Rafting in review

I spent this past weekend up in Wisconsin on the beautiful Wolf River whitewater rafting. This was a trip I was dreading and really looking forward to at the same time. Really looking forward to it finally won out and I ended up going, despite many of your protests that it wasn't a good idea. :-)

But, good news is, I survived it. And I even actually enjoyed the vast majority of the weekend.

I'll admit - it started out a little rocky. We got off to a late start, nearly got into a major car accident on the drive up, and ended up setting up camp in the dark and having no idea how to direct our other friends who were arriving even later how to find us. It was a little stressful. And as I was already a bit nervous about the trip, I was very ready for a drink with dinner.

Saturday went much better. We spent pretty much the whole day on the river and I even managed to not fall out of the raft this time! (Some of you may recall that the last time I went rafting I bailed out of the boat at least 4 times.) The water wasn't quite as cold this time around, and I had two good raft-mates that helped make the day quite enjoyable. The only true downfall was as we went over the last waterfall at the very end of the trip, Jeff (one of my raft-mates) fell out of the boat and managed to land on my head on the way down. This was truly much worse for him than it was for me (I had a helmet on!), but it still jammed my neck pretty good. (Yes, Jeff is just fine, though I do think he was a little shook up.)

Though I have no idea how I got them, I have some truly fabulous bruises on my arms, back and legs. There's one on my arm that looks like I've been drawing on myself with magic markers.

I always think the funniest part of the trip is the shuttle ride back up to the campground after everyone's been rafting all day. A bus full of people who started the day that morning incredibly loud and full of energy suddenly look very cold, very tired and very beat up. The best war-wound had to go to an Indian gentleman who had a lovely gash down the side of his face. (Nicole - aren't you glad that didn't happen to me? Wouldn't that have made great wedding pictures?!)

In addition, I proved to myself that I can spend time with Allen and not come out of it a mess. Though it wasn't always easy and I definitely had my moments where I had to put myself in check and remove myself from the situation, it all turned out pretty good. We're slowly getting back on decent footing, I think and I feel like our friendship is probably going to be able to withstand all the craziness of the last month or so. I can't give a 100% on that yet, but I think we're at least headed in the right direction. As I've come to learn very well over the last few weeks, life is really all about trial and error.

Pictures should be up tomorrow....