Chattahoochee, baby!

Well, in T-minus 3 hours, 32 minutes I will be heading out for the annual "River Trip". This year we are doing our standby trip, the Chattahoochee (we've done the Tennessee and Alabama rivers in the past).

What the River Trip is not:

• We don't canoe.
• We don't go down rapids in rafts.
• We don't ski.
• We don't fish.
• We don't camp in tents.
  

What the River Trip is:

• Bunch of guys.
• Boats.
• Beer.
• Bad Jokes.
  
• Power boats.
• Sand bars.
• Riverside motels.
• Hamburger steak in the evening.

We have had a couple of motto's for the River Trip over the years.....

• What Goes Down, Stays Down.
• The River Trip: Doing Men Things in a Manly Way.
• (and the unofficial one that no one has been brave enough to put on a t-shirt):
• Chicks Dig Guys Who Go Down On The 'Hooch...

The trip has definitely dwindled and become more sedate over the years (they've been doing this for 25 years or so), however. Whereas the trips used to involve 8-10 boats full of guys (and on occasion the bailing out of one of them before the trip could start), the numbers and activities have dwindled as the guys get older. I keep telling my dad who is the main organizer of the trip now that they need to infuse the trip with younger guys to liven it up, but no luck so far. Guess that won't happen until I can afford to buy my own boat and bring my own "crew". Now the tip consists mainly of tooling down the river at a leisurely pace, hitting every good sandbar along the bank to relax in the water, tell bad jokes, and hear stories that my dad tells every stinkin' year about all the stuff that happened on past River Trip's (most of which we are all present for anyway...LOL).

The trip really is a blast though. I am not really into the whole "get stinking drunk and get arrested" thing like some of the old gang used to do years ago anyway....LOL... It is really just a time for guys who have to be upstanding citizens all year (business owners, attorneys [including the D.A.], sheriffs, doctors, etc.) to just kick back, relax, and be a guy. We have always done a three day trip:

• Head down to Eufaula, AL, on Thursday afternoon
• Put in the water Friday morning and head all the way to Apalachicola, FL by Friday evening (trust me, that is a HAUL...not much sand bar hopping on Friday)
• Head back from Apalachicola on Saturday morning and come halfway back upstream to Lake Seminole on the GA/FL border
• Come on back to Eufaula, AL, on Sunday, get out, unload, and head home.

Last year and this year, though, we are only doing a two-day trip... only go halfway on Friday to Lake Seminole, then head back to Eufaula on Saturday. It is a more laid back, relaxing trip because you aren't hauling your butt on the river from 9 am til 8 pm on Friday to make it all the way to Apalachicola. Those Fridays' could be rough, especially if anyone had any boat trouble...still both my dad and I kind of miss the long haul days...

Anyway, some of y'all need to come with me on this trip one of these days... Heck, some of you are already close by, and I know there are others that would fly down for something like this.... And you all know who you are...LOL Network connectivity is an issue on the river, but I will try to post some stuff while on the river if I can...

Oh, and by the way, these are the kinds of things you can run into on the Chattahoochee or in either Lake Eufaula or Lake Seminole if you don't keep your eyes open...Yes, that is a deer it its mouth. Welcome to the River Trip, baby!