Family Float Trip

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History of Previous Family Floats

2010 Float has been set for Thursday, July 15, 2010 at NRO.  Kathy & Terry are Grand Pooh Bah's. 

     

The 2009 family float trip was Thursday, July 16 at Niangua River Oasis with Allen doing the honors as the Grand Pooh Bah.   The early arrivals were Allen, Mike, Wyatt, Tommy and Grandpa and Grandma Sweetie.  The Shipleys were the rest of the Monday night crew.  Rick fished at Bennett Springs on Tuesday morning and joined everyone for a country breakfast about 10 AM.  Folks continued to arrive throughout the day and those present supervised the kids playing in the water, read magazines, visited, and greeted newcomers and helped them set up their camps.

Wednesday morning the group split up according to interests:  Trish Tygart and Bonny took off with some others fishing on the Niangua; Terry, Bill, Adam, Bob, Joe headed for the golf course; and most of the rest headed to the Lebanon outlet malls.  Rick and Grandpa Sweetie met the medical supply truck in Buffalo. 

The Shipley's fixed the "cream can supper" and Rosario added marinated pork and grilled meat.  Adam got creative with a fan to turn the campfire into a convection stove to finish up the supper.  We had strawberries and angel food cake and a cherry pie to finish up the meal.  We had three card games going as well as roasting marshmallows over the campfire after supper.

Despite the weatherman's dire predictions of a stormy day, we had good weather to do our float.  There were 9 rafts and 4 canoes that were put in the river at Bennett Springs.  The water was so low that was the highest we could get.  The intention was to float to NRO, have lunch and those wanting a longer float would go on to Rendezvous Point.  We took our snacks and drinks in the coolers and started off down the river.  Cora loved being in the water even though turtles and snakes were spotted swimming along.  The big squirters were a hit.  Several brought them to "suck up" and spray water nearly across the river at unsuspecting folks.  There were a couple of splashing contests as well as the usual kid swapping boat to boat as we went along.

At the mud slide it began to cloud; and before we left the thunder and lightning arrived.  Just as the last boats rounded the last bend before NRO, the storm hit.  The wind brought driving, cold rain; and even though we were all already wet, it was a bit of shock.  Kathy leaped out to retrieve her hat and Jesse jumped in behind.  He struggled in the water and Allen got to him first, but it took both Allen and Terry to get him out.  The rafts blew back upstream in the wind and several went to the bank and then towed their rafts into shore.  The children didn't like the storm, and neither did most of the adults.  We all were reminded of the sense of using lifejackets as well.

We all ate lunch and found dry clothes and stayed around camp the rest of the afternoon.  It cleared off and was quite lovely by 7 PM so the hillbilly golf and horseshoe games were going.  Several took a long walk and noticed the lost "noodle" upstream floating along quite placidly.

We had 59 attending this year and 49 floated.