About an hour into floating down the river we met up and bypassed several groups of drunk tubers. Some were already passed out in their tubes, floating down the river either solo or tied onto the larger group of tubes. My sis mentioned that on previous trips these tubing groups would get so drunk that they would end up on the banks of the rivers or the river islands puking or making out. We all laughed at such amateur antics.
Two-and-a-half hours in, and after stopping at an island for lunch and then later at an "isthmus," I was feeling pretty good. The punch (actually a watermelon Mexican martini) was pretty much depleted by this point, half of it consumed by yours truly.
When we were just five minutes from the pickup point I made our little group pull over onto the banks of the river, where I sat huddled and whimpering, trying to convince everyone that I couldn't go any further. Yup, I was one of *those* people. I would like to blame the sun, the motion of the water, the deceivingly strong and delicious beverage my sister made, the fact that I should have eaten more and drank less, but talk about a rookie move.
I think we can all probably guess how the rest of the evening panned out: we were pretty much the last ones out of the river (after much coaxing I finally allowed Hubs/Sis/SisBF to furiously paddle me across the river so that we wouldn't miss our drop-off time. Then I left everyone to drag the cooler/my tube up a steep hill. Good times were had by all.
Despite this, we had a really fun time (at least for the first 2 hours and 45 minutes) and it was a perfect day for floating down the river with a cool beverage and a cooler full of fried chicken. Definitely a new Summer tradition (minus the getting wasted part).
JJ's Watermelon mexican martini recipe
INGREDIENTS
10-14 lb watermelon, flesh cut into cubes
¼ cup sugar
1-2 Scotch bonnet peppers, halved
3/4 cup lime juice
3 cups silver tequila (4 for more people/if you're partying rather than relaxing...)
INSTRUCTIONS
Purée the watermelon and strain; if watermelon has seeds, try to pick those out first. Boil sugar and ¼ cup water in a 1-qt. saucepan until sugar is dissolved. Remove from heat and add Scotch bonnet pepper halves; let syrup cool and then strain into a gallon jug/pitcher. Stir in watermelon juice, lime juice, and tequila.