Saturday morning we (Chris, Jordan, fil, Paul and I) got up and traveled about 120 miles so we could rent canoes, from
Crazy Horse Canoe Rentals, and float the Buffalo River up in Tennessee. We packed a small cooler with sandwiches and a large cooler full of beer and drinks. On the drive up the Natchez Trace to the river we saw many turkey and a deer. We got to the river, rented our canoes, (we were told that on busy/holiday weekends it would be much better if we reserved in advance...we were lucky to get a canoe) bungee corded the coolers into the canoes and set off. In the beginning it was Chris and I in one canoe with fil, Paul, and Jordan in the other canoe. The river was low and slow moving as so much of the area is desperate for rain. We hadn't gone very far at all when our attention was drawn to a snake swimming in the river. I screamed. Couldn't help it. Just screamed. Got laughed at, and we kept on floating. We saw a pair of Canada Geese flying above, and all sorts of other birds, even a bright yellow bird; which kind of shocked me as I thought all of the bright colored birds were tropical. We saw another pair of Canada Geese that must have had a nest nearby as they didn't swim off when we paddled by. That was pretty cool.
The river was more crowded than I had ever seen it. Tons of people floating, hundreds of campers lining the river, lots of families and many 20-somethings. The majority of the 20-somethings were drunk or on their way to getting that way. As such we passed (and were passed) couples that were fighting, all lovey-dovey, having screaming matches, some giving the other the silent treatment, but most of them were just down right having a blast. We passed this one couple, the woman was in the front of the canoe, but instead of facing the front of the boat she was facing the rear and had a death grip on one of the cross bars. She was not happy. She was screaming at the 'boyfriend'. "I'm insecure and you doing stuff like that just makes it so much worse!" He replied something that I couldn't hear and she hollered: "I don't know how to canoe and I don't know how to swim!" I was thinking that this was not going to be a fun day for her, then. I found out later that she was 'insecure' because she 'caught' the 'boyfriend' looking at the bikini clad girls. Puh-leeze!!! Who is he going to go home with? Why does it hurt to look? I look. I let Chris look. We go home together and tell each other what we saw. No big deal! Later they floated by us and they were talking all lovey-dovey, the next time we saw them she was screeching again. At one point she was telling him to just take her to her friend and let her float with them. Heh, I'd of stopped at the next sand bar and kicked her out to wait on the friends to float by and hope they stopped to pick her up.
We stopped for a bite of lunch and to let Jordan do some river swimming. The sand bar we were at was inhabited by two other canoes and their inhabitants. They were gathered around something 'checking' it out. It was a baby snake. I stayed well away from them and was proud of myself for not freaking out for being within 20 yards of a snake. We were done eating and Jordan was swimming/playing/splashing. I was contemplating getting out there with him and had walked out into the river just about calf deep, I looked down and saw it. A snake. SCREAM!!!! and run....extremely girlie; just like the shots they would show on America's Funniest Videos...high stepping, hand slinging, shuddering all over, running and screaming. I hopped right into the boat. "Snake, snake, snake, oh my god! it's a snake! right over there....snake!, oh shit, a snake!" At which point, Jordan, Chris and Paul all proceeded to go find it. Okay, there was a snake, it was a baby one, probably not even six inches long and not as big around as a pencil, but it was a snake. When I saw it, it was submerged in the water, kind of 'standing' on its tail, and it was ready to defend itself. If I had taken another step forward I would have hit it with my leg and been bitten! So, these three idiots look for and find the baby snake. They then proceed to try to catch it! It escapes. So, now I'm ready to leave this sand bar without stepping back out of the canoe. Of course the whole time they are trying to find the snake and then subsequently harrassing it, I'm standing in the boat silently yelling at myself for getting hysterical over such a little tiny baby critter. I was telling myself that if I saw another I was not going to scream, cry, jump, or anything other than to quietly----"SNAKE!!! OH MY GOD there's another one!!!" yup, there was another baby snake swimming in the river, we must have been very near a recently hatched nest. This one was a couple of inches longer than the first one...and of course the guys tried to catch that one, too. Me? I'm just a messed up puddle of nothing-ness. I was just crying and sobbing, people passing by on the river were staring at me, I knew I was being irrational, it didn't help. I was shaking so bad I wouldn't even let Chris hug me for fear that he'd caught one of the little buggers and was somehow hiding it going to lay it on me or something. So, we managed to pack up the canoes (with me not stepping out and me keeping a sharp eye out in case one of those little buggers came to bite Jordan...) and off we went, this time with Jordan in our canoe.
The water in the river was lower than we'd even seen it, that caused some bottom scraping and a few spots that had swift water. Chris and I didn't ever dump, but Paul and Dad did a couple of times. Paul just doesn't 'get' how what he does in the front of the boat effects what happens to the whole boat, and it doesn't happen, now, but in a few feet from now. So, he didn't keep a look-out for obstacles and help plan the way through swifter water. Chris and I would talk and plan "Okay, so we need to go right around this tree, then make a fairly sharp left so we can avoid that bank and those trees on the other side." Paul and Dad didn't have any of those conversations and as a result they 'dumped' a couple of times. One time they dumped, then the canoe behind them dumped, then another canoe dumped, and then two other canoes got caught in a fork of a downed tree....Chris and I were out there in the river helping direct undumped canoes, saving floating paddles and life preservers, and just generally having fun. One time we hit bottom and Chris told Jordan and I to stay in the boat, I thought he was only talking to Jordan, I got out and managed to get tripped up. I fell in the river, scraped over a rock or two, had trouble standing up and have a fairly large bruise and some scrapes for my trouble.
The guys ran out of beer about two hours before the end of the float (who would've thought that they would go through 24 beers in about 4 hours?) which meant Chris was sober enough to drive home. We went through a road block and as we were pulling away they stopped us again...we were thinking "uh-oh!" and before I could fully form the thought in my head I was hollering: "We've got it! It's right here!" I was digging in the glove compartment for our '08 tag sticker that we got back in March but had so far failed to put on the plate. They let us go. The sticker is now on the car.
We had a good time. We think that the next time we go we will take a tent or something and make it a full weekend of canoeing and camping.
Oh, when we got home I looked the snakes up on the computer to see what kind of baby snakes they were: Copperheads. oh joy. I wonder if there is such a thing as snake repellent.
Trish
