Ghost of 4th of July's Past: 2007

The next year was 2007 and I had moved far away from California and was living in the glorious land of Kentucky.  Jess and I celebrated the 4th of July with no fireworks, because they were against the law in Kentucky, but we didn't let that get us down!   We joined with our friends Damion and Ryan, 2 canoes, and a cooler of beer and floated down Little River.  Now, rivers in Kentucky are very different from rivers in California.  Rivers out there are HUGE.  The Cumberland is a medium-sized river for the area, pretty average, and it is consistently larger than the Sacramento River here in California.  That should give you a feel for the relative scale.  Little River, was actually a little river.  Far too small for boats, and it was hidden from view most of the time by the southern trees, covered in vines and growing across the river like a canopy.  Jess had made friends with this man, Gaines, who lived in a cabin along the river and was more than happy to let us access the river from his property and pick us up a few miles/4 hours down the road.

It was a slow moving river, no rapids or rushing water, and lazy and warm.  There were a few quick-moving places that were tricky to maneuver, and as long as you kept a cool head you wouldn't capsize your canoe.  Unfortunately, after a few beers, it's hard to keep a cool head (and your center of gravity) and Ryan and I capsized our canoe.  Luckily, we saved the cooler.  At one point a little further down, we looked ahead to the boys in their canoe and couldn't figure out why they were screaming like little girls and practically climbing over each other and out of the canoe...until we caught up to them and realized they had bumped a low-hanging branch that was full of spiders. 

It was a good day.