White Water Rafting Trip - 7/24/10

Last year while exploring the Wind River Canyon (see blogs dated 7/26/09 - The Return Trip Through The Canyon and 7/25/09 - Wind River Canyon) last year about this time, Joe and I saw some people rafting down the canyon. We thought it might be fun to celebrate our 6th anniversary by floating down the river. And, that's what we did this year. What a blast!

While waiting to be suited up, I spied this bumper sticker. If you've ever seen the movie "Deliverance", you'll understand the sticker.

Here we are outside the company that was going to take us down the river. Great staff and reasonable prices too.

Here we are all suited up for safety with our life vests and helmets just in case we fell out of the raft. Those are the rafts behind us and the shuttle bus we rode on to get to the place about 12 miles down the road where the rafts put in.

View from the bus at the launching point...

Once in our raft, we were given instructions of what to do if we fell in the river. Do you know how cold that water was? I had no intention of finding out. Not long after getting into the water this train came by us...

This is a map showing the various rapids that we floated, rafted and paddled across. We put in at the lower canyon and went through various "classes" of rapids - the highest being class IV. It is defined as "Long rapids; waves high, irregular; dangerous rocks; boiling eddies; best passages difficult to scout; scouting mandatory first time; powerful and precise maneuvering required. Demands expert boatman and excellent boat and good quality equipment". One of those was named "Freight Train"on the Wind River.

There was our raft and one other in front of us and it was fun watching was about to occur with us, but happening to them first. Here we are just shortly after getting into the river and before any of the rapids.

Happy Joe - smiling and dry...

This is one of the boulders that fallen into the river sometime in the past. It was called the "House Rock" because..................it is as big as a house!

This was our guide named Vanessa...

Tipis on the bank...

Another reason why there aren't many pictures of me. Joe took this one and I was really craning my neck to be seen.

But then the lady across from me took pity and took my picture...

A beaver dam along the bank...

Some of our first rapids. My butt got wet at the first one as you do sit on the edge of the raft and not inside it.

Joe still in the boat...

Just sit back and enjoy the ride...

Joe enjoying the end of one of the rapids and that he was still in the raft...

More pictures to be added later...and yes, we were wringing clothes, dripping wet by the time we left the canyon.

In Honor of Our 4th Anniversary

Our Fourth Wedding Anniversary

Joe and I recently celebrated our fourth wedding anniversary on July 24th. Unfortunately with so many things happening in the past couple of weeks, I didn't get the chance to acknowledge that with a special posting. So I will now with pictures from our wedding which seems so long ago, yet at the same time it doesn't seem possible we've been together for over four years now. How blessed my life as been since I met Joe. I just cannot imagine life without him and I look forward to many, many more years with him. I have a sign hanging in our bedroom that I purchased on our last trip to Utah that says "always and forever, no matter what" and that's how I view our life together.

For those of you who did not attend the wedding and are curious about our clothing - we were attending a Hawaiian luau being held the same time as our wedding, complete with dancers and Hawaiian food.

57 Years of Role Modeling

Not only was it my birthday today, but it was also Mom and Dad's 57th wedding anniversary. I was born on their first wedding anniversary and always told Mom I knew I was the best anniversary present she'd ever gotten. For some reason, she tends to roll her eyes when I say that. Anyway, here is my parent's story of how they met, fell in love and eventually married...

Dad was stationed at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, Florida in 1952 and was friends with Calvin Padget who was a friend of Alice McGhee. She invited them to come to Georgia for a family birthday part and that is where Mom and Dad met each other. They started writing each other and he was invited to Georgia again and soon began spending more time with Mom. They soon fell in love (though Mom always said it was love at first sight for her).

They made plans to marry in August. Aunt Alice had married Calvin Padgett in June and came to visit in July. Mom and Dad wanted them to be their matron of honor and best man, so they decided to get married immediately.
Mom and Dad were married on July 28, 1951 at the home of the Justice of the Peace. Uncle Calvin and Aunt Alice drove them to their wedding after borrowing Granddaddy McGhee's car. They spent their honeymoon at the home of Uncle Grady which was next door to Grandmother and Granddaddy McGhee's home. They left the next day on Sunday for MacDill AFB for their new home on the bus. (They didn't get a car until September 1953 when I was a baby and Dad had come back from TDY in England. It was a 1946 Dodge). When they got to Tampa, they went out to the base Sunday afternoon to look around and to see where Dad worked.

They spent their first night in the Hillsborough Hotel for $13.00 a night. Mom stayed in bed and slept while Dad went to work. When he got off work, he borrowed a car and they went looking for an apartment. They found and rented a furnished apartment for $33.40 a month at 214 W. Platt. Mom had brought mainly her clothes, a skillet that had a handle "two times too long", a couple of pans, towels, etc. Thankfully payday was on Monday, so they went and brought some groceries and other necessities. Dad's paycheck had been $76.00 per month, but it went up to $135.00 after they got married.