In case you're wondering, God lives in the middle of "Screaming Left Turn" on the Chattoog River.
I know because I met him there, screaming for mercy, deliverance and a way off the river that was sure to claim my sanity.
I'll never be able to fully understand the logic that led me to book a full-day, white-water rafting trip on the Chattooga River in Seneca, SC complete with level 5 white-water. Oh, sure, I've been white-water rafting before on a tame little river in North Carolina. Mostly level 1 or level 2 rapids (mild "bumps" in the water) with one level 3 (good-size bump in the water) rapid at the very end. That was fine. No danger of dying, little danger of actually falling in the water and a fun day in the sun. My kind of vacation.
However, on this "Summer of '05 Vacation" my husband and I were traveling with my brother and his wife. All three are major adrenaline junkies. I am not. If God had wanted me to battle major white-water, he'd have made me a salmon. He did not. And hence my troubles began.
The Chattooga River is considered a "Wild and Scenic River" and is also the site where the 1972 movie "Deliverance" starring Burt Reynolds, John Voight and Ned Beatty was filmed. Memorable quotes include "I'm gonna make you squeal like a pig" and "He's got a real purty mouth on him, don't he?" The gift shop sports a t-shirt with the heart-warming phrase "Paddle Faster...I hear banjo music." I almost bought one.
The weather that day was beautiful. The sky blue and my heart surely hammering faster than was healthy. We chose an older guide for the trip. "Phil" (pictured in the back of the raft). My theory, if you're going to risk your life on white-water, might as well do it with someone who's obviously survived a few trips down the river.
By 9:30 that morning we were on the river. For over 4 hours we battled level 3, 4 and 5 rapids. Thankfully, the rafting company wouldn't allow us "novices" to navigate the two level 6 rapids that recent rainwaters had created. Those, we had to walk around. I was never more glad for terra firma. I swallowed enough of the Chatooga to officially be part of the river. But I did it. AND I did it without falling in!
The only thing I lost on that river was my sanity. It fell in somewhere around "Corkscew Falls" or "Crack-in-the Jaw". It sank to the bottom of the river and I haven't seen it since. Because that was when I began really understanding the THRILL of the experience. The undiluted joy of battling with mother nature and coming out
alive. That was when I knew that I HAD to come back and do it again. I became a white-water junkie and my world will never be the same again.
