White Water Rafting Info

Josh and I are going on another grand whitewater rafting adventure and we would like for you to join us.

Time and driving on Friday

We will be leaving the Meadows at 2:00 pm on Friday April 24th and will drive 735 kilometers (457 miles) to a hotel in Chattanooga, Tennessee. We will get there about 12 midnight, God willing, and will have plenty of time to get some quality sleep! (not like last year!).

Saturday, breakfast, rafting, eating, driving back

Saturday morning we will eat a free breakfast at the hotel and then go rafting at 10:00 am!

We will raft the middle section of the Ocoee River at 10 am.

Afterwards we will stop and eat before driving back to St. Louis.

Driving and fun; be back by midnight Saturday

This is a tough trip, lots of miles in a van, but I promise you that if you come with us you will have a great time!! Our goal is to have everyone back home by midnight on Saturday so you will have all day Sunday to recover and study!

PHOEBE IS GETTING BAPTIZED SUNDAY AT FIRST ASSEMBLY CHURCH!

Alan will pick people up for church at 9:00 am at University Meadows clubhouse.

 Renting vans; cost for trip is $110.00 per person

Last year we had some mechanical issues with our vehicles so we are renting 2 12-passenger vans for this trip. Because of this it will cost $110 per person for this adventure. We would like a deposit of $60 per person by April 18th, the other $50 when we leave. We would like an answer to this invitation as soon as possible, we need to be sure we can take everyone who wants to go!

 Outfitters (people helping us go down the river) and videos

We will have 2 drivers in each van. The outfitter we use is Cascade Outdoors, they did a great job for us last year. A couple of outfitters have videos of the Middle Ocoee you can watch:www.outlandexpeditions.com and www.noc.com/whitewater-rafting/ocoee-river/ . We hope you will come with us! Please let us know as soon as possible if you will come with us.

 Not much longer and we will be on our way! I am so looking forward to this! We will have a great time!! I want to go over what to expect on this trip.

 What to pack; what to wear while rafting

Please pack lightly, hopefully you can get what you need in a backpack.

You will need to bring a towel, and dry clothes to change into after the rafting.

You need to wear closed-toe shoes while rafting, sandals won't protect your feet like athletic shoes will. You don't need a bathing suit, just wear some shorts and a tee shirt or something like that.(If it is cool when we go rafting the outfitter will provide us with rain jackets).

 We will give you a trash bag to put your wet clothes into.

 Please don't bring a large suitcase, there will not be room for it! The vans will be full of people, so we will need to put our stuff under the seats or in our lap!

 Arrangements for beginning our trip Friday

Most of us will meet at the clubhouse at the Meadows about 2 in the afternoon Friday. Josh will coordinate picking up Zar and the other Lindenwood and St. Charles people, then they will meet up with us at the Meadows.

 Arrangements for Friday meals Please eat lunch before we leave,

we will stop for dinner around 6 in Paducah, Kentucky.

We will stop at a mall that has a Chinese fast-food restaurant, a Chick-fil-a, outside the mall is a Taco Bell, a Pizza Hut, a Wendy's, and a Steak'n'shake. We will provide snacks and water for the drive, also.

 We will lose an hour on our drive down there, they are in a different time zone. We will get the hour back on our way back!

 The hotel we are staying at has a free "continental" breakfast for us Saturday morning.

 If you wear glasses you will need to secure them to your head while rafting! I have some glass straps but if you have one you can bring it. If you wear contacts you may wear them while rafting. It would be a good idea to bring your I.D. and your insurance card if you have one. If you take any prescription medications don't forget to bring them!

 Debit cards; money

You may pay for meals and souvenirs with your credit or debit card, but please bring cash (or a check if you can't get cash) to pay us the $110 if you haven't paid us yet.( Josh and I have all the expenses on our credit cards and we need to pay them off...) Please bring an extra $5 or $10 to tip our whitewater rafting guides, that is how they make most of their money.

 Our goal is to get back to UMSL by midnight Saturday, and to bring back everyone that we take! If you have any questions you can ask over Facebook or text me at 314-435-4338.

 Looking forward to seeing you all Friday! (At the moment we have 22 people going with us, we can take 2 more if anyone else wants to come).