the jenni chronicles

Sigh, Chris finally talked me into going rafting with him.  His dad and some of his dads friends came for a visit and Chris wanted to show them a good time.  It was fathers day weekend, what could go wrong, right?  I figured if they can do it so can I. (here are the pictures)

We drove up in separate cars, us in the bronco (AKA Big Whitey) and them in another car. On the way something strange happened when pulling onto the off ramp.  Big Whitey didnt feel right. After pulling off to see what was wrong Chris devised that even though we probably lost first gear, that we keep driving. Mkay, here is where I start to worry…not that I wasn’t worrying already about the whole rafting thing. We were supposed to meet in Kremmling, a little town on the way to Steamboat.  However what we didn’t know is that the whole entire town was out for Kremmling days! The road(s) were shut down, all two of them, and we were detoured around the whole town.  Poor big Whitey limped his way through town until we finally stopped at a gas station. Put him into park and called Chris’s dad to come meet us….this was a huge mistake.

Big whitey wouldn’t come out of park.

We opened the hood and almost immediately a kid came out of the market asking if we needed help.  He was, of course, in his 4H tee shirt and cowboy hat. He and Chris poked around under the hood and then when we mentioned a mechanic he stood right up and said “well I’m traveling with his son, I will get you his card”. huh? How fortuitous! We called the mechanic, who promptly drove two blocks over in his tow truck to help out.  Somehow he got BW into reverse and we drove to his shop where he  basically told us we were screwed. BW needed a new transmission and he doesn’t do transmissions.

Now it was at this point in our journey when I felt a little relief flow over me. We didn’t have a truck to take us to the river, which equals= I don’t have to go rafting! :) yay. But alas, Chris had tricks up his sleeve. Mechanic man had a “rig” he said we could rent from him for the day. Chris took the bait, and right before our eyes a beast was rolled out from around the building. This thing was right out of a redneck horror movie.  You know the one where the kids go off on a hunting trip and never come back? Yeah, we were driving that truck. It was painted cammo colors, didn’t have a window on one side, the entire inside ceiling was ripped out AND the door came flying open whenever we rounded a corner. So classy! But I must admit, it got us there…in redneck style.

We unloaded the raft, started blowing it up when an EMT came walking up to us. RED FLAG #2. Apparently a man went missing that afternoon after he fell out of his raft going over some rapids. What was RED FLAG #1 you ask? When we were still in Kremmling earlier in the day and every single emergency vehicle left town in a hurry, that’s what. So now there’s a body in the river.  There’s a dead body in the river I am about to get into. What fun! I never imagined in my wildest dreams that I would also be looking for a dead man while on a fun fun fun rafting trip but here I was actually doing it! sigh.

Now lets back up a little.  One of the reasons I went on this trip was because Chris kept referring to it as a “Float Trip”. Key word: Float. Period. This wasn’t a float trip.  This was a tuck your feet in for fear of going overboard trip.  This was a get soaking wet from white water trip. This was a ROW ROW ROW BEFORE WE HIT THE ROCKS! trip. Did I already say that I was anxious about the trip in general? Well at this point I’m white knuckling the oar and on the verge of tears with numb toes and soaked to the bones with river water. Yeah there was a portion of the trip that we floated…that was after the class 5 rapids. Oh and Did I mention the man who drowned fell out in that same rapids we just rafted through? oh yeah, that’s where he fell out.  Whew, relief to know that!

I will admit, Chris was an excellent guide.  He knew exactly where all the rocks were we had to navigate around, and he was our main rower, steering us everywhere. He got us in, and got us out and that was mainly what I cared about…aside from not dying. Thanks Chris for not letting me die! Love you! ;)

That night Chris and I were able to get Big Whitey back up and over the pass back to Denver.  And then we turned around and drove my car back to Steamboat to continue our weekend with his dad. Phew, what a long day that was! We had a great time with his dad and friends.  It was a really good father’s day weekend for Chris I think, Im sure his dad appreciated it as well.

(¯`v´¯)
`*.¸.*´
¸.•´¸.•*¨) ¸.•*¨)
(¸.•´ (¸.•´ .•´ ¸¸.•¨¯`•.jenni