Memorial Day Weekend Canoe Trip

As promised the details of our trip...

So we left friday night about 9 and drove for about 1 1/2 hrs before we noticed that our tire was making a weird noise and not feeling right, so Ben pulled over into a gas station and our front right tire was missing two lug nuts and the other ones were so loose we could unscrew them with our hands. So I went inside and talked to the guy at the gas station who gave me the number of a 24 hour tire service place that was two doors down. Well they didn't have any lug nuts that would fit our car so he just took one off each of the back tires and then tighten them all with the impac gun. Not the most fun to deal with at 11 pm but it turned into a comical situation when other people stopped needed help from the Tire Man.

The rest of the ride was uneventful and we got to Arkansas about 7 am, but we couldn't launch the canoes until 8 am and the other people needed gas and the station didn't open until 9, so we hiked 2 1/2 miles (round trip) to Eden Falls Cave and crawled (and meaning hands and knees)through the cave to see this waterfall inside. It was awesome! Just a really tight fit for Ben :)

Here are some pictures of the hike & cave:

Then we got back to the Canoe place, and headed to the river, we only canoed 4 miles on Saturday then set up camp underneath this large rock bluff, because we knew it was going to rain. Then we hiked some more, and then jumped off some large cliffs (another story below) and pretty much just hung around camp because it rained the rest of the day. The guys were able to catch some fish so we ate those. We just hung out and ate food that we cooked over the fire and watched the other people canoeing the rain.

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Sunday, we canoed 12 miles pretty much in the pouring rain the entire time. We stopped and hiked up to a 400 foot waterfall about a mile into the trip, and the other people tipped their canoe over so we also stopped and helped them gather all their items before they floated down stream.

We finally got to our destination for the day and then decided we were too wet, and cold that we didn't want to stay the night there and get our tents, etc. all wet plus there was no dry wood to have a fire. So we called the Buffalo Outdoor Center to bring our car to where we were (Erbie) instead of Pruitt (where we would have ended up on Monday) and our truck was already in Pruitt so Ben and Travis decided to do the rest of the trip so we could get the truck and go home. So they emptied one canoe and canoed 8 miles in and hour and 15 minutes, then came and got the rest of us. We drove back to the starting point loaded our car, ate some dinner, and then drove through the night again to get back to our apartment abot 5:30 am Monday morning.

It was a long trip for a couple day but we both had a blast! As you can see from the pictures it was beautiful there and we had great company.

Cliff Story:

Saturday afternoon we hike about 2 miles to some cliffs that were about 15 feet high to jump off. Below are the pictures to prove that I actually did jump!

Now we just have a couple more days until our one year anniversary! We are thinking we will be home sometime in August as welll!

A Month of Celebration!

So May is a busy, busy month of stuff for us. And now here I am already half way through!

May's Month of Celebration --

-Cinco de Mayo: Ok, we really do anything fun to celebrate this just made salsa and queso.

-Mother's Day: Sadly we weren't back in Michigan to celebrate with both of our lovely moms but they did get there presents via the UPS man.

-End of year #1: So yes, Ben is done with his first year of grad school! Only 1 (ish) more year to go :) He finished up last Wednesday with an extremely hard final, that he spent almost 4 days preparing for. He hasn't gotten the grade back yet so we have no idea how he did. So to celebrate the end of the year, Ben's friend Jonathan took him fishing in the Gulf. Wade fishing might I add - meaning they were standing in water chest high (along with the jelly fish and sting rays swimming around their feet, they did have shoes on though!) fishing! They caught a couple but I still had to make dinner that night!

-Memorial Day: Ok, so that hasn't happened yet. But our plans for the weekend include driving 9+ hours to the Buffalo River in Arkansas, where we are going to canoe and camp along the river with a group of friends for 2 1/2 days. So I will be sure to post pictures (hopefully not one's of me in the water!) once we get back.

-May 25: Happy Birthday Dad W!

-May 27: Happy Birthday Mom H & Mom W! Yes, in case you forgot our mom's have the same birthday!

-May 30: Any guesses?? Haha, ok so can you believe it has been one year since our wedding? I sure can't. We aren't sure what our plans are yet, probably a day trip to Houston, Austin, or Galveston. Depending on what the weather forcast.

Then we come to June... and Hopefully we will be back in MI for a week or so.

Have a great rest of the month and we will (hopefully) see you next month!