Day 19 Blog post: Teresa Musick

Riding in the van back to Brevard

Can't believe we've come so far

From night time rain- waking up in puddles

To night time rain-waking up in puddles?

The circle is complete, but the journey will not cease.

The memories and lessons learned

The laughter and long river days

Will continue to fill our minds,

If only to calm our longing hearts

To return to the simplicity of nature,

To drown in its ever flowing, over coming current,

To live in those moments- not blinking, not missing a second.

 

We will all eventually long for those days to return;

When our passion for the river was first lit,

When all we had to do was "paddle damn-it."

 

The last line is a shout out to Monty, your saying got us through many long days on the river!

 

So our journey is over, we made it through that final long and hot van ride back to Brevard and up that familiar hill to Ross hall. We all worked hard and diligently to clean up the boats and cook-ware and other group gear that desperately needed attention. After setting up tents to dry out for possibly the first time in 20 days, we got hit with a rain storm that didn't decide to let up until the rest of clean-up was complete. Chelsea, Austin, Jenny and I worked on breaking-down and re-setting up the tents back inside. Chelsea and I decided that the true test of setting up a tent was doing it in a closed and small setting, aka in the classrooms of Ross Hall. That was a whole other challenge in itself. We were the last people to finish clean-up, which in total only took us a little over two hours! Our final de-brief was an emotional one, with lots of hugs and teary eyes, it was hard to say good bye to the people we have grown so close to in such a small window of time.

 

Reflecting back on our journey, I am so impressed with each and everyone on the trip. We all overcame some sort of challenge and did it with a smile; we stayed positive as a group and really supported one another. I am so thankful to have been a part of such an important trip. So this is it, the closing blog entry to our trip, I hope everyone enjoyed following our progress on the Yadkin- Pee Dee river!

Day 18 Blog post: Chelsea Preciado

Today was such a wonderful day.  I woke up ridiculously early, around 4:30, and went for a run on the beach.  The sunrise was so beautiful, it was a really vivid pink color with streaks of orange and purple.

When I returned back to the campsite I found breakfast already out on the picnic table, granola is always a favorite of mine.  After everyone was awake, with full tummies, we loaded into the van and drove to the Tom Yawkey Heritage Preserve, about an hour away. Even in the early morning that van ride is hot!

The tour lasted about 3 hours and consisted of us being driven around a beautiful island by our awesome guide, Joseph.  He came from a gullah background, which is a culture unique to the lowlands of South Carolina. It was really interesting hearing him talk in his native tounge. 

We ended the tour around 12:00 and returned to our campsite at Huntington Beach State Park.  As soon as we arrived, I ran to the tent and grabbed my bathing suit, the beach was calling to me.  We were lucky, the waves were large and breaking perfectly to body surf. I forgot how incredible the ocean is. I laid in the sun for about an hour with the intention of getting rid of my "shorts tan," but I think I may be too far gone...

Around 5:00, we began preparing to go to dinner, we had reservations for a 5 star restaurant! We were treated like royalty at this place; 4 course meal, awesome waitress and an entire room to ourselves. Dinner was incredible. I had salad, shrimp roulade, tilapia with veggies and rice and about a gallon of sweet tea. We took this opportunity to do a really in depth debrief of the entire trip. I loved hearing what everyone had to say about their experience, what their best memories were, what their worst ones were, the funniest quotes... We were at that restaurant from 6:00 till 9:30 (when we were finally kicked out).

When we got back to the campsite at 10, alot of people went to bed immediately because of our looming 5 o'clock wake-up, but Aislinn, Dan, Jana and I headed for the beach.  It was a really magical night, I couldn't have asked for a better ending to the trip. There was an awesome lightning storm occurring over to the west and with every crack the sky would just light up, illuminating the beautiful clouds over the ocean. The waves were soft and rhythmic. We walked on the beach for what seemed like hours talking about our trip and what's to come next in our futures. 

When we came closer to the path that would lead us back to the tents, we took one last look at the ocean.  We had really made it, we really came this far, here we were with the waves as our prize reminding us what we worked so hard to achieve.  Feelings were just welling up inside of me, happiness, relief, pride anxiety, sadness it was a little too much to handle.  I turned to the awesome people by my side and said, " who wants to scream with me?" We all walked forward to the surf, just far enough for our feet to be submerged, we let our emotions boil up inside of us and when it just got to be too much we screamed out into the giant dark abyss. What a moving experience, without humility, just being as loud as you can and letting your thoughts and feelings pass through your body as noise. 

We left that beach feeling refreshed. I slept so well, my mind clear, ready to see what the next day had to bring. This has been the best experience of my life.

Day 19 sunrise

Farewell Atlantic Ocean. We are off to Brevard, with a container of water from the ocean to store with our container from the source.
Final blog posts coming soon...

VOR 2010 celebration dinner

Allison was awesome. Thanks to the Mayor's House restaurant staff for excellent food and service!

Day 18, end of expedition celebration dinner

Our amazing waitress, Allison, took this picture of us at the Mayor's H.ouse restaurant in Pawleys Island.

Day 17 Blog post: Austin Bunn

I woke up this morning around 7 am to the sound of rain drops hitting the top of our tent. We were  allowed to actually sleep-in until 9, but with so many early morning starts my body didn't allow me. As the rain became harder others began to wake up and pack up their personal gear. We decided after sitting in the rain for a while that it made a whole lot more sense to sit on the covered porch of the DNR offices. The rest of the morning's activities took place there because of the thunderstorms that moved in. Imagine that, our last day of paddling started off like our first day ended.
We entertained ourselves with skits about our biggest challenges done by each tent group. After a good lunch of veggie pitas we finally all headed to the boats and began to get in. It was close to 1 by the time we all got in which was definitely the latest start of the whole trip. We did this so that the tide would work with us. The paddle was wonderful; it was cool with a slight drizzle. We got to see lots of neat wildlife including fish jumping and egrets fishing. The marshes were really unique. I have been visiting the Charleston area all my life and never seen marshes like this. Instead of just having marsh grass as far as you can see with no trees, there were cypress trees, lillypads, and other beautiful aquatic plants with neat flowers.
Finally the end of our journey was in site; ahead we could see the highway 17 bridge which marked the Georgetown marina. As we passed under the bridge we all floated in a pod and tapped our paddles on the underside. Once at the docks we all got out and loaded our gear and boats onto the trailer. It wasn't until the last boat was loaded that the realization of being done really sank in.
We then headed to Huntington state park where we enjoyed some much-needed food and showers. We soon all went to the beach where we stuck our feet in in celebration of making it!
It's been a long journey but an awesome one for sure. I have enjoyed overcoming all the challenges and getting to know everyone but for now its time for some well needed rest.

Day 18 at Tom Yawkey

Here we are with Joseph (aka Tiny) who gave us a wonderful tour of the Tom Yawkey Wildlife Center on Cat and South Islands. Thanks Jamie and Joseph!