Thunder Bolts and Lightning! Very Very Frightning!!!!!

OK, I'll admit that maybe that statement is maybe a little over the top. But some times a little artistic embellishment is just what you need. It's either that or to put some title about naked girls and free beer to get you to read my blatherings.

With another successful round of new instructor training completed by 3:57pm Sarah and I are sitting at the bar drinking a beer by 4:10pm going over the finer points of making fun of people. Discussing how you can incorporate advanced skills of personal ridicule into a training program can only really take place over a pint. At least in civilized company.

Armed with coffee, a desire to eat but no real time and the need to finish packing I downed the rest of the beer, was told to get a move on by Mr Burke and scurried off. So what really goes into a packing list for a week of kayaking in Colorado and of course in order of importance.

• Leak-proof insulated travel mug
• Camera
• Wallet
• Chuck Klosterman IV
• One Jefe Grande
  
• Possibly more underwear than what I have on, I can't remember if I packed them
• Paddle+Spare Paddle
• Smelly ass polypro
• One sleeping bag, sans pad
• Drytop with rotting gasket that hopefully will last the week
• The rest of my somewhat damp river gear

There is other stuff in there too but I am not sure why I packed it. As usual there is a myriad of stuff that I could use but either do not own or feel that within a week you can travel light as long as you enough stomach for copious amounts of pizza and beer as well as the patience to sleep in the back of a rented Minivan at least twice.
Typically the most stressful part of flying with the a kayak is making sure it gets allowed on the flight. $100 later my creek boat is on the baggage cart being drug around and thrown on the plane.

The big black mass of my boat on the baggage cart.

The flight was a flight, nothing special there, but the thunderstorms we flew next to and were watching crack and fester in the night sky was truly amazing. Due to the small child sleeping, thank god, in her dad's lap next to the window I was not able to get any photos of this.

Successfully assuming the persona of a soccer mom in my bright white Mini-van I headed to Boulder to catch up on sleep and get some more coffee. After a decent cuppa at Vic's just down the street I picked up Mike, who is taking on a Charlie Manson persona with a vengance, and headed to Lyons to meet Tino. More than anything the excitement of this trip was knowing that we were going to have a full week of boating together and making Tino feel as uncomfortable as possible.
We showed up just in time to see him get hit in the face by Hobie's boat during a po-dunk head to head /push up race. Oh! how pro kayaking has advanced.

After faffing about we loaded up the van and heading up to the South Saint Vrain before they turned the water off.

Mini vans rule!

The run was fairly typical Colorado mank and provided some spectacular scenery in addition to a short but quality run. Despite the water the best part of the day was being back on the water with Tino and Mike. The last time we all paddled together was in October, although I had managed to sneak an early morning run with Tino in Chile down the Middle Fuy in January.
A couple of run later we loaded some more coffee into the systems and headed back to Boulder.
This led to Jr getting a little tipsy and being very red faced.

Classic CO mank on the Saint Vrain

Walls are fun.

A fair amount of landing on rock was involved

Wall boof

Surveying the scene in Boulder proved to entertainment enough for the early evening and a few brews on the roof on a friends house and we headed downtown for a couple more. Tino's virgin liver was finally getting the work out it had been waiting for.

Colorado 08 seems to be on the right track; so here's to meeting up with old friends in new places, paddling with said friends, mercilessly making fun of them, IPA's on hot days on the patio and fresh strawberries on plane rides.