Row, row, row your boat

Last weekend, I went with some close fraternity brothers on my first-ever float trip. We left Friday afternoon and roadtripped 4½ hours away in one of the guys' in-laws' old 1984 Tiago RV, to Montauk State Park in south-central Missouri. Suffice it to say, I had a blast.

Saturday morning, we headed to Akers Ferry on the Current River, part of the Ozark National Scenic Riverways. (Forget about a bridge — there really is a little ferry that shuttles vehicles back and forth across the river!) The Current is 75 percent spring fed and was the first river in America to become a National Riverway.

Brian's wife had warned us a couple weeks earlier about the health risks of amoeba in lakes and rivers, through which orafice they enter the male body, and how they spread to cause a deadly brain illness. But have no fear, Craig and I came prepared as the ... "Amoeba Busters!"

It was an absolutely gorgeous day. We could not have picked more perfect weather.

Oh captain, my captain.

Shane and Brian.

Life's a beach. This is not.

I've certainly gotten my share of Missouri's natural beauty lately. It was so relaxing to go at our own pace and have an entire day with no e-mail, cell phone, traffic, noise ... or trips to Target.

Carl and Jay, doing what they do best — perfecting the canoe tip.

Jay had been itching to jump off a cliff all day long.


Five friends and brothers.

This is right at the start of Welch Spring, the fifth-largest spring in the state, with an average flow of about 120 million gallons a day. Someone else who had stopped and gotten in it, too, had a thermometer on his watch and told us it was 56.6 degrees.
At the top right of this picture are...

...the remains of Welch Spring Hospital, built by an Illinois doctor named C.H. Diehl who purchased the spring and the surrounding area in 1913 for $800. For 30 years he promoted it with the belief that spring water had medicinal properties and that cool, pollen-free air coming from the adjacent cave would heal people with asthma, emphysema and tuberculosis (which was called "consumption").

It looks like I Photoshopped this picture of Jay and Carl, but that's just from a drop of water on the lens.

Sixteen miles and nine hours later.

Early on in the trip, we were already talking about doing it again next year.

I can't wait.