Thoroughly Thursday

We're definitely showing the affects of our 63 years of age this morning.  Yesterday's adventure was seven hours "portal-to-portal" and Josh and I paddled about 13.5 miles with two portages.  We marked and photographed almost 20 waypoints on the GPS and were on the water 4.5 hours.  The on-river portion of this project is finished and it feels good for all of us who made it happen.  Now, we have to wrap up our photos, GPS data and narratives and ship them off to Chip N.  That's when we can finally wash our hands of this project and move on.  Josh really shined yesterday.  He really demonstrated some sharp paddling techniques and now understands the timing and purpose of various strokes.  I seldom had to tell him which stroke to use or when to use it.  He sure came a long way since our first trip in late January.  By the way, Josh appears in a great article wirtten about his Grand Canyon Youth river trip last summer.  You can click here to see it.  Our trip ended yesterday with perfect timing.  As the canoe nudged the muddy shore, Suzi's Shuttle Service wheeled onto the ramp.  Sweet!

We took along the HAM radio yesterday and it worked perfectly, of course.  Someone from the local HAM club jumped in while I was calling N7NUU (AKA: Gary) and invited me to lunch today over in Cottonwood.  That's my main event for today and I sure am looking forward to putting faces together with call signs.  Meanwhile, The Yagi Project continues and we will be writing that up on our HAM blog soon.

We also received a cell phone call from a stranger while at the put-in.  The gist of the call is that we might wind up buying another vehicle today.  Naturally, that's a long story but stay tuned, it could be a big story.  No, it's NOT another Samurai.

Susun went off late Wednesday afternoon to spend the night with Phyllis.  Phyllis spent a year in Cairo, Egypt, and was showing all her slides last night.  Based on the few photos I saw on her email narratives, I'm sure it was an entertaining experience.

Gary and I shared the campfire by ourselves last night and enjoyed the usual discussion of "guy stuff."  It's getting hot here now.  The temp here was above 80 from 1:30 - 5:30 and peaked at 83 yesterday. Today's supposed to be hotter.  On the river it felt like early summer.  The cedar gnats came out yesterday.  Perhaps that ought to be our new motto, "When the cedar gnats fly, we're outta here." 

Not much else to report.

Please send some special energy to DF & LBR Maggie.  She's been going through some tough times lately.  Husband Steve's Dad passed on in San Jose last week.  We all know how hard such times are.  We're all thinking great thoughts for you, Maggie!  Hang in there!

Have a great day and Much to Cheer about.  jp