Whitewater Rafting on the Rio Grande!!Jul 27, 2008
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Before rafting!
| Soo... when most people ask "What did you do this weekend?" I normally don't expect very much more than "hung out"... "went to the movies"... or "not much". Personally, I can't wait for someone to ask me that question this week! This weekend Eryn and I went whitewater rafting down the Rio Grande with some of the pharmacists from Gallup and a few other friends. It was such an awesome weekend... I don't really know where to start. (By the way... Eryn writes most of these... but it's Lindsey for a change!!!) First off, if anyone from the pharmacy is reading this, I would like to personally thank you for inviting us and "taking us in" for the weekend. You welcomed us with open arms and really made us feel welcome. So.. the journey began Friday after leaving site. Ron picked us up after he picked up Susan and we were on our way to Taos. We went through Albuquerque and Santa Fe and eventually ended up in Taos late Friday night. I can only describe the ride there as a major Disney sing-a-long. We had a blast singing to a ton of different songs... everything from The Little Mermaid to Ace of Base to The Beatles. It was a lot of fun. Friday night was spent hanging out, playing Battle of the Sexes and Would you Rather. We headed to bed kinda late considering we were getting up so early the next day. We woke up Saturday and headed to rafting a little after 8. We went in the wrong direction initially, but ended up finding our destination just a few minutes late. We were warned again about the seriousness of the rapids and we were put into a van which took us down to the river. To say the least, the 40 minute ride down to the river just added to my nerves. I couldn't sleep the night before because I was so afraid of drowning in the river. As we drove along the river, it didn't look so bad... but word had it that the first 7.5 miles were the "easy half"... after lunch we'd hit the real rapids. So we got into the boats and headed off down river. Jacob, Ron, Eryn, Susan and I were in one boat and Christina, Katie, John, and Derrick were in the other. Our guide Eli taught us all about how to row and how to wedge your feet into the boat so we didn't pop out. As we traveled down the river, Eli continued to teach us about the different rocks, the animals, and all of the different stories of the Rio Grande. We started to hit some big rapids eventually and wow were they a blast! I only screamed on one... I think... (sorry Ron!) and didn't fall out of the boat at all! Let me tell you... rafting down the Rio Grande is slightly different than rafting down the Lehigh River in PA!! So after about 6 hours on the river we headed back to the hotel to get ready to have diner and a drink or two :) We went to this neat little bar in Taos called Shadows. We got there fairly early so we had dinner and grabbed a drink... or two-ish. One of the funniest moments of the night was waiting for another Gallup-ian to join us at the bar... Christina flagged over this guy who looked slightly like the guy who was meeting us and went to introduce him to the crew. She started to introduce everyone to "Andrew" when "Andrew" let Christina know his name was really Will... He stood up quickly and excused himself... he sat down at the wrong table!! Andrew eventually showed up and we dubbed him "Wilandrew" - his official new name. The DJ was pretty odd and in fact... I really think she was breastfeeding a baby shortly before she began playing music. She wouldn't take any requests from the girls dancing and said she had nothing but house music to play. It wasn't the best DJ I've ever experienced to say the least. Eryn found a crazy Native American who let her wear his hat around for a while... and Jacob and I saw one of the coolest mohawks ever ("The HoMohawk"). We decided to pay off our tabs and head to another local bar down the road. I believe we went to the "Alley Bar"... or at least I know that's where we were supposed to go next. There were a ton of puddles around because it had just rained... and being the 7 year old that I am I decided to jump in a few of them and get people wet. It eventually became an all out water war which was awesome! The bar had a live band who was playing countryish-jazzy music. They were pretty good and I even sat in the seat Clint Eastwood sat in during one of his movies! We eventually headed back to the hotel and we all hung out for a while longer. The water fight continued, but I think I won in the end! Sunday morning we hit up a greasy spoon for breakfast and headed to the Taos Pueblo. We showed up, looked around, and realized it was $10/person to get in and then tossed the idea of going in. We headed to Santa Fe to check out the arts festival. We all met up and walked around the festival for a while before we ate pizza at this awesome pizza place called Upper Crust. We saw the Oldest Church Structure in the US as well as the oldest house. Around 4 we decided to head back towards Rehoboth. It was about a 3 hour drive back. All in all it was probably one of the best weekends I've had in a long time if not ever! I never thought I'd get through an entire 5 weeks here in New Mexico, and now that we're half way through, I think it's going to be pretty hard to leave. The people here are awesome and so inviting. I can't wait to hang out with them these next 3 weeks! Not sure when I'll write another entry... but next weekend is Las Vegas and I can't wait to go back to see it again! Well it was fun talking to everyone! Don't forget to leave us messages!! Miss everyone back home! Linds |
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