River Check and Potluck

When we were driving into town on the day of our arrival on June 10, we spotted two rafts on the river not too far from our Resort area here. We wanted to see, if possible, where the rafters put in to the river and where the take out points might be. We will be taking a rafting trip one of these days - it's free for employees of the Village Resort. We drove for several miles outside town, following the river, and we found what we thought might be a take out point for these rafters. I took pictures of the river in both directions from this point so you can see how fast the current was running here:

We wanted to try to find the starting point for these trips so we headed back into town and finally found one of the starting points that was right under the bridge where we first saw the rafters on our arrival. The river runs pretty fast in this area:

It didn't take too long when a van, loaded with people and towing a raft, arrived to launch a trip:

Everybody put on life jackets and were loaded into the raft in certain positions by the guide so that the weight would be balanced for the trip. It was only about 10 minutes, and they were ready to go:

As soon as they pushed off from shore, the current caught them and they were gone in a short time. Below are two shots as they floated away:

The driver of the van took some pictures of the group and was going to head back to the office, print the pictures, and head to the takeout point which, as it turns out, was the very spot (above) where we first took pictures under the bridge. He indicated that the total trip was about 7 1/2 miles. There are several rafting tour companies in town and we aren't sure yet which one we will be taking. The son of the owners of Blair Hotels - our employer - owns one of them and will be the trip we take for free. That will be exciting.

Our dinner hour last night was taken up by a potluck dinner that was sponsored by the owners. It was a very nice time and gave us a chance to socialize some more with the other workers. It was a very busy night at work, as usual, and even Josie was busy as she sold over $700 worth of merchandise to one family alone. Maybe she will begin to get busy with the holiday weekend coming up.

We're not sure yet how we will spend our "Friday" today, but we are happy to see the work week end again...