WHITEWATER RAFTING with Tom

I will be honest. When my best man, Mike, said that we were going to West Virginia for my bachelor party, I was a little skeptical. I said to him, “Have you seen the movie Deliverance?” On the other hand, my fiancé loved the idea, as she thought, “What trouble can he get into in WV?” Little did either of us realize.

Everyone checked into the hotel and enjoyed the open bar…yes open bar. We shared the same stories from college that we share every time we see each other, which never get old. Boarding the party shuttle for the restaurant, we were greeted with a private room and a top-shelf meal. Cleaning the restaurant out of all their clean shot glasses we reboarded the shuttle for a swanky little martini lounge downtown. Around 12am we hit the dance club. JR got his chance to do his best Riverdance impression. We all stumbled back to the hotel at one time or another dreading the upcoming wake-up call.

Morning broke, and surprisingly, everyone made it down to the lobby with enough time for breakfast before climbing back into the shuttle. Our river guide, Ted, filled us in on all the things to watch out for: slow kids playing banjos, men beckoning you into the woods with shotguns…you know, the usual. We all realized this was no Huck Finn float down the river experience. I manned the front of the boat and realized we were in for trouble when our guide was showing us how to carve our paddles through the waves; only problem was that he was making these motions about 2 feet over his head. We got into the rapids, and the best way to describe it is just a mass of bodies falling all over each other in a blind frenzy. The guide is yelling at us to paddle, but that was the last thing on my mind as I tried to just keep from getting tossed into the river.

After an incredible day of rafting, we ended up back at base camp where we watched the video of the trip, commenting on how every picture of me showed me paddling feverishly, unfortunately my paddle never touched the water. The guide walked over, handed me a 2-liter bottle off Beam, tossing the cap in the trash saying, “You won’t be needing this.” We moved over to the picnic area to warm up around the bonfire all just staring at the roasting pig like a bunch of savages on a deserted island. After gorging on some BBQ pork, we headed to the house in Fayetteville we had rented for the evening. We broke out the poker set at the house and engaged into a 2 hour Texas Hold ‘Em Death Match. After polishing off the Beam and beer we called the shuttle to come pick us up and take us to the local bar, which provided a great capper on the night. We strolled in around 4am (last call in WV is 3am).

At 10am we struggled out of the house and into the shuttle. Our guide gave us the scenic route back to Charleston, and without sounding too feminine, it is actually beautiful country, especially for those of us that think beautiful countryside is the potted plant at the end of our cubicle farm. We got to the airport, and everyone said their goodbyes until the wedding.

To top it all off, at the wedding, the guys presented me with the engraved “Fuji’s Last Stand” paddle from the trip with all the signatures; and showed an edited video of our trip to the whole reception.

Thanks again Mike, and Adventure Bachelor Party.

Tom,
Providence RI.

 

Watch the Video Here