My History of Whitewater Rafting On the Ocoee

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All listed are middle (lower) Ocoee unless otherwise noted.

  • September 12, 1992: Mt. Juliet (no camera; O.A.R.): As I remember, a friend from KY (Stephen Collins) came along on this trip. Not that it matters to the vast majority of you. I thought I’d put it in there for future reference.
  • September 25, 1993: Mt. Juliet (waterproof camera; O.A.R.)
  • September 12, 1998: Mt. Juliet (no camera; O.A.R.): More or less an adult trip.
  • July 15, 2001: Scottsville and Linary Churches of Christ (waterproof camera): Flat tire on one of the Linary vans going up there.
  • August 4, 2002: Scottsville Church of Christ (water proof camera): Small group. Probably around 12 people (or less) total.
  • August 9, 2003: Mt. Juliet (Upper Ocoee; no camera; O.A.R.): Flat tire on the Pirtle’s van going up there.

It is sorta sad that I have this information reasonably at my fingertips. If you are into saving money, you can get a discount if you go on the Ocoee after Labor Day. When the weather is slightly cooler.
When Joey was Mt. Juliet’s youth minister (’93-’98) we didn’t go down the Ocoee. Something about a previous incident happening earlier at another church where a kid almost drowned. I don’t know the significance of it. You do have life jackets on. And it’s a pretty safe river.
[Update 8/26/03]
I finally figured out why Joey didn’t like the Ocoee River. This bulletin article might explain why:

Echoes from the Basement
with Joey Davis
May 21, 1995
It was on the Ocoee River that I learned a great lesson in life. My wife had talked me into going white-water rafting down the Ocoee. I had never gone white-water rafting before. The idea of taking on deadly rapids in a rubber raft bordered on insanity in my book. However, my manhood had been challenged. So, with of all the bravado I could muster, I embarked on the encounter trying to appear calm.
As we rode in the bus that carries the rafters to the head of the stream, I looked out to see the raging river below. Halfway up that winding road, I became certain that I had lost my mind and the bus was loaded with suicidal maniacs. At the head of the river, I was ready to tell everyone that, “I’ve enjoyed the bus ride, the scenery was wonderful, but you ain’t gettin’ me in one of those boats!”
Just as I was about to give my exit speech, I noticed who was launching the raft in front of us…six (really old) Catholic Nuns. Do you see my predicament? Manhood challenged…scared…about to wimp out on something elderly Nuns aren’t afraid of.
You know the rest of the story! I loaded into the raft with all the other idiots. The ride started out quite calm and with each victory over the rapids, I began to feel more comfortable…that is until we got to the last rapid called “Hell’s Hole.”
“Hell’s Hole was a 12 food drop off that, if you don’t maneuver it properly, would propel your raft directly into a bridge support and capsize the craft. The guide warned us that people had died here. This did wonders for my confidence.
As we approached the rapid I became angry. I wanted to blame Melissa for talking me into this. I wanted to blame those Nuns fo rmaking this look safe. But there was one thing I wanted more than to blame somebody for my predicament…I wanted to survive “Hell’s Hole.” I became determinded that if I died here, nobody was going to put…”died because he wouldn’t paddle“…on my tombstone.
That’s when I learned a great lesson in life…The time to analyze and criticize is in the planning stages, but when you’re in the middle of a challenge…”paddle!” Paddle with all your heart; paddle with all your might; paddle as if your life depended on it (because sometimes it does); but suck it up and paddle!
The Bible calls it “perserverance” (Titus 2:2). When you find yourself in a situation where all the analyzing in the world won’t change anything, stop analyzing and deal with it. If you survive, you can analyze and criticize the situation later.
Don’t fail because you didn’t have the heart to try…paddle!

The River Wild

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Whitewater rafting with the youth group. We went on the upper Ocoee. Before I had always done the lower (sometimes called the middle) Ocoee. After experiencing both, I can tell you the lower is much better. The lower has alot of rapids and less dead space. Whereas the upper has alot of dead space where not much is happening. Still, it was a good trip.
I went with Don Spires, Jeremy Spires, Jeremy’s girlfriend, and a father and his 2 sons from Atlanta. Don picked the lead raft so that we could go ahead of all of them and get good pictures of the rest of the church group. And I think it worked. Don had a decent underwater camera. I’m interested in seeing what kind of pictures it took.
Interesting facts about the Ocoee. I asked how often someone dies on the river. Our guide said not very often. Maybe once every 5 years. And it is usually because someone did something stupid. Darwin’s Law. For instance one time someone drowned because they were on a flooded river. Another man had a heartattack on the “Grumpy” rapid because they had just had heart surgery.
Also apprently TVA isn’t making any money on the Ocoee. They seem to be getting electic power at a loss, for the amount of equipment spent on it.
On the way back we stopped at Sticky Fingers, a barbeque place. None in Nashville. Nearest one is Chattanooga. Great barbeque. The unusual thing was that many of the kids didn’t want to eat there. “No” to barbeque. Many of them got chicken fingers for no reason at all. My pork barbeque sandwich was good. My only complaint was that it didn’t fill me up.
And when did the youth of America start liking “Good Charlotte” ? I am completely lost on this one. Can’t even name one of their songs. Yet for the kids in the church van, this band is the flavor of the moment. I’m going to make a prediction. One year from now, Good Charlotte’s 15 minutes of fame would have ended and the kids of America will move on to other things. The next big hit if you will. Its just a fad. Time to move on. Then again, I guess it is better than your average boyband.

High School Band Webpages

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I think I have found possibly the world’s most poorly designed webpage. Ladies and Gentlemen, the Contest of Champions Webpage: http://www.mtsu.edu/~coc/ Both Shockwave and Adobe Acrobat Reader are absolute requirements for this webpage. Shockwave is way overused. Terrible. It’s almost as if someone got a hold of a Shockwave generator and went way overboard with it. Also, why can’t I just view the results of the band contest in plain HTML instead of in pdf format?
In case you were wondering….or if you weren’t able to view the webpage due to the hefty browser requirements…..Contest of Champions is a high school marching band competition. The actual competition isn’t as lame as its webpage. Actually it’s pretty reasonable. Although as far as getting into the finals, band politics are brought into the picture. Lots of times it’s not how you perform, but who your band director knows.
Speaking of band webpages, the MJ High School band has their own webpage: www.mjhsband.org It’s a good attempt. No shockwave to complain about. However sometimes the colors and background are just difficult to read. I went there looking to see if they would have had their calendar updated. School is back in session and they should know their band contest schedule by now. No updates. Blank calendar. This is becoming a common theme on the net these days. Spend a bit of money to get your own domain and webspace, but don’t bother providing updated information. Argh.

27

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27 kids in the 5th and 6th grade class tonight at church. Amazing. And we had our class change. So the old 4th graders moved up and the old 6th graders were out of there. Half the class was a new set of kids. David kept control of the class. The topic: Proverbs.
When I’m not teaching, it is rare that I make comments in class. Mostly I’m scrounging up Bibles for those without, and this time, extra chairs since the class was extremely full. Most of the time I don’t feel as studious about the topic in order to make a intelligent comment on it. So I stay silent. Better to stay silent than to look stupid.
The good part about going to camp is that you tend to get to know the kids better. For example I actually had a conversation with a certain kid after church tonight. Whereas before camp, he hardly said a word to me. Now he must think I’m cool or something. So that’s good.
I like to tell the kids who are at West Wilson Middle School (formerly Mt. Juliet Junior High) that I was in the first class with mini-schools. Way back in 1988. After I wait for the initial shock to wear off, I shock them again with the ability to name off the minischools which were around when I was at the Junior High. Minischools make it where the student body is divided up into separate groups and have the same set of teachers throughout the day. It helps kids not to feel so lost in what otherwise would be a huge school. Teachers get to know the students better and vice versa. Then again if your best friend is in a different mini-school, you might never get to see them at all throughout the day. My consolidation was that most of my friends were in band and therefore we all had band at the same time and were in the same minischool together. So no worries.
I think the minischool concept worked well. I went through in 7th grade without minischools. Felt lost in the gigantic world of the junior high. Then in 8th grade minischools were instituted, mainly because the junior high’s bad reputation….People were calling it “the zoo.” Minischools improved things. I’m not sure if it was a teacher or administrator’s idea to institute it…or it was due to some parents’ complaints. I think the latter. For some reason I feel as though things have become softer throughout the years. Parents aren’t going to stand for the slightest bit of inconvenience anymore. I remember parents complaining at the elementary school because their 2nd graders had to live in an outdoor portable classroom, yet at the same time I (being a 6th grader) was in a portable classroom myself. Yet no one was complaining that their 6th grader was in a portable. I guess they figured that we could take the chill of the January wind easier than their 2nd grader.
Now we get cafeteria pizza and plenty of more lunchroom choices because little Johnny won’t eat the school food. Here’s a hint: Kids aren’t eating the food anyways. Most of the time it was not unusual at all to see kids skipping lunch in high school.
Now you look at dress codes….which is sorta like spoon feeding parents into making sure their kid dresses appropriately for school. Don’t give them a choice. Make it to where everything is already decided for you. Solid colors for all shirts. So instead of actual learning that is taking place, you are disrupting learning by making a huge deal that Johnny doesn’t have a belt and has to call home or get in-school-suspension.
I’m done with this now.

Strangers vs. Friends

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It was sorta a mini TCC reunion at the Lehman Ave youth rally. Many of the main players were there. Sorta makes me wonder how unenthusiastic it could be if I was to ever organize a real life TCC reunion. Would anybody come? Would anybody care? I’ve been asked…many times to organize one by those Johnson kids. “Oh yeah, Jeff, organize a reunion.” I suspect a camp reunion would be…as Todd would say, “an awkwardness level equal to that of your average 8th grade honors class formal gala.” One week at camp vs. 4 years in high school. Even though I’ve never been to either, I’d suspect neither high school nor camp reunions are ever really good.
Brian Proctor was there. Brian was the kid in 1992 who got a wad of pre-chewed gum from the gum board and put it in his mouth for the sake of getting alot of points in the nitty gritty game. He’s a preacher now. And a pretty good one. Mars Hill is his congregation. I’m glad for how he turned out. This is actually the first time I’ve known someone growing up who became a preacher. Lots of times you just don’t realize that some people you know in church could become preachers. Preachers came from preaching schools, not from summer camps or your home congregation. There will be more kids I know who become preachers, I suspect. When I did bring up the wad o’ gum incident, he seemed to sorta laugh it off. However I suspect that he secretly resented me bringing that one up. Kinda like those times old relatives bring up embarrassing stories about you at family reunions.
Johnny K. was there too. Johnny is so positive toward life. If I’m ever in an upset mood, I give Johnny a call. Usually that sets things right. One of his main themes of life is Christians should be excited and happy. He’s said that at many a devotional or sermon. And he’s right. We should be happy for what we’ve been blessed with.
Part of me wants those really good church camps….the ones from 1991 or 1992….or even 2003….to stay locked in place forever. Sorta a never never land where we never grow old. I could have perpetually stayed 17 in 1992. Always a camper. Then again change is good. We couldn’t stay with the same people over and over again. As if one week of camp was replayed year after year. Groundhog Day, you know.
But I know these kids will grow old. Some of them…like Scott or Todd will be lifelong friends. Others will become mere strangers to me. I’m not sure of the aspect ratio of strangers vs. friends. I’d like to be friends with all of them. But some of them drift away.
I did do some online photo ordering yesterday. It’s sorta a end of the year summer tradition. I send all my summer photos to the printers. And I did doctor a few of the photos. Am I altering history? Its really just for my own benefit. If I didn’t want a certain person in a photo, and managed to photoshop them out of there, am I changing the original intent of the photo? After all, the intent of taking photos is to document life. The LA Times did it and managed to dismiss a staff member because of it. But this is for my own personal album, not for photo journalistic purposes, so I’m not worried. I’m just thinking a decade from now, will I even remember that I altered the photo? Will that effect my original memory of who was there?
Other altered photos:

Kentucky Kingdom

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Our day started off soggy. Rained the entire way up to the metropolis of Louisville. No worries. During the ride up there I was with Toddman and our education minister. We retreated to the noiseless of Phil’s car. By the time we got up there, the rain cleared.
Kentucky Kingdom is no Six Flags. As Andrew put it, it’s 6 Flag’s dirty little secret. I knew it wasn’t Disney World when I got in line for the first ride. It was the Breakdancer….sorta a carnival type ride. Spins around and makes you throw up and all that. What made it much different than Disney World was that the ride operator hawked up a big nasty loogie and spit it out in view of myself. Nasty. She (yes, SHE) apologized for it (I think). Then after a few minutes of fumbling at the controls, she got on the intercom and said “Ok, it’s gonna be a little longer because I can’t get this started again.” Completely unprofessional on both counts. Don’t ever spit in front of patrons. And always be trained adequately to handle how to start and stop the rides. I mean it’s nearing toward the end of the summer. Seems like she should have figured out how to do this by now.
The Kingdom (or commonwealth) of Kentucky is filled with roller coasters. Unfortunately these roller coasters tend to give me headaches, so I’m not as enthusiastic about it as what I should be. The Twisted Twins were good. The Twin’s name once was “Twisted Sister.” But Dee Snider must have objected, citing intellectual property reasons. (And I did say Dee Snider and intellectual property in the same sentence.)
I’m glad I went. It was a pretty reasonable afternoon. The kids seemed to enjoy it too.

Poor planning on Behalf of the King of Kentucky

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Alarm clock doesn’t work. It was broken during a stealth pillow fight at camp. What bothers me is that the perpitrators of said pillow fight didn’t bother to take responsibility for breaking my $5 clock. It’s not the clock. It’s the principal of the thing. Walking off and leaving a broken alarm clock. When I tried to find out who did it, they all said “Well we were all in there.” So that must make it alright, huh? Let me come into your house and break your alarm clock.
Kentucky Kingdom with the kiddies at church today. Some kind of service project reward trip. There are some that will always get to go on these reward trips. Others will just barely get to go. Still others will just go based on some quark or ripple in time. Kentucky Kingdom must be some kind of quark itself. What a terrible place to build a park. There’s a bridge over a major road that you have to cross in the middle of the park to get to the other side of the park. Poor planning on behalf of the Monarcy of Kentucky.
I wonder if Todd worked the night before and is planning on staying up all day with us. He usually works from 4PM to 3AM or something to that effect. He asked off, which I guess might mean for the following day, but not the day before.
Josh Hunter has been writing in his blog alot more lately. Seemingly every other day or something.