Float Trip!

In reverse chronological order, on to Saturday's events (those I suppose on the blog this will read in chronological order).
Saturday we went float tripping. Or on a float trip as most people say - I love the phrase "float tripping" though. Anyway, for those not from Missouri, let me explain. Down in southern-ish MO, there are a bunch of "rivers." These are not like the Florida rivers I'm used to like the Suwanne, St. Johns, Appalacicola, etc. They are more like glorified streams, just deep enough in most places for a canoe to travel. You really can't boat on these "rivers" because they're just too shallow. Anyway, people here like to get a bunch of beer, Jell-O shots, booze, whatever will possibly get them the drunkest the quickest (lest I remind you I live in the state that is the nation's leader in meth so these locals like their substances), rent canoes/kayaks/rafts and float down these "rivers" - they call it going on a "float trip."
Anyway, it's actually quite a fun time once you get over the drunk/obnoxious locals. The rivers are really pretty and it's nice and relaxing to get outside and get some sun (something I sorely miss living in Missouri). I typically like to go "float tripping" on Sunday's to minimize the locals disturbance, but since soccer has been every Sunday it just hasn't worked out. So we got together with Dude and went canoe and kayaking yesterday on the Big Piney river. It was a great time. Everyone got a good bit of sun and Cody and Dude got a good bit of drinking in (I was the driver for those two fools - lucky me). We managed to gather quite a few rocks for the turtle tank as well as about 8 minnows for the tank. They will end up eating some of them (which is fine since we forget to feed them all the time), but some will live happily with the turtles.
We did have a good bit of shallow parts/mild rapids due to the draught we have going on and we even managed to tip the canoe over, cooler and possessions included, once. We were going through a particularly swift part, hit a branch, the canoe and everything in it tipped over. We all got dragged along the rocks since the water was only about a foot and a half deep and lost everything down the river. Cody grabbed the canoe, got it on shore. I chased the cooler, kept it closed and got it on shore farther down and Dude got the kayak and collected all our floating belongings. So far all we've realized we're missing is one of my shoes. Not a huge loss - I have dozens of flip-flops. :) So, we're all a bit scraped, bruised and cut up today but it was all in good fun. :) It's a good story to tell at least.