Apparently, once you’ve established that leaving Louisiana after work for a three-day weekend is a perfectly reasonable thing to do, there’s really no going back. So, in August, we packed up yet again and headed north for another three-state weekend road trip, this time bouncing between Tennessee, Georgia and North Carolina.

This weekend’s agenda?

Two days of whitewater rafting, an Atlanta Braves game, some family time and—as always—a few completely necessary detours on the drive home.

Round Two on the Ocoee River

We started Friday morning on the Ocoee River in Tennessee. This was Caitlin’s second-ever rafting trip, which meant there was really only one benchmark for measuring improvement: How many times would she fall out of the raft?

The answer was once! A definite improvement over rafting trip number one.

Marc, our much more experienced resident rafting pro, clearly still has his work cut out for him.

The Ocoee gave us exactly the kind of morning we were hoping for—plenty of rapids, plenty of excitement and just enough chaos to make us question why we voluntarily keep doing things like this. And Caitlin survived. Mostly inside the boat. We’re calling it progress.

From the River to Truist Park

After rafting, we cleaned ourselves up and headed back toward Georgia for a different kind of adventure: an Atlanta Braves game at Truist Park. The Braves have always been Marc’s team, and this was only Caitlin’s second Major League Baseball game.

And this one was so much fun.

We found one of our favorite little surprises of the night at The Battery: Coca-Cola’s Jacob’s Pharmacy stand. The setup pays tribute to Jacob’s Pharmacy in downtown Atlanta, where Coca-Cola was first served in 1886. Even better, they were making Cokes the old-fashioned way. Obviously, we had to try one. And honestly? After wandering around The Battery Atlanta some more, we walked around the stadium before heading inside.

Then Marc revealed a surprise. He bought upgraded seats! Instead of watching from the nosebleeds above the field, we were sitting right along the first-base line.

Even better, the seats came with access to a private lounge.

With air conditioning.

And snacks.

In August.

Marc did very well.

It also happened to be Braves Alumni Weekend, so we got to see former players throughout the night, which made an already great game even more fun.

From there, we fully committed to the baseball experience.

We ate the concessions. We saw The Freeze. We watched the wonderfully ridiculous Home Depot Tool Race. We cheered for a team that was actually good. And then we stayed after the game for fireworks.

Caitlin may still be relatively new to MLB games, but this one set the bar dangerously high.

Another Morning on Another River

Saturday morning, there was no sleeping in. Instead, we were up bright and early for rafting trip number two—this time bringing Marc’s parents along and heading north toward North Carolina and the Nantahala River.

Compared with the Ocoee, the Nantahala was much calmer. It was also much, much colder. But the easier water made it a great place for Caitlin to get a little more comfortable in the raft and actually practice instead of simply concentrating on remaining inside it.

And she was doing great. Until Marc decided to lift the raft up and over while Caitlin was still sitting in it. There are different versions of what happened next. The important part is that Caitlin ended up in the water. So technically, she fell out of the raft once again. Whether that should actually count against her rafting record remains under formal review.

At the end of the trip came Nantahala Falls, where Caitlin made one final, extremely convincing attempt to eject herself from the raft. But those core and leg exercises finally paid off. She stayed in-ish. Progress!

Lunch at the NOC & One More Adventure

After our morning on the river, we grabbed lunch at the Nantahala Outdoor Center, where Marc’s brother Nathan met up with us.

At this point, after two mornings of rafting and one very full night at a baseball game, you might think we’d head back to the house and call it a day. You would be underestimating us. Instead, we squeezed in one more adventure and headed to Huckleberry Knob for a hike. And this one was absolutely worth it.

The trail led us out to a beautiful open summit with sweeping views across the Smokies. After a weekend spent mostly down at river level, standing on top of the knob looking out over layer after layer of mountains was a pretty spectacular change of scenery.

From there, we continued along the Cherohala Skyway, taking the scenic route through the mountains toward Tellico Plains, Tennessee. The drive itself was part of the adventure, winding through the mountains with plenty more Smoky Mountain scenery along the way. Eventually, we made our way toward the Tellico River for a quick stop at Baby Falls.

Bagels, IKEA & One More Whitewater Detour

Sunday morning, it was time to start the drive back to Louisiana. But obviously we weren’t just going to drive home without making a few detours along the way.

First, Marc introduced Caitlin to Goldberg’s Bagels. Excellent decision. The bagels were delicious and provided the necessary fuel for our next major athletic event: Exploring IKEA. We wandered. We looked at furniture. We looked at things we absolutely did not need. We probably discussed organizational solutions that would theoretically transform our lives. You know. IKEA.

Eventually, we continued toward home, but Marc had one more stop he had wanted to make for a while. Montgomery Whitewater in Alabama. Because apparently after spending two mornings rafting, what this weekend really needed was…more whitewater. This time we were only there to check the place out, walking around the facility and watching the action. But let’s just say we left with the distinct feeling that this probably won’t be our last visit.

Three Days, Two Rivers

By Sunday evening, we were home.

Over three days, we’d rafted the Ocoee, watched the Braves from some incredible seats, rafted the Nantahala with family, eaten our way through Truist Park, survived Nantahala Falls, hiked to a gorgeous view of the Smokies, discovered some excellent bagels, wandered through IKEA and scoped out yet another place to go rafting.

And Caitlin only fell out of a raft twice. Although one of those shouldn’t count. We will be accepting no further questions on the matter.

Not bad for another three-day weekend. And judging by that last stop in Montgomery, we’re not done with whitewater just yet.

Check out our other weekend adventures!