A little backstory: my wife has already had several discussions with this one friend about my plethora of swimwear (and underwear no doubt...)
I said a hundred is a bit of an exaggeration, I truly don't have that many lol. But nonetheless I said I would need help picking out a suit. (i secretly wanted to wear a thong and wanted to check with my wife if her friend would be ok with it.) Anyhow, she threw the buck back at me and said I needed to try on some and do a fashion show for the girls and then they'd help me decide. But this foiled my plan cause I wasn't quite prepared to just go sauntering out into the living room wearing a thong in front of my wife's friend lol. But I mustered up the courage and tried on a few different trunks and briefs for them to check out knowing (or at least pretending to know) none of them would make the cut
So after a handful of suits, I called my wife into the bedroom so I could ask her if a thong would be ok, she said probably but we should check with her friend to be sure. We were going to be crammed on a little raft together for several hours, didn't need any unnecessary awkwardness or general uncomfortableness. Well awkward is my middle name, but we wanted to limit it lol. But then I asked my wife which one I should wear if I were to. The choice came down to a blue number by n2n, and two Gregg ones that I had just bought earlier in the year... One all orange, and one orange & teal one, where the pouch was mostly orange with just a teal stripe and then the tail was all teal. She ended up choosing the latter so I put it on. Meanwhile my wife decided to change her bikini, much to my satisfaction, and put on her favourite wicked weasel bikini. Then I put on a pair of shorts and a muscle shirt. The shorts were... short, so the friend thought that I had made my choice and was just going to wear those, which was more conservative then what I had been modeling. And she said the top didn't match! I'm like this is just what I'm wearing to the river! And then I asked her (my awkward self showing a little) if she was alright with me wearing a thong. Turns out she was totally fine with it (possibly slightly excited lol) and that skimpy swimwear is fairly common for men in Europe (where shes from)
Anyways that done, we loaded up and headed to the river, dropping off a car at our exit point, then drove upstream to wear we were going to embark. There was a spot I eyeballed earlier where the river cut close to the highway so we parked in the ditch and got out. There was a steep cut bank so I tried to explain to my wife to follow it along through the bush til she found a better way down. The women grabbed the cooler and headed down. Meanwhile our raft apparently had a leak in it and had lost a little pressure. So I plugged the compressor into the truck and tried pumping it up some, but the little compressor just didnt have the power. So I gave up and headed for the river. I followed their path as lugging that raft on my own was no easy feat, until I got into the clear and saw they went straight down the bank...And it's about 40m high! Well, I guess we're going down the bank. I got about half way down and then tossed them the raft, then basically skidded down the rest of the way and jumped (sort of unexpectedly) to the bottom. There was a small shelf at the edge of the river and some sand in the river as well as some large jagged rocks... Somehow, luckily, I was able to land without breaking any limbs off or even scratching my paint! I landed directly in the river, on my feet, amazed at my own alacrity. I quickly discovered how nice the river was and instantly tore off my shorts. Why delay the enjoyment?
Well we all climbed aboard and set off on our journey. Now most people get in the river about 1-2hrs upstream from the exit, we on the other hand wanted to have more time at sea, I estimated 5-6hrs. What a fabulous time we had. My wife and I enjoyed sunning our cheeks (admittedly I already had some good tan lines going
) and we only ran into a few groups camping/atv'ing on the shoreline along the way. Oh and the rcmp chopper flew over a couple times so we gave them a show lol. There was no real traffic until the last hour of our float. By then the sun was starting to sink below the valley walls and we were all cooling off. Now we were in amongst the heavy traffic and had several convos with our fellow rafters. I think some of the women (in their cheeky bikinis) were jealous that I was out doing them, by the looks lol.At our exit point we were all relieved we had survived the journey. I got off the raft, waded to the shore while tugging the raft behind me, got out of the water and then put my shorts back on and ran up the hill to get the car. The raft was about 70% deflated at this point, we were taking on heavy water! But we made it. The trip ended up taking us 7 hours, so a bit longer than expected. We resolved to repeat the trip next year, with a few changes:
1. The raft needs to be repaired or replaced!
2. We need to start 1-2 hours earlier to take better advantage of the sun. And this way we could also stop on one of the beaches for a picnic lunch.
3. We need to blaze a proper trail to the river instead of careening down the cut bank.
4. I seriously don't know how we managed to forget music. Or maybe nobody wanted to risk losing their phone. Regardless, music is a must next time.
5. We need to coordinate better with friends so we can get a bigger group together.
One thing that shouldn't change (obviously) is the skimpy swimwear! I'm so glad I decided to go the thong route, it made the day! Moral of the story: don't be afraid to bust out your swim briefs and thongs and have fun!