A nice day here in Colorado. Pretty much finished up packing for the river trip that is happening in two days. Had to go pick up a cheap long sleeved shirt just in case the bugs are real bad or the sun gets to be to much. Also had to pick up a towel to take along, one that was a dark color and one that I won't feel bad about throwing away or using as rags at the end of the trip. Over the years I've just learned that there are a few things that you take on river trips, white socks being one of them, that will never, ever be clean again no matter how many times you wash them.

    Met my friend Joe over at Englewood High School this afternoon for their summer theatre production of 'Any Thing Goes'. It has been a very long time since I had seen this particular play, but the music is always good and the cast did a very good job of it. In this type of school production most of the lead parts are played by adults or older teens with younger kids filling in a lot of the lesser roles and the chorus. In this case there were about 40 kids in the cast who were from about 12 years old down to around 5. All of them did a great job of looking cute and when they did their little tap dance routine to the title song it was just so-o-o fun.

    Joe and I were talking about the play later as we were having some dinner together, and we both agreed that it was a fun play to watch and that everyone did a good job of it even if it wasn't of a real high caliber. Over the years I've kind of gotten to the point where I think almost every play has at least some redeeming value to it. (I would never make a good film or theatre critic). My thought is that as long as the people on stage are singing and acting better than I could in the same role, then it is good enough at least for me to watch and applaud. Of course this sets the bar pretty low at times since I don't sing and never tried acting, but that's okay. It is still a lot of fun.

    Only one more day to go before Tom and I take off for Montana and I am starting to get excited about it. I love the outdoors and being on the river, but I'm really excited about being on the move and seeing new things and having new experiences again. Also looking forward to seeing how Tom and I handle being in a canoe together for 8 days on the river. We have been on many, many, many river trips together, but it has been a very long time since it was just us together in one boat. I'm hoping 18.5' of canoe is going to be long enough to keep us both sane. One thing for sure, it will give us a good indication as to whether or not we are compatible enough to do another long trip together again. We have talked for many years about doing the whole Missouri River again in a couple of years. That's over 2,100 miles and at least 60 days worth of togetherness. Guess we will just have to wait and see.