Whitewater Rafting & The Capitals

A Horrible Surprise:

On Thursday night, the Rangers defeated the Ottawa Senators and the playoff schedules were released by the NHL.  The Caps would be playing the Rangers and the first game would be a Saturday 3pm matinee.  I was excited.  I was going to have an all day bar-hopping beer-drinking weekend with the Washington Capitals (and Bryce Harper).  Well, with them on the TV.

So you can imagine my surprise when my friend called me on Friday, the day before the huge first game, and told me to "be at my house at 8am".  What was he talking about?  I wasn't going to start "tailgating" for a 3pm game at 8 in the morning.  And I most certainly wasn't going to go over to HIS house to watch the action on a 24 inch bubble TV.

Then it hit me.  A few months ago, my friends convinced me to throw down $100 for a Living Social whitewater rafting trip.  Back in February it sounded like a great idea and I was ready for summer to start.  Back when the Caps were "maybe" going to be in the playoffs and if they made it would have "no chance" to advance to the 2nd round.  Yes THAT February.

A Random Caps Fan:

I really really really really wanted to skip the trip and say f-you to my $100.  (After all it was a sunk cost...ask a business major).  But I was told that it would be fun and we would be back in time to watch half the game.  I decided, what the hell, I'll have 6 more games to watch (uhhh you know that games 5-7 are TBD?)  

So without even looking at the trip details I got to my friends at 8am and we headed off to catch the whitewater rafting bus.  I assumed (like an idiot) that my friend knew what was going on.  We meandered slowly towards our destination, stopping a few times on the way for beer and passengers.  At one point someone had to go back and print out their tickets but nobody seemed to be in any hurry.

We parked about 5 blocks away at my secret parking spot, and walked in our swimsuits carrying a heavy cooler at 9am through Chinatown and past Verizon.  A dog-walking man in a Caps hat hollered at us, "YEAHHH baby, tailgatin for the Caps game already!!! Let's Go Caps!"

A Terrifying Realization:

Finally we approached the meeting point and I started to get worried.  Why was there no bus parked in front of our destination?  Why were there no people gathered in the lobby?  Why didn't I look at the trip details and take charge of this group of slow-moving slugs!?

Sure enough we had missed the bus (and we're never ever ever gonna do it again -KK).  Woke up early, spent $100, carried that damn cooler all the way here, and we were gonna have to just turn back around and go home.  "At least we can watch the Caps game" someone muttered.

However Living Social to the rescue!  The adventure guide weekend warrior marketing specialist (tour guide) told us that we could drive there ourselves!  The only catch was we would have to beat the bus and the bus had a 20 minute head start on us.

A Fast Forward:

This is a Caps blog so we will fast forward through the actual trip.  A quick summary:  Speeding.  Jefferson Starship.  Beat the Bus.  Freezing Cold.  Only one that didn't wear a wet suit.  Fell off the boat into the rapids.  Sweatshirt weighed 10 pounds and I almost had hypothermia.  Finally over.  Bud Light Platinum & Corn-hole.  Back in car.

As it turned out, missing the bus was the best thing that could have happened.  While all those "bus losers" as we called them had to stick around and pretend to have fun at a BBQ eating hot dogs, we could leave.  Plus we didn't have to drive back to the meeting point, we could go straight to a house with a giant HDTV.

So long story short (yeah could have been longer) we were on the road with WaltonCaps on the Radio calling the opening face off.  With help from the 20 minute intermission we were home just in time to watch the start of period 2 with those terrible NBC announcers.

The End:

So at this point in the story we are at the beginning of the 2nd period.  The score is 0-0.  And that is where this will end.  I don't even think hockey was played after this.  

The story continues later that night when on a date with a girl who has to go to the hospital because she felt like she was stabbed.  You can find out what I did at Woeful Nats.