Floating the Meramec River :)

6 Photos in this post

When we lived on the farm we used to take tubes and float on the North Fork River. We could never go that far as we always had to pull the tubes back upstream, and after a snake swam over Richard’s foot one day with a fish in its mouth the appeal kind of died! It’s been one of our desires to do a proper river float, so when we had our unexpected holiday that is what we did on one of the days. Parking at Meramec Caverns we caught the shuttle which took us 6 miles upriver, and then we floated SIX miles down the river! Having never done this long of a float before we really had no idea what to expect except that it was going to take about 4 hours!

Richard and I built some arm muscles that afternoon. This was a SLOW float and many times we had to paddle a LOT to keep moving. Caleb “helped” a little. No complaints though as this was a good introduction to floating. Next time we want something a little faster. Scenery was gorgeous. We saw quite a few turtles sunning themselves, fish and then this heron.

It was VERY peaceful and the weather was very pleasant. Thankfully there had been no 4 man rafts (dinghies) available and so we had to hire a 6 man one. The 4 man would have been really cramped!

After returning to land we did the Meramec Caverns tour. Many of the formations are spectacular. The one above is just like a stage and there is even a “stage” entrance on the side. We sat in the ‘theater’ and watched a short patriotic movie portrayed on the backdrop i.e. formations. Well worth a visit and after an afternoon in the sun, the cool 60 degrees of the cave was most welcomed.

As for Hannah, she was discharged as previously planned on Thursday. They had her well medicated so she slept for most of the way. We have talked with her twice since her return. She wants to make us think that things are way worse than they are but the staff are assuring us that she is doing really well. (We don’t “buy” her stories anyway!) Her first shower since surgery is tomorrow so I am sure that that will help her feel a whole lot better and fresher. School starts in a week so she should be doing much better by then.

Liz