Extreme White Water Rafting

Five fabulous couples went white water rafting this weekend down the Eccoe River.

It began on Friday afternoon when everyone met at our house to load up, girls in the Woodwards’ Envo and Guys in the Cosbys’ Pathfinder. Trip began with chatting and laughs and a half way stop at Arby’s for an early dinner. We got to our hotel, the River Suites, and separated into our two reserved rooms, 3 couples in one room and 2 couples in the other. We then all gathered in one room to play Mexican Train Dominos and Skipbo until midnightish… Jamie was the ultimate champion! Besides trying to block out the endless motorcycle noise outside our room, we got a decent nights sleep. We checked out of the hotel and had a late breakfast at the Cracker Barrel which was directly behind our hotel. Some had a much later breakfast then others. The Grizzles’ and our table got stuck with a waitress who must have forgotten to put in our order b/c the other table of 3 couples were finished and had their receipt in hand before we even got our food… Brett did give us some of their left over biscuits to hold us over. We then had about 45 minutes to waist rocking on the Cracker Barrel porch before heading to the OCC where we checked in, geared up, and were seated on a bus to head to our casting off spot on the Eccoe River.

At our cast off spot we meet Jody, he looked about 21 years old and came to the Eccoe in April from Georgia, after a 6 week training period he qualified to be a river rafting guide, and did a great job! The Hovaters were our fearless leaders and took their positions at the front of the raft. Jamie and I were protected in the middle section and the strong back seaters were Ben and Jared.

Around the 3rd rapid was where Ben flew off the back… Jody tried to grab him as soon as he hit the water but was unsuccessful. Ben had to bounce off a few rocks before we were able to bring him back in the raft. Wow, that was intense!

Jody was very entertaining as he told us the names of all the rapids and the stories behind them… I still think he made every one of them up. He also told us of the ravels between all the rafting companies around there and would make comments about how bad they are and how they always get stuck;) WE even purposely shoved one raft, from another rafting company, hard onto rocks so their guide had to get out of the raft to get his group back on course. Jody was a trip!

Half way through the rafting adventure we were able to “park” and jump off a big rock called “Jump Rock.” It was a fun breather. Jared and I jumped off three times and had to swim against the current to get back to the rock. :)

We had so much fun and I can’t wait until next year when we go for the all day rafting trip, camp in a tent and go on the five mile hike our guide was telling us about :)