Floating the Cahaba (sorry no pics but good stories)

We wanted to spend the 4th on the water so our plan was to go and float the cahaba down in Montevallo and then come back and watch the fireworks downtown. We wanted to start the cahaba around 1100 so we would have plenty of time. The boys had done this before and they said it took about 3 hours, they also had "directions" to the place, which was in the middle of nowhere.

Well our plans got a little messed up when Carrie lost her purse and I lost my phone the night before. But we got up at 0800 that AM to go on the hunt for our stuff. We knew Carrie's purse was in Lindsey's car but I didn't know Lindsey's number without my phone. We searched through the phonebook for her possible number, but I didn't know her parents name and then we got online looking through old emails seeing if we had her number, nope.

So we went to Lindsey's house and rang the bell. Her dad answered and we went in and woke Lindsey up. Carrie's purse was right where she thought it was, my phone was not in her car and when we called it it went straight to voicemail.

The last time I remembered having it we were at Leah's house and I was talking to Lee as I was standing outside the car. But I couldn't remember putting it back in my purse, I just knew it was in a million pieces somewhere on the ground. So we went to the bar parking lot and we didn't find nothing and then to Leah's house where again we didn't find nothing. This kinda made me think positive because we couldn't find any pieces of anything and those were the only 2 places where we had been. But it was time to go to the cahaba so I just forgot about it for the moment.

We got back to my house, got ready and went to meet 2 other guys, Daniel & David at Stephen's house. Let me just say this is almost our "spring break" group from forever ago. THAT was the funnest trip EVER!

We FINALLY got on the road towards Montevallo but we now had a Garmin telling us where to go. Well the garmin led us to this gravel road blocked by a gate. So we went back to the main road to start again. We ended up going asking a guy selling watermelons from the back of his truck where to go he told us to keep going down the road we were on and we would run into the place.

Sidenote...ALL the boys had done this before but all they could remember was an indian woman holding a canoe at the entrance (which was no help). And let me just tell you it is no fun driving 5 LOUD boys (2 of which were in the hatch of the SUV)around all in one car trying to find something that you're not sure where its at!

When we got to the end of this road we had to stop and get out and stretch when we did there was another car sitting there. They were lost too looking for the same thing. Lee flagged down another car and they told us where to go. We caravaned and found the place!!! We were so excited after such a long drive!!!

We stripped down to our barefeet and bathing suits and went and bought our intertubes. $10 for a person per raft, $5 for a cooler a raft. Then we piled in the back of a pickup with all 7 of us and 10 rafts. We road 1/2 mile down a cow pasture about bumping out several times. Then we got on our rafts and started floating the cahaba.

It was soo nice. The cahaba was very clean, water felt good and the sun was shining. I announced I was going to start doing this everyday and that I was already ready to come back the next day. An hour later I looked back and I could still see where we had put in at...

There was a rope swing on the side so we had to stop to play for awhile. There we had our first injury of the day. David took a hunk of skin off the bottom of his foot. We then came to the first "rapids". It was about a 2ft drop all the guys did it but me, Carrie, and Dustin chickened out. We decided to walk down the drop. Bad idea...it hurt our feet so bad...we decided we'd just float down the rest of them.

2nd & 3rd rapids...no big deal...no injuries. We have now been floating for at least 3 hours and the guys have had plenty of beer so they were even louder. Daniel had started "fishing" with a cooler. Me and Carrie started getting annoyed cause they were just messing around and we wanted to make it to watch fireworks. 4th rapids...I banged my right butt cheek on a rock, the bruise is huge and then banged my elbow on a stump. I then got stuck on a big tree. I was VERY irritated at this point. Psycho Miranda came out. I threw my raft at the tree and just started swimming screaming the whole time. I finally calmed, retrieved my raft and me and Carrie went on. Plus, it started raining during my little rant which made us cold.

We FINALLY got the end and got out. There was this nasty black stuff that we had to walk through to get out. I had lost my flip flops at the 2nd rapids but I was wearing Carrie's from when I was walking over rocks to try to get the boys to "come on". When you would walk through this black stuff your feet would sink probably a foot, I lost a shoe but some guy behind me dug it out for us. We got out and stood on the side waiting for the boys.

30 minutes later we finally hear them...then see them. It literally took them another 30 minutes to get out but then we had to watch David jump from this highdive they have set up. We FINALLY get to the car and on our way.

Our initial plan was to cook out on top of a parking deck and watch the fireworks but its already 7pm so we didn't even know if we'd make it for fireworks. I had to stop and feed the boys at the first restaurant we saw...KFC. New plan...we went to David's apartment and watched the fireworks. We made it right on time and the fireworks were gorgeous as always.

I recommend floating the cahaba it was very fun the first 3 hours but after that it was enough. Our injuries include: my butt and elbow, David's cut foot, Stphen has a scratched up back, Carrie has a bruise on her lower back, Lee scratched up his back. I think Daniel & Dustin were the only ones without any obvious injuries but I bet there sore today cause I am!!! I will definitely do it again but this time I will wear water shoes and I won't have anything planned to do afterwards and I'll take snacks cause we were starving by the end!

Hope everyone had a happy 4th!!!!