And I find it kinda funny
I find it kinda sad
The dreams in which I'm dying
Are the best I've ever had
|
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I leave on August 11, but I'll be home August 13, at about 00:05hrs. It's been a trying time, an emotional time, but a good time overall. I have neglected to use my camera over the three month period, but I have assured myself I will remember everything I can on this trip.
Such as this past weekend. It was awesome. Karl and I drove out of Boise for about an hour and a half, and spent Saturday night with David and Ivy at David's aunt's cabin near Banks. We stayed up watching a crappy (but otherwise funny) John Waters film, and played Uno while sipping champagne from old school Coca-Cola glasses and munching on candy and tortilla chips. David and Ivy got the bedroom of course, while Karl and I got the loft. I went to bed horrified of the number (and SIZE!) of the bugs just hovering above my head and around the cabin.
The next morning, I was groggy and still sleepy. David and Ivy made breakfast (yay!) consisting of scrambled eggs, pancakes and strawberries. That wasn't really the highlight, though. Karl and I drove about twenty minutes back to Banks, where we were meeting several other Flying Pie-ers. Apparently, every year during the summer, they would hold an annual rafting trip. Each employee is allowed to bring one guest, so Karl brought me. :D
Already dressed for the event, with Karl and myself in respective swim outfits, we smothered ourselves in sunblock and loaded ourselves up on the buses, that would take us to Bear Valley rafting. On the ride, some of them were drawing "Flying Pie-rates" tattoos with Sharpies and ball-points on their arms.
After about an hour, we finally reached the dock where the boats were waiting. It was six to a boat, so Karl and I went on one, along with Kregg, his guest Terence, the boss Howard and his dad Barry. I didn't know what to expect on a trip like this, but Karl had expressed his concern regarding my safety. So sweet.
Off we went down the river. The further we got, the more white water rapids we encountered, and our guide TJ was pretty good in steering, as well as directing us as to what to do. Barry wasn't really fit to paddle, but that was all right, as the rest of us paddled harder. He was sitting behind me in the raft and was always worried he'd whomp me or something. He's a pretty cheerful guy for someone so old, honestly!
Words cannot describe how exhilarating it was to ride the rapids. So many times I felt like I would be thrown out of the boat. So many times I felt my sunglasses inch away from my nose, ready to fall into the depths of the river. All I could do was soak in the glory that was nature, trees and rock formations all around me, a little waterfall, hot springs, sunk cars and trucks, logs we had to avoid; everything. Glorious.
The only downside is, I'm more tanned on one side than the other.
After rafting for a while, we got to Big Falls portage, where we had to disembark and have the rafts float themselves down a Class 6 rapid. Braving that rapid could have killed us all, so everyone on every boat disembarked and hiked a little bit further down and re-board the boats. Looking at the rapids that just surged around the rocks we were standing on, I saw how fierce and unrelenting nature can be. It was horrifying, yet fascinating at the same time.
A little further down from that was a rock jump point. We idled there for a bit while the Pie-ers jumped off a rock into the deep water. A lot of them said silly things, like Nick went, "Someone get me a beeeeeeeeeer!" as he hit the water. Victoria shouted, "Perlin I love youuuu!" and some guys discovered the high range of their vocal chords too. Marshall handed his glasses to me and jumped, as did Karl. However, Karl was still a little disoriented when I handed his glasses to him, and he dropped them in the river. The guide that saw what happened was almost sure that it dropped down a deep cleft near where we were standing, but Karl saw something glint, and like a professional spear-fisher, he caught his glasses as they were slipping off the edge of the cleft. Lucky!
There was a little area called "Trash Can", where rafters could "surf" the rapids. A raft (not ours, Howard and Barry probably couldn't handle it) braved the cold, cold waters and capsized, losing two out of its four crew, but they were okay as they were hauled back into the raft. Another raft lost its guide and none of its other occupants, but he was promptly pulled back in. No sense in rafting without a guide, at that point.
About 10 miles or so down the river, we were allowed to remove our helmets, as the rapids wouldn't be as harsh. Kregg and Karl were taught by TJ to play the "Trust Game", where they stood, each on one side of the raft, interlocking the t-grips on their paddles, and slowly inching away from each other over the edge of the raft but not quite falling in. Karl moved too quickly and was the first to get dunked. It was so funny to watch. The water however, was really cold so he wanted to be hauled back. Over the next hour or so, they tried again, with both Karl and Kregg getting drenched again and again as they tried to do it over again. We all had a good laugh.
Karl and Kregg took turns sitting on the front of the raft, as though riding a bull. It was so funny, because whenever we hit a rapid, Karl would just stick out one arm and pose, holding on to the raft with his other. We tried to take pictures with Terence's (waterproof!) camera, but he quickly ran out of batteries.
All too soon, the 14 mile rafting session came to an end. It took six hours (including a delicious lunch of chicken caeser pita) but it felt so much shorter. We didn't lose one person on the rapids! Karl and Kregg don't count; it was self-inflicted. Hehe. It was a great sense of achievement to have braved the ferocity of nature, and it was also definitely fun. Some of the guys even said that they'd probably have to stay working there for a while more JUST for the annual trip. I could go on more and more and more, but like I mentioned before, words escape me.
I'd do it again in a heartbeat though!
. // prawninator | 17:49 + ~ |
You might be living in my neighbourhood, or some other town or country far away. I don't know. And neither do you, at this point.
Wherever you are, I know I'll find you... if you don't find me first.
It's just a matter of time.
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