Back in our college-ish days, a group of us would go camping each year near Lake George in the Adirondack Region in Upstate New York. Sometime during the trip, Jamie, myself, and some other friends decided we should go whitewater rafting. The rafting trip was pretty tame by whitewater standards, but it still was a challenge getting into the boat with how fast the river current was moving. Our friend Kevin started singing “the wading is the hardest part” in tune to The Waiting Is The Hardest Part by Tom Petty.

We had a bunch of traditions during our many visits to Lake George. Whitewater rafting wasn’t actually one of them. Our visits typically included a visit to Goony Golf, splitting a bucket of KFC on the common in the center of town, making s’mores, burning Jiffy Pop, writing gross Mad Libs, getting yelled at ‘for noise’ by the park rangers, and burning the deck of cards we used at the end of the weekend. Sounds like we were twelve, doesn’t it? We weren’t.

Tags: 80s music, adirondacks, camping, goony golf, kfc, lake george, the waiting, tom petty, tom petty and the heartbreakers, upstate new york