Winter in Tennessee was long and murky... the prospect of the first adventure of the summer was almost too exciting to handle! My friend Tasha is a great trip organizer and she'd planned a Memorial Day Weekend camping and rafting trip on the New River in West Virginia.
Day 1: I left Nashville on Friday morning and drove up to Somerset, KY to catch up with Tasha. From there we packed up her puppy and her car and hit the trail towards West Virginia!
Along the way we listened to the audio of the first Chelsea Handler book, My Horizontal Life. I am officially a fan - of Chelsea and of anyone named Thunder.
Our route took us through Charleston, WV and Tasha humored me with a stop at the State Capitol Building. West Virginia is the 10th state capitol building. I think that's the first 20% of the capitols checked off my list!
And back on the road again... finishing our journey towards dusk at Ames Heights, WV. I had no idea that West Virginia was so scenic. Looking at the terrain map, you can see how dramatic the topography is, and the New River sits deep in a valley surrounded by all these hills.
Day 2 was spent enjoying the area. Once everyone in our group finally convened at the campground, the crew decided to head down by the river - a very mellow part - to enjoy the sunshine.
The campground we stayed in was part of a gorgeous adventure resort with restaurants and vistas overlooking the valley. After supper our crew went to the lodge to listen to some music and see the region. The picture is of me and Tasha overlooking the New River Valley from the Class VI adventure resort.
Day 3: RAFT DAY!!!
Rise and shine and ready to hit the water. Luke, our raft guide, did a phenomenal job of navigating us through Class V rapids... I've heard that the New River is the best rafting east of the Mississippi. The pictures don't even begin to do the scenery justice. And I tried to get some video of the rapids we went through too, but it didn't turn out so hot. eh - next time maybe we'll figure out helmet cameras.
In the earlier stretch of the trip, the boys got out to jump off some cliffs. This picture shows Ryan doing a flip off the rock.
Lunch was awesome mid-trip. Nothing better than being outside and having someone pack the delicious food for you. This foxy photo is Me and Tasha feeding our faces on the bank.
Suzanne and Tasha were great about taking the pictures of our trip! And the road trip was the perfect way to start the summer. Woohoo!
No comments:
Post a Comment