Remember my blog entry; "Summer Colds are the Worst"? It turns out that "Spring Colds" are pretty bad as well. The second weekend of my Raft Guide class it rained all day Saturday and it was fairly cool relative to how the weather has been here in Western North Carolina this spring. And of course we were out in the rain running the rapids all day long. Sunday was still cool but at least not raining. I woke up with a little bit of a sore throat but trudged off to class anyway. By the end of our mourning outing down the river I could feel my throat closing off so I begged off the afternoon raft trip. By Monday morning I was done. This has to be one of the worst/longest colds I've ever had. By the following weekend I was still seriously under the weather. I must have had a low grade fever because Friday and Saturday I alternated from hot and sweating to cold and clammy. After that I started feeling better but then I developed that persistent and annoying after cold cough where throughout the day you're convinced you are about to cough up a lung. As of right now it's just an inconvenient hack that always surprises me just as I'm about to drink something from a full cup. I think I've gone through a roll of paper towels cleaning up the spills from those ill timed coughs.
The class was great fun for the most part. The first day the outfitter sponsoring the course, French Broad Adventures, took us down the river as tourists so we could experience what is expected of a guide from a patron's perspective. Our guide was the only one ejected from our raft going down the rapids. Apparently it was his first day back for the season and he was just a bit lackadaisical securing himself into the raft. The second day came the reality check. After our morning trip down the rapids we spent the whole afternoon taking turns lifting six-man rafts up to the top of a school bus. In addition to learning to guide (steer) a raft we spent time on the rapids learning things that you might not think were all that important like knowing the names of all the rapids or the "commercial route" through each of the rapids. The first was in case of an emergency so you could identify your exact position for emergency responders. The second was for liability reasons. If for some reason you got into trouble because you varied your trip off the prescribed commercial route you could potentially expose the outfitter to more serious legal consequences.
Having taken a raft trip down the Colorado river and several trips on the Kern river, even though there are class 2/3 and 3/4 rapids depending on the water level, I perceived that the rapids in the section of the French Broad river we were running were perhaps not as challenging as some of the other trips I had been on. I said something to our Guide Instructor one day and his response was basically; "This is likely the first raft trip down any rapids for most of the patrons. And if you don't have any other frame of reference, it is exciting!" Which I guess is true enough. In addition to losing the guide instructor from our raft during the two weekends I did manage to attend, one of the rafts (not ours) completely flipped at the bottom of one of the trickier rapids and several rafts (including ours) managed to get stuck on rocks, one so securely (not ours) that river just washed over the top of it. We thought that raft was going to be stuck until the water level went down but, after a little clever maneuvering, that group managed to get off the rock and back in the current to join the rest of the flotilla.
So with those disclaimers, French Broad Adventures seems to be a great company and I'm adding that to my list for activities to share with our guests if they're interested in that sort of thing.
Today would have been my last day of class but it's cooler today than it has been all week, and it's raining! So although my cold has been effectively reduced to the above described nagging cough I decided, under the circumstances that discretion may in fact be the better part of valor and, to skip the last of the class as well. However, I'm looking at taking what I have learned and dipping into some white water kayaking on that section of the French Broad river and it would not be out of the question for me to sign up for the Guide Class again next spring. We'll just have to wait and see.
I shared in an earlier blog that Liam had chosen his major, Construction Management, at Western Carolina University. Liam's first observation was that all the other students had some level of construction experience and he had none. Well Liam has his first construction job this summer. A local small general contractor who happens to be in the Weaverville Lions Club with me has taken Liam on as an intern/laborer. On about his third day on the job Liam sent me a text, the exchange went like this;
Liam: "Hey dad thanks for getting me this job"
Me: "Are you having fun?"
Liam: "Wouldn't say fun but it's good for me
Me: 👍
Two days later I received this text;
Liam: "When is the last time I had my tetanus shot"
Liam is ok, just a small cut. Welcome to construction!
I've spent my entire morning sitting on my back porch watching the rain, having my coffee and writing to you. All of our patio furniture is in my shop at the moment so I'm reduced to a folding chair and end table from inside the house. I pressure washed the porch in preparation for treating the deck, posts, and railings but the weather is not cooperating, not that I mind. Sitting on the back porch while it's raining is one of my favorite things to do. I think I'll go in and persuade my lovely bride to accompany me downtown for a couple hours to have a Guinness and catch the Celtic jam session at Jack of the Woods!
I hope everyone is having as lazy a weekend as we are!
Until next time, take care!
Rick
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