This was a very special weekend, my BFF Shannon who I miss greatly every single day I'm away from Chicago came to visit... with her, her daughter Kali. As usual it was ridiculous fun, but most importantly it felt just like if we had seen each other every single day of these past 7 months. Oh how I miss my BFF, we have so much in common, we love the same things, hate most of the same things and it's just easy to be together and have a great time.
They got here Thursday past midnight after a long 15 hr car ride, I had everything prepared for them to crash but they still stayed up for a bit to catch up. It was nice for them to see where I live, it was their first time here so saying I was excited was an understatement.
The weekend was packed with outdoors fun and adventure, Friday I had to work so unfortunately our only plan was watching Harry Potter in the city and doing dinner at Rosa Mexicano. It was a midnight function so we didn't get home until about 2 a.m. not the greatest idea as we had a 3 hr drive in the morning to Tennessee to go whitewater rafting.
In the A.M. we got up super early and got ready for our next adventure, Level 3 & 4 whitewater rafting, something I've been wanting to do since the moment I got here. We drove for about 3 hrs to Ocoee, TN and boy was it fun! Not only we were told we were the funnest group the guide have had in a while but we rescue a guy that fell of a raft! We were the fastest and strongest paddlers in our group of 8 rafts... Woot Woot!
Further down the river we went into Hell Hole, all the sudden I hear "DOCK!" that means there is a fall coming or some rock that will catapult you out of the raft... Well our raft got stuck on a hole sideways leaning on a rock and we almost tipped over. Phew, that would have been quite a rescue since there were 6 of us in the boat plus the guide.
The drive back was a bitch... Our Raft time wasn't until 2 p.m. and the it takes about 3 hours to complete, we were not back to the camp until almost 6 p.m. and pf course then we had to shower, change and then look for a place to eat! We didn't get home until 11 ish and we had an early start the following day... Our plan? A 35 mile ride on a Tour de Georgia course!
Yes, this is the insanity we were approaching and to add to it it was my 1st ride not only on my new bike which wasn't a big deal but my 1st ride on my clipless pedals. This ride was A BITCH! I could not believe the climbs, I thought I was going to die, lol! and getting back on the bike with the stupid pedals on a hill was not easy... did I fall? I certainly did, but it was not a bad fall and it's definitely out of my system and I am no longer scared... lol!
Did we finish? No but we did 20 miles of that insane course, on the way back and down we were going almost 40 mph in descent and I had my brakes in as hard as I could the entire way... pretty freaking scary! It was an amazing view, a killer workout and an awesome time.
I have to say my BFF can rock the cycling look... as well as the freaking climbs! After surviving this climbs we were definitely starving, we drove to this little German town called Helen for some food and beer and boy did this hit the spot!
After this is was time to drive back home, about 2 1/2 hours... Kali was waiting for us after laying in the pool all day! To finish it classy we took her to Hooters. The weekend was over way too soon and I can wait for them to visit again. I miss Shannon more than anything and she is one of the reasons that I have a hard time imagining my life anywhere but in Chicago. I keep saying to myself that this is temporary and it freaks me out that I love my job, that I am starting to like certain things about this area because I do not want to develop any ties that keep me to going back!
Well, this was an awful long post but that's how much fun this weekend was!
XOXO
CM
