White Water Rafting

White Water Rafting in Gatlinburg was A-Mazing!

I was honestly very scared to try it when it was in the planning stages. After the payment was made I knew there was no turning back. But, that didn't make it any easier on the nerves.

We got there with plenty of time to spare, so we enjoyed taking in the sights. A pair of wooden rockers located on a store front had our name all over them. And afterward, so did the bench overlooking the river!

When they called our launch time, I nearly slipped right off the bench. Our group gathered in front of a pretty hilarious river guide and he dispatched us to our smaller raft groups. Our guide just so happened to catch onto my nervousness and made it known. He wasn't mean about it or anything, but it was still a bit shocking. 

After the 10 minute bus ride up the river I was adding psyched to my rapidly growing list of emotions. Once the rafts were off the boat everyone filed out and we located our guide. Prince Charming (my husband) sat in the front row with the husband from the other couple and diagonal from me. Once we took off in the water, the excitement over took whatever sketchiness I was still feeling. When our first rapid finally arrived, well that was a completely different story. The coldness of the water paired with my growing feeling of instability made it that much more of a thrill. We seemed to zip right through that rapid with such speed that the end brought prayers that it wasn't over yet. Yes! That is correct, it was so terrifyingly fun there was no way it could be over so quickly. And lucky for me, it wasn't even close to over.

We hit plenty of rapids on the way back down the river. One such rapid actually caught me by surprise. After a particularly large set of rapids, our guide lined us up behind the already forming group of other rafters. Once every raft was through the set, we all turned around and headed back for the very rapid we had just exited. Our turn arrived more quickly then I had thought it would. As our group dove right into the oncoming splash, the front row was flooded and we headed into a nose dive. That nose dive sent me airborne and straight into Prince Charming's back. I quickly regained my positioning and attempted ride to waves and other commotion headed right at us. And again, I was launched right out of my seat and into the lap of the woman next to me. She quickly attempted to " place me back in my seat " better know as shoving me the way I came. I almost thought she was trying to push me overboard. 

Needless to say, I ended keeping my seat without leaving the raft again. But sadly, I seemed to have lost my footing once the boat was parked. I just so happened to butt plant right  into the water as we started to carry the raft up to the starting point. 

As the first outing of our anniversary trip came to a close, we realized there was no way we could only do this once. Though we do not have any photos of the event (as it was very wet), it was probably the most memorable part of our vacation.