Current River

It was an awesome weekend! Probably one of the best I have had in awhile. I ended up getting to go canoeing w/ Corey and all of her friends after all.

Nikki, Jessica May, and I drove down Friday afternoon to meet them. We should’ve gotten to the campsite way before anyone from Carbondale, but unfortunately we took some major detours. We stopped in St. Louis for several hours to go shopping, and then went way out of our way to get back to the highway. Then, we went about 40 minutes past Van Buren b/c of mapquest. The ride was pretty fun, but I wasn't sure Nikki was going to speak to me by the time we finally got down there. We all drank for several more hours, and I think Jess and Nick have become fans of Thumper.

We all got on the river by 9am Saturday. Essentially, it was a pretty chill day since we drank and floated w/o much paddling. Core and I were partners and it seems that we were the prime target for everyone's T-boning. Fortunately though, we managed to survive the whole trip w/o sinking. We did come close though when Richter decided to hang on our boat after we rammed her. This incident ended w/ her yelling at me from across the river. The fight didn't last long though b/c she ended up passing out and had her boyfriend row the rest of the day for her. (Actually, Core did that for me too b/c I wanted a nap for awhile and someone had stolen our other paddle). Nikki and Jess tipped though, yet somehow they managed to recover everything. I was relaxing w/ Corey waiting for everyone else to catch up when Jess swims frantically by, trying to capture all of their stuff. Meanwhile Nikki was trying to save the canoe while still holding the cigarettes above water. All and all, it was an impressive feat.

Sunday was a little rough in the beginning, but I put on my game face and joined the rest of the partiers. Apparently, this was the first year that almost everyone drank on the second day, which I imagine is what lead it to be one of the best current trips. In our drunkenness, we all found the simplest things to entertain ourselves. The first adventure involved a log that we took turns fighting on. I would just like to point out that I beat both Corey and J May. Corey did, however, manage to beat Jesse, which was pretty funny. The next game involved a rope swing, which I was actually pretty scared of even though I jumped off a cliff last year. At least I didn’t get hurt from the rope swing (I had 2 massive bruises from the cliff jumping). I might also mention that Nikki didn’t participate in either of these sports. She was too tired from her lack of sleep and just generally tired of canoeing.

We ended up getting of the river about 4 hours after we expected. And, even though it was an awesome trip, I was really glad when it was over. Two days of canoeing in extreme heat might be too much. I have to admit that by the way home, those golden arches of McDonalds had never looked soo good.