The River Trip

We had the privilege to attend the annual River Trip with the Bullard family and many others. This was Jesse's 3rd time going, and my first. They said it was the biggest group they had ever taken down the river.

I think there were 49 or 50 of us in 11 rafts.

Kenny was the official rower for our raft and he did a great job. There are no professional guides allowed.

Captain Kenny did manage to hit a rock and tilt the boat just enough to where three of us fell into the river, including Kenny, leaving no one to row the raft. Jesse was amazingly brave and grabbed the oar (one oar fell out and we never found it) and pretty much saved the day and our lives.

On the first night of the trip, Thursday, it's a yearly tradition for the women to stay in a hotel in Mountain Home, Idaho, while the men head down to the river and prepare the rafts. They sleep under the stars and wake up early Friday morning and get everything ready to go. I decided to stay with Jesse and went to the river with the guys.

Jesse and I slept in the bend of his truck, but Alex, with his many ideas, decided to hang the hammocks between the trailers. This seemed like a good idea at the time, but Kenny (on bottom) ended up sleeping on the floor of the trailer.

We decided our raft needed some team jerseys. You may not be able to see us in this picture, but we found some awesome camo shirts for $3 at Wal-Mart. If you look closely, you'll be able to see (from L-R) Alex Helm, Todd Farnes, Marissa, Jesse, and Cap. Kenny, who happens to be single for any ladies out there. I'm just saying...

On Friday we floated the first half of the river and found our camp about half way down. On Saturday, we floated the 2nd half, ate lunch at a gas station, and drove back up to the top. There is a shuttle service that drives your cars from the top of the river to the bottom for you. We then floated the first half again. Sunday was a day of rest, kind of. We enjoyed a long hike up the mountain and hung around camp all day. Monday morning we packed up and floated the second half of the river again.

Captain Kenny, Alex and Todd brought hammocks to sleep in. As you can see, Todd ended up sleeping on the ground. His hammock broke.....twice.....while he was in it. Jesse and I had a nice, comfortable tent.

Before going down Raspberry Rapids, the largest section of rapids we went down, each boat heads to shore and plans out their route, trying to avoid rocks and whirlpools.

Captain Kenny, the goofy gus, let Jesse row down the canyon. It was probably the second hardest stretch of river, next to the rapids. He was soooo strong and soooo brave. His muscles were huge, as always, and I never felt afraid when the oars where in his hands. Even though the oars left him with seven large and bleeding blisters. He fought through the pain and guided us safely back to camp. He's probably the most manly man I know. He's so manly, that one time he killed an alligator just by looking at it.

"The" Lonnie Bullard took a few of us on a nice Sunday hike CLIMB up the mountain. It was literally straight up the mountain. I had to worry about losing my balance because I would have easily tumbled and rolled all the way to the river.

It was a hard hike but a beautiful view. You can tell how much Kenny and Jesse loved it when they reached the top!

         

 

We hung a shirt from the tree as a flag but it was too high up to see from camp.

Every River Trip there is a volleyball tournament on Sunday. This lovely court has been developed over the years from them playing. We also had a horse shoe competition with everyone.

We enjoyed our free time just lounging around camp and eating the delicious food. Every meal was cooked in Dutch ovens. We were quite spoiled. The next picture was taken at an extremely weird angle and it makes Jesse's neck look MUCH fatter than it really is...

Thanks for the great time! We loved it!

Since we've been back, we have been busy! busy! We've both been working a lot and we're planning to move at the end of July. Wow, that means in less than 10 days I have to be out of here and I have not even started packing...

This is what some people call dumpster diving. My mother told me to get boxes from behind Ben Franklin's. I could not reach many of the boxes, so I decided to just hop in and dig for the good boxes! ha! Don't worry, it was a "cardboard only" dumpster, the kind a homeless man could live in. Pretty clean, actually. Jesse just stood there, embarrassed, as two cars and a police officer drove by. 

This post was written by Marissa and slightly (heavily) edited by Jesse.