RiverBender Blog: Floating Down the River
This past Saturday, I found myself sunburnt, grimy with river water, and just a little bit tipsy. That’s right, folks, I was on a float trip, and I had a blast.
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This was the fourth float trip I’ve ever been on, so I’m far from a float aficionado, but I’m starting to get the hang of it. My friends and I decided that instead of camping or renting a cabin in Missouri, we’d simply make it a long, wild adventure packed into one day.
So the alarm went off bright and early on Saturday morning, and I was off to meet my buddies in St. Louis and begin the drive down to southern M.O. for a day of relaxation and river rafting.
The drive down was pretty painless, complete with iced coffees and being sardined into the backseat and Chappell Roan blaring on the car stereo. We were vibing. And then we arrived at the float trip destination, only to be told we missed our bus.
This wasn’t wholly surprising. My friends and I are not known for running early. We used the 35 minutes in between buses to slather ourselves with sunscreen. We had packed sandwiches and waters and other beverages for the trip itself, but the real adventure, it turned out, was getting on the water.
But no worries! The bus eventually came, and we bustled our way over to the mouth of the river, where our raft was waiting for us. And then we jumped in, and the float trip was off to a roaring start!
We had three paddles divided among five people, and everyone took turns paddling as we started off. Now, I’ll own this: I’m not a great team player. I hid in the back of the raft, hoping to be overlooked when it came my time to take an oar.
In fact, that’s more or less what happened. My friend handed me the paddle, I managed about five choppy strokes, and then I got it taken away from me because I was doing such a poor job.
“I can take a turn,” I offered a few hours later, which was met with a resounding and slightly annoyed, “Don’t worry about it,” from my friends.
Now that I’ve done a couple of floats, I wasn’t totally surprised by the sheer amount of people on the river, but it was still a little overwhelming to see how crowded the water was.
And the drunkenness! I don’t mean to come off as judgmental — read the first sentence of this blog to remember how I ended the day myself — but I’m always surprised by the massive amount of people and the lack of inhibition. The river was calm, but it’s still a little dangerous with the deep waters and the paddling and the hundreds of people. Throw in some beers, and it gets harrowing.
We paddled past the horde of people until we found a spot with calmer waters, and then we chilled, snacking and laughing and talking about nothing. I laid back on the raft, felt the sun on my stomach, let my hair blow back in the breeze.
It was hot but not scorching. The water was cold and refreshing. As Mary Oliver said, “It is a serious thing just to be alive on this fresh morning.” We were alive.
My friends and I are heading out in our own directions. We all have exciting things happening in our lives, big changes incoming. But for this moment, we were together.
Reflections aside, the fun started to wane after hour four on the river. You can only spend so much time in direct sunlight, surrounded by drunk people, slightly nauseous yourself, before you start wishing for a break.
Fortunately, we hit the endpoint right as the sun was starting to dip. We dragged the raft out of the water and onto the sandy shore, grabbed our coolers, and began the trek back to the car.
Now that I’m four float trips deep, I have to say, I love them. Of course, I spend most of the time just lazing in the raft with my feet in the water, not paddling or helping much at all. But I bring the positive vibes! We had fun, and we were together, and that was the best part of this August day.
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