Things Ravi Pratap Is Up To

Out here in Missouri, there aren’t really too many things one can do outdoors. No mountains to trek on, no beaches to surf on, no lake to swim in - nothing, really. So the few places that do exist where one can actually do something in nature are literally flooded with people during the summer.

This weekend a group of us (about 18 people) descended on the Meramec river on yet another float trip. Now I have been floating before and enjoyed every bit of it but this was also a camping trip and since that is something I have never done before, this was sure to be one exciting trip.

The float trip was orgnized by Jai who took the trouble of booking the camp grounds and all the logistics, essentially. We left on Friday evening in about 4 cars inspite of the threatening clouds and got there in about an hour. Tents were set up with lightning speed and soon enough, it was time to get the fire going and start the process of appeasing our appetites.

The rain gods were particularly unimpressed it seemed. As soon as we got done with dinner, the rain came pouring down so hard that there really was nothing anybody could do but get into their tents and wait for the rain to stop. Ben and I were sharing a tent so I got into the tent and tried to sleep since it seemed like there was no way the rain was going to stop. As I tried to sleep, I cursed myself for being stupid enough not to bring a sleeping bag along. I slept on the floor of the tent with the rain water under me shifting under my weight and sending waves in Ben’s direction!

Presently, the rain stopped and everybody decided to come out of their tents and gather around the fire. Since most people were quite drunk, it was fun to listen to them chat about all the things in the world that they would never quite dream of saying if they were in their senses

Anyway so I finally went to sleep at 2:30 am and got up the next morning at close to 8 am. We got onto the bus at 9 am and we were soon in our respective canoes and floating down the river. I have to say that what followed was just pure fun. We did everything that we possibly could - dashed into each other’s canoes, made people’s canoes capsize, attacked unsuspecting people with our super soaker water guns and had huge water fights! Rajneesh and I were particularly fond of the ambushes that we organized. We would stop at a some shallow point in the river, set our canoes to one side and then stand in the water to attack all boats that passed us by

Our 10 mile float finally came to an end around 3:30 pm and some of us were almost sad that it had to all end. As I drove back to St. Louis, I promised myself that this was something I would definitely do again. And this time I will take a sleeping bag along!

This entry was posted on Monday, July 21st, 2003 at 11:11 am and is filed under Everything. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.