Camping

[Jason1]

Went camping on Thursday July 15th, and came home on Sunday. I camp at a place called Twin Rivers Landing, its about 2 hours south of St. Louis. About a 5 hour drive for me. We go with my cousins and some friends of mine and their parents...about 15 people in total. Weve been going for years, its always a nice time. Most everyone didnt arrive until friday, but me, my cousin and my uncle, my brother and my friend all went down early on Thursday. Weather was pretty good, it did rain friday morning for awhile, but it cleared up by noon and we had a good day swimming in the river. Thats the best part of the whole thing, and probably the only reason we keep coming back to this place...the river. It happens to be the Black River, which winds through southeastern Missouri. Its just a really nice river to canoe on. Despite the name, the water is crystal clear, and its just the perfect river, IMO. Lots of fish and stuff. This year we saw a snake swimming through the water. We've seen pretty large turtles in it too before. Anyways, we start off on Saturday morning from our campsite's beach, in our canoes. We pack drinks and lunches in small coolers, and we eat once we get out a ways on the river. We canoe 9 miles in total. We could probably get it done in less than 3 hours, but we always stop to swim and play catch and just mess around, we stop like this several times throughout the day, so it usually ends up taking 5 hours or so. Usually someone in out party tips their canoe, this year nobody did, surprisingly. I remember last year there was this spot where the current was particularly fast, and there was a sharp curve to the right, and there was a big log sticking up out of the water...anyways, the water pushed most people right into the log, a few people tipped there last year. That log didnt seem to be there this year. Anyways it was a good time all around, as it usually is. Some people get drunk, we have a big fire, roast marshmellows, all that. Then there are always some crazy campers somewhere near us that are always doing crazy stuff, we call these people "carnies", but thats a whole nother story.