Visit to Nashville

An item on our to-do list for a while has been to go to Nashville and visit Tyler and Heather.  They moved about 9 months ago there for his new job. If that wasn't enough, we also wanted to see Mason and their recently purchased house.

This past weekend the opportunity presented itself since we were shooting a wedding in north Alabama. So rather than come home afterwards we continued north to the Music City. We got into town late Saturday night. They are remodeling their house so we got a quick tour and an updates on all the projects. They are doing all the work themselves and it is looking great. They are in the middle of getting all the hardwood floors down. Most of the house has been repainted and they are updating the bathrooms. Lots of other little projects are also going on as well. Wish we lived closer so I could help out some.  The one project I did get to help out with was putting in their new mailbox. We dug the hole, got it set, and filled it in with concrete. It was still standing the next day.

On Monday we went to Chick-fil-a and treated them to lunch with out coupons. We then fulfilled my one request for the trip and that was to stop by Financial Peace Plaza and see Dave Ramsey. He was in studio that day. Its a neat building with a big window to watch him do his show. There is also a bookstore/cafe that has free food. During one of the commercial breaks he came out into the lobby and shook hands with everyone who wanted.  I tried to contain my giddiness.

That afternoon we went hiking in the woods behind their house.  It is a nature preserve, so it should always stay woods behind them. We found a good vine and cut it so we could swing on it. It was on the side of a hill so just a little swing and you got pretty high off the ground. It was a ton of fun and brought back some memories of woods behind of the Sycamore House.

It was a great visit and hope we can have more of them.

Memorial Day Weekend on the 11 Point River

As stated in previous posts, I was incredibly pumped about our canoe trip. We got back from the long weekend yesterday and I must say the trip lived up to expectations.

The Franci rode with us to Memphis on Friday afternoon. We stayed at Emily's Mom's house. She was quite the pleasant host and made the stay quite enjoyable. She treated us to Memphis Pizza Cafe that night. The rest of the evening we spent packing our gear and food for the trip. With the amount of stuff we had you would have thought we were staying longer than the 38 hours we were gone. I will say we used all of it in some capacity. Our semester lost friend to grad school at Texas A&M, Hayley, was in Memphis for the weekend, so she came and saw us for a bit. I did not sleep that well with all the anticipation of leaving. I think a lot of it had to do with there were still things that needed to be packed.

We met up with the Poschels, Holmes, David, and Nicole Saturday morning a little after 6 AM. We hit the road for Missouri. The canoe outfitters were completely booked up for the weekend so thankfully we had reservations. We got shuttled to the river and off we went.

It was a little more crowded than last year, but certainly not as bad as I feared. The water and weather was gorgeous. Rebecca did a good job in the front of the canoe. Our whole crew did very well and no one tumped (our new favorite word for the weekend). A lot of the people on the river were not so graceful and provided entertainment for our group.

We decided to stay on an nice little island for the night. It had been used before and had nice sandy flat spots, plenty of firewood to gather, and a gorgeous surrounding of fast moving water. It also was great because it served as that entertainment from what we'll call the 'daytrippers,' characterized by the neck koozies, coolers filled only with beer, large guts, and foul mouthed women. There was a fallen tree in the middle of the rapids by our island. The entire afternoon as we set up camp we got to witness people come by, hit the log, and tump over. The chilly water was a shock to the canoers, and the unstrapped coolers emptied there adult beverage contents into the river. There was a shallow slower moving stretch just down the river so they were all able to gather themselves and floating belongings after a sobering ride in the water. The best instance was a group of 7 canoes that decided to go down the rapid tethered together side by side arms interlocked, thus no one was paddling. The current took them straight to the 'tumping log' and one by one all but 2 canoes emptied their passengers into river. It was a hilarious sight once it became apparent everyone was okay. It was like watching cattle running off a cliff together.

The Tumping Log

We got our tents set up and cooked dinner. Everyone brought some type of kabob that were quite delicious. We also cooked s'mores as we sat around the campfire. The rushing water around us provided a picturesque backdrop, topping off the fantastic day.

 

We slept in the Franci's tent because of a probable lack of suitable tent spots. 

We woke up Sunday and had a lazy morning around the campsite. We set off around 10 and headed down the remaining stretch of the river. We took a long lunch on one of the sand bars and played in the water.

We also stopped at Boze Mill Spring to play in the even colder water.

We finished the river mid afternoon and caught the shuttle back to the outfitter. After a stop at Dairy Queen we made our separate ways back. We had a shorter trip back to Emily's Mom's house. We all slept like rocks in the real beds.

The only downside to the weekend was it had to come to an end. We all agreed we should do it again next year. I also was not too thrilled with my pictures. There is a fine balance between taking too many pictures that you miss out on the moment vs. not being able to remember the moment down the road. Its also hard to take pictures when you have to get it out of its waterproof container and you could tump at any moment.

The Whole Crew

I would be remiss to leave about the beauty of the creation we got to experience. When you are in that kind of solitude with no cell phones or TV, and surrounded by absolutely gorgeous surrounding it allows you to sit back and be thankful for each day. A God that can design something so vast and yet so detailed, can handle my little issues.