Visitors

I have officially hosted my first crew of visitors to the Nantahala Gorge. It was a lovely weekend, filled with fun, excitement, mishaps and one out-of-boat experience. Three friends traveled to see me, two from SAIS in DC and one from Peace Corps (currently in Georgia). I expected the SAISers to show up on Thursday, and the PCV to join us on Friday. That did not happen.

The DC crew, busy bees that they are, didn't leave DC until rush hour on Thursday night. I tried to stay awake to greet them when they arrived, but I didn't quite make it. I thought it was an eight-hour drive from DC to western North Carolina. Turns out, it took them eleven. Even worse, when they finally arrived at four a.m., they couldn't find my cabin. Telling them I lived in a barn wasn't descriptive enough. So they slept in the car, and I met them the next morning after we all traveled to the outpost where my phone actually receives service.

That night, once my friends had sufficiently recuperated from their journey, we all went to a local bar to hear some bluegrass. "Isn't a fun Friday night in the South going to a hoe-down?" pondered one SAISer. I hope bluegrass was close enough. Meanwhile, the PCV was stranded in Georgia, due to extreme weather conditions. She arrived the next morning.

Unfortunately, she did not arrive quite in time to join me and the DCers on my morning rafting trip. That trip was quite the adventure. Another raft cut in front of us going through the second-largest rapid on the river, and instead of mowing them down, we wound up stuck on a rock in the middle of the rapid. In order to free the raft, I had to get the weight out of the boat. So I, along with two guests, hopped out of the boat and onto the rock. The current quickly grabbed the raft and we all flung ourselves back into the boat. I was terrified that someone wouldn't make it and would fall into the river, or get stuck on the rock, but tragedy was averted. The rest of the trip was fine, once we all resumed our seats and redistributed paddles. In fact, one guest told me that she had been rafting on the Nantahala six times, but this was her favorite trip!

Back at NOC, the PCV arrived in time for introductions and a quick group lunch, then she hopped on my afternoon trip. Nothing as exciting happened on that trip, though we did have one deaf guest. She was actually a much better paddler than some of my hearing guests, and I was glad to have to the opportunity to guide her boat. Several other guests have mentioned their desire to take down deaf friends and relatives, but no one was confident that it could be done. Well, I am happy to report it can be done fairly easily.

Immediately after I was released from river duty, we all piled into the DCers' rental car and drove over to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Our plan was to see the sun set from Clingman's Dome, the highest peak on the Appalachian Trail. Unfortunately, it was rather cloudy and we could barely see the sun. Still, it was a nice (albeit short and vertical) hike.

The DCers had learned from their trip down, so they left rather early on Sunday. The PCV stayed long enough for us to laze about downtown Bryson City, doing what Peace Corps volunteers so often vividly dream about: eating. We had ice cream sandwiches, Oreo cheesecake, and elk burgers (yes, in that order).

All in all, it was a great weekend for me, and perhaps a slightly terrifying experiment in outdoorsy-ness for my city friends!