Dear diary,
[begin entry]
Yesterday, we tried floatin’ down a Utah river in $5 Walmart tubes. However, much to our dismay, the water was cold, swift, roaring, and way too rocky. We start’d the day with 7 tubes and left with (maybe) 3 of them. We got stranded miles apart, whilst split into 4 groups at various points along the banks. We lost 1 shoe, 1 phone, and 2 socks anyways, while still managing to bruise our butts, backs, and pride.
We must’ve spent at least 3 hours looking for each other (without phones, drinking water, or food), until finally by some miracle ——- gracious help by some strangers (who also got stranded), crazed shouting across the banks, and a lot of quick thinkin’ —— we managed to find each other.
Felt weird being split into 4 different groups at random places along the river. And scary ‘cause we were racing the sun to find everyone before it got dark. Think ‘Survivor,’ but no prize money at the end except some crazy story that no one else will believe. Maybe “city”-folk like us weren’t so cut out for the rapids of Utah; or maybe we just made too many rookie mistakes. Good thing we’re all ok (minus the phone) and somewhat in good spirits still…
I can’t do it justice, since we all had a different experience. Hopefully we get around to writin’ a group story at some point. But I can’t shake the feeling that we’re either doing something profoundly wrong or right on this trip (or maybe both). Helluva “rest” day…
[end entry]
Sincerely,
Vince “city-boy” X
Lessons learned:
Try to understand the water conditions before trying to float down a river so your toes don’t freeze. Don’t go cheap on the floaty tubes (maybe those tube rental companies aren’t total scams after all… at least you won’t bang your butt on a rock)
Bring some extra shoes in case you lose yours. Apparently they don’t work so well as paddles. Maybe carry some some clips and bags with zippers too.
Get good at memorizin’ numbers in case you get stranded along a river. But maybe it doesn’t help so much if no one brings theirs anyways. (and plus, 2-push authentication might foil your plans)
Try to laugh a little bit when things go wrong. Or maybe cry a bit too because of how poorly it went? Or maybe a bit of both…? :—)