I have been making plans for almost a year to go visit my grandpa Martin (my mothers father) and my great aunt Vi in Carson City, Nevada. After two tries and having to cancel the week of each time I finally was determined to go over the summer. Turns out that my best friend, Heidi Hydrick, grew up in the same neighborhood as them and she had plans to go visit her grandparents over the summer too; so we coincided our trips. Heidi is hard core in all of her outdoor skills; one which she has been doing since she was 7 is white water rafting--one of the higher things on my bucket list. Being that the American River in California is 2 hours from Carson City, we made plans to go rafting while we were there. The trip started out pretty rough for me. I had gotten maybe an hour of sleep the night before, and so I went about my Friday business and came home a couple of hours before my flight was to depart. With my bags ready to go I thought I'd take a quick half hour nap before my friend came to pick me up for the airport. Unfortunately I was so exhausted I didn't think to set an alarm. My friend had taken a business call and lost all track of time. When he got done he rushed to my house and frantically knocked on the door. I had assumed that when he got there the knocking would wake me, but it didn't. He didn't see me through the window so he went back to his car, but thought he'd better try one more time, so came back and rang the doorbell. To this I woke up and discovered that I had half an hour until my flight departed! Completely disoriented from lack of sleep/waking up from a deep sleep I stumbled to the door with my bags and we rushed to the airport in a panic. Luckily I live close, but still I only had 15 minutes when we arrived. You want to talk about stressed! I think I am usually pretty chill, but the panic had gripped me by this point. It was the last flight that night into Reno, I had already re-scheduled this trip two times before, and Heidi and I had plans to go rafting the next morning. I skycapped my luggage and sprinted to the security check, which was unfortunately busy...at least 100 or 150 people. I stood in line, with I'm sure a wild haze in my eyes, and fanned myself with my ticket and tried to remind myself to breath so I would calm down. The woman in front of me asked if I was ok and I told her my plane was taking off in 5 minutes. She told me to cut, but I protested that there were too many people to cut. She persisted and so I started muttering my excuse and passing people, about 50 people in a lady told me to just go over to the special needs line for the flight attendants and such. I got through security, booked it across the airport and was the last one on the plane. It didn't take off for at least 10 minutes after that, but I didn't care, I was so happy to be on it. I think I nearly gave myself a heart attack!
Arriving into Reno I got my bags and went to the rental car counter to be told that there weren't in cars in for the reservation I made. Still disoriented from the lack of sleep and near heart attack panic, I looked at him blankly without knowing what to say. He looked up from his screen and asked if I would be ok with a truck. Hallelujah! That's when the whole day turned right. I LOVE trucks. And there was not a happier girl in the world. I threw my bag in the back and off I went, windows down, country turned up, off to grandpa's house with a grin pasted across my face.
The next 5 days would have been wonderful anyways, but the truck sure helped! Here is my after our rafting trip in the beauty.
I have pathetically weak arms...ok that is an exaggeration, but my legs are where I build muscle, not my tiny little arms. However, in anticipation of this trip I had been doing push-ups 6 days a week for a couple months. The following couple of photo's are of my sad attempt to row. Contrary to my previous notion, rowing is NOT easy. First off it takes coordination, which apparently I have little of. Second it takes muscles, which I already knew I have none of.
Quick stop before the big rapids.
Ok, I would like to preface this look on my face by first saying that Heidi had spent the previous hours drilling in my head how important it was that I follow her every command, and that I paddle strong because she would need my help, and that I not flench but give it my all no matter what happened. Oh, and "above all not to fall out of the boat"!
(The following photo's were taken by professional photographers stationed near the bigger rapids...we weren't planning on purchasing them until we saw how priceless they were.)
Ya...I was a little concerned at this point.
(Note: you can double click and the picture expands. Some of the looks on my face are pretty amusing.)
This is snow melt, so even though it is August that is dang cold water!
We made it through the first rapid, here comes the second one which is significantly trickier. I was feeling a little more brave here.
This is my last breath.
Yep...that's me completely submerged!
This is where I boat was turning over on it's side. You can't tell, but only my leg is in the boat at this time. Fortunately I have some wicked determination and I was not going to let that river own me so I fought for all my might and pulled myself back in. Also notice the oar lock (the metal piece that is on the black part of the oar...ya, that's important that the oar stays in there so it is useful to row with).
Notice the oarlock is farther down on the oar...this is a bad thing. Also, you can see my sweet recovery.
The oarlock is precariously at the edge of the oar. Also Heidi i starting to loose it and fall out of the boat.
No, I was not really getting hit in the back of the head. Yes, it is a very bad thing that the oar is now completely out of the oarlock!
The only thing that saves Heidi here is the other oarlock, she had a wicked bruise from it.
Here is where I start to realize that I almost died...but didn't!
It has really hit me now that...at this moment I am caught in amazement, unaware that I almost lost my captain.
I turn to tell Heidi that I didn't let the river own me, but that it almost had. (Meanwhile people on the shore are cheering for us...seriously...they thought we were goners for sure!)
Reality still seeming surreal...
Then glory begins to enter my mind...
...and pure joy follows!
Bring on this next rapid, we got this!
But the water is still very cold!
Ya, white water rafting is AWESOME! Totally a new favorite hobby!
This is what I did much of the time when it wasn't high adventure...ah...I love to eat!
Here is the part of the story I'm ashamed of. So I didn't realize how long it was going to take us, I told them I'd be back by 6PM at the latest, and didn't end up home till well after 9PM. In fact, I didn't even have cell service until 7-ish. Apparently there had been a bad storm while we were gone and Aunt Vi and grandpa were worried sick because they couldn't get ahold of me. When I got home they asked how it was, and then asked some basic questions. "What town were you in?" "I don't know...Heidi just told me what highway to take and what road to get off on." "Whose house did you go to?" My sheepish response: "Um...grandma Hydrick?" "Well we didn't know where you were, and there was a big storm and we didn't have any information on who you were with or their address or number" AH MAN! I'm a horrible granddaughter! I've been living on my own so long I didn't even think to leave that kind of information.
Then I made them pizza for dinner Sunday night, and for the first time in my life I burnt the pizza crust!!! I realized while it was in the oven that I hadn't taken into account the elevation change, so I thought 'oh well, I'll just leave it in a little longer' Ya, bad idea. I don't know if they'll ever want me back again!
Grandpa, myself, and Aunt Vi next to their awesome tree that has a face on it.
Grandpa smiling!
A couple days after the rafting trip Heidi and I went for a hike and canoeing...except we ran out of time because we goofed off too much on our hike...so canoeing never really happened. :( Anyhow, this is fresh snow melt and it is the best water I've ever had! Cold and delicious! I couldn't get enough.
Heidi and I on a mountain I forget the name of...but it's across from Lake Tahoe...and we went to tall grass lake on it, SO beautiful!
