I spent hours writing up about my backpacking trip in the beginning of July. And then the internet crashed. And none of it was saved. Yup. So that post will happen at some point, but not yet. I'm still pissed off about it.Instead, I will post up about things I have done since then.
Two weekends ago I flew out to Cleveland, OH. I met my mom and sister. We buried Dad in his birthplace cemetery where my surname family has a name headstone. He is now with his parents and predecessor family members. I held my shit together fairly well for the most part. We set his urn with ashes in the hole that was dug in the ground. We placed some items of meaning to us and him in with his cremains, including "Tomorrow". Then my sister played Abba on his phone. No one spoke. Just the hole in the ground being covered by the maintenance man and Abba playing. Tears came. I kept my sunglasses on. I walked away and looked at the other headstones. My Dad is gone in body. And I miss him.
He loved rock and roll music. And we were in the rock and roll capital. So we went to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and Museum. I remember being there years ago when I was around 13yr old with Dad and my sister. I had finished looking at the exhibits and was wandering around trying to find my family since I was getting impatient. There were so many people there. It was crowded. I ended up running into a man. Hard. I bounced off him. Which rarely happens since I am not a small person. I glanced up, stated my apologies and he the same and then I walked off. My sister grabbed my arm and pulled me to her immediately after and hissed in my ear: "Do you know who that was?" What? Who what was? She then told me: "You just ran into Muhammad Ali." WHAT?! I turned around and sure enough. Yup. I ran smack into one of the world's greatest boxers who was out with his body guards reading the exhibits and fending off all the people wishing for an autograph. We smile when we remember that story. Dad will always be a part of that story since he got so excited about it and got Ali's autograph later.
We then went to a Billy Joel concert at Progressive Field. I had never been to a concert before like that, aside from the Trans-Siberian Orchestra years earlier when I was doped up from having my tonsils and wisdom teeth taken out prior. I am glad for the experience. Not something I have any desire to do ever again. Too many people (~40,000 seating), so loud (even though were were on the 400 level), sitting for too long in cramped area and just plain long. But overall, I am glad I went. It was a good tribute to Dad.My aunt and her family own a wine and paint franchise and decided to help raise money for the ALS Association through a paint session and a raffle event in which my family and others donated items. It was a very nice event. I got to paint for us. Van Gogh "Starry Night" but in rainbow. We raised around $1,000 for ALS. I am so happy it went so well. I think I will try an event here. It was fun. Painting and alcohol and food!
Then I flew back. And immediately went to work from the airport. Ugh. I was up for 22h that day. I also started house/dog-sitting for a friend. Today is the first day I am back home...after being gone 2 weeks.
This past weekend I did an event with Team RWB. It was a raft trip c/o H2O Idaho which is a veteran-owned business in Riggins, ID. My friend and I drove up Fri night and camped at Spring Bar CG (the start of the raft trip) along the Main Fork of the Salmon River. We camped with other RWBers. I got to spend the night in my camping hammock. Plenty of beautiful large trees. Many sapping hard and still have the remnants of ash from previous fires years ago. We put in at Spring Bar and got out at Lucille. Approximately 22RM. I was in the inflatable kayak (IK) aka "the ducky" which was a tandem. I was in the rear spot, i.e. steering. Everyone else rode in the large rafts.
Here are the links to the first part of our trip (to Riggins). And the second part from Riggins to Lucille area from American Whitewater. The river was running ~10,000CFS. Most of the rapids were II-III. Ruby, Lake Creek and Trap Creek Rapid were the only III+. And it was hella fun. We got air time under our boat on that one. At Time Zone rapid we caught up to one of the rafts and had to quickly backpedal to try to give him room to maneuver. That was not easy since I was trying to keep our boat in line with the way to enter the rapid and not get in the hole. We survived and were giggling maniacally the whole time. In Lake Creek rapid, we were cresting a large wave just as it and others came crashing down on us. It was like hitting a wall. We stopped forward movement and went back down into the hole with the waves over us. I yelled for my partner to paddle and we managed to get out of the hole riding the next wave. One of the guides told me afterward that he thought for sure that we would have bailed. He said they saw us crest the wave and then disappear and then come back up miraculously. Bwhahahaha!
The trip was great. Too much flat water. I wish there were more rapids. Did not bail once. I have never paddled whitewater before. And thought I did quite well. And my friend who rode with me for over half the trip did an excellent job, too. We made a great tandem team. I was sad we were done. Now I am very interested in getting an IK for whitewater. I still want to take a whitewater course so that I learn how to do it safely.
Today my abs are killing me. I guess paddling for hours with intermittent spurts of fast hard paddling are taking their toll, hahaha!
I do have to note, and I do not post this with the intent to incite debate or put down any one group over another. But while I was in Cleveland I could not help but notice that those riding the buses and those that appeared to be low socioeconomic status white collar workers appeared to be predominantly African Americans in the area of Cleveland that I traversed. The hotel I stayed in did not appear to have many customers that were not white. And the Billy Joel concert was most definitely predominantly Caucasian, most appearing to be yuppie to retiree age, i.e. not necessarily hard hit with financial difficulties. And yes, I am jumping to conclusions and making assumptions. But it was an interesting thing for me to note since it was so very apparent to see in Cleveland. Which is not something you see much around here simply because we have a much smaller population of African American/African refugees than Cleveland. I watched how the seemingly middle to upper class white people who interact with the lower to middle working class black people and it fascinated me. The very lack of interaction was quite apparent. Black people would see me. And say hi. Never got that from the white people. Black people would make conversation. Never got that from the white people. The snippets of conversation I did overhear from clusters of white people vs black people were wholly divergent as well. I shall have to keep this noted in my head and pay attention next time I am in a big urban area to see how people interact. Fascinating to observe and something of a disappointment.
