Crafty Lil Devil

What a busy weekend! Jason and I went on a float trip down the Illinois River w/5 other people. Here's who was there: Shawn, David, Glenn (all Jason's friends), Glenn's girlfriend Courtney, and Shawn's friend Brandon. We got there Friday, checked into our cabin, dumped our stuff, and went off in search of the nearest grocery store to buy supplies for the weekend. After we got back to the cabins, we built a fire in front of our cabin and sat around the cabin's front porch drinking beer and listening to Glenn's stero. The guy works for Kicker, where they make car stereo speakers, so needless to say, the sound carried...a lot! We tried to keep the noise down, but Glenn is somewhat proud of his system, so it was hard. Plus, the more the guys drank, the louder the stereo got. The resort's manager came by to tell us to turn down the stereo. We did, but we were not happy. He didn't even ask politely...just said "We have a quiet camp here. Turn off your stereo now." What an ass! Whatever. We were determined not to let that ruin our night, so we begrudgingly turned off the stereo and kept on shooting the bull and drinking beer. No big deal. The rest of the night was uneventful.

The next morning, we all got up and had breakfast (yogurt and a low-fat pumpkin muffin for me, greasy sausage and eggs for all the non-dieters). Around 11:00, we loaded up the truck and drove to the resort office, where we boarded a bus that took us to the drop point for our float trip. We signed up for the 13 mile float, instead of the 6 mile float, hoping the longer float would have less people and we'd have more fun. Yep! The first 7 miles were relaxing and fun. The weather was only in the upper 80's, which made for a BEAUTIFUL day! Not too hot, but warm enough to swim if we wanted. Very nice. The float went well and we all had a good time. The guys enjoyed dunking each other and splashing us girls. Courtney ended up getting a little pissed cause she was getting so wet, but HELLO! We're on the river! What do you expect??! I just enjoyed every minute of it! And I had taken my camera with me (in 2 Ziploc bags, in case any water got in our raft) and I got some great pics. One of David standing waist deep in the river with a beer in one hand, a cigarette in the other, and a big yellow floppy fishing hat on his head. I had to get a pic of that. He is by far the nicest of Jason's friends and one heck of a great guy. 6 hours later, we finally reach the end of the trip. By this time, everyone is starving and a couple of the guys are really drunk already. We haul all our stuff to our cabins, shower, and it's time for dinner.

Dinner was fun. Hamburgers and brats and my now famous "banana s'mores". (recipe to follow)
We all ate until we were stuffed, built another fire around dark and proceded to get toasted on beer and mixed drinks. We had the most fun campsite, by far! People from other camps were coming over to join us because we had the biggest campfire and the coolest people. A good time was had by all...until around 11:00pm when the Park Ranger showed up and warned us to be quiet. He said he'd had a number of complaints about our campsite all weekend, due to noise. We said it was the first we'd heard about us being too noisy, except for the one time the night before when the camp owners told us to turn off our radio. After that, there had been no other complaints that we were aware of. He said for us to just keep it down and there wouldn't be any more problems. OK. No big deal. Everyone continued the party at a little quieter level for a while, but I guess people were more drunk than we realized, because in rebellion that we couldn't turn our radio on anymore, someone starting singing "Amazing Grace" (very poorly, I might add). Next thing we know, the same park ranger comes walking up from behind our cabin, demanding that someone tell him who was singing and threatening to give us all a sobriety test and take us to jail for public intox if no one fesses up. What the hell?! Can no one sing around a campfire anymore without being threatened with being hauled off to jail?! Is it illegal to have a few drinks on the porch of our cabin?! We weren't doing anything wrong, buddy! So, long story short, 3 guys volunteer to take the test so we all wouldn't have to do it. (Thank god, because there is no way I would have passed. But that is beside the point.) 2 guys end up spending the night in jail for public intoxication. What a way to end the weekend.

When we got home, I asked my friend, whose husband is a cop, if what happened was legal. He said that unless the people who were complaining about the noise filed a written complaint, that it was a misdemeanor charge of disturbing the peace and that would have been false arrest to be arrested for a misdemeanor. And as for the charge of public intoxification, the campsite where we were had been rented by Jason and myself, so it was not public property. We invited them onto our (rented) property and they were above the age of 21, so it was not a crime. If this is the case, the guys that got sent to jail would have the right to sue the park ranger for false arrest. I hope they do. Those guys were jerks.

And if almost going to jail myself was not enough, when we finally got home on Sunday, we walked into our house hoping for a hot shower and a nap, only to find that our furniture had been rearranged and our bedroom was completely empty. Not only that, but there were huge fans blowing under our carpet. We were confused to say the least. We went next door to our neighbor's part of our duplex and asked what the heck was going on. She said that sometime late Friday night, she walked into her bathroom to find water covering the floor. Apparently, a waterline had burst under our side of the duplex, flooded the entire back of our house, and was seeping into her house. I don't know for sure what happened, but evidently, the leak was fixed, and the carpet cleaning guys were called to deal with the mess. Poor guy had to move all our furniture out of our room by himself so he could rip up the carpet padding in 3 rooms of our house. So until he comes back to replace it, Jason and I are sleeping on the couch and on the loveseat in the living room and our house is in shambles. Thank God it was not our fault! We don't have renter's insurance right now, but you can be sure we will have it very soon!

My neck hurts. Cervical spondylosis and sleeping on the couch for days don't go too well together. Hopefully he comes to fix our carpet tomorrow.

One final thing that I'm proud to report...even with the camping trip and pms last week (which means eating everything in sight practically) I still managed to lose 1.2 lbs. Yay me! Going for a bike ride tomorrow and I know that will help work out the kinks in my neck and back and put me in a good mood all day.