I thought I would give you all an update on what's going on with us before August comes to an end!
About the last month and a half, Chris and I have been helping remodel the new church building that our church will be moving into this week! We've moved some walls and doors, built a new wall, have done a LOT of painting, and are putting in some new flooring. We had a dedication service last night and it is really all coming together! There has been a dedicated team of people getting this work done - it has been challenging but rewarding at the same time. I've been acting as the project manager for the work and it's been challenging to make sure all of the tasks get done when they need to be so the project can keep moving forward. It's hard to believe that our church will be held there this Sunday. The inside looks quite different from when we first got it and we hope that the space will be inviting to people coming to LCC :) This has been a long time coming for LCC since they've never had a space to call their own before. But now we'll be able to use the space 24/7! We're all excited to see how God will work once we make this move.
God has ironic timing in our lives right now. We'll actually be moving back to Peoria some time in October! It will definitely be bittersweet for us since we've become very involved in LCC and have made some great friends here. The move will be better for both of our jobs - Chris will get to move out of a production job which is stressful and into a job that he's really looking forward to in research and development for castings. I will continue working for Mactec, but there should be move job opportunities for me since I'll be back in town instead of working from home out of town. (Last week I actually found out about some work that they want me to start on this week!) The move will definitely be bittersweet for us and we'll miss all the wonderful people that God has brought into our lives since we've been here, but we trust that He has great plans for us in Peoria.
We have known this for a while now, but finally got to go house hunting this past weekend (which was completely exhausting looking at houses for 3 days). But we found a house (YAYYYY!) and are putting in an offer as I write this. I will make another post once we find out if the seller will accept our offer. We're praying for them to accept it - they already have a contingent offer on the house but the other buyer has to sell their house first (which sounds like it may not be easy). I'll keep you posted!
Monday, August 30
Tuesday, July 13
A Week of Adventure - Part 2
Here's the rest of the story of our trip to WV and OH...
We were very happy with our time at Ace. It was a nice resort - it reminded me of going to church camp! And the facilities on the camping grounds were much better than I was expecting. The showerhouses were pretty nice with a flushable toilet, shower with warm water, a sink, mirror, and even paper towels in each little room. It worked quite well for us.
On Tuesday morning, we woke up and finished packing everything and putting away the tent. We had decided that we wanted to do a bunch of trails before we left West Virginia on Tuesday. So that morning we hit the trails! Our goal was to run as much as we could so we could cover more ground in less time. Here is some of what we got to see from the trail.
The only problem with running the trails was that there was only a small section of "easy" trail and a majority of the trail was "strenuous". I think they were right about the strenuous part. It was touch-and-go for a while - I was getting tired pretty quickly and I didn't feel comfortable running some parts that Chris could (since they were rocky and narrow). Chris was nice and waited up for me most of the time. There were only a few times I couldn't see him. He wanted to go faster, but it was what it was.
While we were on the easy trail just before the mine site, I decided to run ahead of Chris since he stopped to look at one of the signs. I had gone a little way, and then Chris yelled "hey, did you see this!" And I said "see what?" Well, what I ended up not seeing in the middle of the trail was a 6-foot long king snake!!! Yikes!! No, I did not go back to look at it once Chris told me about it. He said it was literally laying right across the trail. I must have thought it was a small log and just hopped over it. Let's just say I am so so happy that I did not step on it and that I did step over it. I'm also glad that I didn't realize it was a snake. I think I would've freaked out a little bit!! And I am super happy that it decided to leave me alone and not bite me. King snakes are not poisonous, but it still would've probably hurt like crazy! I think that God was watching out that day :)
I was glad when we finally got back to the car that morning. I think we did around 6 miles of trails (plus the stairs) in about 3 hours. That may not sound that spectacular, but I felt like it was a pretty good accomplishment for me. Definitely a good workout.
After a visit to the Visitor's Center to wash our faces and freshen up a bit, it was time to say goodbye to WV :(
We had a great day at King's Island. We rode so many roller coasters - I think I lost count. I can definitely say that's the most I've ever ridden in one day. And I picked the highest and fastest one in the park (Diamondback) to ride first! It was a great ride since there were several spots where your stomach came up to your throat! Some others we rode were Flight of Fear (the roller coaster inside in the dark), Firehawk (one where you're laying on your stomach like Superman for the whole thing), Vertigo (where you go through the ride both forwards and backwards leaving you with the feeling of vertigo afterwards), Flight (an older coaster where you hang below the track) and Vortex (an older roller coaster with a couple corkscrews and a couple loop-da-loops). And I can't forget about the Beast! People had told me that it's really a rough ride, but I couldn't believe it after riding it myself! It was really shaking you around and going really fast for a wooden roller coaster. I guess that's why it's the longest and fastest wooden coaster! I was glad I rode it but I don't know about doing it again! It was also really hot that day, so we wanted to get wet. After putting on our swimsuits underneath our clothes, we hit the log ride and the whitewater canyon. It felt so good to get cooled off! We also made a walk out to the water park side and decided we would do that next time. Then we rode the really slow train back to the other side of the park.
We checked into our hotel for the night, which was a really nice Hyatt out near King's Island. We couldn't believe how nice it was and how nice the rooms were! We were glad to be there so we could get showered and have some dinner. This time we decided to drive to find dinner :) and we found Carraba's which I had never had before. It was definitely a good decision. The food was really yummy and it was a cool environment with the open kitchen - it made it feel like you were in an Italian house! Chris ordered chicken marsala with potatoes and I had the vegetable lasagna. It was wonderful and I was stuffed! We just chilled in the hotel the rest of that night. I was really tired and ended up going to bed by like 9:30!
Here are some pics of the hotel:
That day we took our time getting up and around and then made our way back to Columbus to pick up Maggie. She seemed really happy and excited to see us and we were glad to have her back too!
Overall, it was a great trip for us. I discovered that I in fact do like whitewater rafting (like Chris thought I would), but I just had to ease my way into it. We had a blast going through the bigger rapids on the second day. It was wonderful being in nature and getting to hit some trails. West Virginia is such a beautiful state and I'm glad we got to see it together. It was also fun getting to camp since we hadn't done it in a while - it can be so relaxing to be taken away from technology and everything that can be distracting in our everyday life. We also had some fun screaming on the coasters at King's Island :)
We were very happy with our time at Ace. It was a nice resort - it reminded me of going to church camp! And the facilities on the camping grounds were much better than I was expecting. The showerhouses were pretty nice with a flushable toilet, shower with warm water, a sink, mirror, and even paper towels in each little room. It worked quite well for us.
On Tuesday morning, we woke up and finished packing everything and putting away the tent. We had decided that we wanted to do a bunch of trails before we left West Virginia on Tuesday. So that morning we hit the trails! Our goal was to run as much as we could so we could cover more ground in less time. Here is some of what we got to see from the trail.
Huge bridge piers!
The following pics are from an old mining town/site.
This is at the top of the hill.
Your family wants you to work safely :)
Chris is standing here at the top of the crazy 821 stairs that lead to the bottom of the mining site.
...Yes, we decided to go down 821 stairs - Chris is off in the distance at the bottom of the stairs (mind you, I am NOT standing at the top :)
...and then we went back up the 821 stairs - I was ready to start back up to the top when I read on the sign that there are copperheads and rattlesnakes in the old building structures (that are off the path they recommend for you to stay on)!
me running on the trails...as I recall, I was pretty tired at this point in time
While we were on the easy trail just before the mine site, I decided to run ahead of Chris since he stopped to look at one of the signs. I had gone a little way, and then Chris yelled "hey, did you see this!" And I said "see what?" Well, what I ended up not seeing in the middle of the trail was a 6-foot long king snake!!! Yikes!! No, I did not go back to look at it once Chris told me about it. He said it was literally laying right across the trail. I must have thought it was a small log and just hopped over it. Let's just say I am so so happy that I did not step on it and that I did step over it. I'm also glad that I didn't realize it was a snake. I think I would've freaked out a little bit!! And I am super happy that it decided to leave me alone and not bite me. King snakes are not poisonous, but it still would've probably hurt like crazy! I think that God was watching out that day :)
I was glad when we finally got back to the car that morning. I think we did around 6 miles of trails (plus the stairs) in about 3 hours. That may not sound that spectacular, but I felt like it was a pretty good accomplishment for me. Definitely a good workout.
After a visit to the Visitor's Center to wash our faces and freshen up a bit, it was time to say goodbye to WV :(
We started making our way back towards Cincinnati for the next part of our trip. I took a nap while Chris drove (which is very normal) and he even let me drive part of the way (which is not always normal) since he was tired.
After calling the lady at the hotel in Cincinnati and her struggling to tell us directions to the hotel (since I forgot to look up directions beforehand, oops!), we found the Millennium Hotel in downtown Cincinnati. We were excited because we had used Hotwire for the two nights that we were staying in Cincinnati to pay reasonable prices for nicer hotels than we normally stay in. After getting up to our room, we were so glad to take showers before going to dinner. We were both looking forward to a nice dinner. I decided to ask the lady at the desk if there were any restaurants by the river and she said there were quite a few on the Newport side. She said it would take 15 minutes to walk there. So we decided to trust her and head our way across the river (most stupid decision ever!).
We started walking and then realized that I didn't ask how to get across the river by foot. I had previously read about the pedestrian bridge across the river, so we made our way across it. By the time we got to the other side of the river, I think we had been walking for about 30 minutes! By this point, Chris was frustrated (and I was too) and he was starting to get blisters on his feet from his sandals - he's not used to walking long distances in them :( From there we walked around a bit to look for all of these restaurants. Well, we found a few, but they didn't look very good to us. We didn't know if we had to walk even further to really find all of the restaurants and we had no clue which direction to go. After letting out some of our frustration and sitting for a minute, we decided that we were giving up on Newport. Back across the river without dinner we went!
We were going to Rock Bottom Brewery by Fountain Square (best decision ever!). (We had actually talked about going there in the first place but I decided to drag us across the river and back first!) After another 20 minutes of walking, we could never have been so happy to sit down and get some water - we were kind of sweaty by this point. And Chris was happy to try some of their house beer!
The food was good and we both got the clean plate award since Chris helped me finish mine :)
Chris was feeling a little better about the situation after getting some food and a couple beers :)
After leaving Rock Bottom, we took a look outside at Fountain Square. The fountain is really pretty and is lit up nicely at night.
We also decided that we needed some ice cream too before heading back to the hotel. And Graeter's (I guess a chain, at least in Cincinnati) was also in Fountain Square so we went there. I'm glad we did because it was delicious!
(This picture cracks me up because we hardly ever make funny faces when taking pics together. I saw Chris sticking his tongue out and thought it would be fun too!!)
Here is the view from our room:
After being well rested and getting to sleep in a little (at least for me), we both got in a workout, got showered and then headed to get breakfast. We found a place called Bruegger's Bagels downtown. We had some bagels and then walked back to the hotel to get our things and checkout. Then we headed to King's Island!
the Bengals stadium
the pedestrian bridge we walked across the night before :)
View of the park from the road
We had a great day at King's Island. We rode so many roller coasters - I think I lost count. I can definitely say that's the most I've ever ridden in one day. And I picked the highest and fastest one in the park (Diamondback) to ride first! It was a great ride since there were several spots where your stomach came up to your throat! Some others we rode were Flight of Fear (the roller coaster inside in the dark), Firehawk (one where you're laying on your stomach like Superman for the whole thing), Vertigo (where you go through the ride both forwards and backwards leaving you with the feeling of vertigo afterwards), Flight (an older coaster where you hang below the track) and Vortex (an older roller coaster with a couple corkscrews and a couple loop-da-loops). And I can't forget about the Beast! People had told me that it's really a rough ride, but I couldn't believe it after riding it myself! It was really shaking you around and going really fast for a wooden roller coaster. I guess that's why it's the longest and fastest wooden coaster! I was glad I rode it but I don't know about doing it again! It was also really hot that day, so we wanted to get wet. After putting on our swimsuits underneath our clothes, we hit the log ride and the whitewater canyon. It felt so good to get cooled off! We also made a walk out to the water park side and decided we would do that next time. Then we rode the really slow train back to the other side of the park.
We checked into our hotel for the night, which was a really nice Hyatt out near King's Island. We couldn't believe how nice it was and how nice the rooms were! We were glad to be there so we could get showered and have some dinner. This time we decided to drive to find dinner :) and we found Carraba's which I had never had before. It was definitely a good decision. The food was really yummy and it was a cool environment with the open kitchen - it made it feel like you were in an Italian house! Chris ordered chicken marsala with potatoes and I had the vegetable lasagna. It was wonderful and I was stuffed! We just chilled in the hotel the rest of that night. I was really tired and ended up going to bed by like 9:30!
Here are some pics of the hotel:
I love the blue and brown colors together!
The next morning I woke up with this weird rash on my arms. At first I was afraid that it might be poison ivy (which I've never had before). I was glad to find out that it was most likely just a heat rash - it made sense since we had been in the heat and sun a lot the day before.
That day we took our time getting up and around and then made our way back to Columbus to pick up Maggie. She seemed really happy and excited to see us and we were glad to have her back too!
Overall, it was a great trip for us. I discovered that I in fact do like whitewater rafting (like Chris thought I would), but I just had to ease my way into it. We had a blast going through the bigger rapids on the second day. It was wonderful being in nature and getting to hit some trails. West Virginia is such a beautiful state and I'm glad we got to see it together. It was also fun getting to camp since we hadn't done it in a while - it can be so relaxing to be taken away from technology and everything that can be distracting in our everyday life. We also had some fun screaming on the coasters at King's Island :)
Friday, July 2
A week of Adventure (the novel)!
Last week Chris and I got the chance to take a vacation together! It was so much fun and Chris was really needing a break from work.
Friday
On Friday night, we drove down to Columbus to drop Maggie off at Chris' parents' house. Beth and Rachelle were so nice and watched Maggie for us while we went away for a few days.
Saturday
On Saturday morning, we hit the road at 8:30am and headed towards West Virginia! After a little mishap in Cincinnati and someone giving poor directions (you can probably guess who that is...me!) to the driver (Chris), we were in the state of many mountains, hills, trees, and windy roads!
We arrived at Ace Adventure Resort (our rafting outfitters) by 3:30pm. We got checked in and headed to the top of the mountain where our campsite was located! After getting our tent setup, we decided that the lake area at the resort looked like a lot of fun and wanted to check it out. So we got our wristbands and PFD's (personal flotation devices) and were headed up the stairs to the huge waterslide. But we were stopped because people were coming down - I guess a storm was headed our way and they were making everyone get out of the water. So we decided that we would hit some trails since we couldn't be in the lake. The trails I had researched were located in Fayetteville, WV, which was about a 15 minute drive from Ace. (Fayetteville is home to the famous New River Gorge Bridge - the longest arch bridge in the Western Hemisphere!) So we hit the trail by the Canyon Rim Visitors Center and Diamond Point Trail. The first trail was short and gave a spectacular view of the bridge! Then we headed on the trail to Diamond Point (roundtrip of 2 miles) and were having a blast just being in the woods and doing something we love to do! This trail had several lookouts and it was awesome to see Mr. I'm-Pretty-Scared-Of-Heights walking out near the edge of cliffs...I think I was more nervous than him at times! We got some awesome pics of the gorge and the bridge as the sun was coming through the gorge (it was about 6:30 by this point). We got a glimpse of a few rapids that we would encounter during our rafting trips.
After hitting the trails, we decided it would be a good time to hit Fayette Station Road, which is the old road they used "back in the day" to get across the river. (Actually they used it up until 1977 since the New River Gorge Bridge was not finished until then!) We decided it didn't matter what time we ate dinner - we were more focused on what there was to see and do! It took us about an hour to drive the windy, steep, and one-way road. I'm so glad we did because we got to see so many sides of the bridge. It was neat to see it at this time of day since the sun was bouncing every which way as it was lowering. This road also goes across the old bridge. After driving that road, it was crazy to think that the people in the area had to drive on that road everyday up until about 30 years ago!
So on our way back to Ace, we grabbed some Wendy's (oh, my favorite) for dinner. We were satisfied that we had already seen so much in such little time and we were looking forward to our first day of whitewater rafting.
Sunday
On Sunday morning, we woke up with the anticipation of our first day! (I was also pretty well rested since we brought along Chris' mom's cot that I slept on. I was surprised to know that it was pretty comfortable!) After having a good breakfast at the resort, we checked in at 8am. We were soon on our way to the river on the Ace "school bus" with lots of others. It was cool because we got to talk with some people from Charleston, WV. Chris had noticed the dad's Annapolis hat and the boy's Navy shirt. (Chris almost went to the Naval base in Colorado, but he failed his physical.) So they got to talking a lot. They were really nice.
Anyway, we were in our duckies in the Upper New River before we knew it. (Duckies are one or two-person inflatable rafts - a little smaller than the size of a canoe.) Chris and I chose to have our own duckies for the day instead of sharing one. Our first day on the upper New was pretty relaxing and easy-going. We had mostly small rapids and a lot of stopping, getting out and swimming. It reminded me a lot of going on a float trip in Missouri. The day included Chris and I both jumping off of "Jump Rock" (a tall rock that you can jump off of) and Chris doing something called the "ducky run". The "ducky run" is really meant to be something fun for the little kids to do (since this is one of the only trips that little kids can go on), but my hubby wanted to participate too! So they lined up several duckies end to end and flipped them over. Then you try to run as fast as you can on them and see how far you make it. I have to say that Chris did a pretty good job since his center of gravity was much higher than the other "kids" that were trying this!
Before we knew it, we were at the biggest rapid of the day, Surprise! It was definitely a surprise! There's basically a 4-foot hole that you can't see until you're in it. When I went through it, I flipped on one of the large rapids next to the big hole. After getting the ducky off the top of my head in the water, I was good. Chris did a little better - he was able to surf in the rapid, which one of the guides said he's never seen before! (Surfing is basically just riding on top of the wave, without tipping over of course.)
Overall, it was a great day and a good chance to relax on the river and get our feet wet (literally and figuratively). They also had a great grilled lunch for us on the river and cold drink (including some barley pop, as they called it) when we were done. It was great too because there was a videographer along on our trip, so we got to watch the footage later that afternoon. It was funny to watch ourselves on camera!
That night Chris went for a run from our resort back to the main road. It was definitely a good workout for him since there was one hill that's almost a mile long! He got to pass through the small old mining town of Minden that you have to pass through to get to Ace. (Driving through there made us realize how blessed we are.) After showering and watching the video, we had a good dinner at the resort. Then we headed up to the mountain top to make our first campfire! It was great to just be there in such a relaxing place. We could've sat there and looked at the fire forever!
Monday
On Monday, we woke up in anticipation of going on the Lower New River! We were excited! After another good breakfast and our pre-trip meeting, we were on the bus and off to the river. Our main guide for our trip was quite entertaining - his name was Cosmo (or Cramer) and liked to be sarcastic. He was quite fun!
Then we were in the river in our 6-person raft with our tour guide and a family of 4 from Florida. Our tour guide was great because he had over 20 years of experience and he's a flight medic. So we felt really safe! The first average-sized-rapid came and the older lady in our raft flipped out and into the water. We were thinking that it was going to be a long day if that kept happening.
After doing just a few rapids, we were at the best surfing spot of the day (or at least the one with the strongest water). When we got to it, there was already another outfitter with a few rafts there. It was kind of bizarre because the raft essentially got stuck in the surf with only the rafting guide in it. And he couldn't flip it or do anything! (We were all wondering what the heck this guy was doing. He wasn't in danger, he was just stuck!) After watching him try to get it himself for what seemed like at least 5 minutes, one of the Ace rafts threw their rope to him to pull him out of it. (We're not sure why one of the other rafts from his outfitter didn't come help him.) After that drama, it was our turn to paddle into the rapid to try to surf. We ended up getting into the surf a total of 3 times, which our guide said was a lot because you really have to paddle hard to get into it! It was crazy because when we got into it you were just trying to go to the high side of the raft (to keep from getting dumped in the water)! The first time we got in it, me and the two other girls got dumped out. Then the older guy and the older lady fell out on the 2nd and 3rd times.
There were even some "swimmer rapids" that we swam through. On one of them, Chris and I tried going down it together. Chris was going to take a picture while going through it, but I pulled his arm making him spin around. Needless to say we didn't go through it together - my butt hit a rock on my way through and I popped up quickly. Chris finally surfaced 10 to 15 yards down the river.
There was another rock to jump from that day, so I decided to do it. My only injury from the trip came from when I was trying to get to the rock! There were some large rocks that we had to climb on to get to it. I slipped once and hit my shin on a rock, but I was ok!
We also didn't make it without Chris getting dumped into the water - yay!! On one of the last rapids, our guide decided to take us through the biggest part of the rapid, which everyone else was avoiding! But our guide knew we could handle it. He yelled for us to "get down" right as we were going into it and before I knew it I was "down". I had crouched down and when we hit the guide had thrown himself forward, landing himself basically on top of me and Chris had bailed out of the raft so his legs didn't get hurt by the guide. You must know that our guide was a football player when he was younger so he was a stout guy with the arms twice the size of Chris'! That was crazy to see how everyone ended up when we got through the rapid! I think I know why the other guides didn't take their rafts through that :)
As we approached the take-out point, we got the chance to see the bridge from the water. It was awesome to see it from yet another view! I hope the picture on our water camera turns out since we took one of us with the bridge behind us.
And I thought the last rapid of the day was a lot of fun! It seemed like the waves were bigger than the others that we had already done. And there were several really high waves right in a row, so it really did feel like a water roller coaster! It was probably one of my favorites of the day.
We had an absolute blast going through the class 3 thru 5 rapids on our way down the river! Why didn't we do this both days? Oh yeah, because I was a little unsure of what we were getting ourselves into :) It was great paddling and riding our way through the big rapids. I think there were about 22 that we went through on that day. And I did a lot better than I thought I would - I didn't fall out on any of the big rapids that day!
When we got back to the resort, I went down the zipline and huge slide at the lake while Chris went for a run. They were a lot of fun! They started about 2 to 3 stories up and then went down into the water. The slide was much more fun since the zipline kind of pulled your bottoms off in the water if you weren't careful :)
After showering, we got to watch the "world premiere" of our video for the day. It was great watching this video since we went through so many more rapids than the day before! Then we had another great dinner - that night there was some steak that was delicious. We made yet another campfire and enjoyed our last night of camping.
That's all for now. This is so long that I'm splitting it up into 2 blog posts! So you'll have to stay tuned to hear about our adventures on the trails before leaving WV and in Cincinnati :)
Friday
On Friday night, we drove down to Columbus to drop Maggie off at Chris' parents' house. Beth and Rachelle were so nice and watched Maggie for us while we went away for a few days.
Chris' "it's a little too early to be taking pics" face :)
Saturday
On Saturday morning, we hit the road at 8:30am and headed towards West Virginia! After a little mishap in Cincinnati and someone giving poor directions (you can probably guess who that is...me!) to the driver (Chris), we were in the state of many mountains, hills, trees, and windy roads!
"AA" highway going through Kentucky = beautiful scenery!
We're in West Virginia!
The capitol building in Charleston, WV. Chris said the building has goldleaf on it!
The nice building right next to the capitol that I got while trying to get another pic of the capitol :)
The toll road to get from Charleston down south
Oak Hill, WV was our destination
We arrived at Ace Adventure Resort (our rafting outfitters) by 3:30pm. We got checked in and headed to the top of the mountain where our campsite was located! After getting our tent setup, we decided that the lake area at the resort looked like a lot of fun and wanted to check it out. So we got our wristbands and PFD's (personal flotation devices) and were headed up the stairs to the huge waterslide. But we were stopped because people were coming down - I guess a storm was headed our way and they were making everyone get out of the water. So we decided that we would hit some trails since we couldn't be in the lake. The trails I had researched were located in Fayetteville, WV, which was about a 15 minute drive from Ace. (Fayetteville is home to the famous New River Gorge Bridge - the longest arch bridge in the Western Hemisphere!) So we hit the trail by the Canyon Rim Visitors Center and Diamond Point Trail. The first trail was short and gave a spectacular view of the bridge! Then we headed on the trail to Diamond Point (roundtrip of 2 miles) and were having a blast just being in the woods and doing something we love to do! This trail had several lookouts and it was awesome to see Mr. I'm-Pretty-Scared-Of-Heights walking out near the edge of cliffs...I think I was more nervous than him at times! We got some awesome pics of the gorge and the bridge as the sun was coming through the gorge (it was about 6:30 by this point). We got a glimpse of a few rapids that we would encounter during our rafting trips.
Amazing views at Diamond Point!
Some of the rapids we'll be doing on the lower New River!
The New River Gorge Bridge in the distance
After hitting the trails, we decided it would be a good time to hit Fayette Station Road, which is the old road they used "back in the day" to get across the river. (Actually they used it up until 1977 since the New River Gorge Bridge was not finished until then!) We decided it didn't matter what time we ate dinner - we were more focused on what there was to see and do! It took us about an hour to drive the windy, steep, and one-way road. I'm so glad we did because we got to see so many sides of the bridge. It was neat to see it at this time of day since the sun was bouncing every which way as it was lowering. This road also goes across the old bridge. After driving that road, it was crazy to think that the people in the area had to drive on that road everyday up until about 30 years ago!
No we did not wear matching shirts on purpose :)
They still use trains to haul coal through here.
Fayette Station bridge
Sunday
On Sunday morning, we woke up with the anticipation of our first day! (I was also pretty well rested since we brought along Chris' mom's cot that I slept on. I was surprised to know that it was pretty comfortable!) After having a good breakfast at the resort, we checked in at 8am. We were soon on our way to the river on the Ace "school bus" with lots of others. It was cool because we got to talk with some people from Charleston, WV. Chris had noticed the dad's Annapolis hat and the boy's Navy shirt. (Chris almost went to the Naval base in Colorado, but he failed his physical.) So they got to talking a lot. They were really nice.
Anyway, we were in our duckies in the Upper New River before we knew it. (Duckies are one or two-person inflatable rafts - a little smaller than the size of a canoe.) Chris and I chose to have our own duckies for the day instead of sharing one. Our first day on the upper New was pretty relaxing and easy-going. We had mostly small rapids and a lot of stopping, getting out and swimming. It reminded me a lot of going on a float trip in Missouri. The day included Chris and I both jumping off of "Jump Rock" (a tall rock that you can jump off of) and Chris doing something called the "ducky run". The "ducky run" is really meant to be something fun for the little kids to do (since this is one of the only trips that little kids can go on), but my hubby wanted to participate too! So they lined up several duckies end to end and flipped them over. Then you try to run as fast as you can on them and see how far you make it. I have to say that Chris did a pretty good job since his center of gravity was much higher than the other "kids" that were trying this!
Before we knew it, we were at the biggest rapid of the day, Surprise! It was definitely a surprise! There's basically a 4-foot hole that you can't see until you're in it. When I went through it, I flipped on one of the large rapids next to the big hole. After getting the ducky off the top of my head in the water, I was good. Chris did a little better - he was able to surf in the rapid, which one of the guides said he's never seen before! (Surfing is basically just riding on top of the wave, without tipping over of course.)
Overall, it was a great day and a good chance to relax on the river and get our feet wet (literally and figuratively). They also had a great grilled lunch for us on the river and cold drink (including some barley pop, as they called it) when we were done. It was great too because there was a videographer along on our trip, so we got to watch the footage later that afternoon. It was funny to watch ourselves on camera!
That night Chris went for a run from our resort back to the main road. It was definitely a good workout for him since there was one hill that's almost a mile long! He got to pass through the small old mining town of Minden that you have to pass through to get to Ace. (Driving through there made us realize how blessed we are.) After showering and watching the video, we had a good dinner at the resort. Then we headed up to the mountain top to make our first campfire! It was great to just be there in such a relaxing place. We could've sat there and looked at the fire forever!
Our little campsite!
Chris making our fire
Fire with the shower house in the background :)
Yum, roasting marshmellows for smores
Monday
On Monday, we woke up in anticipation of going on the Lower New River! We were excited! After another good breakfast and our pre-trip meeting, we were on the bus and off to the river. Our main guide for our trip was quite entertaining - his name was Cosmo (or Cramer) and liked to be sarcastic. He was quite fun!
Then we were in the river in our 6-person raft with our tour guide and a family of 4 from Florida. Our tour guide was great because he had over 20 years of experience and he's a flight medic. So we felt really safe! The first average-sized-rapid came and the older lady in our raft flipped out and into the water. We were thinking that it was going to be a long day if that kept happening.
After doing just a few rapids, we were at the best surfing spot of the day (or at least the one with the strongest water). When we got to it, there was already another outfitter with a few rafts there. It was kind of bizarre because the raft essentially got stuck in the surf with only the rafting guide in it. And he couldn't flip it or do anything! (We were all wondering what the heck this guy was doing. He wasn't in danger, he was just stuck!) After watching him try to get it himself for what seemed like at least 5 minutes, one of the Ace rafts threw their rope to him to pull him out of it. (We're not sure why one of the other rafts from his outfitter didn't come help him.) After that drama, it was our turn to paddle into the rapid to try to surf. We ended up getting into the surf a total of 3 times, which our guide said was a lot because you really have to paddle hard to get into it! It was crazy because when we got into it you were just trying to go to the high side of the raft (to keep from getting dumped in the water)! The first time we got in it, me and the two other girls got dumped out. Then the older guy and the older lady fell out on the 2nd and 3rd times.
There were even some "swimmer rapids" that we swam through. On one of them, Chris and I tried going down it together. Chris was going to take a picture while going through it, but I pulled his arm making him spin around. Needless to say we didn't go through it together - my butt hit a rock on my way through and I popped up quickly. Chris finally surfaced 10 to 15 yards down the river.
There was another rock to jump from that day, so I decided to do it. My only injury from the trip came from when I was trying to get to the rock! There were some large rocks that we had to climb on to get to it. I slipped once and hit my shin on a rock, but I was ok!
We also didn't make it without Chris getting dumped into the water - yay!! On one of the last rapids, our guide decided to take us through the biggest part of the rapid, which everyone else was avoiding! But our guide knew we could handle it. He yelled for us to "get down" right as we were going into it and before I knew it I was "down". I had crouched down and when we hit the guide had thrown himself forward, landing himself basically on top of me and Chris had bailed out of the raft so his legs didn't get hurt by the guide. You must know that our guide was a football player when he was younger so he was a stout guy with the arms twice the size of Chris'! That was crazy to see how everyone ended up when we got through the rapid! I think I know why the other guides didn't take their rafts through that :)
As we approached the take-out point, we got the chance to see the bridge from the water. It was awesome to see it from yet another view! I hope the picture on our water camera turns out since we took one of us with the bridge behind us.
And I thought the last rapid of the day was a lot of fun! It seemed like the waves were bigger than the others that we had already done. And there were several really high waves right in a row, so it really did feel like a water roller coaster! It was probably one of my favorites of the day.
We had an absolute blast going through the class 3 thru 5 rapids on our way down the river! Why didn't we do this both days? Oh yeah, because I was a little unsure of what we were getting ourselves into :) It was great paddling and riding our way through the big rapids. I think there were about 22 that we went through on that day. And I did a lot better than I thought I would - I didn't fall out on any of the big rapids that day!
When we got back to the resort, I went down the zipline and huge slide at the lake while Chris went for a run. They were a lot of fun! They started about 2 to 3 stories up and then went down into the water. The slide was much more fun since the zipline kind of pulled your bottoms off in the water if you weren't careful :)
After showering, we got to watch the "world premiere" of our video for the day. It was great watching this video since we went through so many more rapids than the day before! Then we had another great dinner - that night there was some steak that was delicious. We made yet another campfire and enjoyed our last night of camping.
My bruise/cut from slipping on the rocks
Chris gathering sticks to make another fire :)
That's all for now. This is so long that I'm splitting it up into 2 blog posts! So you'll have to stay tuned to hear about our adventures on the trails before leaving WV and in Cincinnati :)
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