August 19, 2003
I went rafting on the Youghigheny with a bunch of people over the weekend. Went pretty well considering there were four people in the raft (out of six) who'd never rafted before. We didn't flip over, and even managed to keep all our water bottles somehow. And, as if to make up for us being late getting there and not having enough time to put on sunscreen, the Sun decided to stay behind clouds for most of the afternoon.
The only downside is that while I was driving around the Ohiopyle area trying to find the place (the directions they give you from Yahoo suck) I wound up behind a van that was engine-braking. Good for him, not so much for me. My engine doesn't generate enough compression to slow itself on hills very well so I had to use the brakes to keep from rear-ending the guy. Well, after several minutes of this we started getting that overheated-brakes smell and putting the pedal on the floor didn't do much more than slow us down on hills.
Everything's fine since they had all afternoon to cool off, but they squeak really loudly now the first couple times I use 'em. I'm guessing I should get them looked at when I go in for an oil change about 950 miles from now.
Well, I would have pictures -- I bought a pair of waterproof disposable cameras for the trip, except that since I was in a rush when we got there I left the damn things in the car. They do take pictures of each raft on the trip, and I'm trying to get a scan from someone who bought a copy of our raft, so I'll at least have one pic of me trying not to get throw into the Yough.
