this saturday, one of my coworkers invited me to go with him whitewhater rafting down the skykomish river. we were to leave from the camp just outside a tiny little town called index at 9:00 am. I asked around and they told me it ought to take 45 minutes. including the wrong turn I took, because I had already been traveling an hour & I figured I had gone too far, and the lousy directions on the hand drawn map the raft company faxed to us, the trip took me an hour and a half. I got there about 40 minutes late.
I was freaking out that they probably left without me, but as it turns out, they spent the first hour foodling around with stuff like “safety talks” etc. who needs that, eh?
well, I was just in time to pick up my wet suit, helmet and liability waiver (which pretty much said that I had to be out of my mind to do this and if my life insurance company paid if i died, which i probably wouldn’t, probably, that is, would be unlikely)
so we got in and it was a pleasant little ride, we had time to practice turning — there were six of us plus a guide in the boat — and then the fun began. it was a thrill!