Summer Roadtrip, Vol IV

West Virginia- they call it "Wild and Wonderful" -- and it was!

On Friday we drove from Raleigh to West Virginia with Lori and Dave. We followed Lori, who drove about 50 mph and nearly got us killed by all the truckers, who gave her dirty looks as they passed us. She was scared of the downhill grade.

We finally made it there in the late afternoon where we stayed at ACE Mountain Resort. This place is amazing. The company owns massive acres of land in West Virginia that edges up to the famous New River. They have campsites and common areas with a fun play lake, restaurants, and a ping pong table (Alex was toast) among other outdoor games. Then they have every kind of guided activity one might imagine like rafting, horseback riding, mountain climbing, zip lines, ATV tours, mountain biking, paintball just to name a few. The place is incredible and I would recommend it to anyone who wants to do any kind of outdoor activity all in one place. Anyway, we played on the lake for a few hours. They had tons of fun inflatable toys, a water slide, and a zip line, which Lori was cautious to try and then rode it 4 or 5 times over and over like a little kid even when the rest of us had our fill after twice. She was so cute!

Here is Alex getting popped off the blob

In the evening we went to our campsite to find that they had put us in the wrong place because we had a permanent tent with beds in it already set up. We were supposed to be in our own tents. We didn't complain.

Early Saturday morning we left for our two day rafting trip on the Upper New River. The first day we were in duckies. These are like kayaks except that they are inflatable similar to a one-man or two-man white water raft. They are fun because they are low to the water and so they make the mild class 3s feel a lot more exciting than they would in a raft. They also call them duckies because with about 20 of them all following our trip leader Kent in his big raft we looked like little ducklings. We would paddle for a bit and then swim for a while, or just float when the water was still. It was fun, but after lunch we hit a head wind the guides had just about never seen before and we had to constantly paddle just to get down river. It was a workout!

The Tyus' -- aren't they cute!

Our guides were amazing. They cooked meals which I can hardly describe. They packed coolers full of food and we had a snack buffet prior to the lunch cookout and dessert. It was good and the start of my trip weight gain. Up to that point we had been eating trail mix food and PBJ and riding bikes and hiking and I know I was down several pounds. Then we went rafting and we had 4 of the biggest back to back meals I can ever remember having. Think Thanksgiving for lunch, dinner, breakfast, and another lunch. We camped out at night on the riverside in tents and Alex made a very impressive bonfire. We made smores and bonded with a group of 10 guys there on a bachelor party who play frisbee so we threw for a while. Here is a picture of us beginning to pack on the pounds.

When we woke up on Sunday we headed out for the Lower New River. It was calm in the morning with just two warm up rapids and we spent the rest of the time floating and swimming and we all took a leap from "Jump Rock". We had another huge lunch and then after that we went through twenty-three class 4s and 5s. They were intense and back to back. It was awesome!

Here is my sis and I with our lucky river camoflauge coming out of our helmets, meant to appease the River gods. It worked~ we lived!

Our guides were really fun and did a few new things I've never done. One they call "surfing" where they take the raft back upstream after the rapid into a hydraulic, where the water is churning back upstream due to a rock feature of some sort, with the river around the hydraulic going down stream. So the guide directs the boat into a spot where the water is rushing all around you and you look like you are going to go in head first into a giant churning wave, but you just stay in one spot like you are surfing. The power in incredible and we did this a few times. Once when we were in there really good and an older man in the back of our boat went overboard, with his head and torso in the water with one foot hooked into the raft. So everyone went to grab him on his side of the boat which left Alex and I to be thrown out of the raft pretty violently. We came up shortly and my cute new pink water shoe slipped off and I went swimming after it. Everyone is yelling "Forget the shoe, get in the raft", but I rescued my shoe and all was well.

Yes, the nose of our raft in about to pop up over that wall of water!

The other fun thing is they do this one where you make a chain with the "stinky parts" together. Lori was in front floating with her feet downstream and Dave hooked his feet in her armpits and floated behind her, then I did the same behind Dave, and Alex was in the back. We floated kinda mellowly and then Lori hit this one spot where the train is zipped around. The force that pulled Alex and I in the back was crazy. He was screaming, "Don't let go" because it felt like I was being pulled so strongly by the current, and meanwhile I felt like I was going to twist his knees because it zips you from side to side very fast. The longer the train the better, but we had about all we could take with 4 people. It was awesome.

Rafting was incredible! the best I've ever done and we look forward to doing the nearby Gauley River next time. Lori and Dave left in the evening to head back to Raleigh and we were both overcome with emotion. I was so grateful for the opportunity to spend the weekend with Lori and Dave once more before they start their new life in NC. I know we didn't take for granted the time we had when we lived close. We said that with them being in NC now we'll have to make our get-togethers center around vacations, which will be a whole new type of family fun.