The River

River Trip Gone Wrong

July 6, 2016 by Anne-Kathrin Leave a Comment

DSCF5046

River Trip Gone Wrong

(Names have been changed due to privacy)

I hope everyone had a great 4^th of July! I am still in Independence Day mode and wasn’t really thrilled about getting up this morning to go to work. I’d rather take a little vacation to recover from all the festivities. I definitely wouldn’t mind another trip to the river at Twin Palms Resort where, four summers ago, I had the time of my life with some of my really close friends. But one particular incident turned a fun-filled weekend into a quite shocking experience.

It was a very warm weekend in late June when two good guy friends of mine and I left one Friday morning to take on the four hour drive from Orange County to Blythe. We were all in great spirit and just looking forward to hop on the boat and be out on the water. I even got to drive the boat myself that day, which definitely was an awesome experience, even though I lost my hat somewhere in the river waters. That wasn’t the only thing the river took from us: as of today, we counted several losses of cell phones and sunglasses to the water.

That same night, four of my other good friends made their way out to meet us at the resort for the weekend. All of them arrived in a great mood and ready for a barbecue and fun games. We stayed up late playing truth or dare and adult Jenga while enjoying some chilled drinks. The first night went super smooth and didn’t give any indication of what was about to happen the following day.

On Saturday, all seven of us spent the day together on the river island, playing Volleyball and interacting with other vacationers a-k-a “river rats” (which is the prestigious title people are being called after a certain amount of river visits). I was far from being a “river rat”, but I had a hell of a good time anyway. Later that day, we all went back to the house to get ready for yet another great dinner. We decided that evening to do the same as the night before and stay on our patio to play games. We were having a blast doing the usual shenanigans when one of our friends, Luke, wanted to go inside the house to get another beer.

The front door was a big glass sliding door, which we usually kept shut so that no insects were able to fly inside the house. Luke wasn’t aware that the door was closed and walked against the window, making it shake quite hard. To his defense, it was sometimes really challenging to notice since it was pure glass which made it seem that the door was actually open. After the first few seconds of being in shock, we all started laughing and blamed it on the alcohol. Thanks God nothing worse happened. Luke then successfully opened the door, got his beer, and then joined us again at the table.

Unfortunately, the second time around things didn’t end that well. After continuing our games for a while, Luke decided to get himself another drink, again unaware that the glass door had been closed. He moved in full swing and hit the door way harder this time, which resulted in the glass being shattered all over the poor guy. We were all in shock. Luke didn’t move one single bit while the glass pieces rained down on him.

Once we all realized what just happened, everyone jumped off the table to help. Luke had suffered some serious cuts, and blood was running down on the floor. We made him sit down while a couple of my other friends started to clean up the broken pieces of glass. My friend Dan immediately called 9-1-1, but since we were far off from civilization, we decided to drive ahead to meet the ambulance on the way.

Breanna, Dan, Luke and I hopped in the car and headed out while the others were still working on cleaning up the mess. We were about ten minutes out when we saw the ambulance approaching us in the middle of nowhere. Breanna gave headlight signals to demonstrate that we were the ones who had requested the emergency, and the ambulance as well as ourselves pulled over on the side of the road.

So there we were, in the middle of the night in the nowhere, standing at the side of the road while our friend Luke was being taken care of by the doctors. We knew he was in shock, but when he asked us to take a photo of him being vetted by the medical professionals, we all just shook our heads and thought, “seriously dude?!” Of course we did not take a picture of this scenario. Once he was all bandaged up, we proceeded to the next hospital where Luke would get stitches, as recommended by the doctors.

We arrived back at the resort at around 5 a.m. Needless to say, all of us were overly tired and shaken from the events that happened that night. We caught a little bit of sleep before we needed to figure out how to temporarily fix the door and deal with the insurance. Yeah, this second trip unfortunately didn’t turn out at all as we had hoped. Thanks to the help of everybody though we made sure that nothing worse happened besides some scars and broken pieces of glass. This could have ended way worse, which we were all aware of. From that incident on, there was always a sign on the new glass door, indicating that it was closed so that something like this would not happen again.

Image: ©Anne-Kathrin Schulte

———————————————————————————————–————
Anne-Kathrin Schulte, is a contributor for CaliforniaGermans.com. She writes on her personal experience of the American Dream as well as on working as an au pair in CA. She was born and grew up in Düsseldorf, Germany, where she completed her degree as a state-approved Kindergarten teacher. After her au pair engagement in the US and a quick return to Germany she decided to attend university in California and moved back to the United States. She has been living in Southern California since 2011.

If you would like to contact Anne-Kathrin, please send an email to californiagermans(at)gmail.com and place her name in the subject line.

———————————————————————————————–———–

California's Hidden Travel Gems – The River

June 29, 2016 by Anne-Kathrin Leave a Comment

DSCF5048

California’s Hidden Travel Gems – The River

(Names in this article have been changed due to privacy)

When you’d ask me about the best spot to spend summer in California, I’d tell you straight: at the beach. I am sure I am not alone with this opinion. But during summer 2012, I was being introduced to a whole new world (which I’d never thought people who live in Southern California would even consider since we have the beaches right in front of us) – “The River.”

Before that, I had no clue there was such a thing as “The River.” I mean, yes, I have seen those crazy Spring Break Lake Havasu images in the news when living back in Europe, but I had no clue that a lot of people actually do own vacation homes in areas where degrees can reach up to 115-120, just to be on a boat all day, drive a jet ski, or water-ski.

When my close friend Dan asked me at that time if I would come to the river with him and a couple friends for Memorial Day 2012, I was a little hesitant at first. Why would my friends not want to spend the holiday in Huntington Beach, where we would have so many fun options? But when I figured out that all of my close friends were actually going on the trip, I gave in and took his invitation. And what can I say; I definitely did not regret it.

Early on Friday morning before Memorial Day Monday, 11 friends were packed up in three cars to drive approximately four hours to the Twin Palms Resort by Blythe, where my friend’s vacation spot was located. The drive wasn’t too bad; we mostly headed through the desert without being stuck in traffic. Thanks God we decided to leave Orange County early: when we arrived at our destination, temperatures had already reached up to 100 degrees. Since my friend Dan and his family only use the house a couple times a year, they turn the A/C and fridge off during their absence. Therefore, when we arrived at the house it was boiling hot inside. We had no other option besides waiting till the A/C and the fridge finally started running properly so that we could unload the cars and store our food and beverages.

Once everything was stored, it was time for the fun part: getting the boat out on the water and spending the day at the little island in the middle of the river. When it comes to boats, I am usually a little hesitant because I have a tendency of getting seasick. I remember getting seasick from just laying on a floatie while being out on the ocean. So yeah, wavy water and boats are not what I would call my natural habitat.

But at the river, it was different. Everything was different: the extensive heat didn’t bother me much due to the fact that we were on and in the water all day. I also didn’t get seasick at all because of the calmer water. I was just having a great time with some of my closest friends. I actually started to understand why people sometimes just want to escape even a beautiful place such as Huntington Beach. Being at the river is just a different kind of fun.

DSCF5040

Since we were 11 people and the boat only held room for about six, a couple of us had to wait at the shore while Dan was transporting the first group over to the river island. The ride over was just amazing: the resort was surrounded by pure nature. On one side, you had the mountains, while on the other side you had grassy areas and little coves. It was just picture perfect. When we landed on the island, tons of other holiday vacationers had already set up their spots. The boats were parked close to the edge of the island, so all people had to do was jump out of the boat and walk through the water towards the sand.

Our group stood out because we brought a volleyball net with us that we set up on the island to play matches against each other. But that was not the only leisure entertainment we had: We brought floaties as well as water-ski and a tube that could be attached to the back of the boat with us. It was super easy to make new friends on the island that invited us over on their boat for a drink or a ride. We all had one mutual interest: to just have fun and let go of everyday life.

While we were spending most of the time during the day on the island, we also made the most of the evenings and nights by hosting barbecues, playing games, or just laying on top of the roof watching the stars. It was beyond amazing to be surrounded by basically nothing and looking at the night sky while getting into really deep conversations with my friends. That weekend really made me appreciate my life in the states even more and all those possibilities this country has to offer. You only have to drive a couple hours to end up in totally different scenery. That is just one of the reasons why I love to travel.

While I was hesitant at the beginning to go on this river trip, it wasn’t my last one during the summer of 2012. The next one was even more special and adventurous, but I while get back to that next time.

DSCF5021