River Relaxation

As part of my beautiful bride's 24 birthday festivities we, and two of our friends, packed up the camping gear and headed out to Mills River for the weekend. Our style of camping is very different than that of my childhood which involved lots of on-the-go action and playing. No, Heather and I prefer to relax, sleep lots and eat good camp'n only cookin'.




Sadly, for the first 24 hours we were there...it rained. Day and night. Our tent, fashioned for rainy weather, held up for the most part, but condensation over a period of time caused a lot of our clothes, towels, and sleeping bags to get wet in the tent...ugh.




We have two air mattresses that have electric pumps to fill them up. Alas, the first night we were there, due to rain and nightime, we were unable to locate any power outlets and were forced to sleep on the ground. Life is tough ain't it. On Saturday we did find an outlet to fill our mattresses, but we then found out that one had a leak which caused our two friends to sleep more or less on the ground a second night. Luckily, the birthday girl (and her husband) does not sleep on the ground twice, so we got the good mattress.




Saturday we also broke down, went to Wally World and bought a HUGE tarp to try and keep our tent a bit dryer. It worked, but as you can see it was a little unsightly.




Saturday evening the rain finally stopped. We got to build a fire, roast marshmellows for smores, and simply sit around the peaceful dancing flames. Sunday held true to it's name and was sunny. The tarp came off, the tent dried up, and things were serene. For breakfast we made pancakes and potatos and onions (a camping only food). Them'er some good viddles!





That afternoon we ventured down to the river for a spell and enjoyed the scenery. Mills River is on the edge of the Pisgah National Forest which is one of a 4-part system of national forests in western North Carolina.



The river is beautiful as it wanders camly but with great force shaping rocks and banks as children, adults and dogs alike play in the stream taking in the sights.







Dakota, our black and tan hound, ventured farther than ever into the waters chasing rocks. Robert was the first to trek into the faster flowing part of the river. He soon slipped and was carried about 30 feet down river before recovering as we all chuckled.









Inspired by Robert's heroics, I joined him and we traveled far upstream with the intention of riding the current over jagged and smooth stones back down to where our wives were lounging.

And we did just that...twice.








I love this picture.




Dakota: underwater rock hunting!









Wonderful wives enjoying themselves at the river.



Though part of the trip was sullied by extravegant amounts of rain, we had a great time seeing our now out of town friends again and focusing on anything but work.