Jumping in the James

Yesterday some friends from my hall (Devin, Ted, Erica, and Huang) and I went to Jamestown Beach on the spur of the moment. Everyone was finished with exams, and we were ready to have some summer fun. We left five or ten minutes after we decided to go - no one had time to change or anything, it was very impromptu, which I often like. It was beautiful out: hot, sunny, free. We piled in Devin's Jeep and drove over. It had a digital readout: Distance To Empty. It read 19. So we had 19 miles worth of gas left - not much. Devin kept a nervous eye on the readout as it quickly flew down to 13, 10, 7... but at times it would jump back up. Jamestown Beach is not far, but the car kept recalculating how much gas it really had left. It was like we were in Speed... only we were trying to maximize fuel economy instead of go above 50 or whatever. We got to the beach: 3 miles to empty. Maybe we were going to have to walk home, but by god we were at the beach now and we were going to enjoy it. The beach was crowded with mostly college students, celebrating the relaxing summer status of us all. Most people had bathing suits, of course. Not us. We set down our towels, and Erica immediately jumped in the river: fully clothed, in fact, in a dress! Devin stripped down to his stylishly striped boxer-briefs and did a flip into the water. Huang laid out on a towel, and Ted and I skipped some stones and waded a bit. The water felt amazingly warm. I wanted to jump in but my cellphone was in my pocket... and I was wearing clothes... and I have a bit of a thing about going in water that's not the pool.

But it was beckoning so strongly that I put the stuff in my pockets on a towel, took off my glasses, and walked in. It felt as good as I expected. I played around with Devin and Erica in the water until Ted alerted me to the fact that a large group of people down the beach were calling my name. I was pretty blind at this point, so I walked toward them not knowing who they were. It turned out to be Carla, David, Cassondra, Matt, Audrey, Pete, and some other people I didn't know. They gave me half a bread end with some cheese spread. I was really glad to have seen Carla before I left. After a brief conversation, Devin told me he needed to take Ted back and that I could decide whether to go then or later. I was starving so I chose to go. I was completely soaked and nasty, but luckily I had brought a towel. Devin was not sure we'd make it back without running out of gas. As he drove up to the Spanish house, the DTE was 0. He wasn't sure whether he'd get to a gas station or not, and we wished him luck and departed. I took a shower and went to dinner, eating with Tim, Mike Vance, and Frances. It had been over an hour since I'd gotten back from the beach and Devin still wasn't back with Erica - we were afraid he hadn't made it to a gas station. But it turned out he had, and everything was good. Later we went to Cold Stone Creamery and watched some movies. It was an awesome last night with some amazing people. I'm going to miss them when I'm in New Zealand, and also this summer.