Day 45

We woke up to forecasts of rain for most of the next three days. We were scheduled to do some white water kayaking today before we camped at our last stop for three days in north Georgia. The predictions for the path of the storm were just east of where we would be but I was a little nervous of tornadoes spinning off.  Not good news in a tent.

I got to work canceling our reservations and making new ones west. Only problem was there weren't any open spots because it was Labor Day weekend! I inched further and further west until I found us a spot in Alabama where we started our trip the year before. So after a hotel breakfast that my kids adore and a load of laundry containing all our wet stuff from the night before, we got on the road to our kayak outfitters.

Way back on our way through North Carolina we'd seen white water rafting boats splashing down the river next to our highway and the kids would not stop asking me if we could do it until I convinced them we should wait to do it with Dave on the way home. He made us some reservations for kayaks on the Green River in South Carolina. I was a little nervous about kayaks with the kids' limited experience, but knew we would have fun and our guide would take care of us.

Tim was from Australia on work visa for 6 months as a guide. We were so lucky to have him as he was very funny, knowledgeable, and related to the kids so very well. Ryan jumped into a solo kayak while I hopped into a double with Laney and Dave in double with Brayden and before we knew it we were braving our first rapid!

Our guide would generally tell us to follow him and watch the line he took, but we all really ended up just figuring it out on our own. He had a little camera I spotted at each rapid for embarrassing or fun pictures of us. On the second or third rapid I looked back to check on the boats behind me and noticed a guy had already fallen out of his boat. Then I realized that guy was Dave! And Brayden was hanging out of the boat heading toward me! I'm not sure what happened, but hearing Dave's scream about the water temperature was extra motivation for me to stay in my boat for sure.

That is until the splashing started. The guide started by splashing Ryan. Then Laney. Then it was an all our war between everyone for the next 5 minutes until everyone was screaming about how cold the water was. Brayden had some splashing issues with his paddle so it was extra fun punishing him with water.

Laney and I got stuck on rocks a few times, but generally made it through all right. We stayed in our boat at least!  After about an hour we paddled up to a rope swing and all took turns jumping in. That was when we all experienced the coldest of cold water and had to get back to paddling just to get warm.

After one more rapid were reached the take out spot and were surprised with lovely PBR in a cooler. We were freezing cold, but it tasted so good. Lucky for us the van had a fantastic heater for our ride back to the office.  Once we changed and watched our pictures and videos we grabbed a Subway dinner and got on the road to our spot in Alabama. We had a four hour drive ahead of us and were hoping to make it there before dark. That was one thing I had successfully avoided in my five years of trips - setting up tents in the dark.

And we probably would have been find had we not been within a 100 mile radius of Atlanta. On a Friday evening. At one point I counted eight traffic accidents on our route alone. So we ended up at our campground at dark setting up tents by headlights.

But we were dry. And together. And going home two days early. So we were all content and looking foward to home.