Wanderings of Several Kinds: Day Three

I'd fallen asleep to the firelight flickering against the tent wall, the rush of the river either lulling me to sleep or providing white noise. As always, I was last to fall asleep-- in a group situation, this always seems to be the case. I slept flat on my back for the most part-- I hadn't thought it would leave me feeling so well in the morning, but I turned out all right. I usually sleep on my side, but as evidenced by one of the evenings, this would only leave on arm in pain for the most part...

Thoughts ran through my head, as always. And yet there were entertaining dreams nonetheless... I was rather disappointed when Kuya woke me up that morning. And even more amused when he pointed something out and couldn't see it. Picking up my glasses and putting them on, I saw a rather large spider. XD I drew it and even took a picture, just to share with all of you wonderful people. :)

I can't remember what time we woke up that day, all I knew was that we were going to go...

(READY?)

...

...

Whitewater Rafting!

!!!

This was a big deal for me, because I remember when I was much younger, and we were in North Carolina, and I absolutely refused.

... Oh, my God.

iT WAS SO MUCH FUN.

I was dressed in black, "Aeropostale 87" plastered across my butt, a bikini top, and a halter. Woo, go me.
I was worried because I was wearing my contacts-- I didn't want to lose them, I only have one pair...
(I have a custom pair because my eyes are that bad. Yes, really).
And we all wore water shoes, because otherwise flip-flops'd just fly out...

I love what I've written here:
"The sunlight filtered through the trees. I wish I had a thesaurus so I wouldn't keep using "beautiful" but that's just how it all is." And then, "MOUNTAINS."

We had arrived early to our rafting post, and decided we'd eat somewhere afterwards. The restrooms were awkward because the doors were literally like saloon doors, with no locks... Uhm. Anyway, we were debriefed about safety, had to run back in to sign the waivers since we'd forgotten, than ran back and all got assigned to groups. We put on our gear, piled into a bus, and took a nice little trip where they amused us with jokes, "Stoptions," and "THAT'S NOT MY CHICKEN!"

I was both nervous and excited. I was really more concerned about falling out and getting hurt or something, I being me...
But I didn't know when I'd get another opportunity, so what the hell, why not.
(By the way, for those of you wondering, I'd like to skydive before I die. Seriously. I may not like rollercoasters, but somehow I think I can handle skydiving... Go figure. :P)

I really liked our rafting guide, her name was Meghan. She was from NY, very experienced, and reminded me of one of my cohort members, actually. She was awesome. XD We were with a family that was also from Florida-- a dad and his three daughters. The boys weren't too pleased with this, because one of the daughters was probably seven or eight and was terrified, so we had to take the not-so-dangerous parts of the rapids. :\ However I just figured it'd be an opportunity to put my early childhood education degree into use or something... XD

Kuya L.A. was in the front, I was in the middle, and Allen was next to me I believe. We had to make sure to pay attention to the guide's instruction, and sometimes had to relay said instructions to those up front. I kept trying to help the little one hold on to her T-Grip-- that was the most important part of rafting, aside from making it out alive. :P

"T-GRIP!"

We were basically on a Class 4 river-- I think the highest levels are Class 5 or 6.
And honestly, I'd love to it all again. I love the challenge.

IT WAS SO MUCH FUN!

I love how afterwards, all I thought was that I'm so totally taking my family (like, when I actually have a family of my own, though I'd love to do this with my parents some time, because I know they'd enjoy it, and I can just picture my mom), and just tell my children, "BE BRAVE! I'm not taking no for an answer! AHAHA!" :P

The little girl was actually really brave for being in the boat with us, though for the most part she clung to our guide's leg. ^^;
MY CHILDREN WILL BE BRAVE. OHOHOHOU~ (... I love how I always picture how my children will be just so epic. XD).

When we came back to the rafting site, there were these Campus Life people singing, "Do you know the muffin man," and dancing... They scared me. They were much to ... ... comfy-cozy-home-y for me... ... .___.;

We all changed into dry clothes in the changing rooms-- which were just open rooms for everyone to change in, no curtains, no stalls, no nothin'. Like P.E. all over again, only with absolute strangers. XD YAAAY. You do whatcha gotta do.

We drove back to Gatilinburg to have some eats, make a few phone calls while we could. We ate at Smoky's Bar and Grill-- I enjoyed it. :) I think I had a BBQ sandwich, it hit the spot. And oh, those posters... eheh.

Afterwards, we went to hike a trail-- Grotto Falls, which would only be 1.4 mi, but it wasn't so bad as Clingman's Dome. ^^;
I tried to take in as much as possible-- there was so much green! We managed to keep up for the most part, though part of me kept thinking, "And we'll be going back the same way... Huh." Luckily, going downhill is always easier. We crossed several little rivers (probably just part of the falls) and once we got to Grotto Falls itself, it was just mesmerizing. :) I also heard my mom's voice in my head, "I'd like to swim in there!" Hahaha. Which, actually, she could.

Allen dunked his head into the water, Kuya and I took pictures, I watched all the families. It was nice to have a bit of a respite and to feel the mist on my face. I also took pictures with my cellphone and sent them to my parents. :) (Once again, another moment where I wished I used Twitpic). As we walked back downhill, we sang Disney songs, joked around, and ran around like ninjas. REPLACEMENT TECHNIQUE!

A quote, "Two paths diverged in the Great Smoky Mountains Forest, and I took the third one and almost busted my ass."

:P

On the car ride to the tourist area of Gatlinburg, I reflected on how we'd seen something that not everyone gets to see.
Even the Great Smoky Mountains themselves! It just makes you think. :)

We spent the rest of the day in Gatlinburg, shopping, looking for weaponry (no lie), pondering about fudge, GETTING DELICIOUS TAFFY, seeing bluegrass bands, SMOKED CHEESE, Herbie, Bumblebee, whee. :D

We ate at a restaurant called Blaine's-- I ordered a chicken salad, attempting to be healthy, and ate more than I thought I would, so. :\ What, we were eating fast food all the time andandand... T_T;;

Kuya L.A. got kunai and throwing spikes, and Allen got a sword from Final Fantasy XIII. ... Yes, you read right. XIII.
"Wait, what? That's not even released here... You better hope it's in the game." :P

My mind drifted a lot on that trip. Mm. How life works out, indeed.

Now I'm looking at what I wrote for the next day... It seems to include a few more details about what happened. I think I was too tired to write a lot since we'd gotten back so late. But now I have to decide if I want to include it here, or for the next post... Hmm.

Maybe for tomorrow, then. Because we didn't actually do a lot on Day Four. XD

And I think you'd all like to be interested to know about how open of a person I really am.