Let Freedom Dream

"The secret of happiness is freedom. The secret of freedom is courage.

....Freedom is simply the chance to be better."

I live the dream daily. July 4th is no exception... this year was magnificent!

A group of lovely friends and I had hopes of floating the Teton River. With dollar-store tubes in tow we headed over to Teton, Idaho. In all theory our plan was brilliant. After consulting google.earth, our lovely planning gurus planned the perfect location for our adventure.

The original plan: Pack two cars full of people, drive to the end of the river where we were planning to end our float to drop one car off, squish everyone into the remaining car, and drive to the upper end of the river to begin our floating extravaganza.

Sounds awesome right?! We thought so too! So we carried it out as planned.....until we got to our predetermined starting point. A couple of our groupies got cold feet upon arrival and decided they would prefer to not float down the freezing river on dollar store tubes. I definitely respect that. I was not born with the worrier gene, and it can sometimes get me in trouble.

We decided to compromise and headed to Monkey Rock, a local swimming favorite. After only a short time at Monkey Rock we decided to float down the end of the little channel and see where it would take us. Upon reaching the end it appeared that there was a river-like body of water flowing. YAY! We concluded it must be the same river we were going to get in before and decided to float it down, but first had to swim back and tell the others.

In the end, four of us decided to grab the key to the car at the bottom of the river, and then sent the rest of the group on their merry way. This worked out wonderfully, because the people that wanted to float could float, and the people that didn't want to could splash around a little more and then head home. Win/win.

I live the dream.

An on-looker might observe that things did not go quite as planned. :) Long story short, we encountered trees, rocks, laughter, and a grand ole time.....until the current stopped and we realized there was a massive dam with logs waiting to greet us. Needless to say we averted the dam and swam quite a ways out to avoid it and get to the shore. We noticed some men on the other side of the dam when we got out and decided to try to ask for directions. Not smart. We couldn't hear a word the man was saying over the loud sound of the water, but could tell the man was panicking. We thought he was telling us not to jump in the dam, so due to our lack of suicidal desires we stepped back from the dam, waved goodbye, and decided to walk on the gently marked path behind us. This path was the only way out on land. It was hilarious. We had 2 pairs of shoes and 4 pairs of feet.....so funny. We followed the trail of horse poop and stickers for awhile until we met up with an old woman and a cop. The cop explained to us that the man friend from the dam thought we had lost a group member. We assured him that we did not lose one member, but were all lost together, he informed us we were on private property and pointed us in the direction of our car. We thought our car would be farely close and were excited. We promised to hurry off the woman's property and continue on our way. Saying we were not close to our car would be an accurate statement. We looked hilarious. Four college kids + swimsuits + five dollarstore floaties+ two pairs of shoes + boonies of Teton, Idaho. While it may not be the most classy thing ever, we were just living the dream. We alternated wearing the shoes, because the ground was incredibly rough, pokey, and hot. I loved it though, the whole thing. Props to the pioneers. I'm so grateful I only had to wear a tankini during this adventure rather than heaps of fabric. We had a grand time. When we got closer to our car we met a charming woman who lent us her bike to ride down and collect the car with. She brought out some cold water for us and we ended up visiting with her for a while. We all fell in love with her sweet personality and made sure to take down the name and address of this good samaritan so we can send her a thank you note and make a return visit in the near future. I am so grateful for the wonderful people that fill this planet. There are so many angels among us and I am so thrilled to have had gotten the opportunity to have one touch my life. Incredible.

Overall the whole adventure was amazing. I would do it the exact same today. No regrets, just lovely memories and a ton of laughter. Laughter truly is the best medicine.

After this adventure we went home, cleaned up, applied mass amounts of aloe to our burning bodies, and headed down to Idaho Falls to continue our 'America: the beautiful day.'

I was pleasantly surprised by the almost traffic we encountered heading down to Idaho Falls. As you know, I am in love with Minneapolis/St. Paul, and traffic is one of those things that I seem to enjoy. I love people, and being surrounded by strangers who are all unique and different yet are gathered for a similar purpose is exhilarating . I am strange, I realize.

First stop: Parking. It was a breeze! Seriously. We found a close, convenient, free spot. Which was an incredible blessing due to the fact that it was 8:30p.m. on the 4th of July and we were in the most popular place in Eastern Idaho. Anywho, we were blessed, got parked, and decided on Chili's for some din-din.

This whole gluten-free diet is really awesome. The only catch is it is very difficult to find food that doesn't have gluten in it, especially at resturaunts. Props to Chili's! They had a lovely little allergen menu that said exactly what was gluten free. Turns out they have 3 different choices that don't have to even be special ordered! I chose the Cobb Salad with no-fat honey mustard dressing. Delish! It was to die for. I mean come on, lettuce, tomato, avacado. Yum!

After this, us dinner groupies walked down to the river to meet up with the rest of our groupies that had already eaten dinner before. (They had eaten pizza, a no go for 'lil Miss Celiac's and another amazing member of my crew.) :) We were at this divine spot exactly opposite the Idaho Falls LDS temple. It was gorgeous. We sat, chatted, and continued living the dream for awhile until the fireworks began.

Upon the beginning of the fireworks show we realized that there was a grove of trees precisely where the fireworks were. We hurriedly grabbed our blankets and relocated. We got the most wonderful impromptu spot ever a few yards up. The fireworks were incredible. The sky was full for like 45 minutes of these beauties. Well done, Mellaluca, thank you! It may have been the best fireworks display I have ever witnessed.

After the show we headed back to the car. About 2.5 hours, 20 miles, and loads of awesome songs later we were back to our humble abode. Once again we were blessed to experience real lovely traffic, rocked out to some great beats, and just continued living the dream.

I hope you did the same! :)

<3 Peace and Love,

-MK