Myspace blog #8

Jul 3, 2006
It's all fun and games until someone breaks their back!!!

So, the annual 2 day 16 mile trip down the Buffalo River was this weekend and only one person out of our group of 10 left the river on a backboard in the ambulance!

Actually, I'm thinking this trip was more like the, 1st day, 2 miles, 2nd day, 14 miles!

For those of you who don't know, I am the official Princess of the Buffalo! It's a hard job, but somebody's got to do it!

The trip consisted of the 3 veterans who have been on all the overnight canoe trips, me, angie, and ben. Then there was Becca, Scott, Byron, Leah, Michael, Kevin, and Jess.

Byron was the lucky duck who was my partner. As soon as we got into the water he told me to only paddle when he tells me to. And let me tell ya, I did not let him forget that he told me that! The funny thing was, is the fact that I was on the UTC crew team, so I know a lot more about paddling boats then I let on that I do.

We were team Rescue 911. I don't remeber how we got that name, but I'm pretty sure that it was because I had the whistle, which I was using continously. I think I blew it at every boat that came by us. Ben told me that after him and Becca flipped in the rapids the first image he saw was not a bright light, but me, running over rocks and through the water blowing my whistle the whole time trying to aid them. Byron, on the other hand, was mad that I bailed out of the canoe and left him to man it through the rapids by himself! But, when duty calls.....I do have to mention though, that team Rescue 911 was shut down after the true emergency involving the ambulance.

Overall, I was just making sure that people were behaving on the river, like, not going too fast, or not being too rowdy. I was also trying to control any traffic jams that we might of encountered. Meanwhile, my friends didn't think all my whistle blowing was necessary and was trying to pawn me off on all the people who we went by.

The whistle was quite handy, it also had a compass and it told the temperature. I don't think it was quite accurate, it said it was 110 degrees in Angie's house! I renamed it the hot-o-meter because it told us how hot we were. I was 110, others were about a 90....

Team Corona, which consisted of Ben and Becca, got their name due to the fact that they had decorated their boat with a corona banner. I preferred to call them Team Bud Light.

There was also Team Coochie, Team Chatty, and Team Vienna/Viagra. After team Vienna/Viagra was put out, and Leah and I took over that canoe, we renamed ourselves Team Second String.

On the second day, Michael changed my name from the Buffalo Princess to The Buffalo River Rampage! I don't understand why though......

We had a great time though on our trip. I probably won't wear any skirts for a while due to the fact that my legs are bruised and scraped up.

So, I'm sure the question is, was an ambulance really called in??? And the answer isYES!!!!

Day 2, about Mile 13, and about 3:00 we stop to jump off some clifts. We've stopped here in years past and this was no exception. By the time we got there, there were a lot of people already jumping off.

Kevin, Jess, and Scott were the only one's who scooted up the hill....I was on the ground trying to work out a deal where I traded a guy a beer for his kayak.

I saw Kevin and Jess jump and was even cheering on Jess. We had jumped the day before off another clift, but it wasn't quite as high as this one. About five minutes later I hear someone say, I think she is hurt. About that time, I looked over and saw Jess and Kevin being pulled to the side by another canoe.

Also, about this time, some people came down an access road on their 4-wheeler. We told them the deal and they ran back to their house to call 911. Luckily, Dr. Angie was there and one of the people who came down on the 4-wheeler was in nursing school. They had Jess stabalized, holding her neck and helping keeping her afloat in the water. About 15 minutes later the Waynesboro EMT people came and put her on a backboard and carried her to the stretchers and off she went.

Well, evidently she somehow hit the water and it caused 3 compressions in her back. She was transfered to Vanderbilt last night and I just talked to Kevin this morning and they most likely will do surgery on her this afternoon. I'm not 110% sure what exactly a compression is, but it isn't a break, but pretty much the same thing. Evidently, whenever she hit the water, the bottom half of her stopped, but the top of her body did not!

Obviously, it was quite scary, and put a damper on the trip. To say the least, I know 10 people who will never clift jump again! So, yeah, please keep Jess in your prayers!

I wish I could just write and write about how awesome this trip was. It was great. I love the water and just floating and hanging out. But, you know what they say....it's all fun and games until someone breaks their back