Day 7: Arriving in Rome

I spoke to Richard on Friday morning on my way out to meet him in Rome. He told a harrowing tale of his previous night on the river.

He ended up stopping around midnight at a big rock in the middle of the river. Those who have paddled this section of the river may know this rock as “Rock Island”. He pulled up his kayak and set up his tent as best as he could. Two corners of his tent would not fit onto the rock itself, so they hung over a bit, so he was careful and ended up keeping his tent on the rock.

Around 4:00 AM, he was awakened by the sound of rushing water. He woke up and checked on the water level – there had obviously been a dam release and the water was rising. He kept watching the water rise, finding a rock in the river, making a note of the water level, then coming back out of his tent 15 minutes later to see if he could still see the rock. After an hour, the water was still rising and it was getting close to the top of the “Rock Island” – there were about 12 inches to spare. Finally, around 5:30 AM, the water stopped rising and he could relax and get a few hours of sleep.

On Friday morning he woke up, snapped a few pictures of his campsite on “Rock Island”
and headed down river to arrive in Rome. I spoke to him again after we were all checked in and set up at the campground at Lock & Dam park. I found out that he was visiting with Joe Cook (a Rome resident, fellow paddler and the Executive Director of CRBI) at Heritage Park in downtown Rome. I arranged to come and pick him up at Heritage Park to take him and his kayak back to Lock & Dam Park, where he would camp with us for the evening.

When I arrived at the Heritage Park, I found that he had made a new friend. Jesse was and older gentleman who was riding his bicycle in the park and just happened to run into Richard. After talking a few minutes with Jesse, we learned that he had lived in Rome his entire life. He gave us one bit of advice, he said “it’s not the town that makes the town, it’s the people that make the town”. That being said, Rome is a charming small town that not many Georgians are aware of. If you ever get the chance to visit, I urge you to go and see this unique town in Northwest Georgia. Rome is surrounded by the two rivers – the Oostanaula and the Etowah rivers. These two rivers join near downtown to form the Coosa river. The town’s proximity to the rivers only add to the charm of the downtown area – there are historical sites and a lively downtown area of shops and restaurants that are sure to keep you busy during your stay.

After taking Jesse’s picture and asking him to sign his trip log, Richard and I loaded his kayak into the truck and headed for back to Lock & Dam Park. Upon arriving, we threw some hot dogs on the grill (Richard’s favorite) and sat down to visit.

After lunch, he was able to read up on the blog posts and comments as well as catch up with what was going on back home. He was happy to get a shower that afternoon charge his phone and relax a bit. Around early evening, a fellow paddler and friend, Deborah arrived to join us at the campground. Richard and Deborah set up their tents and then Richard invited us to join him for dinner.

We drove into town and found an Outback steakhouse and lucked out and snagged a booth in the bar area right away. As usual, Richard kept everyone entertained, including our server, during dinner and we headed back to camp. It was a chilly night, so we built a campfire and sat out and visited for a while before turning in for the night.