I'm back..... I know it has been several weeks since I last posted anything, and I apologize for that, but I have been pretty busy having fun, so I'm not going to feel too guilty about it. Funny thing is, there were way more web views per day of my blog these past few days, when nothing new had been posted, than at any other time during it's short life span. Not that I'm complaining you understand.... I just find it kind of humorous.
     The river trip down the Green River in Utah was wonderful of course. Twelve days and thirteen nights spent down in the canyon lands where the only thing to be heard was the call of the wind and the birds in the trees. I won't be going back in time to try and reconstruct all that happened on the trip, there will however, be plenty of annotated pictures to look at I hope. Some of which are posted down below. Suffice it to say that it was a whole lot of fun.
    So we got back into town late last Sunday after spending Saturday night in the town of Moab after getting off of the river that afternoon. We all got a room at a hotel and finally got a chance to shower and clean up before heading out on the town for a wonderful dinner and some drinks that actually included 'ice'. As always it was shocking to watch about half of my tan wash down the drain during that first shower... ah, but oh what a feeling it is to be clean again.
   My girlfriend, Rima, and I spent the Sunday evening we got back into the Denver area, unpacking some of the truck and getting a start on some of our laundry. I think there might of been enough sand in our dirty clothes and other gear to have made our own beach. But it was nice to get some of the laundry done, and in her case, it was needed as she would soon be flying on to her next destination.
    Monday was spent cleaning up more of our gear. Most of my stuff was pulled out to check for dampness, shook out, and then placed back into the back of the truck until I could take it all back to the storage building or the trailer.  So Rima and I spent the rest of last Monday having lunch and dinner with friends and family. Lunch with my sister and her partner out at 'The Perfect Landing', a great little restaurant overlooking the runways at Arapaho Airport, and dinner out with Tom and Donna, George and Marge at a new restaurant to me, Thai Basil. Really, really good food and a fun time by all.
    I had to take Rima out to the airport on Tuesday morning. She was flying off to Seattle to do some work and then taking  a few more days off to explore some of the area out there and around the Portland Oregon area. I miss her!
     Since then I have spent a lot of time eating it seems. Lunch and dinner with friends of all kinds and even a meal or two with  some other members of my family. It was really fun meeting up with one of my old work mates from my days at the Colorado Division of Wildlife, now known as Colorado Wildlife and Parks, or some such nonsense. She no longer works there either, having transferred to a much saner division that actually thinks engineers are worth hiring and paying. Peggy did manage to catch me up on all the going-on's at the old place though. Boy am I glad I no longer have to work.
    There was also a quick meal with one of my brothers, his wife and two of their three grand daughters here in town. It was good to catch up on what they and their family have been doing this past year. The kids are sure cute, and so well behaved and mature. Good to see them then and there may be an additional chance to talk to them again this next Sunday at a 60th wedding anniversary for one of my aunts down in Pueblo.
    The weather has been kind of crazy here in the Denver area this past week. Tuesday thru Thursday were cloudy, rainy and cold, with snow actually falling in parts of the city on Thursday night. I spent a lot of time dealing with computer and paperwork issues that had come due while I was gone. There was banking to do as well as filling out and sending in applications for a whole bunch of new contra dance weekends that I want to go to. In addition I finally got all my pictures downloaded and onto the computer where I have been working on them as time has come open.
    One thing that did happen this last week was a trip to a new dentist and a physical check up. That all occurred on Wednesday with the dentist visit starting at 9:00 in the morning and not finishing up until nearly 2:30 that afternoon. Being a new place for me there was all the paperwork to do as well as new x-rays and check-ups of existing conditions. That was expected of course, as was finding 2 of my 50+ year old metal fillings that needed to be redone finally. Indeed, one of the reasons I had come in was to have them look at a filling that I felt I had broken about 3 months ago. It is broken of course, but all of that is minor. What was a little more of a problem was when they noticed one of my other teeth had a crack on the inside of it. So I am here for another week while they build me a new crown to put on. They went ahead and stuck a temporary one on while I was there, and also took all the mold's they would need to build the new one. I understand that this procedure usually takes 3-4 weeks to accomplish, but it turns out that if you give them money, ($35 extra is all), they will actually expedite the process and get it all done in a week or so. Actually, I think they were more worried that I would just say no to the whole thing and take off like planned, there by losing them several $$$$'s in insurance money. But I'm a little cynical about things like that sometimes.
   So this next Thursday I get to go back and have the new crown put in, as well as get the two original fillings redone. My guess is that my mouth is going to be a bit sore for a day or two after that.
     Of course that was only the start of my day, because after that I had to move on to the clinic for my yearly physical. The nurse had a pretty good laugh at me trying to talk through lips that barely worked, but they poked and prodded me in all the usual places just the same. Several vials of blood were drawn first and then on to the exam room and their cold exam table where more poking and prodding went on. In the end it didn't seem so bad.... I still have high blood pressure.... but not as high as last year. And I am still over weight.... but again, not as much as last year. Could there possible be a corollary there somewhere? Duh!
    So they will email my blood test results sometime in the next couple of days. I don't anticipate any problems cropping up, but that is the whole reason to have check ups once a year isn't it. The good part was that after spending all of the day and the night before without eating I finally had a chance to go and get something to eat after it was all done.
    The weather finally cleared up again on Friday and turned into a nice 'Indian Summer' kind of day. Very cool in the morning and then getting warmer and warmer as the day went on. By afternoon it was back into the 70's again, but still cool enough in the evening to warrant thinking about putting on some long pants and a light coat. I did actually put the pants on, but that was only because I was headed out to dinner and a night at the theater with Tom and Donna and Steph from down the street. We ate dinner at the local Olive Garden near the house, and I have to admit that it was actually a pretty good meal overall. But the real surprise of the night was how absolutely fantastic the play was that evening. I had used up some money that had accrued over the years out at the Arvada Center whenever I, or one of my friends, would trade in a set of my season tickets for a performance that was cheaper than the night I usually went on. So I had nearly enough to buy a set of 4 tickets for Friday nights performance of 'Memphis'. OMG..... one of the best plays overall, and certainly the best performance I have seen in quite some time. The acting and singing were top notch as was the usual, perfect stage craft the Center is known for. On top of it all though was this great story of the birth of rock and roll in Memphis during the late 50's and early 60's. Underlying it all was the fact that the rhythm and blues that was the backbone of this new sound was the purview of the southern blacks of that era. 'Race Music' as the white radio and recording studio owners called it, was only played on 'Black' radio stations until a few 'crazy' DJ's of the time dared to put it out on mainstream radio. So with that as the backdrop to the play it followed the lives of blacks and whites as they tried to bring this music more into the general public.... and all of the racism and craziness that went with it. It was terrific!
    Yesterday was the first real day I had time enough to actually drive up to Longmont and get the canoe and all the other river trip gear put away. First stop was the trailer where a few things got dropped off, but it was mainly just to make sure the trailer was still doing okay. From there it was over to my storage building where it was easier to hang the canoe up off the floor by myself than I had expected. I got all the other gear stowed away, hopefully in a place where I can find it again next time I need it, and then started pulling out some additional stuff that I will be taking with me when I leave on my next trip.
    From Longmont I headed back to the Denver area, and after a short stop for some food, ended up over at Berkley Park for monthly 'Zesty Contra' dance. Billed as a dance for more experienced dancers, it is a bit better than the usual weekly dances you will find in most communities. But there were still some problems with some of the moves during the dances that should not have been a problem at all. Of course some of the problems were actually caused by the caller last night, who just wasn't having her best night of it, even though she is usually pretty good.
   Some good music by two new guys that I had never heard before. Not sure if they were from out of town or if they were just new to our dance community. They provided some good tunes however and it was fun to dance every dance of the evening with one of my local friends.
    Not much going on today so I am just taking it easy and trying to catch up with this a little bit and with some of the other social media that I sometimes look at. But rather than continuing to blather on I think I'll end this here and just see about up loading some new photo's. Be advised that there are nearly 100 of them in total from the trip, and they aren't all getting loaded up today. They will show up as I get them cropped, rotated and annotated and such. So only 10-20 per day. But I hope you will all enjoy them.

Green River Canoe Trip - Aug 24 to Sept 6, 2014 - Part I

  

August 24th and here we are finishing up the loading of the boats and gear. Included in this photo are 7 of the 9 people going on the trip. The other two will meet us in the town of Green River later this evening. From left to Right: John, Caroline, Donna, Tom, Marge, Rima and me.

It's only a 6-7 hour drive from the Denver area over to Green River Utah so we were there in the late afternoon around 4:00. It was early enough that those who wanted to could go wander around the John Wesley Powell museum there in town. After an hour or so there, we all headed across the street where we had our last restaurant meal for a long time, as well as our last chance to use a 'real' sit down toilet..... Our put-in spot is several miles out of town at a place called Crystal Geyser. What had once started out as an exploration hole for gas, turned into a cold water geyser when the drillers hit a layer of trapped water several hundred feet down. The geyser once erupted at least once a day spewing out cold, gas saturated water, but the locals say it rarely erupts now, possibly because the water table has dropped to much over time. It still spews water and gas all the time though and certainly the site is worth taking a look at. Don't try and drink the water though..... it's really nasty.

Over time the whole area around the geyser has formed a layer of calcified rock several inches thick from all of the minerals that come up with the water. It looks a lot like spots in Yellowstone.... but without the hot water.

The layer of deposited stone is particularly neat where it flows down over the banks near the river. Our first actual campsite of the river trip is just a few hundred feet from this spot where Rima is standing.

The boats, and a lot of the gear were unloaded once we arrived at our put-in spot. But of course we also have to camp this evening, so the boats aren't full of gear yet. We got hit with a pretty intense rain storm this night, with lots of thunder and lightening going on. I thought it was just great, but Rima wasn't totally sure of it all since she hadn't done a lot of camping like this before.

The second morning of the trip, and the first one we will actually be on the river. While the drivers took all the vehicles and drove them to Moab where the company that will pick us up by jet boat our last day on the river is located, the rest of us finished up packing the boats up with gear. We now just have to wait until the driver from 'Tex's Riverways' brings the rest of the drivers back.

Finally on the river. Marge, who is in her late 70's, is in the bow with Donna in the stern.

With only a 120 miles to do and 12 days to do it in, we didn't have to spend very much time on the river paddling. This may have been one of our longest days, I think it was approaching 3:30 when we finally pulled into our first river campsite. Here we have Fino and Sandy, some old friends from Arizona, relaxing while Tom and Donna are preparing cocktails and this evenings meal. As always..... the scenery could of been better. :)

I'm pretty sure that by this time Tom and I have had a couple of 'ice' cold drinks, with the emphasis on ice, since we try to freeze everything before the trip so it will stay colder longer, including the beer.

Rima is fitting right into the routine after finding out that the paddling was no harder today than I had told her it would be. Actually, I had to slow her down quite often, other wise we would of been way ahead of every one else.

One of the views from our first campsite. I love the lighting on the hills at this time of day. Later on, after it got dark, a couple of us who stayed up managed to see the 'International Space Station' fly over head on it's orbit around the earth. Pretty cool uh!

Looking straight across the river from our first campsite. The river was really, really high this time compared to all the other times I have been on it. We usually run it when it is running at 500-1,000 cfs. This week though, it was running at 3,000 cfs on this day, and then went up to around 7,000 by the time we took off. The good news is that the current was faster, so less paddling, and we didn't ground out on sand bars nearly as often. The bad news was that there were fewer and smaller campsites along the way, including several that were completely under water this year. We never really had a problem finding a nice sand bar to camp on though.

Marge, 'Mud Puppy', Collier taking her ease after dinner, and before heading off to her tent for the night.

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