Colorado Post 2 out of 2: White Water Rafting

I devoted this entire post to something that happened in a matter of minutes. It all started right before my mom, dad, sister, and I hopped into the giant rubber raft to go white water rafting. My mom said to me "You're not going to fall out of the raft, right?" I promised her I wouldn't. Well, I figured that there's a little bit of foreshadow right there. The deal was that you did the exact same stretch of river twice in the raft. The first time we had done it, it was fun. I was a little bummed that there wasn't a little more splashing. I didn't get as wet as I would have hoped. The second time was fun as well. Until the point where the guy in the raft in front of us got the funny idea to cut us off.

We made an abrupt left to avoid collision. Well, with him at any rate. Suddenly our guide started yelling at us to back paddle. I couldn't quite see, but when I looked around a little, there was an elephant sized rock right in front of us! The river was just too powerful for us, and we slammed full speed into the rock despite our frantic pedaling. We went sideways into it and were suddenly at a 60 degree angle and tipping fast. 2 people on my side who were riding with us fell out and I was hanging to the edge by my knees! Fortunately I didn't fall out. We frantically tried to pull them in, but in our haste we didn't quite realize that we had made a huge mistake.

Our guide noticed it first. All of a sudden, he was shouting his head off! We managed to get the two people in (they came here for their anniversary by the way) and only then did we notice that we were sailing right past our exit point. It was there for a reason. Beyond that were the REAL rapids with sharp rocks and just after that, a dam. Every one of us was paddling at full speed, desperate to make it to shore. After a few minutes though, we did, safe and sound. Looks like my foreshadow was wrong.

Everybody got out of the boat and started to lift it up and back to the bus. I put one leg out of the boat. I couldn't quite reach the bottom. Put the other leg out. WOAH!! The current picked me up and I couldn't hang on. I was sailing along the dangerous rapids with the boat stationary behind me directly into the direction of the dam. In that thought, I felt one of my sandals fall off my foot. Great. They started yelling at me, and I tried desperately to grab onto the land. Finally, I did. I hopped on one foot to the raft and we all carried it through the bushes and back to the bus. Everybody seemed happy that we were alright, even though we went into a rock, had three people go overboard, and passed the exit point. I say it was the best rafting trip I will ever have.

I just hope it doesn't happen again.

- The Blogger

Colorado Post 1 out of 2: Hiking the Mountains

We recently got back from the Colorado mountains on a family vacation, and I must say that I would consider it to be a huge success. This first post is concerned about the hikes that we took here. Like usual, whenever I have a lot of pictures, I just let them do the talking.

This was our first real hike up any of the mountains there. It was pretty enjoyable! By the way, that's me in there.

Bre and Katelyn are both wearing matching shirts and pants. They seem happy enough on that rock up there.

While most people have rabbits or gophers eating their grass, we had elk to deal with. Nah, they were just fun to look at.

This is me on the second hike we did. Deer Summit. It's a six mile hike round trip.

Here we all are (except mom) standing at the summit, 10,000 feet above sea level! A good deal greater than the 400 feet I live at down here.

I had a lot of fun here, and we had a great cabin to stay at! I'll be doing another post tomorrow (I think), so keep a look out!

- The Blogger

South Dakota Trip Days Three and Four: Mt. Rushmore,Wind Cave, Sylvan Lake, Crazy Horse

Despite the very long title, they seemed to go by pretty fast. Means I had fun, right? Slightly out of order, we hit Sylvan Lake, Mt. Rushmore, Wind Cave, and Crazy Horse among other landmarks we stopped by. Here are the select pictures I chose from those.

Poor McKinley has very slippery hands and we just couldn't hang on tight enough . . .

We slightly abandoned the Nanas to go climb up a bunch of rocks and up here. It was pretty fun.

Mount Rushmore! It's really cool to look at in person. The tons and tons and tons of rock they blew off the mountain are all still there, right under the mountain. Amazing.

Bison jam! Did you know that there really is a difference between Bison and Buffalo? Neither did we until they made me Google it.

This is us in wind cave, a remarkable three layer cave system. Discovered in the late 1800's, nearly 200 miles of known length, this is only 5% explored. I find that to be unfathomable.

60 years of construction and the only thing they have so far of the statue of Crazy Horse is the face. It's remarkable. I've decided that it probably won't be finished in my lifetime. (Click on it to get a larger view if you can't see the face)

Well, we ended up staying 12.5 hours locked in a car, and once we finally got to the Nana's and McKinley's house, I was still 4 hours from home. Lucky me. Anyway, it's nice to be home and blog where's there's actual Wi-fi. I'll be leaving to drive even further west to Colorado on Saturday though, so I might as well enjoy it while I can.

Beat Portal and Portal 2! Just a side note in the world of computer games.

- The Blogger

South Dakota Trip Day Two: Badlands and Wall Drug

Day two of our South Dakota experience was a success. We woke up, got ready for the day, and spent a couple of hours heading down to the Badlands. Mountainous, moon-like, dry structures, yet amazing to look at! It's a little hard to describe the day's adventures, so I decided to put it in picture form.

AHHH!! GET THE VENOM KIT!! HELP ME PLEASE!!! Yeah, you wouldn't believe how many of these signs we saw today, at least five.

Woah, McKinley! Sweet catch!

We finally arrived! Boy my legs were stiff.

It's truly a thing of beauty when you see it, with all the layers of rock exposed.

This was a pretty cool formation.

"Look at the mountain climber, Andy!"

"Where?"

"Don't you see it?"

"No . . ."

"Oh wait, it's just a pile of dirt. Never mind, just keep walking."

We also stopped by Wall Drug where I got some yummy ice cream.

Today was a success. It's kind of late, so I think I'll stop now.

'Til tomorrow

-The Blogger (wishes Nana B a happy birthday!!)

South Dakota Trip Day One: Corn Palace

For a while now we've been planning a trip where me, my cousin, and my two Nanas venture out to South Dakota on a vacation where we see all kinds of exhibits. Today was mostly a travel day. We spent seven and a half hours in the car to get here. From there, we saw the Corn Palace and just swam a little. Here are a few pictures so far.

This is all of us before we left in the car.

I'm about to hit McKinley with a foam ball at the pool. It was a proud day for me.

Do I look dorky or what?? I still don't get why people at school wear these.

This made me feel better.

2 ice cream cones!! Heaven!

McKinley and I are having fun in the back seat.

The corn museum was a blast! I still can't believe they change it every year!

'Til next post

- The Blogger

Six Flags

I am aware this happened four days ago, but the last day of school, everybody in Band and Strings took a trip to Six Flags. It was awesome! We had to be at school at 6:30 AM, and didn't arrive at home until 11:300 PM, so it was an all day thing. There are few places on Earth that make me happier then riding roller coasters with my friends. One of the roller coasters took your picture on the steepest drop, and I bought it for $5. Here it is:

Pardon Evan's dorky face. He insisted on it, and I couldn't quite say no, so whatever. I'm fine with it. The people in front and behind of Evan and I are the people in our group, six total. I still wonder how they got such a great picture since we were going at least 75 miles per hour. I found out that people ride the most famous ride there, the batman, 40% for fun, 60% for bragging rights, because the first time you ride it, it's a thriller, but every time after that, it's kind of drab. There aren't any stomach drops and it's pretty low to the ground. I have to give them credit for those loop de loops though. Those are awesome.

I'm going to try to convince my dad to take me there next year so I can still enjoy it with my friends since Uni doesn't do that type of thing.

- The Blogger (wishes you a happy summer!)