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A note about my blog
Hi all. Instead of putting this into all of my posts, I’m going to do this once and keep it at the top of the blog.
This is mostly a travel blog. I use it to document trips I’ve taken. Occasionally I add other posts, too. But all posts are a “feeling and remembering” thing. I talk about my impressions of what happened. I don’t try to document all names, places, history, etc. That means I may leave some stuff out that others might enjoy, but I know that what means the most to me is the impressions I get when I travel and how those made me feel. That’s what I tend to remember, so that’s what I document.
Quick temporary note about pictures in some older posts. The plug-in I used on many of these has had a hiccup and the pictures are not showing, so I’m going to have to switch to another way to include them. I’ll do that eventually, but for now, if I refer to pictures and there are none…that’s why!
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River Rafting in Utah (River Day 6 and Day 7)
Note: This is the last post for this trip. Go here to start with the first one.
Saturday, June 27
Last day on the river. It’ll be a shorter day; expecting to get to the take out by about 2 PM.
The landscape is lower canyon walls and wider river. A few, but not many, rapids. A very leisurely day except for one thing–wind! It was blowing hard and got more and more so. When we were finally just around the bend and then in sight of the take out spot, it was blowing so hard that the guides were all straining.
While we passengers had had had some good conversations this last day, we felt a bit helpless as Ada, whose raft I’m in today (first day and last day!), struggled to make progress. A few times, we actually were blown backwards. We tried shifting our positions in the raft. That may have helped some, making a lower profile for the wind to catch, but our progress was really due only to Ada’s heroic rowing efforts. Yes, there was some swearing going on, but finally we got around the bend and to take out. Whew!
The Holiday River Expeditions vans were waiting for us. Once each raft touched the ramp, everyone bailed out and they took over. They got the rafts stripped and loaded onto the trailers. Heather and Jen celebrated this point in a successful journey. We all topped off our water bottles and milled around until it was time to load into the vans for the 20-minute (air conditioned!) ride back to the company offices.
Being off the rafts felt both strange and welcome. Bittersweet that this phase of the trip was over but aware that of course it was time.
At the office, I picked up my computer and returned the library book I’d borrowed. And while I’d reminded Laura that we needed to remember our hiking sticks, which the guides packed separately, I forgot to get mine! I was able to pick them up early the next morning.
We all made it back to the hotel with the big, overnight bags so we could get everything out of those. We got them back to Jen so she could run them over to the office that afternoon.
We were all checked back into the same rooms we’d stayed in that first night. My biggest concern wasn’t really getting clean; it was being sure that I could re-pack everything in my suitcase and backpack for the trip back home. So I invited Jean to take a shower first while I organized and squeezed. I finally felt pretty confident that I’d get it all to fit and then hit the shower myself.
Dinner was at the restaurant right at the hotel. It was a bit strange to be in an air-conditioned space again, but there we were. Wait staff was great, food was great, company was superb. And after dinner, we met on the hotel porch for last discussions and sharing.
Caryn had a pack of cards with different sayings on them. She invited us to take one as we liked, seen and chosen, unseen and random. When the deck came to me, one card was on top. It seemed appropriate, and even after looking through all the others, I decided to keep it.
It had been a long and eventful day. Eventually we drifted off to our rooms and a good night’s sleep. Everyone had different travel plans for Sunday so would be scattering at different times.
Sunday, June 28 (Travel Day)
Jen had offered to give me a ride to the Grand Junction airport, about an hour an a half ride, since she was going that direction. My flight to DFW didn’t leave until 5 PM, so I had some time there to start catching up on emails (625 had come in during the trip). And turns out, Cole was flying out of there, too. We had a few minutes to visit after Ashley dropped her off.
The flight was uneventful, as was the Uber ride. But getting home was lovely, with a welcoming committee of the kitties I’d missed. They missed me, too! Thanks so much to my friend Denise for taking such good care of them while I was gone.
