times etc.  If he shouted "All forward!" or All backward!", that meant that you just had to paddle like a nutter until he told you to stop.  He also explained how the rapids were rated; they went from 1 to 6 in scale.  One being a nice easy peasy ripple to six, meaning that you're gonna die!  We would mostly be dealing with 3's and 4's on our trip, though I think there were a couple of 5's near the end.

Now you see me...

Once we were actually drifting on the river, we hit a few small rapids in quick succession, a taster for things to come.  As I sit here now and look out of my window, it's hard to describe what it was like rafting down that river.  Everything about it was great, we had Woody keeping us entertained, telling us the names of the different rapids as we approached them, as well as how they got those names (tragically, I can't remember a single one of the names, let's hope a future edit changes that!) and we had the jaw dropping scenery around us as we flowed down river.  It really was one of the most memorable things I've done.  I remember looking up at the trees and rocks to either side of us and taking a mental snapshot of it that I still remember vividly.  I knew that this, like so many other moments on this trip, was once in a lifetime.

As for the rapids themselves, they were awesome!  Even on the biggest ones, I never really felt like I was going to fall out of the dinghy but it was exhilarating all the same.  Sometimes the sheer amount of water that's being thrown in your face is immense and as we approached the bigger ones, Woody would shout "All Forward!!" and we'd paddle for our lives, only to end up paddling in thin air as the water disappeared from under us, just to rush in and cover us seconds later as we dropped through the rapid.  One highlight was when Woody had us turn the dinghy in a 360 degree arc as we went through one of the rapids.  It was hard work and taxing on my poor muscles, unused to doing such intense exercise, but amazing fun and worth every second.

...now you don't!

When we reached a tranquil part of the river, Woody allowed us to jump out of the boat and float along with it in the river.  While the rapids were amazing, I have to say I enjoyed just drifting along holding onto that dinghy just as much, though at that point, I finally sacrificed my sunglasses to the mighty Ocoee river; somewhere out there in Tennessee, there's a beaver looking cool with my shades on!  Dropping out of the boat also gave us all a chance to try our 'Man overboard' rescue technique.  This consisted of grabbing the lifejacket of the person overboard while they grabbed yours and then hauling yourself back into the boat, basically dropping and pulling the other person back into the boat.  I have to say that I felt sorry for Daniela, who got the unfortunate task of pulling me back into the dinghy; I can tell you now that it can't have been easy, because I'm not exactly light!

The last few rapids were the best; pretty much all of them had a rating of 4 and I think there might have been a 5 in there, though I could be making that up!  Either way, those last few rapids were fantastic to raft through and we all managed to stay in the boat, though I can't imagine Natalie enjoyed having her back hurled against my knee by a couple of them; those lifejackets were pretty thick though, so hopefully she didn't feel it too much!  As we were calming down after being drenched and thrown around, Woody told us about some more rapids further up the river that had been used for the Olympics in 1996 and that they were mostly 4's, and 5's.  Everyone in the boat agreed that if we'd been able to, we'd have given that course a go, I think it's safe to say that we were all disappointed that it had come to an end when we finally reached the end of the run.

Woody had us paddle in to the side and get out of the boat to pull it back up onto shore.  It was at this point, as we were getting out to pull the dinghy out of the river that I somehow managed to lose my footing climbing out and fell back into the dinghy, my legs and arms flailing as I tried to get back out in that awkward lifejacket!  Eventually, I gracelessly got to my feet and, my dignity bruised but intact, we got the dinghy ashore.

Meeting up with the rest of the group near the bus, I definitely got the feeling that we were all gutted that it was over.  We sat around chatting for a few minutes as the river guides got the boats back up on the bus and then we bundled onboard, wet but energised and happy, for the ride back to camp and some welcome hot showers.

Going out with a bang!

 

Proof, if it were ever needed, that I shouldn't be let near explosives

That evening, we decided to set up our dinner stuff underneath the canopy area near the camps main office.  As we were doing so, we noticed the river guides were setting up a barbecue beside us.  Things were a little awkward at first between our two groups, a few snippets of polite conversation here and there, that kind of thing.  As the evening went on a both groups got through the supplies of booze, we all got chatting and mingling and had a great night.  It was great listening to Woody's tales of his days as a Trek America guide and some of the crazy things he got up to, some of the girls got treated to rides around the camp on the American guys scooters and there were Justin's fireworks of course!

Justin was about to find a new meaning to 'blowing your nose'...

I have to confess that I, like most of the others in the group, got pretty drunk that night and most of it is just a hazy memory to me; I remember snippets of card games, lots of beer and rum and coke being consumed by us all and those crazy stories of Woody's.  I remember that at some point, Megan lost her nose stud and a few of us spent some time looking for it (I don't think we found it though, sadly).  I remember the Americans constantly trying to get us to eat their burgers (is that right?) and, of course, I remember the fireworks.

To say that Justin and Alex were excited by the fireworks would probably be an understatement.  The pure joy on their faces, in fact on everyone's faces as we watched Alex and Justin set fire to them and, in some cases, hold onto them as they went off.  Clearly, they'd never seen those terrifying adverts on tv that were around when I was a kid.  Then again, none of the others had either, apart from Lee!  All this meant that we had some rockets shooting off at odd angles, not necessarily always going skyward either, that there were some hair raising 'don't go back to a lit firework' moments and that somewhere in camp, Andrea was praying that neither Alex nor Justin would blow himself, or anybody else, up!  Questionable firework safety aside, the display went off without any major damage, I think both Alex and Justin took some minor burns for the team, but otherwise a great night was had by all.

I have no idea why we're doing this...

We all went to bed that night, some of us drunk, all of us tipsy, having had an awesome day, a great evening enjoying the hospitality and company of the river guides, blown some stuff up and at one point held onto our boobs for no reason that I can remember!  Despite the drinking and our late night, we all knew that we had an early start the next morning and another 330 miles to cover which would take us into Alabama and Mississippi.

To be continued...