After a great nature style breakfast (you would be surprised what food they brought to the camp!), we drove to the lodge to pick up my mom and moti, on the way we stopped at a local store to buy a water camera. I bet racer on the price of the camera. She said 10$, I laughed and said 27$. It was 10.99$, see you were wrong.
"מחסוע"is a new Hebrew word that means poncho invented by doctor avshalom moore. This summer is very rainy, unlike last year. Alla being a great host and planner, purchased us all ponchos for the trip. Moti unaware of this purchase decided to supply himself with a high end poncho. My mom wouldn't buy one, knowing that somehow things would work out (she will take his poncho...), noticing this approach on the ponchos and other things, made me see where I got my "don't worry, no need to plan" genes. So we had 4 simple ponchos and another fancy one. We all agreed that bringing a poncho would insure that there will be no rain, no need to try to wet the prepared. However, on the day itself, no one remembered the ponchos.
There were several groups there, and it took time...so much time to get us going, we waited for an hour and a half, till the bus showed up, then we boarded it and were on our way.
We took a 4 people raft with holes in it, the holes are meant to let the water out quickly, more on that later...
We had about 10 boats of different styles, single duckies, double duckies, 6 man raft, 4 man raft and we got in the water one by one. And soon we were further and further behind, though rowing hard, some with ores some with their mind... we were out of sync from minute one and don't think we manage to be synched. We took nice photos of other rafts, the view and the river. The day was nice and sunny, but the river was very rocky. If you see a rock sticking out of the water , you usually bounce off it and keep on, the problem is with rocks just below the water level, those are harder to spot, and as we noticed, very easy to get stuck on. We tried jumping and moving to other sides to get away, but with little success, what proved to be a winner was kicking the rocks with our legs, this got us out of many a rock (to many to count).
Moti was the pace maker, trying not to confuse between left and right, I was trying to keep the boat straight with not much success and mom tried not to fall overboard again... on the 2nd rapid, she was sitting on the edge without putting her leg against the side and fell backwards, we pulled her in laughing and got the oar which fell over too (I think we got the oar afterwards).when the water level was higher , Alla and I jumped in to enjoy the brrrr water, so good. We kept bouncing from rock to rock.
We stopped on the edge for a quick soggy sandwich lunch. Water got in to the raft and watered out sandwiches, lucky we had some granola bars. And kept being the rock patrol. The problem, we found out later is that this type of raft is meant for higher water, and the holes assist in balance and letting the water out, in a slow moving river, however, this makes you heavier in the water and so get stuck in every rock.
Inna "super rower" kessleman had the same boat and was in front. Inna has been here before and does not recall having to work so hard like today. She finished 30 minutes in front of us, and rumors say she even broke 1 drop of sweat. We were sweating a lot, but not being able to keep up.
At some point a wasp or something similar decided to rest on alla's shoulder, we scared it to death by hitting it.
In the last hour the weather came (yes, there was no weather before),and you could actually see the wind as it cut through the water, and we had to fight the rocks, the wind , the water in the rafts and ourselves. We tried to make up for it by singing and riddling riddles.
These are the recollection on some Indian dude who passed by us
"
I was rowing my canoe, standing up like I normally do, my wife was sitting down in the canoe enjoying the scenery, while our dog was breast feeding.
(you had to be there). The water level is unusually low for this time of year, but the trees are green and the air is clean. As we approach a very very slow moving raft, I notice an odd site.
A grown man is sitting in the raft trying to row by pointing his finger straight, and exercising his tongue. Then it becomes even odder as he attempt to get water out of the raft with a bottle of mineral water, filling the bottle with in the boat then pouring them outside, he does so for 30 minutes with no success, then takes his helmet (that also has built in holes), fills it in the boat, and pours outside, and on the way spills half in the boat itself.
I have been canoeing this river for years and never seen anything like it. I kept looking left and right for a candid camera, I passed them stranded on another rock and moved on...crazy people are everywhere"
We finished after around 4 hours, and pulled our raft up. The next piece of information is crucial to the Ohiopyle police department.
I took the water camera from the raft and put it in the bag, we made sure to pick up everything. Witnesses recal the camera being in a little cloth bag that you are given in the super market (instead of the plastic ones). Then the lodge folks went to the lodge and we gave them the bag. And Alla and I went to the raft store to return the life jackets and helmets with built in holes and headed back to the lodge.
No one knows what happens next, but the camera is gone. I assume it is not my fault, however with my history with cameras I am the usual suspect.
We called the rafting place and the lodge and no luck, the photos are lost for ever...
We drove back to camp for another gourmet dinner, and more conversation and our families getting to know each other. A poker game began close to midnight
And it became july 26th, moti's birthday , but he was focusing on the game and we delayed the toast to the morning.
we broke camp in the morning and had another good breakfast, rain was coming down (it can go up, but not today) and we actually used the ponchos! - I don't like a ponchos, the plastic makes it humid so I preferred to Not get wet, it was drizzling, not really raining. After all was packed we said our goodbyes and drove away.
We stopped at nemacolin to check the place out, this place is a hotel , build in euro style, very impressive in sight and glamour. Interesting art inside, huge chandeliers and a star bucks... for warm drinks. I have no photos (see this and previous blog to know why) but we were impressed.
This place has a logo of a bird, we figured Nemacolin is a type of bird but...
" The "Fat Bird" logo was adopted because it captures the spirit of Nemacolin Woodlands Resort. A rare bird indeed, "Fat Bird" is a delightful image and was personally selected by Maggie Hardy Magerko, owner and president. In Maggie's words, "Fat Bird is fun and whimsical, just as are the expectations of our guests. They come to Nemacolin Woodlands Resort to relax in an atmosphere removed from the rigors of everyday life.""
All I have is the website of the place- http://www.nemacolin.com/ - with 350$a night for the cheapest rooms, we took our hot chocolate/coffees and drove on. After another stop at Wal-mart on the way!!!- to return a turn bag "live better, give me a break", we finished with a good out back dinner. Ransacked the cars for the camera, then mom and moti left for the airport.
Btw - the patient (my regular) camera is doing better, it had dried up, but has a black spot in the middle of it, so not photo worthy just yet, and it is stuck on one particular mode, so still hoping, but we are adopting a new camera. We decided to upgrade to a state of the art point and shoot cannon (will it last till 2010? Only time and blog will tell)
Please enjoy pictures of my dying camera, the last one you actually see the point it fell, I think I clicked the button as I was falling...
I am ok though, Moti has a nasty bruise, the camera is the real victim here
Cheers, I have to go play softball for the 1st time
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