Smart Furniture Goes Rafting

Hey everyone!

We just got back from an awesome trip to the Middle Ocoee River. There was rafting, a cabin, great food, and a lot of fun with our Smart Furniture family.

(You may be asking yourselves why the company decided to take us rafting over the weekend - because we’re worth it.)

The trip started Friday after work. The hour-long drive was capped off by a trip to the grocery store:

 Where Matt, Rico, and James got to load up on meat, potatoes, and of course, Idaho Spuds.

 The cabin itself was pretty amazing. Three stories, with a wraparound porch giving us panoramic views of the Tennessee hills, and it came with a hot tub, a creek out back, pool and poker tables, and even a hammock (Andrew got the “privilege” of sleeping outside the first night!).

That night we grilled, swam and talked to the wee hours. But the best was yet to come; whitewater rafting in one of the most popular stretches of water in America: The Middle Ocoee River.

Okay, I’ll admit it; I was pretty scared at first. I’ve rafted once before, and it was pretty harrowing. But this time we got a fantastic guide (Justus) who’d been down the river more than 3,000 times. Needless to say, he knew what he was doing. The trip itself lasted about two hours, and it was really thrilling. Every rapid, bump and splash was just enough to get the adrenaline pumping, but never enough to be really scary. Confession: I’m definitely going to go back. They should have put a warning label on the side of the boat, “Warning: Whitewater Rafting May Become Addicting.”

Basically, it was awesome, and I can’t recommend it enough. Rafting down the same stretch of river that hosted the whitewater events of the 1996 Olympics? How can it get better than that?

So we got a great ride, grilled to our hearts content, slept in a huge, tricked-out cabin; yeah, I’d say it was a pretty great weekend.