So what has happened since the last gun slinging chapter of this saga. Well, nothing quite as exciting but a few things have passed. Most noteably, the lack of kayaking and evening boating, a trip up to Buena Vista and the arrival of the parents. On the boating front Aaron had a broken nose and wasn't feeling up to going kayaking due to his nose being blocked up and full of crap, and its a big nose to be full of crap at that. So that was understandable. You don't want a nasal enima from rolling when your nose has just been broken and you're trying to get healed. And as for rafting in the evening, taking out booze cruises, well thats been stopped. We had a company meeting to end out the year shortly after the Texas showdown and one of the consequences was that rookies aren't allowed to take out boats in the evening. They're also cutting back on the senior guides taking boats if there is going to be alcohol involved. So we really screwed that one up. Oh well.
Just before this metting, Pickett and I were sent up to BV to help out the Four Corners office. They were a bit overwhelmed with business on a Saturday morning so we were sent up Friday after our morning trips for a ride along in the afternoon then a double slam on Saturday. I was initially unhappy about heading up stream. I didn't really have a tent or anything and the only reason why I would have volunteered before was to go up with Aaron for some kayaking. As it turned out I'm really happy I went up. We got the double slam on Saturday which meant we weren't missing out on any trips and we also got to commercially guide more river. I was a bit curious as to what Browns Canyon looked like as the water went down. It looked about the same but there were a few places that really changed. It's certainly a much more technical section of river than the Bighorn so it was fun to figure it out and see that I could get down just fine. So even though there wasn't any kayaking to be done it was a good diversion anyway, even if I couldn't get Arthur a Four Corners staff hat.
So that brings us to the very end of my season, the arrival of the parents. My parents arrived on the 4th and Arthurs parents arrived on the 6th. It was pretty funny because we were both worried about swimming our moms. Arthur even played man, bear, gun with me to see who had to swim the'r mom. He lost, but he didn't swim his mom. It took my parents on the raft and rail on the 6th and everything went well. There was only one spot at the bottom of sharks tooth where I had any issues and that was just spinning off a rock. After rafting the Bighorn we took the train through the Gorge. It was pretty nice to ride the train. It gave a different perspective of the river and let the parents see the class 4 section of river. So all in all a good time. Arthur was taking his parents down on the 7th and was pretty nervous about his mom. But despite losing the man, bear, gun contest he made it down the river with only a few hicups but more importantly, without knocking his mom out of the boat. Everyone was able to compare notes that evening about their rafting trips because Arthur and I got our parents out to dinner together. Apart from the rafting we did the Pikes Peak Cog Railway. If coming up with stupid jokes and entertaining people on a raft is crappy, the girls doing it on teh train had it even worse. They had a whole bunch of absolutely rubish jokes and stupid crap that had to last about an hour and a half as we rode the train up the mountain. I think I would shoot myself if I had that job. Oh well, we got to the top just in time because after checking out the view the cloud level dropped over the peak just as we were leaving. Perfect timing.
So I'd taken my parents rafting on the Monday, I had one more day of work on Tuesday and we set off on Wednesday. My parents had come out in the camper van and were taking me home. It was a good arrangement because it meant that I didn't have to worry about getting the Greyhound again or flying home and worrying about cost or getting all my crap home. This way I got home for free and all my junk could come with me no problem. The only issue was living in close quarters with the parents for two and a half days of driving across the country. It turned out not to be that bad. I just sat in the back and didn't say much and tried to sleep the whole time. Actually I guess that makes it sound bad, as if I don't get along with my parents. This isn't the case, but when they're on a driving holiday together there always seems to be a bit more tension. My dad generally drives the whole time and gets tired and stressed from it. Then my mom is navigating but I'm not sure my dad trusts her with it or trusts her when she takes a shift driving. So as the day and the trip wears on it just seems like the tension rises and its just not a very fun environment. In any case it went by just fine and now I only have to deal with my dads pestering about "doing something useful" and "not wasting the day" when I sleep in. I'm sure there will be plenty of the same pestering in relation to the conference as well, "did you meet anyone new today?" or "have you got any job leads yet?" and "are you making sure you ask questions and get noticed?". The problem is that as much as I hate hearing all that crap and would like to think its a load of BS, it really isn't and he generally does know what he's talking about. It just grates me to hear it from him constantly. Oh well, we'll see how it all goes. I've just got to get my presentation sorted first.
As a final note, I got a bunch of pictures from rafting, the commercial ones they take for the customers so I'll be putting some of those up. They will document the transitition of the beard from full beard though the different moustaches to a clean shaven face. The final chapter will come soon when I get a hair cut. Anyway, check out the pictures.
Echo Commercial Pics
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