July 2, 2011 - See video on You Tube at http://youtu.be/FknPL7CWR6k
Harry (Phil), Pete (Hannah), Steve (Lindsey), Marshall (Ann), and Doc (Scott) had quite an adventure this week.
It began Friday, July 1, 2011 at 7:00am when Scott and Ann left their house.
As soon as they got in their car it started to rain.
Ann went to Kinnersley’s to pick up Phil and Lindsey.
Scott headed to the farm to get Hannah and Tug (the camper).
By 8:30am,
all shoved into Scott’s truck like sardines, we were finally on our way.
As we headed south on 57, we enjoyed watching the lightning strikes going straight down in front of us.
We went over a bump and Tug made a loud noise.
Suddenly Tug came forward and rammed us.
Scott remained calm and began to break and pull over for the side of the road while Hannah kept yelling, “Turn on your flashers!”
Ann watched the sparks from the dragging crank and who knows what Lindsey and Phil were thinking!
The camper had come undone from the truck, grated off about two inches from the bottom of the crank and the electrical cord had been yanked out.
Scott got it hooked back up and after a thorough prayer we started back down the road.
The cool thing was that God had put this strip of sun right over us and held the rain off while we got it fixed.
The highway was fairly busy but everyone was being really careful and either slowing down or getting over.
About Gilman a torrential downpour started.
It was so heavy that cars were lining up on the shoulder of the road and stopping.
We were concerned that we were driving into a tornado so we stopped behind another car and watched the rain pelt down as it began to hail (pea sized).
We called Bridget and asked her to check the forecast.
She said there was a line of thunderstorms right down 57!
We decided to keep going and the storm let up a little, but then it started again.
I have never seen so many cars just stop on the shoulder of a highway for a rainstorm.
We were close to giving up when we hit the Road Ranger in Champaign but the sun had come out and the rain had mostly quit.
The rest of the trip there was fairly uneventful.
We stopped at some place for dinner and Scott had to have Arby’s, Hannah and Ann went to Subway and then we all met at Wendy’s to eat.
There was a small plane doing tricks above the Mississippi right next to the Arch.
Hannah thought the Anheuser-Busch “A” looked like the Angels.
We pulled into Les and Lori’s around 2:30pm about two hours after we were expected.
Lori, Les, Scott, and I went to Walmart and bought groceries plus three hundred gallons of liquids.
After that we loaded Lori’s house into her car and some in ours.
Everyone but Scott and I hopped in their Suburban and we headed out.
Once we drove past St. James (maybe an hour later), we went up and down hills and around curves and knew we had to be getting close.
Les pulls into a tow truck lot and we pull up beside him.
He and his brother, Scott, had decide that they had missed a turn.
We turned around and went back up and down more hills and around some crazy curves.
We saw lots of trees and black cows.
Finally, we arrived at the Silver Arrow Campgrounds.
They were really nice.
Our spot, Cool Point, had two electrical hookups, a fire pit, two grills, and a pavilion with an electrical outlet and light.
We unpacked and started to set up our camps.
Lori, Scott, Phil, and Amy set up their six man tent.
It was fun watching them try to fit the tent poles in the right places.
In the meantime, Hannah goes to the truck to get something out and discovers that it is locked with the keys in it.
The passenger side door wasn’t shut all the way so Les brilliantly uses his new hotdog stick to push the lock open.
By this time everyone was starving.
As Lori began to unpack her house, the table took on a new light.
It suddenly had tablecloths, Fourth of July decorations, and fruit shaped Citronella candles.
Scott fixed hot dogs on the grill and we headed to bed about midnight.
At 6:30 am, Hannah and I woke everyone up to the smell of sausage and eggs. We used a metal spatula on a cheap pan so the first batch had black specs in it. We tossed those and got out the iron skillet – they turned out a lot better. It took us one and a half hours to get everything ready for the trip, we were scrambling at the last minute when the bus pulled up to our spot to pick us up. The folks at the Silver Arrow Campgrounds charged us $30 to haul our three kayaks with the rest of the canoes. It was a big yellow school bus with a kayak/canoe trailer on the back. As I was grabbing the last of the items, I could hear a lot of laughter and shouting on the bus. Hannah comes off the bus and says, “I’ve been on the bus for two minutes and have already heard two cuss words.” I finally got the rest of our stuff together and hopped on the bus. There was a group of kids in about their thirties that probably not quit their drinking from the night before. One in particular, whom we will call “Partner,” was not wearing a shirt and was quite boisterous. Evidently, before I arrived he had asked Scott (Johnson) if he could smoke. Scott told him it wouldn’t be a good idea since there would be women and children on the bus. He kept yelling, “I’m sorry but I smoke. I smoke and I drink” over and over again. Lori gets on the bus and comments something like, “Hey guys drinking already, isn’t it a little early?” Everyone laughs and Partner has an answer – something about drinking and smoking. The bus driver heads out of the campground toward the put in. There was another member of the party, whom we will call “Bandana,” who was at the front of the bus with a girl and two kids. He told Partner to behave himself. He would yell something about smoking again and suddenly Bandana yells, “Hey Partner!” Partner yells, “Hey Partner, Partner, Partner, 10-4 Partner! Hey Partner!” Then he went back to raving about being a smoker. The guy with the Bandana would make fun of the guy to bus driver in between egging him on saying, “They’re going to find him floating down the river and not in a boat.” He started getting a little graphic so I hollered, “Hey! Anyone here smoke?” Partner answers, “Hey I smoke. I can’t help it, I’m a smoker.” He continued on while the couple in the seat behind me kept apologizing over and over. They said they didn’t invite him, he just showed up. They also said he drank all night slept for about two hours and woke up and started drinking again. He was starting to cuss again so Lori hollered, “Hey Partner!” He answered back, “Hey Partner, Partner, Partner, Roger Partner, 10-4 Partner…” Evidently, he started to get really vulgar so Les let him know politely but firmly that there were women and children on the bus. He apologized to Les a couple of times saying he was a steel mill worker who worked hard for his money and he’s a bit R-rated. They took us to the Akers put in so we could do a 12 mile float to Pulltite. We got everything loaded and started down the river: Hannah and Lindsey were in the double kayak, Lori and Les were in one canoe, Scott Johnson and Phil were in another canoe, Amy, Scott, and I were in single kayaks. The Current River was incredible! It was so clear you could see all the way to the bottom wherever it was shallow enough.
Lori and Les were the first to go over. They kind of got sucked into a current around a tree laying across the river. We all stopped and were trying to catch all of the items that fell out of their canoe. There were a lot of loose water and Gatorade bottles. After that Lori got in Amy’s kayak, Amy took Hannah’s place, Hannah took Scott’s kayak, and Scott got in the canoe with Les. Hannah was kayaking in Scott’s kayak standing up. I was trying to video tape her inevitable fall (which never happened). I noticed a huge fallen tree coming up and threw down my camera so I could paddle around it. I paddled hard and got one end passed it but ran into it about the middle of my kayak. The current racing around the tree started to suck my kayak under flipped it over. I went under and I’m pretty sure the cold water knocked the wind out of me. I held onto my paddle and grabbed a hold of my kayak. I hollered to Hannah to try and catch my camera. I noticed my favorite kayaking shirt and one of my water shoes were stuck on a branch of the enemy tree. I stood up and latched my paddle to my kayak so I could free up a hand. Then I started to attempt to walk back to get my shoes. The water was about chest deep and there were big sharp rocks on the bottom. The fight against the current was really rough, my feet struggled over the jagged rocks. I made it back to my shoe and was able to pull it off of the branch, my shirt was next. I tried and tried but was no longer making any ground. I finally had to let it go. I lifted my feet up and tried to get my balance so I could get back in my kayak. It was too deep and moving too quickly. I hollered for my friends upstream to let me know if I was going to hit something and just lifted my feet and hung on to the kayak. Scott finally reached me and grabbed my kayak helping me get to level ground. The problem was the rocks were still really bad and my feet hurt like the dickens! I got back into my kayak and had found out that my wonderful, smart, and quick Hannah and saved my camera, dry box, other shoe, and my Tilley! Good thing I had a floaty on my camera!! After all of that drama we continued on. We came to a cave that had the most gorgeous blue water. Hannah and Lindsey (back in the kayak together) and Amy and Scott Johnson (in the canoe) all paddled to the deep, dark corner of the cave. Lori and Les were back in the canoe together and Scott and I in our own kayaks. We went in the cave but not all of the way back because there was a line of people waiting to go. We paddled upstream a little further and decided we should get out and cool off. We dunked everyone and raced against the current and had a great time just playing in the water. We won’t talk about Les dumping the canoe that time! J
Our next adventure was the cliff jumping. Scott Johnson climbed up and jumped three times. It was a lot of fun to watch his bravery! We were in a clear spot and I looked back and saw Scott’s paddle floating down the river. I almost had it but it got sucked under my kayak. Some nice canoers going by got it for us and handed it off to Phil who heroically tried to paddle it back upstream to Scott. Scott evidently was trying to cool off his ice tea by holding it in the water. The ice tea slipped out of his hand and he tried to catch it tipping his entire kayak over.
The next part we came upon was deeper than most of the rest. It was this beautiful turquoise blue water. We came to this S curve section where the canoe in front of me went down. I was pretty sure I was going to broadside them but I made it around them. I looked back just in time to watch Phil get sucked in by a tree he got to close while trying to avoid another canoe that had gone over. I laughed because he was back in within about two seconds.
On the way home, Lindsey and Phil went with Lori and Les and Scott and I took Hannah to Ozark Scenic National Riverway’s Visitor’s Center so that she could get her Jr. Ranger badge. On our way back to St. Louis, Les told us that there was a huge storm and we should stop and have lunch before we came. We ate at Burger King and headed west. We watched the most incredible front that we have ever seen (see the end of the video.) We drove into the pouring rain as we got close to St. Louis. There were two big accidents on the highway. We met Lori and Les in the grocery store parking lot where Lindsey and Phil jumped in. It took us an hour to get out of St. Louis. There was an accident and they had closed down I-55 so we ended up downtown. We called Les and got directions for an alternative route. Finally, we were on our way. By the time we hit Veteran’s Parkway in Springfield, Hannah had lost her mind. After eating a slap happy meal at Monicals, we had a special story time with Steve – Steve’s Stupid Story Time – not that Steve was stupid. We also saw parts of about eight different firework shows.
Phil, “I am more sophisticated than that.”
Scott, “Who’s Phil?”
Hannah, “Yes, yes your grandma loves you.”
Drunk guy, “I smoke, Partner!”
Hannah, “Hey Uncle Scott, you’re going under an overpass. Do you know how I know? That truck isn’t flying.”
Les, “Lori, stop laughing!”
