Sunday, August 17, 2008

dan's rafting trip



Dan wrote this for our business blog and I thought I would copy it here for anyone who might not check that blog regularly...what an exciting trip!

What did you do last week? Oh me, I just went on the trip of a lifetime! 28 men from my family and some close friends took a 3 day 100 mile rafting trip on the Colorado river through the Grand Canyon. We rafted and hiked through the day and slept under the stars at night. It was the most unbelievable experience I think you could ever have. Every turn was more beautiful than the last.

We started out in Vegas and took a chartered flight to a gravel runway in the Grand Canyon. From there we took a helicopter to our starting point where we met our 4 guides and two rafts. The river was the same color as the one in Willy Wonka's factory but didn't taste nearly as good, especially if you thought about the "liquid hits liquid" restroom requirement. Gross. Every single rapid was a blast and provided quite a few splashes to keep us from melting in the hot sun. The breeze felt like a hair dryer so the wetness didn't last long.

We had to hunt rabbits and rattlesnakes for lunch and dinner and had rock soup for breakfast. OK, that's not entirely true. We did have breakfast, lunch and dinner, but the food was more like eggs, bacon, sausage, coffee, spaghetti, shrimp cocktail, steak, salmon, cheesecake, poppyseed cake, blueberry cake, birthday cake (happy birthday Tim!) and all the lemonade and water you could ever want. The last night the captain announced that the dinner was black tie. The two male guides then proceeded to put on a tuxedo shirt and bow tie. The two women guides put on black formal dresses. I wore a dirty swimsuit and t-shirt and my formal Colts hat. That night ended with a fire twirling extravaganza by Kelly, one of our female guides. Both nights we were treated to a great meteor shower.

The trip ended at Lake Mead and from there we took a bus back to Vegas. In total, no broken bones, one bug bite (sorry James), 2000 images for me to edit, and probably a combined total of 100 pounds gained. We sure were roughing it!

Here are a few shots from the trip...





















2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Dan,
These pictures are beautiful! Thanks for the new screen savers for my work computer! {:>
Shari

Anonymous said...

Dan -

Great pictures! I'm Neal's friend who did a GCEX trip a month prior to yours. Did he look great in the sarong? You have some really great pictures! We did not go ashore at Separation besides it was overcast. Thanks for the cenotaph picture! And you are correct, once through the Ditch, no matter which part or how long, one is never the same again.

Ron Nichols