Wednesday, July 26, 2006

Maddox? will he RAFT?

Lots of excitement over here; I can die now. I met Maddox. The one and only. He with the Che Guevera-look, caped and crowned with the eyepatch of a pirate... you know the one... the best page in the universe. I got pictures and everything! "Snooze and Revue" interviewed us, but I just read the article.. my name is NOT mentioned... but who cares.. I met him... now I can read his book.. "The Alphabet of Manliness." The harsh blogs and words on his website and in his books and comics don't reveal the true gracious intelligence of the man... ok, so he's a little like Howard Stern... but much more interesting... but I digress... the gallery was full of young techno geeks all paying homage to his holiness... or his oneliness... as he is a genius and holder of all things true... we invited him to go rafting in the next few weeks... but that's a secret... oops.

It's flippin' hot... I mean really hot. 108 degrees is unreal, but why are we bitchin'? When people are actually dying in their ugly heat. I mean those of us here in California. Rafting, hanging on the beach and rivers. Surfing waves and staying cool. There were over 1,000 people on the river this past weekend on the South Fork American. Way too many "hot" people. All arrived sweaty and excited; dripping with the salty flow from their pores. Lots of families, corporate groups (does anyone golf anymore?) and gobs of friends came out to join us.

Rich came out with his son, Riley who is a high schooler of 14 years old. Rich was one of the original owners of W.E.T. River Trips with partner, Steve. Rich originally started out as an "old school" guide for Outdoors Unlimited when they had the permits on the American River, Tuolumne and Stanislaus. Now OU is strictly on the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon. Rich and Steve were both school teachers specializing in high-risk students... you know, the kind of kids you're trying to make sure that your kids don't hang around with. Anyway, they rode down the river on Sunday with favorite W.E.T. guide Maggie-Mro. Pistol-packing hot, and the flow came up rather slowly in the morning.

Boat after boat rafted down the SoFo freeway as the rigatta bounced through rapids and the guests squealed with delight. Cooling and refreshing, the cold water felt just right. I love rafting. My soul needs it. If ever there was an entity called "god," he is here... right next to me; sitting on the rocks; hanging in the sky; and bouncing with me in the boats. Gotta be... just gotta...

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