Ozarks part 2

Saturday morning we woke up to a light drizzle. I’m not sure if it ever quit raining in the night, but we were glad that we only had a slight dampness in the tent. It could have been much worse. This was our big day on the river. In years past we’ve done the river both days while camping, but last year it just seemed like too much. The river tends to be over crowded with drunken people acting crazy. This year was a different river, a bigger, and deeper river…which also means a more dangerous river.
Chris and I decided to kayak and a few people in the group canoed. It’s a little more tiring to kayak b/c you are the only one propelling the boat along, but I like the independence. We went on a fairly long trip, about 11 miles, which turned out to be about 6 hours or so. We took some breaks along the way to enjoy the scenery. We saw lots of turtles. There weren’t too many people on the river and most weren’t too crazy…minus the pink hatters we passed by. Most of the trip consisted of splash fights and threats to tip each other over. We did have a bit of excitement when one of the guys in our group got caught up in a swift current that rushed under a fallen tree. It knocked him out of his kayak and rushed him about 50 yards down stream. He was ok although it gave us all a scare. Another guy in our group saw him flip and tried to paddle over to help but the current flipped him over as well and even pulled him under a bit. He was also ok. It took three attempts to free the stuck kayak against the river current. It was very fast and very deep there, and turns out very dangerous. I’m sure there were other places similar to this on the river we passed right by. We’d have never though anything about it if the first guy in our group hadn’t hit that current just right. You certainly couldn’t tell how strong it was by looking at it.
I was exhausted after finishing the kayak trip. It was a hot and muggy day and after 6 hours of kayaking even the cold river water wasn’t helping to make it more comfortable. We stumbled back to the camp ground to sit around and replay the days events. Our campsite was next to the loose rock that let up to the river’s edge. That night it was apparently popular to take your truck out into the rock and spin around in the rock. I don’t quite understand the fun in it, but lots of people were doing it. One brand new truck was out there having fun and got a little too close to the water-flipped the truck on its side in the water. We didn’t see it happen but some of the people in the group saw it in the water. Next thing we know a tractor goes on into the rocks and both a dripping wet truck and dripping wet tractor drive out of the rock and back to camp. That night we took it easy and went to bed early.

Sunday we were both tired. We didn’t sleep well because the humidity didn’t lift until after 1am and then it got chilly. We were the first of the group to get all packed up and leave. It was a long weekend full of lots of adventure and good memories. Even the trip home was exciting b/c about half way there we stopped to gas up and we saw a burglary. Well we saw the guy running away and jumping into his bright purple get a way car and taking off. We also saw the girl chasing him on the phone with the police. Once back on the highway I could see the get away car (bright purple isn’t the best choice) a head of us. Next thing we know a cop flies by us w/ his lights on and pulls over the purple car. Three cheers for the police! It’s nice to know they got the bad guys.
The top picture is of the group kayaking/canoeing. Then the other two are from Friday…it’s Chris and I doing our Steve Zissou poses.

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