Floating the Cahaba

To celebrate the 4th of July we went to float the Cahaba again (we did the same thing last year just a different group). I had a waterproof camera this year but gotta wait to get it developed so pics to come! And just like last year it was a great time with great stories!

The group this year was me, Erik, DJ, Mandy T, and Zach. We met downtown and all rode in Zach's truck. Me and Zach had both done it before and kinda knew where it was at but not sure. We assumed to follow Hwy 25 in Montevallo and then turn on Bulldog Bend Rd and we knew there was a sign after that. We did so good...followed 25, found Bulldog Bend and then....the road ended. There was a car in front of us that appeared lost to and they were waving us to go around them. We pulled up beside them and they were VERY redneck and go "Do ya'll know where Birmingham is?" We all kinda started laughing and pointed them back in the right direction and then we asked them if they knew where to float the cahaba and of course thats where they had been. So we told them to go back and we'd follow and they could point out the turn. The woman goes..."But we just came from there we don't wanna do it again." Zach was like no you gotta go back that way so we followed after them.

The guy we were following stopped at EVERY single road and driveway like he couldn't remember where he had just come from but we finally saw the canoe up on the poles and knew thats where we were suppose to be. We paid, loaded in the trusty blue pickup and headed down the cow pasture.

Me and Mandy rode in the front with the litte driver. He started the conversation with "I'm so glad I got the truck with the radio today...we always fight over who gets the truck with the radio." Me and Mandy couldn't even look at each other or we would've died laughing. He continues on with his rambling..."Gah, I gotta a headache...but I always have a headache on saturday mornings...I always have a hangover." And the kid's like 15.

We get to the end and all pile out. And we realize we didn't get enough tubes. We all were suppose to have one plus one for the cooler. Oh well we figure we'd find one somewhere until then we'd share. Its a little trail down through some woods to the river and we had carried one of those styrofoam coolers with the beer in it. Erik's carrying it and all of a sudden the cooler handle breaks and beer goes everywhere most of it spewing out. We savage what we can but is only about half of what we had before. We still use the cooler without the handle and found an extra tube right at the entrance so we were set.

We floated on with no more tragic events until the end where the last set of rapids caused my camera to fall out of my lap and Erik goes off chasing it and loses his oakley glasses...yeah I feel bad about that cause I was panicking about my $4 camera THAT FLOATS and then Erik lost his $200 sunglasses...ooops! The same rapids caused the cooler to spill out again loosing the rest of the beer.

Zach also caught a turtle with his bear hands! He took his diving goggles and boots (funny pics of that coming). In one section there were tons of turtles and he swam under water and snuck up on it! It was hilarious!

After tubing we stopped and got some pizzas and went to Children's to watch the fireworks...which were fabulous as always. But what happened to the song God Bless the USA by Tony Greenwood??? I mean thats what suppose to play during fireworks!