The first set up was for a funeral for a little boy.
Very, very sad story and it affected a huge number of people so Marc hired us to fly our speakers so everyone who came to the funeral could hear all that was said.
It wasn't a huge amount of work and our presence wasn't required so the three of us quickly set it all up before Rob and Kurt headed to Ste. Chappelle to set up out there before Kurt had to be at The Egyptian for the last day of his last minute three-day show and I headed to the park with the kids to catch the bus to Barber Park. . . (whew. . . ) The plan was for the three of us to meet back at Ann Morrison Park to take down the stage later in the evening.
It was all downhill from there.
I'm going to try to tell the River Story in as much detail as I can remember but it was a few weeks ago at this writing AND I'm still suffering from post-traumatic distress. It was the worst river float EVER. I'll start by saying that the above picture of Zach and Andrew was the last one my older camera will ever take. Even though I purchased a water-proof bag to put my necessities in (keys, camera, $ and cell phone), the new raft I purchased at the same time sprung a leak and let the river flow freely, waist deep on the inside of the raft and into the "waterproof" bag before we were an 8th of a mile down the river. Gloria and I shared the two-man raft while Zach and Gloria's friend, Christian, floated down in a nice, big, flawless raft with Andrew and his friend, Alex. Kristin and Megan shared a two-man raft, Bridgier and his kids were in a big, solid raft and Steph and Corri were in tubes. We also had an extra tube tied to our raft which turned out to be a bit of a life-saver.
The first "waterfall" wasn't too bad except that Gloria hit her foot on a rock and got pretty scared at the thought of going over the next two sets of falls. Corri didn't like the falls at all and ended up climbing in Kristin's raft which had been vacated by Megan who wisely climbed into the big raft with Bridgier before we got to the falls. The two big rafts ended up going much faster than our two little ones and we lost sight of all the boys early on. Kristin's raft started taking in water pretty quickly, too, as the outer chamber deflated despite the fancy duct tape job that held it together. So, here we are, 5 girls in two quickly deflating rafts and 3 tubes, it's only about 80 degrees out, the water is stinking cold and we are headed for the second set of falls. Gloria is bordering on hysteria about not wanting to go over the falls, Corri bailed out of Kristin's deflated raft onto a tube and was bravely pulled over to us by Steph as Kristin "waded" through the water and rocks, dragging her raft behind her. I managed to pull the 4 of us over to the side while we watched Kristin struggle to join us. While we waited for Kristin, I walked up the thorn-infested hill to see if we could get out and walk around the falls only to find nothing but sticker bushes and a deep culvert between the river and the road. Corri and Gloria were adamant about not going over the falls under any circumstances so we ended up putting the two handicapped rafts together and having the two younger girls climb in. We could hear the falls but we could also see the other side of the river where we knew had to be close to the greenbelt. if we could make it there, we could walk around the falls. I had a little scare as we prepared to push the raft across the river when my foot got tangled in the rope and I couldn't get my footing but Kristin quickly untangled me. Fueled by pure adrenaline, Steph, Kristin and I swam as hard as we could across the river while pushing the two girls in the raft. I was preparing myself mentally for going over the falls without anything under me but we actually made it to the other side and climbed onto dry ground. The greenbelt never looked so good. Steph had a nice, big waterproof bag that was actually keeping out water so we all piled our (soaking wet) stuff into her bag, picked up our rafts and tubes and made our way along the greenbelt. We were still a long way from "civilization" so we looked for a good place to get back on the river. Corri was feeling braver so she took one of the tubes, Steph and Kristin took the other two and Gloria and I climbed back into the double-decker, nearly deflated raft. Gloria was NOT feeling braver so it was all I could do to put on a happy face and reassure her that everything was fine. I was thanking God that I had the foresight to buy a good, sturdy life jacket for her so that gave me a lot of comfort.
The five of us stayed together and sang some silly songs to keep our minds off of the last set of falls. The river seemed to take great pleasure in throwing our little group around and I think we hit just about every branch along the edge of the river as we made our way downstream. Steph and Kristin were doing their best to stay upbeat even though they were taking the worst of it in the tubes. Just when I thought things were going to be OK, we came to a place where the river divided just as we hit some rapids. Our group got separated and Gloria and I were whisked across the rocky, swift moving water in the double-decker raft that was starting to separate. Kristin's raft had been laying across the top of my raft and as we hit the rapids, her raft, with Gloria on it, slid off of my raft flipping Gloria off backwards into the water. She screamed and I don't think I've ever been more scared in my life. All I could do was fall out backwards myself as I tried to get to her. She had grabbed Stephs waterproof bag as she fell and it acted as a great floatation device. I managed to keep one hand on the raft and got Gloria's arm around my neck as the river continued to shoot us toward the river bank. It was too deep to touch and my legs were swept under the raft as we swirled along. When we reached the bank, I tried to grab onto low hanging branches but we were moving too fast and the water was too deep to get a hold of anything. Meanwhile our legs and feet are hitting every rock and our torsos were catching every tree that stuck out along the edge of the water. AND I didn't know what happened to the rest of our little group. By the time my feet found sand and I pulled us safely to the shore, I could see Steph on a little island out in the middle. Everyone was OK but I couldn't expect Gloria to get back in the river.
I knew exactly where we were by this time and decided we would walk the rest of the way. There was a bench next to the greenbelt where we landed and we sat for a minute to catch our breath and to be thankful we were on solid ground. As we walked along the greenbelt we caught glimpses of the other three girls as they floated the rest of the way without incident. We were only about a mile from the place where all the rafts get out at the park so it wasn't too bad. We all got there about the same time and found Bridgier, Morgan, Megan and the boys waiting worriedly for us. I didn't have too many words at the time but knew, if nothing else, we have a story to tell. And I have the bruises to prove it.
After a short breather, I met Rob and Kurt at the park and we exchanged stories about our separate adventures (Rob got locked in at Ste Chap and had to drive the Uhaul through the Orchard!). I think it took us longer than usual to take down the stage and canopy.
So much for my relaxing day. . .
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