finally...
reel big fish was awesome-we ate with rbf, gave aaron a hug, got our shoes signed, got t-shirts and lindsey and i were front and center at the concert. that was the short version obviously, cause it was so long ago and there is much more to talk about:
right now, i am the happiest person alive just because im home. i just got back from georgia where i went back woods camping with bryan, tom and matt. and i cant ever put into words how bad the past two days have been. i was really surprised that we actually made it to georgia, since so many things couldve gone wrong, but im even more surprised that we made it home.
see, we had the bright idea that it would be FUN to drive to georgia, then ride a ferry for an hour and get dropped off on an island in the middle of the ocean, where our only way off is to pay $8,000 for a helicopter. sounds like a great idea right? (hint: sarcasm). WRONG! the first sign that this was the worst idea ever was the fact that it took two trips to carry all of our gear onto the ferry. we took: 3 sleeping bags, 3 tents, 2 pillows, 4 backpacks, 2 coolers (full of food and water), 2 fishing poles, a tackle box, 3 chairs and a STOVE. the bare essentials...ha ha. id say our second sign that this was a bad idea was that we were the only people on the entire island. we just figured that no one else had come because it was august and its hot etc. so we got off the ferry, loaded everything up and walked straight into the woods. we realized after 5 minutes that, holy shit, we have a lot of stuff and its really really heavy. we walked about 5 miles through the woods, and our stuff was so heavy, and we took so many breaks, that we took 5 hours walking to the campsite. FIVE HOURS! and let me tell you, those were the longest hours of my entire life. during our nice stroll through the woods, it was well into the 90's and it rained half the time, which pushed the humidity past 100%. there were lots spiders that were 5
inches long and ticks that burrow into your skin and give you lyme disease.
eventually though, we made it to the campsite around 400 o'clock. we set up camp, had dinner and figured that the camping part could be fun, despite our long walk. WRONG. i almost went blind by spraying bug spray in my eyes. so i took out my contacts since they had bug spray on them. but when i pulled my glasses out of the backpack, they were broken. then we ran out of water. so we went to the beach where they had potable water-meaning we could drink it, as long as we boiled or filtered it. when we got back to the campsite, something had eaten the rest of our food. we were left with 5 packages of cookies. at that point we realized that we
would have to go home the next day, also meaning we had to walk through the woods again. but there was a small catch-we had to be back to the other side of the island by 200 or else we would miss the ferry. so we tried to occupy ourselves for a few hours, pulling ticks out of our skin and boiling water. but once the water boiled in the pot, we had to wait for it to cool before we boiled more, because we only had one canteen. the only other thing to hold the water was plastic water bottles, and they melted from the heat.
then it started getting dark. and scary. there were a few raccoons hanging around the campsite and those huge spiders were everywhere, so i was on the lookout. we knew we had to sleep if we wanted to attempt walking the next day. so we finished our cookies and crawled into our tents. oh, what a long night that was. the raccoons kept coming around, and every time they
got close enough, they would steal something. we lost 2 bags of garbage and the squished bananas. plus, the tents were the hottest
things on earth. we pretty much signed our lives away, thinking we'd died in a car crash on the way to georgia and this was hell.
the next morning we got up at 600 again and started packing. but our stuff was still so heavy. the only water we had was boiling hot, we didnt have any food, wed slept a total of 2 hours and our bags were at least 50 pounds each-not including the tents, chairs, etc. so we dug a huge hole and began burying anything perishable...and a few things not perishable. toilet paper, paper plates, a pillow, my towel, one of my shirts, a few pairs of socks, the propane tank, a flashlight...
by the time our bags were light enough, it was 900 o'clock, so we started hiking again. we got a short ways and tom was getting sick. we had less than a gallon of water, no one had eaten breakfast and we were tired. we finally decided to just call the ranger to see if we could be picked up. but the rangers didnt get to the island until 1000 o'clock. so we kept walking. when 1000 finally came, we stopped to call and we didnt have any service. so we kept walking. and walking. and walking. and finally matt got service. but the phone was busy, so he threw it into the woods and we were down to 2 phones.
we never did get a hold of anyone on the phone, but a ranger happened to drive by around 1100 o'clock and we got a ride. we made the ferry and finally got back to our car and its wonderful air conditioning. but then our stuff wouldnt fit. the trunk was full and the back seat already had a cooler, a backpack, 2 small bags, a sleeping bag and a chair. the front seat had one of the other chairs, but we still had one tent to fit in. matt tried putting it in bryans lap, in the back seat, but bryan wasnt having that and they started arguing. matt slammed the door in bryans face, walked to the front of the car and opened the passengers side door. then he threw the tent at bryans face and all hell broke loose. i thought they were going to kill each other and me and tom.
needless to say, it was an uncomfortable ride home. i found at least 15 ticks in my feet and ankles alone, everything had been soaked by the rain and there was absolutely no room in the car. so when we stopped to eat, i threw away my shoes to make room.
but im finally home, and i havent noticed any signs of disease, either from ticks or unsanitary water. all i can think about is how awful that trip was and how glad i am to be home. i still have another 10 days til i move, and i dont think ill be leaving my house or the air conditioning.