Finally starting to pull together all of the gear I will be using next week on our canoe trip on the Green River. It has been pretty hard to do much of anything before this point because there just hasn't been anywhere to put it all. It is one of the downsides to not having a personal living space where I could spread everything out. So as a result I have had to keep stuff in the trailer and at my storage unit as well as stored in the back of my pickup. I am hoping that within a day or so I'll be able to stage everything over at my friends, Tom and Donna's, place.
   So yesterday was pretty much just a day to hang around with George and Marge. I did take a couple of hours and went and did some shopping. I was looking for a small 'house warming' style gift to give to George and Marge even though I am sure it would of been fine if I hadn't given them anything. In the end though I found a couple nice plastic water tight cases that were big enough to put a wallet or cell phone or other small object into. I think Marge will find a good use for hers to put her little camera in.
    Today was a pretty slow morning with breakfast with George and Marge and then an hour or two to read the paper and the comics. Had to meet up with a friend of mine, Claire, at noon for a quick lunch date. We met at a local restaurant she new of over on south Federal Blvd. A fine new Mexican restaurant for me, Torres Family Restaurant, had a nice atmosphere as well as pretty good food. We managed to catch up on what we had both been doing in the past year as well as the past month or two. Always a nice time catching up on all of the news from the dance community here in the Denver area, as she is a regular in both the folk dance and contra dance communities.
    Headed for Longmont after that, and other than taking more time because of having to use the back streets instead of the highways because of the construction on the highways, it was a pretty easy commute over all. First stop was at my trailer where I picked up a bunch of things that I had on my list. I had stashed one of my fold up chairs there as well as some canned beer and unopened food supplies. It took some time to gather it all up, but really it was only about 45 minutes in all that I was there.
    From that point it was on to my storage unit out north and east of town. I took some time on arrival to go into the main office and talk to the managers there. Since I only make it back once a year I just wanted to make sure that my  account was all up to date and that there weren't any outstanding debt on it at this point. Everything was fine with it though, so I went on ahead and went over to my storage unit. I rent a 12'x12'x25' unit, and I am sad to report that it is nearly full of stuff.... and it is a mess. It is quite easy to see how chaos theory actually works in real life. Where there was once a well ordered and clean unit, there are now boxes everywhere that lean in all directions. It is still possible to find stuff I need most of the time, but that is just for stuff that I have been using for the past couple of years. So I managed to find all of my ice coolers along with the tent, pads and sleeping bags as well as other related gear. I will have to check my lists before I'm sure it has all been found and collected. Got it all stuffed into the truck and did a final check of what I could see. I am hoping that the only thing left to get is the actual canoe and the rack it fits on. Since it is hanging from the ceiling of the storage unit along with two other canoes and my double sea kayak, I am going to wait and see if either Tom or Rima can come back up with me and help me get it down and loaded on the top of the truck.
   A couple of hours to get back down to Denver and then a short stop for some dinner. Tonight it was a Vietnamese noodle bowl, (Bun), at a small hole in the wall restaurant that I know of out on north Federal. Yum!
    Tomorrow I'll start in on buying some of the food for the trip. I am thinking that I'll be relocating over at Tom and Donna's place, but that may not happen until Wednesday. Will just have to wait and see. In the meantime I have a lunch date with my youngest sister and her partner tomorrow afternoon. That should be a fun time too.


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