Road Trip

Today I'm recovering. "Recovering from what?", you might ask. Thank you for asking. I'm recovering from a great weekend of rafting on the Ocoee River in southeast Tennessee with 17 of our singles. Click [here] for a map of where we were.

Here's the group before we left.

We are looking like a group ready to go. We finally got to the ladies' cabin about 11:00 Thursday night. Not only was our cabins not in Ducktown (just 3 miles north of the Georgia state line), they were on two separate mountains altogether!

We finally found them. The ladies' cabis was very, very, nice. 2 Bedrooms, 2 baths, with two lofts - one on either side of the living room (one above each bedroom). Great living room and kitchen area, with a large front porch and beautiful view off of the back porch. Click [here] for pics of the ladies cabin.

The guys cabin, on the other hand, was a bit rustic. Yes, that was the name of the cabin, "Rustic Retreat." We came in ready to hit the sack and found a single window unit cooled the entire cabin. Which for guys, is not that difficult a problem to solve. We just moved furniture and slept in the living room and dining area. Problem solved! Click [here] to view some pictures of our cabin. While we couldn't see the sky without peering through the trees to a little clearing just northwest of us, it was so very quiet. I remember on Friday morning getting up and going out on the back porch for my quiet time. It really was quiet, still, and cool. What a great place to meet God and fellowship with brothers.

We met the ladies and headed off toward Okoee Rafting. This is a great group of folks who take care of you from the minute you get there to the time you drive off. High fives all around for Okoee Rafting. Thanks to Steve, Jack, and JT for making our rafting experience one, not only to remember, but one to plan on again next year.

After we filled up on some lunch we headed back up the Ocoee River for some swimming. They dam up the river so it dries up, except for spots where water collects in pools. We found the "Blue Hole", a popular place to swim. It was a blast! It started raining just as we arrived, but we figured what the hey, we're going to get wet anyway. So we made a run for it and enjoyed every minute of it.

After a day of rafting, lunch, and swimming it took its toll on some of the group.


Well, don't you know this made dinner all the more special? Some of our group stayed behind and prepared dinner for the rest of us. It was a treat - spaghetti & meatballs, baked spaghetti, french bread, and ceasar salad. mmmmm. . .mmmmm!!








We finished dinner played a couple of rounds of Catch Phrase - a great game that can be played with a number of people - then called it a night.

The next day we had breakfast, packed up and headed home. Got here safe and sound.

Here are some more pictures of our trip.

Here's the guys (Tom, Milton, and Lawrence) waking up on Friday morning.


Here's Ragan and Amand preparing some pancakes on Sat morning


And of course, while the ladies are preparing breakfast and getting ready to go, the guys are haning out on the front porch (way to go guys! Though I must say, Milton was willing to help and appearantly just wasn't cuttin' the mustard on the pancake griddle - sorry Milt)



Then there was Violet and Diane getting ready as well.

All in all it was a great trip. Some have talked about making this an annual event. Would I change some things? Definitely. Did we learn some things? Most certainly. Woudl I do it again? Tomorrow.

Thanks to everyone who made this trip an exciting and positive one. Thanks to "Uncle" Milty, Tom, and Lawrence for driving and getting us there and back safely. Let's do it again next year!!


Mike