Kudos to Catherine! Honestly, if the activities had ended at church, brunch and the Civil War, we would have been tickled pink. But Catherine had called me about a week before our trip began, and asked what I thought about a river boat trip. I thought it would be great fun! And I was right! … well, mostly. LOL
OK … time to answer the question in today’s title: Meryl Streep stars in a movie called, “The River Wild”, which was partially filmed on Oregon’s Rogue River. We experienced a combination jet boat ride on the Rogue River / dinner at the OK Corral run by a company called Hell Gate (LOL, I know) which launches out of the town of Grants Pass (named for General Grant’s victory at Vicksburg). So, now you know! 🙂
These are aluminum jet boats, which hold about 60 people. They take us 18 miles downriver from Grants Pass, to the “OK Corral” where dinner awaits. After dinner, the same boat carts us back to where we began.
Here is a short video (lifted from Youtube) that shows pretty much what we experienced during our ride to the OK Corral!
Yes, as you can see, the boat does 180 degree turns, and splashes & sprays the passengers. Gerry was kinda having NONE of the getting wet part of the journey … which is important information for later in this post.
Look at us … all DRY & HAPPY at the beginning of the trip:
LOL It was, frankly, a BEAUTIFUL ride down river.
During one of our “about faces”, being shown where the Applegate River runs into the Rogue River.
It was about here that our guide mentioned “The River Wild” (and “Rooster Cogburn”) being filmed here. I was just thinking to myself … do ALL of these rivers look the same??? thinking that it looked an awful lot like some scenes in “The River Wild”, which I’ve seen multiple times!
90 minutes from where we’d started, we arrived at the restaurant spot dubbed the OK Corral.
Well organized, cheerful service, very good food served family style — salads, veggies, bbq chicken and boneless ribs, pitchers of water, soda, ice tea, lemonade, beer & wine, and even a cute little marionberry cobbler — the dinner was absolutely wonderful!
Some very happy customers!
After dinner, and it was time to board the boat to return to Grants Pass. Full tummies, and the sun going down, I don’t think any of us were anxiously looking forward to more 180 degree spins, or excessive splashing, and yet, Catherine seemed to think we’d surely be in for more.
On the trip back we saw some teens jumping off into the river to swim. The poor guy on the left chickened out when he heard “Jump! Jump! Jump!” from tipsy bachelorette party also occupying our boat.
Well … about an hour in to our 90 minute return trip, our boat and the boat just ahead of us (there were a total of 6) decided to some double spins and tricks and splash each other. Again … this would have been fine (particularly had it been on the WAY to dinner), but it had gotten a little chilly, and the splashing was a little much. AND THEN … the other boat intentionally stopped short, and every person on our boat got DOUSED. I mean DELUGED … this: Kermit gets drenched x 10!! Lulu needed to lay out in the sun the entire next day, and Gerry’s wallet contents were still wet 6 days later. The drenching bumped the experience from Fabulous to Very Good in my eyes … and, note to Hell Gate Jetboats: Sometime you’ve got play to the audience AND the time of day, dudes!
THANKFULLY, Catherine (the brilliant woman is always thinking!!) read over all the suggestions from Hell Gate before we left, and based on this, we all had a change of clothes waiting in the car upon our arrival back at Grants Pass. All was well!!
Thank you again, Catherine & Carl … aside from the few uncomfortable moments, it was an unforgettable trip down the Rogue River, and we loved it!!!
All I can say is an experience you would try ONLY once! All I could think is ohhhhhh my aching back!