As I write this my body is screaming for an ice bath.
Floating the river is a summer staple in Oklahoma. Good friends, beer, and dirty river water make a Saturday in Tahlequah amazing. Floating, for those who don't know, is where you go to a resort of sorts and rent a raft that can seat four to six people. The resort, then, buses you down to the drop off point and then gives you your desired rafts and off you go.
The weekend I went, it was a pain because the water was going a different direction than where we needed to go. Paddling opposite of the current is hard, but a great workout. The point of floating down a river is to talk with friends, tan (or, if you're like me, burn), and have a nice relaxing time.
It's also the perfect time to people watch. It's practically tailgating but on the water. You're surrounded by college people, old people and families of all ages and you all have one common goal: have fun.
I'm not a huge beer drinker, but beer is definitely one of the things you're supposed to take on the trip. Hearing frat looking dudes yell, "Beer me!" from across the river and then watch them fail to catch is one of the views you will see during your time out. It's also funny to watch them swim after it while it floats away in the water.
The sun is one of the worst things while floating. If you don’t constantly lather yourself in SPF1000 you will fry up and not be able to sleep for two days. I am one of those many poor souls that fried like an egg in a frying pan on the hottest day in July. It began slowly; I tanned beautifully and put one layer of sunscreen on while everyone else put one two or three within one hour. I started to feel like I should put some more on, but then our once good supply of sunscreen started depleting at a rapid pace as our skin started to burn. Soon all that came out of our spray-on sunscreen was the oil that accompanied the actual lotion, and it helped the sun fry us up even more.
We finally concluded our trip with four fewer people (they floated ahead of us) and we were tired, physically baked and bruised from the rocks that lined the bottom of the river.
Taking breaks off of the rubber/plastic raft is one of the activities you’re supposed to take part in. We dock the raft on a rocky bank and sit or lay in the water or play catch with a Frisbee or football.
Depending on what you chose to bring with you is what you can have fun with. A couple of people that went on the trip lost their phones to water damage, and I’ve lost sunglasses and shoes along the way in float trips in the past. I saw a group lose an umbrella in the water and another lost a hat. The Illinois river has claimed many of your favorite items. I’m lucky because my phone is “water resistant”. It fell into the water a couple of times, mostly because I fell into the water. I also took a speaker that’s water resistant and it kept playing tunes the entire seven hours we were out there.
Floating the river is the summer thing to do. I can’t imagine a summer without going to the river and floating on a raft with a bunch of people.
