Near death experiences, sleepless nights, and magic.

Well better late than never.  Last I left off I was in Golden still and we were about to head to the Coors brewery. The Brewery was pretty awesome, but nothing much to say.

 Weird "retro" displays in the lobby of the factory.

 Crazy huge brew room.

 Assortment of beers from years past.

 Amy and Lilly (left to right)

 Leaving the brewery for leg two of our adventure.  Lilly showing off her cool kid walk.

    
(Disclaimer:  here comes the long part.)

We left the brewery after getting our free samples of beer, then headed to Luke's parents house to grab some tubes.  Luke had suggested we float down the river and everybody seemed to like the idea.  After a few failed attempts we finally got them inflated.  It is debatable whether that is a good thing or a bad thing.  We drove to the parking spot by the river(while each holding an inflated tube out the widow, god I wish a picture of this existed.  Internet users of Golden, Colorado: C'mon help a guy out) and started hiking.  I had a bad feeling about it the second I saw how quick the river was moving.  It was apparently 3X higher than normal, and spots of this stretch of the river have been dredged out/filled up for kayakers to have a better time with it.  Meaning more white water, and intentional riptides to get stuck in.    Everybody else was stoked at how fun in was going to be, so I kept my mouth shut.  As we walked to our entrance point with our tubes, we got a few bewildered looks from passersby that realized we were actually getting in this watery deathtrap.  But we just laughed at these poor saps with no sense of adventure......then we saw the rescue crews.  There were firetrucks on the road above, rescue personnel in wetsuits with ropes, flotation gear and such.  The day prior, we had seen rescue crews pulling kayakers out of the the canyon further upstream.  We made sure our tubes were fully inflated (Luke's was already deflating) and Luke told us not to make eye contact with the rescue team.  If anybody said anything, just jump in the water.  I'll be damned if we would walk that far and not even get wet.  We got to our entrance spot and Luke jumped in, landing on his raft gracefully.  I immediately tried the same and missed entirely, and had a rude awakening of just how cold that Colorado snow melt could be.  I scrambled onto my tube, and held on for the ride.  Looking upstream, I at first thought that the rescue team had stopped Lilly and Amy, but eventually they got in.  We hit the first batch of whitewater and I was again reminded that this was going to be a chilly 15 minutes.  I paddled with my numb arms to avoid trees, rocks, and spots that looked like it would keep me stuck.  But, inevitably, I overlooked a spot.  I got caught in a riptide and couldn't get out.  I gripped the handle of the tube with one hand, and tried to force my way out with my feet and my free hand for a second but then I saw Amy was coming at my side for a glancing blow.  As she came into the riptide I pushed her out with my feet, but then realized Lilly was coming to land on top of me.  Luckily, she had enough speed knock us both out.  With that spot out of the way, we continued to float.  Luke got flipped in a riptide but I knew he could handle himself, and sure enough he got out and right back on his tube.  Then Lilly and Amy both flipped.  Lilly got back on, but Amy was struggling.  She was floating backwards down the river, trying to hop onto her tube again.  I didnt think she knew there was worse whitewater coming up quick so I panicked a bit, and yelled for her to get back on her tube (as if she wasn't trying to begin with).  She finally did, but wasnt in a good position to hang on for the roughest patch we had hit yet.  Luke flipped, Lilly pulled through and off to the side, and then Amy flipped as I was approaching the exact spot that had taken everybody out.  I saw there was no avoiding it, so I gripped the handles with numb fingers and held on while trying to see where Amy surfaced.  I was getting spun around in the riptide and could not see anything but her tube floating solo down the now calm river.  I, of course, panicked.  I managed to get myself to shore where two bloodied and bruised teenagers were trying to recover their oars (tree branches).  I asked them (okay, I didnt mean to, but I actually screamed at them.  Also: sorry to those with dainty ears for this quote) "Where the fuck is my girlfriend?!  Where is she?!?!".  One bewildered teen looked at me startled and pointed.  "O....Oh....thanks."  I swam to the shore where Amy was trying to catch her breath after being sucked under.  Lilly still had her tube, Luke's was almost completely deflated, I had mine, and Amy's was floating downstream.  I briefly debated us going two per tube for the rest, but then took a peek at all the jagged rocks we would have to cross while hanging onto the side.  It was definitely doable, but we might need stitches afterwards so I opted to just get out, hike back to the car, and be done with it.  Which, it turns out, is exactly what everybody else was thinking. We begrudgingly dragged our tubes up a mosquito infested hill, and made the long march of defeat back to the car.  All things considered, it might seem weird that I had an absolute blast throughout the entire fiasco.

As for the rest of the stuff from Colorado, it is 1AM and I don't have the energy to be so (overly) detailed.  We went and explored an awesome cave system, went to Waterworld, checked out some breweries, hung out with Brodeo and Blk Blk, went to an arcade bar in Denver appropriately dubbed 1UP, and almost acted out a scene from Long Kiss Goodnight.  Tomorrow I should have time to explain the latter (I promise it wont be such a novel), and fill everybody in on my disastrous time spent in Topeka, Kansas; amazing time in St. Louis, Missouri; and my arrival in Nashville, Tennessee today.

Well, I felt like being windy for that story...windier that I originally intended.  Relax now, okay Mom? (jokes, love you).  Tomorrow should be leaving me with plenty of free time.