San Francisco

So I headed into the city to hang out and get away from the boredom at home. I got there Saturday afternoon and the plan was to go play crazy golf. There was a new course near Dustins place and we were going to check it out. It turned out to be a local art project type of thing and was basically shit as an actual crzy golf course. Maybe it was a good piece of art but somehow I doubt it. Anyway, that left us with not much to do. We figured we needed to do something outside and therefore probably in a park. Frisbee golf, that was the answer. We didn't have any frisbees so we headed to Sports Authority. It turns out there is quite a market in frisbee golf and they have different frisbees for different shots, a driver, mid range, putter and even more. We just started out with the midrange disc and each got one and set off for the park with a few cases of beer. The golfing went well. We just picked a tree and went for that having a few brews on the way. It turns out there was a proper tournament going on over the weekend as well so we kept running into people playing in the tuornament on an actual course. They were usually quite nice but some of them seemed to get quite annoyed that we were just hucking our frisbees around playing for trees when there was a proper tournament going on. We tried to stay out of their way and played on. We ended up running out of beer and light after 18 holes so we headed home. A quick freshen up and we went out for a few drinks. It was a good night out. There were a bunch of people out that I hadn't seen for a while so it was good to catch up with them but it wasn't a crazy night or anything. The next day we had to figure out what to do again. A few ideas were thrown around and frisbee golf was on the list again. We left it to Evan to decide and he went for the golfing (he hadn't been the day before). So we knew the tournament went on for the whole weekend and we also saw the drivers and putters in action so we figured we'd go and get some of those because we blatantly needed the distance of the driver to tee off. It urns out there are a bunch of options. There was a distance driver and a fairway driver. There was also the champion edition which cost and extra $5. We figured we needed the full distance driver and got a putter as well for everyone. We now had a reasonable set of discs and couldn't wait to try the driver. Everyone was guessing what it would be like and how easy it would be to throw it for miles. We got to the park and decided to start further down the park to stay away from the tournament (a decision that would lead us to interesting places as you'll find out). First hole, and how did the driver perform? Not that much differently from the mid-range disc. Well, I wouldn't say we had been ripped off. After a while of throwing the different discs, it became apparent that the driver would go further than the mid-range, you just had to throw it very flat and well to get a noticeable benefit. That was pretty much the key. If you were spooning your throws off into the rough the different discs really didn't do anything for you but if you had good form then the discs did behave differently. Anyway, we didn't really care that much. We just kept picking new trees for the next whole and had a beer in our hands so it was fun regardless. So as I mentioned before we were pretty far down the park towards the ocean and generally exploring around, checking out random parts of the park we had never seen before. We came across a big sports field, I think it had three or four football (soccer) pitchs lined up and we were driving down the side off them because thhey were fenced in. After running a hole down the side of the fields we cut through a fence and got into what looked like a storage area for the park. There were big piles of hay bales, gravel piles and stacks of massive logs all in an area that was supposed to be fenced off with a gate but the fence had holes in it everywhere. It looked like a cool place for a hole. I climbed up a gravel pile and was starting to look around when I got the impression there were some people around. After taking a look around I noticed a small group of guys off in the pile of logs. I didn't want to stare but as I flashed my eyes around I noticed that on guy was on his knees and didn't have a shirt on. It all looked a bit dodgy. As they saw us climbing up the gravel pile they sort of shuffled around to hide behind the logs and eventually split up and wandered around a bit. Everyone else climbed up the gravel pile and was saying "This looks like a great place for a hole. Lets go from here to the post over there." But after seeing the boys in in the logs I figured it probably wasn't such a good place for a game and it was probably best to leave the boys alone in the logs so I said "I think we should play on and go somewhere else." At which point Dustin caught my eye and turned around to see the guys in the logs and quickly agreed with me "Yup, were not playing here. Lets move on." I'm not sure exactly what was going on but I'm pretty sure that the logs were a place for gay dudes to show up and get gay with each other. So if you're in the city around 6ish on a Sunday night and fancy a bit of gay sex go check out the logs in Golden Gate Park. We decided to move on and played another few holes until it got dark. Well we kept playing in the dark until Ly lost his driver. Then we went home, grabed some food and played Mario Kart into the morning. So the frisbee golf was pretty good. I've got a set of discs and just need to convince people in England thats its a good laugh now. I figure Hyde park would be good for a round. It also got us out and around Golden Gate Park and introduced us to areas we never knew existed and certainly opened our eyes a bit.

Anyway, its mid week now and guess what? I've been turned in to general slave labour for my dad. He's doing a lot of work around the pool redoing the paving slabs so we rented a big old pnuematic hammer and broke up a bunch of the old slabs on Monday and I think the new paving stones arive today so I'll no doubt be recruited into laying those. I suppose it does help ease the boredom by giving me something to do but it would be nice to feel like I had a choice and to actually have more than five minutes advance warning. Oh well, the weekend is coming up soon so I should be able to escape then.

Bay chillin

So the conference is over and I presented my paper no problem. I had a good time hanging out with all the boys (and girl) from Leeds. It was fun to show them around a bit and have the BBQ and swim back at my parents house. But now they've all gone and I've got another couple of weeks here. I seem to keep doing this. I roll through the Bay Area and figure I should hang around for a while and hang out with all my friends around here and take plenty of time to do it. However, in practice everyone has to work through the week and can only hang out on weekends. Plus people who only have weekends free tend to have things planed. So what ends up happening is that I become some slave labour for my dad at home and hang out with my friends a little, but certainly not as much as is required to occupy all the time I have. So I'll have to come up with some things to do during the week so I can entertain myself. I think I'll try and get myself off to the mountains, maybe Yosemite or something but then you get into the complication of asking to borrow a car. Anyway, its the weekend now so I've got stuff to do so I'll check out and head into the city.

The story of beard and an early halloween

So now that the transformation from beardy long hair back to short hair and a clean(ish) shave has been completed I put up a gallery of the whole process. I've also included a picture of my awesome costume from our halloween party, which occured on July 31st for no real reason. I was a spartan and put together the costume in about 5 minutes once I spied the BBQ lid, yup that was my shield. After that it was easy. A broken paddle for a spear, a red towel for a cape and a 12 pack case crafted into a helmet. Check it out.

Echo Chillin

The end has come

Well, it had to happen sometime, and that time is now. I am writing this blog, not from the ramshackle bunk house of Echo Canyon or from the Breckenridge employee housing, but from home sweet home in California. This can only mean that the end of my adventures has arrived. Now don't get me wrong, it doesn't mean more adventures won't happen in the future, it just means that this episode has played itself out. I still have about a month of time in California before returning to the UK but the first week of that is the conference which will certainly be a wake up call from the previous eight months. In fact, I still have to finish my presentation and powerpoint which I need for Tuesday.

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