Our vacation

I hope everybody had a good time in New Mexico. I just couldn't come up with a plan for us to go out there that allowed us to use our time off efficiently and still get to see you guys as much as I wanted to. I just would have been all travel and not much fun.

Instead we decided to stay a little closer to home. We rented a cabin for a few days in north Georgia near a town called Ellijay. We've stayed there before (although in different cabins) and it's always a lot of fun. There is lots to do in the area and the place we rented is pet friendly so Zoey got to come with us. There was a small lake just a short walk from the cabin that Zoey got to go swimming in, although it was a little scummier than anything Dena and I felt like getting into. I thought that Zoey could swim pretty well from here trips to a creek by our house, but I think she was just walking on her hind legs under water. When I put her into the lake, she sunk like a rock and was barely able to tread water. I think her buoyancy is just too far forward because of her deep chest, so her back end just sinks and she can't go anywhere.




Thankfully, we thought that might be the case and brought a lifejacket with us just in case. She's a much better swimmer with that on and actually really enjoys swimming out to get her ball.




The next day we dropped Zoey off at a cool doggie daycare in Blue Ridge Georgia so she could play all day while we went up to the Nantahala River near Bryson City, NC to do some rafting. We have done this once before a few years back and had a lot of fun. We rented a two person inflatable kayak (called a "duckie") and took a self-guided trip down the river. It is a spring fed river so even in the middle of July the water is a chilly 52 degrees. We made it most of the way down the river without much drama until the very end when we got to the roughest part. We got a little sideways going into a nasty little hydraulic. We were both leaning back to try and prevent tipping over forward, but perhaps we should have been leaning forward instead because the boat just slid right out from under us and we ended up swimming. Dena thinks it was payback for chucking the dog in the lake.



If the animated GIF above isn't working, you can view the full carnage album on our facebook pages or click the link below.

LINK

They had to throw a rope to get me out and a dude in a raft had to paddle out to rescue Dena. It's a good thing they got us too, because just a few yards past the takeout is the "Lower Nantahala Falls", a class v rapid that could have really caused us some damage. As it was we still got pretty beat up on the rocks before we made it to shore.

On Wednesday we decided to go for a hike to enjoy the beautiful area a bit more. We had visited a local shop to get advice on a good day hike and they recommended the Conasauga River Trail in the Cohutta Wilderness. It was absolutely gorgeous and we will definitely have to do it again some time. There were lots of spots with cool little falls and river crossings. There were several times when I thought one of us would slip on a rock and end up swimming again, but we made it without any drama. Zoey is a good little mountain dog and even got to carry her new pack with all her own food and water in it.

We had to leave on Thursday at lunch time, so we got back to our house in the early afternoon. Dena and Zoey promptly passed out while I unloaded the car and went to play a game of Ultimate in the evening. We've spent the day today recovering from our wounds. Dena and I went to see "Up" and we're going to the dog park in a bit to let Z get some exercise.

We had a lot of fun, but of course wish we could have seen everybody also. I guess we'll have to wait until October and we'll see you all then.