April Weekend Cabin Retreat

We finally had the Alpharetta group up to the cabin. I kinda had the day off, but I spent the morning waiting for a call from a customer as I was trying to finish off a project. Did not make for a fun Friday morning. Decided to have a beer at lunch and forget work. Finally the customer called and I was in the all clear.

Gina, Paul, Beka and Charlie arrived during the afternoon. First order of business was for us guys to ride to a nearby school and find my first Geocache. It was a fun short ride and now I am addicted to geocaching. We met the girls at Horseshoe Bend Park for a picnic and some beers and champas. Too buzzed/tired to ride back up the monster hill, so we all went back to Patricks and some pitchers of beer. The girls came back and picked us up and we put the bikes on the hitch.

Relaxing in Horseshoe Bend Park

Riding Bikes in McCaysville

The night concluded with some more drinks, hot tub and table tennis.

On Saturday we tried to have a picnic at Ocoee Whitewater Rafting Center, but there was a race on and we couldn't park (and nearly got lost in the Bermuda Triangle of car parks). We ended up a Mac Beach, further towards the lake. Was a excellent day in the sun. On the way back we found another Geocache in MacCaysville.

Enjoying the sandy beach at MacPoint Park

Geocaching in McCaysville

We met Kat and Vince back at the Cabin. Some more good food and drinks with some table tennis challenges. The night did contain the first ever high dive bean bag dive. Concluded the night in the hot tub where we did find the perfect temp even for hot summer days (around 98F).

On Sunday we all went for an Ocoee whitewater rafting trip with Dusty from Raft One. It was an excellent day that included some rock/raft sliding into the cold river waters. Lots of fun even if the cold waters took your breath away, and then you still had to fight the currents to swim back to the rock. Repeat.

Rafting on the Middle Ocoee River

We ended the tiring weekend by chilling in the sun and shade. Excellent company, excellent weekend.

Ocoee White Water Rafting

Second Weekend of April. Spring is here. Last weekend was 75 degrees and beautiful. Last Tuesday it dropped below freezing and snowed. Today we went white water rafting anyway.

We have had our cabin now almost 4 months and have really been looking foward to doing some white water rafting. Last weekend we saw rafters and decided that it was time to try it out. I found some websites and started doing research because I always like being well prepared.

We found a company http://www.raft1.com/ and spoke to Dusty. He was so nice and helpful. He assured us that we would not be cold. Last night there were some crazy storms, tornado warnings and power outages. I was afriad it was going to rain out our trip. This morning we got up, had breakfast, and saw the clouds and wind. We were beginning to get worried and Dusty emailed us and told us if we still wanted to go we would have a great time because the water was higher than normal. We chose to go. We knew we would be cold, but figured we could just come back to the cabin and jump in the hot tub to warm up.

We headed up, geared up, and jumped in the van for the short ride to the put in point.

The trip was so amazing. Dusty did great to keep us entertained, educated us on the river, the rocks, the area (He even told us a great place to go one morning and see some deer and BEAR. Yes I said BEAR! I think Rod is going to make me get up at the break of dawn to try it)

I never got cold. I mean if I had fell off the raft and tried to swim, I would have probably been really cold, but just the water that was spilling into the raft was fine. We were using enough energy and adrenalin that we were never cold. I didnt have a watch, but we were on the water a long time. We even stopped and took a hike up a waterfall. It was beautiful.

I look forward to doing it again in weeks to come when the weather is warmer and we can wear our swimsuites. Jumping off the raft to cool off will be great.