Laughter and Rafting

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On our way to our first stop in Tennessee, Kyle warned us about the lady who owned the RV park in Rocky Top, we were told how when we arrive she will come out and introduce herself and ask all our names, that she will call one of us sarah, that she will get on her golf buggy with her ugly dog and drive us to our destination waving manically at us to follow her, she will put her hand on the window mirrors and try to tell Kyle where to park, give us the house rules (this is her home, we are to treat it like our own home and trek doesnt pay her bills, RVs pay her bills so we are to be quiet), she will come to the site at numerous times during the night, each time a little more drunk than the time before and we are to bed now at 11 no exceptions. She did not dissapoint, she did all those things even to the extent of when directing us into our parking space, tried to get us to drive over a small cliff face and i was lucky enough to be called Sarah. It was a good night though, we didnt have tents we all had to sleep under this gazebo thing with just our mats so we decided to make the most of it until bed down time. we had another group parrelling with us doing the same tour but with a different leader so at this point after getting to know each other for a tiny bit, we felt brave enough to get started on the drinking games, it was messy but fun and as promised we were in our mats for 11, all a bit worse for wear. Rocky top was another success for me as it was my turn to make dinner for my group, they all survived and i made enough for everybody - it was a proud moment.

After we left Rocky Top the next day, it was on to Occoe for some white water rafting, I got to be the stoke master which meant everyone had to follow my lead which is good because i couldnt do anything wrong, it was all on the other guys, the rapids were grade 4 so we had a laugh and you know i had to put myself forward to ride the bull ) basically sit on top of the front of the boat and hold on for dear life while going down the rapids yelling yeehah of course. I was doing well until i just couldnt hold on anymore and fell off, of course i fell off as soon as we reached the photographer so the pictures of our group are kind of a going, going gone theme, unfortunatly they had a problem with the printer so i couldnt buy it which thinking about it now is a good thing. After we got back and cleaned up we had a fireworks display, that is a slight exaggeration i ran round with sparklers for about 5 minutes then headed to the bar with all of us and the rafting guys. It was a strange night, a guy came up to me and introduced himself as a proper hillbilly and everyone else agreed that they are one too, i thought people said that as a insult rather than a compliment but thought better than to say that. We had the biggest campfire i have ever seen (it puts bonfire night to shame) and the drinking continued to the early hours of the morning. Good times were had in Tennessee but we are once again off to our next Destination, Sweet home Alabama.

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