A few weeks ago I joined some friends for a campin/canoe trip to the "Many Island Campground" at Spring River. SO much fun! Michael & I rode up with Alli, and we caravan-ed with another group of people. We brought walkie talkies...really they weren't even walkie talkies, cause you could 'text' and take pictures, and do all kinds of cell-phone-y things with them. Not the kind from back in my day where all you had was the Morse Code printed under the speaker and an enormous antennae! So we tried the walkie talkies for a bit, but it got old pretty quickly. Mike was behind in the book we're reading together, so he wanted to read, which greatly offended Alli. And I was in the back seat, feeling sequestered, so I thought I might read, too, but that offended her even more greatly, so no rude reading actually came to pass during the ride :)
We got there lateish, around 9:30, stopped at a Sonic that had tables inside and the little red phones at each booth for to order one's food directly from the kitchen. I randomly picked up the receiver after everyone had ordered, just to look at it, before realizing that just picking it up signaled to the kitchen that someone wanted something! The girl answered & asked for my order & I started apologizing, and she hung up on me! I would probably hang up on people too, if I worked there.
Once we finally got to the campsite, after paying an extraordinary fee to sleep outside next to a train track, I set up my beautiful hammock so as to sleep under the stars. This hammock is one of the best things I've ever bought myself and brings me great joy every time I set it up :)
Alli & I trekked down to the women's facilities & while I was washing my hands I discovered the absolute largest insect I've ever seen in the wild, in person. It was sitting inside the bathroom, just hanging out under the blindingly bright light of a fluorescent bulb, along with about 4,700 other, smaller bugs. We alerted Mike & Scott, who captured the poor thing, and brought it back to camp. Then Scott found another one on our picnic table, & tried to make them fight. No such luck. They were ridiculously passive for being so scary-looking. I am convinced that they were actually fairies, like the one from Pan's Labyrinth, and we just hadn't drunk our milk for the day!
Alli, Kirsten & I had some girl-bonding time on the hammock, & then decided to make finger stars & frame everyone's faces in pictures.
Michael was our first target, but (finally having a chance to catch up on his reading) he did not think much of our childish antics...
I think this picture is hilarious.
We continued on with various other of our camp-mates.
I finally went to bed around midnight, and only then did I recognize how very close we were to the train track...it was literally 75 feet away. Every 1/2 hour a train woke me up as it rumbled by. Once, in the very middle of the night I actually fell into a deeper sleep than I had previously been able to, and the realisation that the train hadn't been by in a while caused me to awaken because of the silence!!
Morning came & we readied ourselves for the canoe trip. We jumped on a bus & rattled through the dirt roads, causing me to have flashbacks of my freshman & sophomore years in high school when I was the first on the bus at 7 a.m. for an hour-long ride of picking up children who lived, as I did, miles from any other sign of civilization.
We got to the dock & loaded our canoe with life-jackets & oars, and off we went! Michael steered & I paddled up front. I tried all different paddling methods during the trip, determined to work out as many muscles as possible. Our group found a nice little rapid with a pool under it and an island with a strong current running on the other side of it. We piled as many people as we could - 11 or 12 - into a canoe & someone pushed us off. Everyone had to hold perfectly still so as not to let any water in the boat...the water level was about 1/4 inch below the rim of the over-loaded canoe. Finally we hit bottom and everyone flew out! Kirsten was caught by the current & a couple of our strong men swam out to rescue her. It was quite the adventure!
We "tumped" over, as Michael calls it (a southern word I had never encountered before), only once, which Mike did on purpose when I wasn't paying attention. It was a beautiful day on the river, with all kinds of wildlife on the banks & in the water. Our friend Scott caught several turtles & carried them in his kayak for a large portion of the trip.
We made it back to the camp, snacked, & packed up for the trip home, but as we headed down the dirt road leading to the highway, the back windshield of one of the cars shattered!
Being hungry and gross as we were, we decided to stop at King Catfish buffet, where we proceeded to stuff ourselves with fish and hush puppies. They have an amazing rocking chair, which we had to try!
We got home late, exhausted, and satisfied after a relaxing weekend and adventurous trip!!
