Our thoughtful hosts set up a new experience for many of us. Unsuspecting participants arrival at the Toobing office.
All checked in and ready to board the bus to the dropoff location.
We began to suspect that there were going to be bumps in the road when we got off the bus and had to haul our toobs across the road to get to the beginning of the horseshoe bend on the river.
See that black square on the bottom of the toob? That is a very important piece of equipment.
Anne was smart enough to befriend the teenager helping the bus driver. Getting down to the river was no walk in the park since you were basically walking down a concrete drainage ditch with no rail hauling the big toob.
One by one we launched (fell) into the river.
Looks calm and relaxing right. Not much current so lots of paddling was required. We tried real hard not to let anyone get too far behind.
There are just a few pictures while we were actually on the river as most of us wisely left our phones at home.
Looks relaxing right? Not so much. The first par of the ride required a lot of paddling as there was no current so we really got strung out. We tried to make sure no one got left behind. Several times I heard Elaine say "I'm done. I want to get out now." However, once in you are committed to the ride until you get to the take out point. And the toobing operator pointed out several, and I do mean several times, to get to the right side of the river as soon as you can see the bridge ahead because if you missed the bridge get out point, it was miles and hours down the river before you could get out again.
Once we hit the rapids, keeping track of where everyone was wasn't possible. It was every woman for herself. Rapids, and I mention all the rocks....just under the water where you couldn't see most of them until you hit them or got stuck on them or were wildly trying to avoid running into the person ahead of you that was stuck on the rock. It was not a pretty picture. Several young men were so helpful getting us off rocks.
The youngest members of the group, two of our 18+ granddaughters fared the best of course.
Those surviving, I mean arriving first, tried to help others get out of their toobs and onto the shore at the takeout.
Getting out of a toob in deeper water is so easy, getting out when the water is less than a foot deep is more than a challenge.
Here is the nice young man Anne befriended at the beginning. We were supposed to haul our own toobs up another concrete drainage ditch with no rail and back a block to the toobing office. He figured out up front that was going to be a real challenge so he showed up, with another friend to help him, and got us all out and took care of getting all the toobs back to the office.
Elaine ended up with the only injuries but she made it. She got stuck on a rock and couldn't get off so she ended up turning over and skinning her knee to get off. One of the nice young guys on the river pulled her over to deeper water and got her moving again. She has now sworn off ziplines and toobing
Some of the less adventurous ladies showed up to welcome us back. They were also responsible for many of the pictures. Aspirin anyone???
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