The Journey is the Destination

Day 17 of 365 days of adventure - friends

2011-01-17T21:50:00.002-06:00

Sometimes we have someone in our life that truly makes a difference. Over 10 years ago Karen hired me on to be a contract trainer for GM. Although I did not have the experience needed for the job she gave me a chance to come on board. That opportunity turned into a long standing friendship that I cherish to this day. Every couple of Months Karen and I get back together to catch up on old times. Sometimes it is nice to sit back and reflect on all of the changes in my life and all of the new discoveries to come.

I am still working on my daily commitment factor! So far I failed to keep up with the blog or daily pictures and I have totally fallen off of my diet!!! Time to regroup and refocus.

Fail to plan and you plan to fail.

I have learned that I am incredibly productive when I have a set schedule, time constraints or deadlines. On the flip side I can waist time better than anyone I know when I don't have somewhere I need to go or something that has to be done. So I am working on a new plan, a new structure that will help me stay on task. The blog and adventures in this blog are a part of the plan.

I resolve to do three things starting tomorrow:
1) Continue updating blog daily
2) Plan food, exercise and daily activities
3) Have fun!

Day 16 of 365 days of adventure - More rest

2011-01-16T21:37:00.000-06:00

After two days of rest I finally feel like I am coming out of the hazy cloud of congestion. I spent the majority of the day catching up on studying. In between studying I managed to catch a little bit of NFL playoff action with Pittsburgh rolling over the Baltimore Ravens. The game changed with a few chance moments of opportunity that were taken advantage of. Just like life, opportunities come and go and are only realized if they are pursued. I made a decision to update this blog daily all year and in only 17 days I have already fallen behind, let myself down and realized how difficult it is to change a habit. The good news is I know that I fell down and I know that I have not met my expectations and this realization gives me the opportunity to make adjustments.

Day 15 of 365 days of adventure - Tx Rollergirls

2011-01-15T23:09:00.005-06:00

After two days of not feeling well and spending the majority of my time sound asleep it was good to get a break from the house and get out for a couple of hours tonight. We were invited to the TX Rollergirls annual awards event tonight at the Elks Lodge in South Austin. We will kick off our season with the Rollergirls in February as we provide medical support for the TX Rollergirls and the Rollergirls recreation league. Over the last few days one of my friends on Facebook announced that she is joining the recreation league and she was working on her roller derby name. If you have never seen a roller derby match before it is part sport, part fantasy and all tough. The girls all have unique roller derby names and that name becomes a part of their persona as they whiz by you! We are excited to see what the new season and new venue holds for the TX rollergirls this year!

Day 14 of 365 days of adventure - much needed rest

2011-01-14T21:29:00.001-06:00

Today is officially labeled as a "sick" day. My friends sent me a text at 9:00 AM saying they were going to the Greenbelt for a trail run at 9:45 AM. I needed some motivation so I took the bait and jumped out of bed, threw on a lot of warm clothes and headed to the trail despite my draining sinuses. After the run I decided I would take some allergy medicine and see if I could sleep during the day in preparation for an overnight ambulance ride out. When I got home I could tell that my allergies and congestion were getting worse and I decided to call of the overnight ride out. I ended up taking the medicine and sleeping most of the day and then turning around and sleeping all night. In between naps I completed my worksheets and workbook for my EMT course. Taking the time to take care of myself helped.

Day 13 of 365 days of Adventure - Paddling adventures

2011-01-13T21:25:00.001-06:00

The day started with a meeting at TPWD talking about paddling. This meeting brought together many of the key players in Texas in regards to recreation and sport paddling. The intent was to introduce paddling instructors, educators and water and boat safety practitioners in order to better align resources. We have instructors but are often missing the needed participants while school programs often have students who need to get on the water but are lacking skilled instructors. It is great to be part of meetings like this that are focused on getting students and community members on the water.

Day 12 of 365 days of adventure - CPR Class

2011-01-12T23:15:00.002-06:00

We finished up our CPR class today with the students from "No Kidding." The students were great to work with and we hope that the messages that we shared today will positively impact their ability to make sound decisions should a cardiac emergency or respiratory emergency arise. All of the participants in this group are young parents who understand the importance of caring for another being. We had many great questions come from this group based on their experience of having to care for their babies and other family members. As we progressed in the class we moved on to using an AED. The AED is designed to deliver a shock to the patient in order to disrupt an abnormal heart rhythm and help the body to re-establish a normal heart rhythm. As I was explaining how the AED works and that it is similar to re-booting a computer to reset the computer operations one of my students asked if you could use a "tazer" to do the same thing? We have to give him credit for thinking out of the box and for recognizing that the tazer much like the AED sends a shock to the body. Perhaps he will have better luck getting on with the police force versus working on an ambulance.

Day 11 of 365 days of adventure - CPR

2011-01-11T23:40:00.002-06:00

Today I had the opportunity to share life saving information with a group of young parents. We taught 33 young adults how to do a scene size up, initial assessment,and rescue breathing. Tomorrow we will complete training on CPR and AED for the professional rescuer. It feels good knowing that we are imparting information to individuals that could save a life. The students in the class were very attentive today and they asked a lot of questions to ensure their understanding. It was apparent that they knew the importance of properly learning the skills and applying them to help save a life. We operate under the American Red Cross of Central Texas and it is wonderful to have such great curriculum to work with. I am so blessed to work with Kimery and The Expedition School and to have the opportunity to continually grow and learn!

Day 10 of 365 days of adventure - Go Ducks!

2011-01-10T23:32:00.002-06:00

Today is the National Championship game between the Auburn Tigers and University of Oregon Ducks. Growing up in Oregon of course I am a Duck fan! My parents raised me around sports and I can remember ball games on the tv on Sunday mornings all through out my childhood. My brother and I both played team sports in high school and as a family some of our best memories are from backyard practice sessions and pick-up games at the local park. The Ducks were ranked #2 going into the game and they knew they were up for quite a challenge with Auburn's defensive line weighing on average 45 lbs more than the players on Oregon's offensive line. Despite the size difference Oregon game Auburn a run for their money by tying the game with just 2 minutes left. It was heartbreaking to see the game winning field goal fly through the uprights with just 2 seconds on the clock but it was nice to see a true battle come down the final moment of the game. This is what championships are made of! The Ducks gave it their all and came up a little short but they can fly back home to Oregon with their heads held high knowing they did their best and they proved that they were in the same league competitively as their opponents.

Day 9 of 365 days of adventure - Making money

2011-01-09T23:24:00.000-06:00

Today was about putting money in the bank. I work part-time at REI to add a little cash to my checking account on a Monthly basis. It is funny how my perspective on money has changed over the last year and a half. When I worked my corporate middle management positions I was compensated well for the positions. As I made more money I also spent more money. A lot more money! It seems that it is possible to adjust your lifestyle to just about any income. When my position was eliminated I did not believe it was possible to still maintain my house payments and live my lifestyle without a similar monthly income. The truth is that we can live with a lot less and we can make adjustments to our spending if we choose to. Over the last year my life has been rich with experiences. The impact that we make on a daily basis can feed our souls for a lifetime. Simply going to work to get a paycheck does not always enrich our lives. I am so thankful for the challenge of living with less commercial items and appreciative for the wonderful experiences that have come along with my new lifestyle.

Day 8 of 365 days of Adventure - Learning and adventure

2011-01-08T21:22:00.005-06:00

Today was a class day at Oak Hill Fire Academy for my EMT Basic certification. We spent 8 hours learning about soft tissue trauma, musculoskeletal injuries, burns and head injuries. On Tuesday we will complete a lab for splinting and applying traction to wounds. The class is going well and I am preparing for another ambulance ride out next Friday. When I started volunteering with The Expedition School in April of '08 I could never have imagined how far this adventure was going to take me. I have a journal from about 4 years ago that has a page in it with a goal of becoming an outdoor educator and guide. I have always had an interest in exploring outdoors and sharing the experience with others but I had no idea that I would follow a path of learning medical and safety practices along the way. It is amazing how the path simply unfolds as we move forward in our lives. Tonight I came home and was exhausted from all of the activities this week. I decided to relax and watch a moving so I opened up Netflix and found the movie "UP". In Up a young boy dreams of being an adventurer as he learns about a famous man who travels the world. The boy wants to be just like him when he grows up. The boy meets a girl named Ellie and they marry. Ellie also wants to have adventure in her life and she dreams of having her house at the top of a waterfall in South America. They establish their house and one thing leads to another and day to day life happens and they end up living their entire life in the original house. But the boy remembers that he made a promise to have a house in South America by the waterfall and as an old man he devises a way to float the house "Up" and fly it to South America. Of course the plan does not go exactly as planned and he gets a chance to fully reflect on his life with Ellie and the dream that they had together. The truth was that the dream was realized all along because they were in love and they had all of their daily adventures together. The movie reminded me of two important things. First, don't delay and waist time waiting for your dreams to happen and second, enjoy what you do have while you have it. Each day is a new adventure and each day brings us closer to our dreams.

Day 3 of biggest loser challenge

Breakfast: egg and two slices of bacon, apple juice and coffee
Lunch: Chicken wrap with avocado and lettuce, two cookies
Dinner: chips and salsa, Chicken enchilada with green chili sauce, queso and guacamole

Exercise: today was a rest day

Day 7 of 365 days of adventure - diet and exercise

2011-01-07T10:50:00.008-06:00

Yesterday I read an article that said to start the day with a full breakfast with a little fat to kick start your metabolism. So I started out with two eggs, two slices of bacon and a flaky biscuit. The same article actually gave props to a little caffeine so I kept with my routine of a cup of coffee and I mixed up a little bit of apple juice and apple cider vinegar to add a little bit of kick to the start of the day. The exercise plan for the day is to ride 10 miles on the road bikes this afternoon.

Day 2 Biggest loser challenge:
Breakfast: 2 eggs, 2 slices of bacon, 1 biscuit, 6oz Apple juice with apple cider vinegar, 16 oz of coffee with 1/2 and 1/2

Lunch: nothing

Dinner: salad with pears, feta cheese, carrots, almond slices and a little bit of homemade vinaigrette dressing. Rotisserie chicken.

Snacks: 4 small butter cookies, cup of hot cocoa

Exercise:
Flat chest press - 4 sets 10,8,10,8 with 10lb dumbbells
Chest fly on stability ball - 3 sets of 10 with 8lb dumbbells
Seated shoulder press - 3 sets of 10 with 8lb
Upright rows - 3 sets of 10 with 8lb
Concentration curls - 2 sets of 15 each arm with 10lb
elbow plank - 3 sets of 30 seconds
weighted sit ups - 3 sets of 10

10.48 miles on road bike

We finished the bike ride and hung out with a couple of friends enjoying dinner and playing games. LSU whomped up on A&M! Great bowl game for the Tigers!

Day 6 of 365 days of adventure - walk/jog in the park

2011-01-06T22:49:00.005-06:00

I started the day off with a class at Red Cross of Central Texas to learn how to use the new online system for class submissions. The class was from 10am to about 11:30 am so I decided to get my outdoor adventure in with a walk/jog on the trail around the Mueller development. Starting at Kimery's house I jogged to the trail closest to Airport drive and headed East. The sign at that point in the trail says .75 and I knew that the end point of the trail was at 1.5 miles from the start. I walked down to the 1.0 mark and then decided to jog for half a mile. Now for most people this would be a piece of cake but I have an aversion to any type of jogging or running. Over the years I have found that jogging has not really agreed with my body type. I tend to slam my feet down when I jog and it tends to create a jarring effect throughout my body. With that said why on earth am I trying to jog? Well I have embarked on a new challenge. As of today I am part of a "biggest loser" group that has a two month challenge to see who loses the largest % of body weight.

Day 1 of biggest loser challenge:

Breakfast - oatmeal with nuts and cranberry and 1 cup of coffee
Lunch - salad with pear, carrots, tomatoes, almond slices and feta cheese (no dressing)
Dinner - flour tortilla with two chicken slices, green chili and black beans
Snacks - banana, 10 grapes, 3 chocolate chip cookies (I gave the rest away today!)
Drinks - 1 cup of green tea and 4 glasses of water

The first day of the challenge was good for me. It is really keeping me focused on my activity level versus my food intake. I know I have some work to do on my diet and I plan to come up with some creative ways to get all of my exercise in. I am excited for the challenge and looking forward to the results.

It is now 11:00 PM and I am lying in bed updating my blog. An owl is hooting somewhere nearby. This is the first time I have heard an owl in my backyard and it is wonderful! Last night when we were paddling I heard an owl up in the tree and it reminded me of the night sounds we would hear when paddling on the Texas Water Safari.

Day 5 of 365 days of adventure - hiking and canoeing

2011-01-05T23:30:00.002-06:00

My day began at 6:30 AM with a call from a friend who is not feeling well. She had a high fever and flu like symptoms and was looking for someone to drive her to the doctor. I agreed to help her out and was glad that I could be there for her. It is miserable to be sick and not have anyone around to help take care of you. I hope that she starts to feel better soon. After the trip to the doctor office I was able to resume my regularly scheduled activity and meet my friend Nancy for a walk on the Greenbelt. Today we entered the trail near 360 and Mopac at our normal meeting spot and we hiked to Sculpture falls and back. Nancy goes to the Greenbelt daily with her two dogs, Mala and Jax. For years she has been coming down her as a part of her daily ritual. The Greenbelt is a sort of sanctuary for the many hikers, bikers and climbers that visit it on a regular basis. The central location and amazing wilderness feel make the greenbelt one of the more popular places to visit in Austin.

This afternoon it was time to dust off the canoe and complete the first paddle of the year. My friend Linette has expressed interest in getting in the canoe and learning about canoe racing. We started with a nice paddle up to TRC to see the black swan that has been hanging out and then we turned West and headed toward Red Bud Island. We put in around 5:30 and paddled down around the island finishing around 6:40 at the Rowing dock. It is always a pleasure to spend time on the water and tonight was no exception. The lake was like glass and the temperature was perfect for paddling. All in all it was a great day.

It is two minutes to midnight and I finally figured out how to get the old editor back up so I could type in my blog. For the last 30 minutes I have watched the hour glass circle around on my computer wondering if I was going to make my deadline of updating the blog daily. It may be a totally unrealistic goal yet I am bound and determined to make it happen. I have decided that if I am unable to physically type the blog into the computer on the appropriate day I will manually document the information in a notebook and then type when I have access to the blog. In my line of work there will be times this year that I will not be able to make it to the computer or even have access to the computer to make the updates. For example, in April we are scheduled to go to Costa Rica to lead a trip. During the trip we will not always have access to the internet or to a computer.

Day 4 of 365 days of adventure - Urban Hike with fun sculptures

2011-01-04T23:04:00.000-06:00

Today I ventured over to East Austin to drop off some paperwork and I decided to stop in the Mueller development to get in a quick walk/jog with Chloe. I have walked around the West side of the park many times but I have never explored the East side. I was pleasantly surprised to find fun sculptures, a beautifully designed pond and landscaping that incorporated the native plants and grasses. The developers made great decisions when they designed this area. After about 45 minutes of walking and jogging I truly felt as if I escaped and found time to relax.

The pond had a group of American Coots swimming around and I was pleasantly surprised to see a belted Kingfisher fly by. I love being able to explore nature in the middle of our city. Often times people think they need to go a long ways to escape and experience nature and I say sometimes we simply need to look a little closer and explore what is right outside our doors. Working with The Expedition School has taught me to take time to appreciate the simple things in life. Instead of walking through the park just to get some exercise I find a walk in the park to be a way to connect, slow down and appreciate all the world has to offer.

As I update this blog I will seek out small and large adventures and hope that somewhere along the way I will inspire someone else to explore and find adventures of their own. Tomorrow morning I will find a new path and enjoy nature with a friend. I am excited about the possibilities and thankful for the opportunity to spend time with a wonderful friend.

Day 3 of 365 days of adventure - relaxing massage by Rochelle Poulson

2011-01-03T20:34:00.000-06:00

As we travel through life sometimes someone enters into our existence and has a lasting impact on how we live day to day. I met Rochelle a little over two years ago as a referral for a massage from a good friend of mine. Little did I know that a simple appointment would grow into such a lasting friendship. There is a light in Ro that shines in everyone that she comes in contact with. Despite an incredibly challenging year dealing with breast cancer, Ro has not only found a way to heal internally but she has shared her growth and healing with everyone around her. Most people would have felt defeat faced with the struggles that Ro has had to endure over the last year and Ro took on the challenge head on. She gathered her clan of friends for support and led the troops to a victory in beating the heck out of her cancer. Now cancer free Ro continues to share her light challenging her friends to be alcohol and sugar free for 30 days starting mid January. She also touts the importance of relationships in our lives and strives to encourage her loving friends to focus on the beauty that surrounds us by taking time to make moments count. So today's adventure is one of body, mind and soul. We can exercise our physical bodies to improve our fitness but we often forget to exercise our minds and to search deeply into our souls. I challenge everyone to take time to search inside, find peace, experience true love and to find a way to share your love with others. Ro I love you and all that you believe in! Much peace and happiness to all in the coming days and Months that make up this glorious year.

On a side note my security job at Texas School for the Blind turns out to be quite a workout. I spent about 5 hours riding around on the bike "patrolling" the campus. It was fun turning the shift into an interval workout. I would ride for 30 minutes without stopping and then take a break. I love having different jobs all of the time, it definitely keeps things interesting.

Day 2 of 365 days of adventure - Hiking the Greenbelt

2011-01-02T14:43:00.007-06:00

We just finished a two hour hike on the greenbelt in the most remote trails you can find in the city. Entering the hike at the hill of life we traveled down the hill and then turned to the right. The trail follows the ridge line for quite awhile before it winds through a few inlets and meanders back and forth across the creek. We hiked for over a hour without seeing any people! I always love finding complete solitude right in the middle of the city. If you really want a great recharge follow the trail and take a little time at the waterfalls on Barton Creek. Another perfect day on the trail with good company! After the hike we wandered around the city and made our way to Pappasitos to share a great plate of fajitas. After two days of activity my hiking partners Missy and Chloe are crashed out napping upstairs while I update the blog.

We made a stop at Academy to pick up a set of 10lb and 8lb dumbell weights to get the indoor workout area set up and we stopped by REI to pick up extra bike tubes, sunglasses and C02 cartridges for the bikes. All in all day two of adventure kicked off with a great workout and ended with a nice relaxing evening at home reflecting and preparing for tomorrows adventure. On the list for tomorrow is the added bonus of working around a full day work schedule. During work I will get the opportunity to bike around the Texas School for the Blind campus for 8 hours and then I will leave work and head to see Rochelle Poulson for an hour long massage. Tomorrow's adventures will focus on the relaxing aspect of body, mind and spirit with a massage and some introspection time.

Day 1 of 365 days of adventure - Road bike from Home and Hike the Greenbelt

2011-01-01T23:34:00.005-06:00

One of my biggest challenges is following through on day to day long term activities. I guess it is no different than signing up for a gym with huge enthusiasm and then only making it to the gym for a few days before the old routine of excuses kicks in. So how do we make a change in our behaviors? How do we commit to doing something different? I have thought about this challenge all day and I have resolved to attempt a simple task of updating this blog daily in 2011! Yes I know it is a big challenge but I am curious to see if I can find a way to track my thoughts, emotions, events and happenings for an entire year. I am also curious to see if it has a positive effect on the outcome of my year?

So...

Day 1

What a great start to the New Year! We started the day with a great breakfast of eggs, potatoes, bacon, fruit, OJ and coffee. After breakfast Missy worked on her website and I diligently read a couple of chapters in my EMT book. Missy has decided to take on the challenge of riding the MS150 this year so we started the year on the right track with an 8 mile road bike ride in the neighborhood. After the ride we came home picked up Chloe (Missy's dog) and took her for a 45 minute hike in the Greenbelt. We met our friends Shannon and Leigh for dinner at Olive Garden and then watched The Rose Bowl at Shannon's house. We came home and I was still awake so I kicked back and relaxed watching the movie Last Chance Harvey. The movie was a good reminder of how quick life can pass us by if we let it. However, there is always the opportunity to change direction and make a choice to live how we want to, Now! We have 15 more minutes left on the first day of 2011 and I am quite pleased with how the day turned out! Tomorrow I am looking forward to another bike ride, studying and spending time with Missy and Chloe.

Cheers to another good year and may all your dreams come true!

1.1.11 Great Day to start a New Year!

2011-01-01T22:59:00.015-06:00

Amazing how time flies and how easy it is to forget all of the amazing things that happen. My last post on this blog was in December of '09??? What the heck happened to 2010?

Well here is a quick recap of what I can remember...

January - Missy completed the Goofy Challenge at Walt Disney world and we started the year camping in freezing temps in Florida. When we returned to Austin I was certified as a lifeguard instructor in preparation for teaching classes in 2010.

February - kicked off the Mountain Bike racing season with the Dirty Dozen in Warda. I worked medical support for the first half of the race and then joined my team to ride the second half of the 12 hour race. The course was extremely muddy and it turned out to be my first experience riding a mountain bike in that much mud and at night! Thank you to Elizabeth for loaning me the bike and lights for the second lap!

March - rolled in with kayak lessons, SUPing, Eco Lonestar, Champions Tri and the Colorado River Ramble.

April - added additional SUPing, kayaking, medical support for the ultimate Frisbee High School tournament and training for TWS and getting ready for the River Marathon.

May - completed the River Marathon, visited Costa Rica, went on my first SSES retreat at the Laiti lodge on the Frio river and I completed my first Sprint Distance Tri at the Capital of Texas Tri in Downtown Austin.

June - We supported another Great Castel Kayak race, provided lifeguarding support for the Danskin, taught a Lifeguarding course, medical support for Terra Firma Huntsville race, helped with the First annual SUP ISD race at Camacho center, won first place solo at Adventure Race Girl challenge race in Bastrop, and enjoyed a full moon SUP paddle with friends!

July - Expedition camp, Tx Rollergirls medical support, Red Licorice open water swim, and more kayak lessons.

August - Ring of Fire, Xterra Camp Eagle, Sweet and Twisted Tri, Kayak trip with San Juan Diego HS, Tx Rollergirls Rec league med support, and of course more SUPing!

September - Colin's Hope, CR100, NOC paddling trip, Wilderness First Aid, Another San Juan Diego trip, SSES Freshmen Retreat on Frio River, Rocky Hill adventure race and TSD Ranger tri!

October - Ultimate Frisbee tourney, KAB lake clean up, started EMT course, 24 hours of Rocky Hill, Mountain bike trip with San Juan Diego, and Martindale tri!

November - EMT Class, Dirty Du, Thanksgiving trip to Garner State Park and Lost Maples state park.

December - Lifeguard course, Jingle bell run, Decker Challenge, trip home to California to see family for Christmas.

Whew! What a whirlwind of a year. I am so very thankful to Kimery and all of the friends, students and colleagues at The Expedition school for an amazing 2010! As I look back on the year I realize how very far we have come and how much we can accomplish if we just put our hearts, minds and souls into what we do. Throughout the year we were able to introduce SUP to over 3000 people, we took hundreds of High School students into the outdoors and we truly made a positive impact on our community! I am looking forward to a productive and amazing 2011!

Christmas 2009

2009-12-25T16:53:00.006-06:00

We returned early from our Christmas adventures due to a cold turned into respiratory infection. Our initial travel plans had us going from Sonora Caverns to Guadalupe National Park. We were geared up to climb Guadalupe peak and to backpack in the park for a few nights. After our amazing adventure cave tour in Sonora my coughing increased and we decided that it was not a good idea to continue camping outside.

Sometimes a little change in plans can bring about great surprises. Instead of driving to Guadalupe Mountains we drove to Davis Mountains state park. Davis Mountains State park is home to the Indian Lodge built in the 1930's by the Civilian Conservation Corps and is furnished with the original furniture. The lodge is a beautiful adobe structure tucked into the edge of the mountains. When we asked if they had any rooms the receptionist first said that they were booked up. She then said that they had one room available with a double bed. We stayed in room 124 in the top corner of the lodge. It was a very quaint room with an over sized bed frame made of hand carved cedar and a beautifully simple white duvet. The end of the bed had an Indian blanket across the foot of the bed for decoration. The Indian Lodge resembles a Southwestern Native-American-style, multilevel pueblo village. Indian Lodge was voted the #1 accommodation in Texas by readers of Texas Highways magazine in 1992. Despite not having reservations we lucked upon a room for one night. The next day we started down the road towards The McDonald Observatory and happened upon The Prude Ranch. We pulled into the seemingly vacant ranch and asked if they had rooms available. We booked a room for the night and scheduled a horseback ride for that afternoon. Our wrangler for the day was named "Dutch." Dutch took us for a nice walk/trot through the ranch and told us a bit about the history of the ranch and the current struggles to keep the ranch running. The Prude Ranch is over 100 years old and has been family owned and run. With the ranch only 14 miles from the McDonald Observatory we were able to attend the star party later that night. We learned how to read a planisphere and identify the night star constellations. The next day we continued our drive on the scenic road through the Davis Mountains and turned back East on Hwy 90 taking the long way home. Hwy 90 takes you through Marfa, Alpine and Marathon and then heads toward Del Rio. By taking this route we traveled across the Amistad Reservoir and had the chance to stop in Seminole Canyon State park. Although the drive was long it was nice to see another part of the state. We made it back home before Christmas and I have spent the last two days nursing my cold trying to get better.

Back on the river again

2009-11-20T07:33:00.003-06:00

Joy and I paddled from 973 in Del Valle to Little Webberville park on Wednesday. The air was a bit chilly in the morning so I put on my long sleeve rash guard and tights under my shorts. By the time we got on the water it had warmed up and it was beautiful on the water. About 10 minutes into paddling we were both sweating. It has been awhile since I have been in the canoe and it felt nice to feel the glide of the boat on the water. Paddling with Joy is effortless, we just move together with smooth strokes and an occasional 'hut' to switch sides. November is a beautiful time to be on the water. The birds of prey, hawks, osprey and eagles are migrating through and flying up and down the river. We watched as the birds glided in the wind gusts and circled overhead. I am forever amazed at the beauty around us.

This stretch of the river is not very far outside of Austin and the river is impacted by city run off and trash. It is sad to see how much stuff ends up in our rivers. We really need to work together to maintain our waterways and keep as much trash as possible out of the water. At one point we came across in intake that was spewing white foamy soap looking substance into the water. We did not detect any smell in the substance but it was a fairly intrusive pollutant.

Despite the trash and weird soapy substance on the water the rest of the trip was clear and beautiful. We had moments where the water was crystal clear and we were able to watch the fish swim under and around the canoe. At one point we had a gar swimming directly in front of the canoe darting back and forth until it turned and swam into the deeper water.

All in all it was a "Another perfect day on the water!"

One Year Later

2009-04-27T21:47:00.014-05:00

We often take the time to reflect on a complete year in January as we set our intentions for the new year. I realized as I logged into my blog today it was exactly a year ago today that I wrote about my first canoe race in this blog. Joy Emshoff and I competed in the Business Class of the Zedler Mill Classic with 28 other boats. As I looked back at my blog about the race I realized that our start to the race was almost an exact duplicate to my race experience this year. For the last three years The Coffee shop in Luling has sponsored our teams in the business class race. The first year Joy Emshoff and Bob Spain took home the 1st place medal, this was Joy's first canoe race. The second year Joy Eshoff added me to the boat for my first race and this year we added Missy Odom into the bow of the boat for her first ever canoe race.
We were the 8th boat to register for the race and the race start was lined up based on our registration. We had 7 boats to the left of us as we prepared for the race start. Just like last year the start of the race was about a 100 yard sprint to the boats. We planned on picking up the boat and carrying the canoe to river right to get the boat launched in the faster and deeper water. We quickly moved the boat into place and jumped in. The boat tilted a little and took on some water. We were squeezed between two other boats and when I looked up we had a canoe sitting sideways in the river in front of us. We were able to move toward the stern of the sideways boat and push past them on the left. As we moved by the boat the boats on either side of us pushed us forward and out of the pack. With our quick start in the faster water we quickly separated ourselves from the pack. Just like the year before there was only one other boat in front of us. We went around two corners before we caught the lead boat and passed them. About 20 minutes into the race we caught up with some of the novice paddlers who launched 10 minutes before us in the race. We approached a log jam and two novice boats were sitting sideways on the right side of the river. At first I thought they needed to move out of our way for us to pass and then I realized there was a small cut to the left that we could take. We were two close to the log jam to hit the cut and we ended up sideways against the log jam. I quickly jumped out of the boat and pulled the stern around and we were able to move past the obstacle. The rest of the race went smooth as we efficiently turned through the many logs along the path. Our finishing time for the race was 1 hour and 15 minutes and we arrived about 3 minutes ahead of the next boat. We joked after the race that Missy now has to continue the tradition and find a novice paddler who has never raced before to put in the bow of the boat and contine the tradition of winning the Zedler Mill Classic business class for The Coffee shop in Luling, TX.

A big thank you to Caroline for sponsoring us again this year! A thank you to Joy and Bob for all of the support over the last year of paddling. I remember driving to the race last year and on the way there Bob was giving Joy and I a pep talk explaining exactly how to get a good start and how we could win the race. On the drive down this year I called Joy and she put Bob on the phone. We used the speaker phone and Bob shared with us the tips we would need to get ourselves away from the pack and have a good race. Bob has shared so much knowledge with us all and I am truly thankful to have him in my life. Joy and I have spent many hours talking on the river and sharing our life stories. Over the last three years she has helped me through many ups and downs in relationships and the one piece of advice that I always remember her saying is that it should be easy. When things are right with two people it just works and she was right. I want to thank my beautiful partner Missy for her willingness to try and new activity. Missy's sense of adventure and zest for living an active life has truly been a blessing in my life. We know that we have many more adventures and races to come and I want to thank her for jumping right in and getting her feet wet!

Last year this race was the start of many races during the 2008 season. In 2008 we competed in the Zedler Mill race (6 miles), The River Marathon (40 miles), The Barrier to Bay (20 miles), Texas Water Safari (260 miles), and the USCA Aluminum state and national races (16 miles) After about 340 miles of racing and about 500 miles of training I am excited to say that this experience has been one of the best in my life. On the river there is time to breathe, relax and connect with nature. I want to thank my 2008 paddling partner Joy Emshoff for the many miles of learning and growing together as we experienced the currents of life and we faced them head on.

Daily horoscope speaks loudly today...

2009-02-19T16:44:00.005-06:00

My horoscope for the day: It takes patience to achieve balance in your life sometimes, so don't rush things.

Two days ago I wrote down everything I am involved in, all of my work endevors, activities, reading, spiritual practice, relationships,and other activities and I wondered? How on earth do I fit this all in?

It was an amazing experience to realize all of the wonderful things I have in my life and to really appreciate how much I work to maintain a variety of activities. A friend of mine used to say your biggest strength can also be your biggest weakness and I think that statement is true in this case. I dabble in many things but I am not an expert in any one thing. My partner keeps saying I should prioritize my activities and I realized this week that it is a very difficult thing for me to do. I love everything I do and I have a tendancy to want to do it all. How can I let things go when they are important to me? Well today I am feeling the result of all of this activity. I have a bit of a lethargic feeling today built up from taking on too many things at once. So it is fitting that my horoscope says it takes time to build balance and to not rush things! What a wonderful insite for me at a time in my life when if feels as if I am moving 100 miles an hour.

Log Jams

2008-09-26T13:07:00.003-05:00

I started the morning with a great cup of coffee and an interesting conversation with my roommate. We talked about the road blocks in life that keep people in a place where they don't really want to be. I referred to them as "log jams", things that clog up the free flow of life and limit us from reaching our dreams. How do we clear the jams and move forward to accomplish our wildest dreams? As we talked we thought about ways to compile best practices and how to take the best practices and well, practice them.

Who in your life has had the most profound influence on you? Was there a specific event that moved you in the direction you most wanted to go? When did you realize what you really wanted to do? Do you feel like you have a log jam in front of you now? What is causing the log jam?

We talked about asking these questions to people we know and compiling best practices or events that could be duplicated to help others clear the log jams in their lives. Maybe you took a yoga class and it cleared your mind or you found a spiritual group that brought you closer to enlightenment, or you visited a far off place and it changed your outlook on the world. What ever path you chose your experience may help others find the path for them.

We Did It! We completed the Texas Water Safari in 82 hours

2008-06-23T16:28:00.028-05:00

Four Months ago we made the decision to train for and complete "The World's Toughest Canoe Race" the Texas Water Safari. We knew that it would take dedication and commitment to reach our goal of paddling, non-stop, 262 miles from San Marcos, TX to Seadrift, TX. We knew it would be a challenge, we knew it would be hard, but we did not really know the full extent of everything that would happen on this adventure. During our training we often asked paddlers who have finished the race before how they did it. What did you wear? What did you eat? How did you pee? Did you have any hallucinations? What else can you tell us that might be helpful along the way. Without the advice from our fellow paddlers and friends I am sure that the experience would have been much more difficult. As I recount all of the things we learned and all of the things we experienced along the way I am overwhelmed with a sense of accomplishment and a sense of relief that we were able to do what we set out to do.

I could not have asked for a more committed, up beat, go get em paddling partner than Joy Emshoff. Throughout our training Joy would always say "If other people can do it, we can do it!" If you have seen our boat you know that we have a bumper sticker on each side of the boat that says "We can do it!" We used this mantra over an over again as we trained, ran into rocks, hit gravel bars and experimented with food and clothing options. Anytime something went off track Joy would say "We're ok, We can do it!" As we prepped the boat one of the veteran racers said something to Joy that was also a key to our success. He said that when he was in the military they focused on staying positive and avoiding negative words. We took this positive thought process to heart and reminded ourselves of it anytime we would start to feel the heat of the day or pain resonating from our sore bottoms.

Throughout this experience Joy and I have had many conversations about the things that keep people from full filling their dreams and from doing the things that they want to do in life. Most of the things we talked about are simply decisions. I can choose to go out and paddle my canoe or I can choose to sit at home and watch the evening news. We all have the same amount of time in the day, it is simply a matter of how we choose to use the time. I am thankful that I have wonderful friends and family who were understanding when they realized that I was going to do this race and it was going to take a tremendous amount of time on the river to get it done. The level of commitment that we dedicated to the race has taught me a lot about how I can go after a goal and accomplish it with the proper amount of focus. When we started training I had doubts if I could really paddle that far, if I would be able to paddle with very little sleep or if I would be able to avoid getting sick on the journey. The very first 25 mile run from Palmetto to Gonzalez was extremely difficult and I was sore for days. Prior to race day the farthest we had ever paddled in a day was 54 miles and that was with a two hour break. So my mind wondered how we would make the jump from 54 miles to 262 miles? For me this was one of the most amazing experiences of the race. I knew that I was not going to get out of the boat and that we were going to be on the river for multiple days. By removing the thought of getting out I also removed the anxiety of worrying about where we were on the river. We focused on getting to the next check point and getting fresh water and ice. Our team captain Brad had a bright orange shirt on and we experienced an immediate up lift in our spirits every time we came around a corner and saw his smiling face on the shore. Brad, his wife Coleen and Joy's son Josh made up our amazing ground crew. They would ask if we were drinking enough water and if we had anything to eat every time they saw us.

On the first day of the race our plan was to start with only a couple of small water bottles and to have our team captain Brad give us the large bottles farther down the river. We wanted to get over the portages the boat as light as possible and leaving out some of the water and ice definitely helped. We made it through Rio Vista dam with many people cheering us on. On the upper San Marcos river we faced a couple of challenges that we quickly overcame. At "Old Dam" we took the left route and got hung up on a rock. I had to bail out of the boat to get us over the obstacle. Luckily I was able to jump back into the boat and we paddled to the left side and were on our way.
At Martindale we successfully portaged over the dam and headed towards the low water crossing. There were two boats stuck on the rock under the low water crossing and as we approached they made it off the rocks and moved on. Our plan was to portage at the bridge and get water from Brad. At the last minute I said to Joy, "let's run it... We can Do it!" This turned out to be famous last words as we missed our mark and hit the rock on the right hand side. I had to jump out of the boat and I was pushed into the rock.
Luckily we both bailed out of the boat and were able to swim it to the shore without tipping it over and without wrapping it on the rock. We had to dump water out of the boat and we ended up taking a couple of minutes to have Brad give us water jugs and ice. During this mishap the 1944 Novice boat with Greg and Wes passed us. We made it our mission to catch back up with the guys and we succeeded to catch them right before the Staples dam portage. Our portage over this dam was one of my most memorable moments of the race. Greg and Wes portaged on the right side and we were set up to portage on the left. We joked that they wouldn't even see us go by and we were correct. We slipped down the left side of the dam and passed them without them noticing. We found out later in the race that their team captain saw us go by but it was still fun to think that we made a strategic maneuver early on in the race and used our portage skills to put us in the lead.
We had visions of being the first women's team ever to win the novice class and we did everything we could to try to stay in the lead. After about 30 hours of paddling we finally pulled over to sleep. We only rested about 45 minutes and later learned that we really should have slept more after the first day of paddling. Brad and I talked a lot about our sleep patterns after the race. If we would have stopped for 2 or 3 hours that first night we would have had a lot more energy to maintain our boat speed during the day. As it was we were so excited to be in the lead that we focused on keeping the boat moving down the river at any speed. Brad woke us at daybreak after about an hour and a half nap under the Cuero 236 bridge. Just as we pushed off shore Greg and Wes pulled into the checkpoint. The day before we ran short on water and I knew we had a long stretch ahead of us leaving this checkpoint. I asked Brad to load us up with a lot of water and ice and he did just that. Brad really wanted to make sure we had enough supplies so he hooked us up with extra water and a cooler full of water and ice. This sounded like an excellent plan at the time but it proved to be a challenge as the extra water and ice added weight to the boat. We left the checkpoint with Diane and Santo in boat 52 and maintained a good pace keeping up with them as they were paddling a much lighter boat. Unfortunately lack of sleep eventually caught up and Greg and Wes came out of no where with Superman paddles flying through the water. It only took Greg and Wes about an hour to catch us. They flew by and never slowed down. We kept thinking they would wear themselves out at some point but it seems that they maintained a strong pace all the way to the end. We tried to stay up with Diane and Santo and finally ran out of steam mid day about 14 miles from Victoria. We made it to Victoria in the early evening and we were happy to see our friend CJ made it to the dock to cheer us on. Although we were exhausted at this point in the race we knew we needed to paddle as far as possible before the sun went down. It took every ounce of energy to make it through the third night of paddling. Our light was not much stronger than the moonlight and I had to use my small flashlight to constantly scan for small stumps and obstacles in the river. Our first goal was to make it to a spot where Brad was at so we could sleep and make sure that someone was there to wake us up. We ended up tying up to trees in the middle of the river twice during the night to take short naps. Earlier that day a paddler warned us that this part of the river can be very frustrating because you can hear the Dupont plant and see lights for a really long time before you ever get there. The river also has a lot of cuts off of it in this section that could easily get you off track or lost. It almost feels as if you are going in circles for about 4 hours. This section also poses a challenge with steep muddy banks that do not allow you to get out of the boat and alligators who are happy to swim by and shine their eyes at you. We joked about using our "she-we" before the race and we really didn't realize how vital the personal peeing device would be until we got in this section of water. After a gruelling night of paddling we made it to the checkpoint just after dawn. The Horny toad #69 boat was tied up to the shore when we left the checkpoint. About an hour later Chris and Jon paddled up to us and we were extremely happy to have another boat to paddle with. Chris and Jon are a father and son team who were determined to finish the race. Chris completed the race last year and he talked his dad into doing the race this year. We ended up paddling with the horny toads for the last 12 hours of the race. Our last two challenges included pulling our boats through 6 water lily road blocks and crossing the bay with 2-3 foot waves. It was very helpful to have the other boat with us as inspiration and companionship during both of these challenges.

I want to personally thank the following people for helping us out along the way: Our amazing team captain Brad and co-captains Josh and Coleen for following us all the way down the river! Bob for inspiring us to do the race and teaching Joy how to drive the boat! Sara for supporting me and understanding my schedule during all the crazy training runs! Jenny, Nick and Dillon for running shuttles and cheering us on! The amazing TOWN ladies for always encouraging us to go for it! Deb and Ginsie for their companionship on and off the water and for all of the advice along the way. Grady, Mike and Scott for hanging with the girls on some training runs. Phil for always encouraging us and telling us we could do it! All of our friends, family and other paddlers who encouraged us and had faith that we could do it!

Photo credits: Sara Sanford, Brad Belk, Bob Spain and San Marcos Daily Newspaper

Safari Supplies

2008-06-12T15:03:00.007-05:00

What do you eat on the Texas Water Safari? We have asked this question to every veteran racer we have met and we have found that the answers are all very different. Of course most racers agree that a mix of liquid and solid food is the best. They all tell you to make sure you have a good mix of electrolytes and some type of protein and carb drink mix. Some people take a mix of salty and sweet items to get them through the day. We have made our list based on other peoples suggestions and our own trial and error of eating things on our training runs. We had to find food that would last for the entire trip that we could handle eating while paddling. Every time we went into a store over the last few months we have searched for lightweight food options that we can handle eating on our trip. After much thought and we used a seal-a-meal machine and put together the following packages of food.

12 ramen soup
4 tuna
6 peanut butter and jelly sandwiches
36 Perpetum and Cytomax drink mix
16 cliff bars
10 peanut butter crackers
4 saltine crackers
6 Frito's
6 Cheetos
6 granola
24 Hammer Gu
3 fruit bars
6 Cheerios
3 pop tarts
1 beef jerky
2 NUUN electrolyte drink mix packages

Other items that we have to carry in the boat.
Safety kit - 3 flares,zip ties, duct tape
Lights - 1 dive light, 2 headlamps, 2 flashlights, many heavy batteries!
Clothes - 2 rain jackets, 2 extra shirts, 2 tights and 2 shorts
Personal items - sunblock, sanitary wipes, glasses, sun glasses, chapstick, Boudreax's Butt paste, Hydroglyde and Dr. Bonners soap.
First Aid kit - bandages, antibiotic cream, snake bite kit etc.
Spray Skirt
Sleeping sling for canoe (allows us to lie down in canoe like a hammock)
2 life jackets
1 waterproof ipod stereo system (this is our one luxury item to help us through the monotonous Guadalupe river on day two and three)
4 large water bottles
4 sports water bottles
We learned last night that the boat is quite heavy when fully loaded. We lifted the boat and Joy just said..."We can Do It!"

Palmetto to Gonzalez again...

2008-06-04T15:13:00.002-05:00

This is the third time we have paddled this section of the river. The first time Joy and I did the paddle was on March 30th and it took us 6 and a half hours to complete the section. I remember coming home after this 25 mile paddle and questioning how in the heck I planned to paddle 260 miles. I was very sore after this paddle and I knew I had a long way to go to get ready for the race. This last weekend we did this stretch in 5 hours and 45 min. When we got off the water I was still ready to paddle some more. It is wonderful feeling the level of progress we have made over the last three months of training. We are now in charge of the canoe and we can pretty manage past any obstacle that comes our way. We were pleased to see that the "river faries" had come and cut a path through one of the log jams and that the large log jam is almost at a level that we can pass through it. We know that we will complete this section at night so it was great seeing it one more time before the race. This trip was extra special because Deb and Ginsie paddled along with us using single blades. It was great having company on the water. We had fun laughing about our adventures in training over the last few months.

Memorial Day Weekend Paddling

2008-06-04T14:54:00.008-05:00

We encountered a new river obstacle this weekend - Texas Tubbers! We started our training at City Park on Saturday morning around 9am. We later found out it was a great idea to start early with the onset of tubbers in the early afternoon. On Sunday we attempted an afternoon paddle in our kayaks and had to weave our way around about 200 tubes! During the paddling sessions we worked on our portages of Rio Vista dam, Cummins dam and Staples. We were very excited this weekend when we learned an effective way to run through "Old Dam" rapids. We are still working on our plan for Cottonseed and that is on our list for the last weekend of training. This weekend ended up being a good technical weekend with plenty of time to rest and relax at the Shady Grove campground. We camped Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights and enjoyed many hours of relaxing in chairs in the river! Joy, Brad, Coleen, Jenny, Nick and Dillon all camped out for the weekend. My friends Casey and Chris joined us on Sunday night and a good time was had by all. For the record Joy makes the best breakfast around! We had a good time with good friends all weekend long! We ended up paddling short distances this weekend but the knowledge we gained from practicing the portages proved to be very important! We are looking forward to a few more weekends of training and then the big race

Paddling Friends!

2008-05-19T15:47:00.007-05:00

We have been very fortunate to meet other people who are crazy enough to do the Texas Water Safari. There are only a few all women teams that compete in the Texas Water Safari and we have really enjoyed paddling with and sharing stories with our friends and fellow paddlers Ginsie and Deb. Ginsie has finished the 262 mile Texas Water Safari race 7 times and is a seasoned veteran to the sport. She has paddled the race 4 times solo, 2 times in all women's boats and 1 time in mixed boat. This is Deb's first run at the Texas Water Safari. Deb is an avid Adventure Racer. I met her last year when I completed the Adventure Race Girl Challenge directed by Deb.

ADVENTURE RACE GIRL CHALLENGE
ALL GIRL ADVENTURE RACE

The 2008 ARG Challenge will take place in the historic and beautiful town of Bastrop Texas, located 30 miles southeast of Austin. Racers will experience challenges on the Colorado River and in the Lost Pines, a terrain unique to this part of Texas.

Deb and Ginsie put the number 18 on the canoe, "She Ra" to indicate Deb's first Safari and Ginsie's 8th Safari. At one point they said they might put the saying "She Ra rides again" on the boat because this is not the first run down the Safari course for this boat. Deb and Ginsie are an incredibly competitive team and an inspiration to all women paddlers. Ginsie's expertise and advice have really helped us to prepare for the race. We often discuss food options, sleeping options, clothes options and of course the art of peeing in and out of the boat!

The support that Ginsie and Deb and our other fellow paddlers have given us during the various training sessions on the river is tremendous. Deb and Ginsie paddled from Rio vista dam to Zedler Mill on the weekend that we did our 45 mile stretch from Staples to Palmetto and they were so kind to call and check on us to make sure we made it off the water safely. I am very excited to see how we all do on the race and I look forward to many great adventures on the water!

Cuero Dam

2008-05-19T15:22:00.006-05:00

We drove a lot farther than we paddled this weekend to see the Cuero dam. This was the last large obstacle that we needed to scout before the race. We made the trip to Cuero and paddled a 15 mile stretch of the river on Saturday. Our friend Grady came along with us on the trip which worked out great for shuttling boats. Total paddling time was only about 2 and a half hours. The Cuero dam does not require a portage. To get around the dam we paddled around a large metal obstacle and took a quick right to follow the river flow. This section has quite a few trees and limbs in the water but it is pretty easy to navigate past the obstacles. We talked a lot about the last minute preparations we are all making to get our boats and our bodies ready for the race. Grady shared with us some of his food ideas for the race and we shared some of the tricks that we have applied to the boat to get it race ready. Joy made a sling to go across the boat that acts like a hammock so we can sleep in the canoe during the race. Our goal is to have one of us sleep while the other one keeps the boat moving down the river. We feel prepared for the race and we are excited for the continued adventures to come. Our plan this weekend is to camp and paddle different stretches of the upper San Marcos river.

"Stick in my ass" 45 mile paddle Staples to Palmetto

2008-05-11T15:03:00.007-05:00

Joy said "I have a stick in my ass" and for some reason this ended up being the theme for our paddle yesterday. We started at the Staples dam with our new friend Liam in who was in a Wilderness Systems kayak and us in our trusty canoe. Joy immediately commented on how low the water looked. Little did we know the impact the low water level would have on our results for the day. Liam attempted to use his rudder and was having difficulty in the first stretch of water. He was knocked over twice in the first mile and after losing his hat and pumping water he decided he better turn back now.
We were sad to see him go but we also understood that the low water levels would reveal many obstacles along the way. I can't even count the number of times that we came to a dead stop on rocks and had to get out of the boat and walk it yesterday. Each time we moved the boats over the rocks we were expending extra energy and taking extra time to move down river. Our friend Grady passed us about 3 miles from the Lulling 90 bridge. He started at Rio Vista and he was moving along at a good pace. He asked if we were going to stop at Lulling and we said we hadn't planned on it. He said he would see us there and he paddled on ahead of us. We saw Grady just past the bridge and then again at Zedler Mill. We were very thankful to him for waiting for us at the end. Grady made it to Palmetto just before dark and we did not get there until well after dark. Not long after the Lulling 90 bridge we encountered a dead cow in the water. Between the smell of the cow and the smell of gas this section of water was not fun to paddle. As far as other wildlife for the day we encountered 3 or 4 snakes. I was very glad that I did not see one of the snakes. Joy saw the snake it was half on a branch and half in the water and Joy said it was about a foot from me as we paddled by. We started on the water at 10am and we were hoping to be off the water by about 7:30pm, before dark. Well our plans didn't go exactly as scheduled and we ended up on the water until 9:30pm. At Zedler Mill we contemplated pulling out and getting a ride to Palmetto but we knew this was our last scheduled long paddle before the race so we continued on. Right after Zedler I made a bad call thinking we could go under a log and we got into a bit of a sticky situation. The log was high enough for the boat to go under and it had two pieces of barbed wire going from the shore to the log. I was lucky to miss the barbed wire and we both ended up getting out of the boat to move past the obstacle. It would have been a much easier route to go thru the shallow water on the left. The good news about our late night travel is the headlamp packed in the safety pack. The bad news... I only had my prescription sunglasses making everything past about 5 feet blurry. Our new goal was to make it to Ottine dam before it got dark. For anyone who has paddled this stretch of the river you know that this dam is very difficult to see and it has a rather tough portage. After 38 miles of paddling we found ourselves pulling with all our might to make it to the dam with a little light left to make it around the dam. We succeeded in getting there and pulling the boat around the portage just as we lost the last bit of light. I put my headlamp on and we jumped back in the canoe. I have had paddlers tell me a headlamp does not work on your head and I quickly realized how right they were. All of the bugs on the river come right at your head and you are left with a blurred sea of annoying flying things around you. Joy passed me a quick tie and I rigged the headlamp to the front of the boat. The hole that I rigged the light to was on the right side of the bow giving us a good idea of what was on river right and no idea what was on river left. Somehow we managed to navigate past all of the small obstacles and we enjoyed an exhilarating ride at the very end of the trip when the water picked up and we followed the flow with very little sight and no control as to were the boat was going. I laughed at one point and said "this is great, we not only have a crappy light but you have a bow person with blurry vision telling you how to avoid the obstacles. After surviving the quick moving water we both looked ahead and said "what is that?" There was something across the river and we really were not sure what it was. A minute later we laughed at ourselves as we realized the Palmetto bridge was right in front of us. We got about 10 feet from the bridge and bailed out of the boat getting ready to lift the boat onto the bridge. We were very thankful that a couple of paddlers showed us this trick the first time we came to the bridge. The water is only about 2 feet deep and by jumping out and holding the boat we can nose it onto the bridge with minimal effort. We had a wonderful surprise of a grilled up dinner when we made it up to camp. Jenny, Nick and Dillon had dinner waiting for us when we arrived.

Texas River Marathon and Barrier to Bay Races

2008-05-05T13:37:00.017-05:00

This weekend we entered the Texas River Marathon and the Barrier to Bay canoe races. The Texas River Marathon is also known as the Texas Water Safari Prelim race as it determines your starting point in the Texas Water Safari. The River Marathon race runs 40 miles from Cuero to Victoria. This stretch of water is known to be some of the fastest water on the Texas Water Safari course. Of course the speed of the water is determined by the river flow and so far we have encountered a lot of low water. We averaged about 5.6 miles per hour on this stretch of the river. This is one of the longest section on the river between checkpoints when doing the Safari. We had fun navigating the rapids and it was nice knowing we did not have any portages for this race. We have also learned the value of having a great team captain! Captain Brad not only fetches us water but he yells out encouraging words as we fly by. Brad came prepared with a spreadsheet tracking all of our times and he was excellent at estimating our arrival times at the various bridges. Brad and Colleen also graciously shared their sleeping quarters with us. It was wonderful having a place to change and rinse off after the race. We entered into the Women's division for this race and ended up taking 3rd place out of 3 teams. We knew this would be the result because the other teams are paddling much faster and longer boats. To our surprise if we had entered the Novice division we would have taken 1st place in the Aluminum Novice. We had two other Aluminum boats chasing us for much of the race and we were bound and determined to keep the boats behind us. We only got out of the boat once during this race and we were back in the boat about 2 minutes later. I learned that I need to find shorts and tights with no seems on them to ensure I avoid any excessive rubbing or sores. We also learned it is a good idea to cut a V shape in the seat to keep it from rubbing. By looking at all of the other boats we also picked up a few more tips for rigging up the boat. We learned that it works great to use a hole punch and zip tie your GU so that it is within easy reach. One of the biggest challenges is maintaining the right amount of food and fluids to sufficiently keep the body moving during the race. Every racer has ideas on what works for them. We are using an assortment of electrolyte drink mixes, GU and solid food to keep us going. Some boats have multiple spaces in foam blocks with various vitamins, energy drinks and fluids to keep the paddlers going. The River Marathon race was a good test of endurance and stamina. We did not stop paddling for the entire 6 hours and 50 minutes and we did not get a chance to stretch our legs. I found my legs cramped up after about 5 hours but I also figured out a few stretches that helped alleviate the cramps. We finished the River Marathon in 6 hours and 50 minutes and the Barrier to Bay race in a little over 4 hours. On the Barrier to Bay race we encountered very high wind with 2 to 3 foot waves coming directly at us, this was quite a challenge. We constantly had waves crashing over the boat. The waves taught us that our cover needs extra water proofing and our bilge pump needs some work. We ended up paddling against the wind with a lot of water in the boat. Despite the challenges we finished the race with smiles on our face and a 3rd place trophy.

Zedler Mill Race

2008-04-28T11:53:00.010-05:00

We entered our first canoe race on Saturday April 26th supporting the Zedler Mill foundation. Our sponsor was "The Coffee Shop" in Lulling, TX. The race had several classes to race in including a pro class, novice class, Tri-County challenge and business class. We raced in the Business class with 28 other canoes. The race started with a LeMan's sprint to the boats. Our boat was #005 so we only had 4 boats to the left of us at the start. As we launched into the boat we had a boat hit us on the left rear. We quickly moved away from the boat and behind another canoe that turned sideways at the start of the race. Only one other boat was in front of us as we picked up speed and hit the fast moving water on the river right. We quickly passed the other boat and never looked back. Our race time came in at 1 hour 4 minutes. We ended up finishing almost 10 minutes ahead of the other boats. Our biggest success for the day was having a time only 21 seconds behind our friends Cindy and Mike who won the Tri county challenge. Congratulations to Cindy and Mike and to Deb Richardson for winning the womens solo challenge! Over all it was a successful race and we are excited for the Texas Water Safari prelim race this weekend. Thank you to Bob Spain for directing the race! We were also excited to have Brad and Coleen make it for the awards ceremony! Brad has volunteered to be our team captain starting next week with the Prelim race. He helped us out this weekend by getting our drink jugs rigged up so we can easily mix drink packets in them! We were happy to have Dillon and Jenny on the bank cheering us on! It is wonderful to have so many great people helping us out and supporting our racing adventures!

What is up with the funny outfits?

2008-04-21T14:36:00.004-05:00

We have had a lot of discussion about what you wear to paddle 262 miles in 3 days? Well the consensus seems to be the following...

water shoes with good drainage and water socks to keep rocks out
tights to avoid sunburn and poison ivy
shorts over the tights
quick drying short sleeve shirt
quick drying long sleeve shirt
good river hat (Joy and I invested in Tilley hats... we figured the investment would get us to both wear our hats and we were right)

When you talk to women who have done the race they say to cut the crotch out of the tights to make it easy to pee. We are still trying to figure out all of the lovely tricks like that to simplify the process. Joy has spent a lot of time and energy figuring out effective ways to rig up our boat. She has added loops onto our mesh bags so they hang neatly on the sides of the boat. She is also working on the spray skirt and a snap on swing that we can lay back on to sleep. I am so grateful to have such a crafty and wonderful paddling partner. As I was losing energy the other night she was full of encouragement and found a way to kick me back into gear. I really do believe We can Do it!

One day and 53 miles later...

2008-04-21T13:43:00.009-05:00

This was our first big challenge in training for the Texas Water Safari. We planned a day with a total of 53 miles and two different sections of the river. We started at Spencers Crossing on FM1979 in Martindale and paddled to Lulling 90 for the first 28 miles. Then we loaded up the boat and the gear and headed to Palmetto State Park to paddle from Palmetto to Gonzalez for the next 25 miles. Our goal was to complete the second paddle in the dark as we anticipate paddling that section in the dark during the race. On the first stretch we had a lot of obstacles to maneuver around and several rapids that we had to make decisions whether to run or portage. We portaged the Staples Dam by going in between the garage and house and down the steps at a house. We love the owners of this house for making it so easy for paddlers to come by. At one point we attempted to run a rapid that had a lot of obstacles and found ourselves stuck on a log in fast water. I jumped out of the boat and pulled us through and we were on our way. This section was a good lesson in communication and navigation to safely move the boat around things.
For the night paddle we are very thankful for the help we received from fellow paddlers Debbie Richardson, Mike Drost and Ginsie Stauss. They were so kind to drop our vehicle at the end point and give us an hour head start on this stretch of the water.We are paddling a recreation class aluminum canoe and they are paddling much faster C1,C2 and unlimited canoes.
Paddling at night was a whole new experience for us. We learned quickly that your depth perception goes away and that you see things up ahead that don't actually exist. Joy would ask things like "go left?" and I would answer no going forward will work because there wouldn't be anything in the way. At one point I said hold on let me see how to get through this when there was nothing in the way. The reflections off the water and the bank make your eyes see obstacles when there are not any. We had a full moon and the weather was beautiful for the paddle. The night sounds were wonderful. We had an owl hooting at us, coyotes howling and fish jumping. The bugs were only bad for the first hour of the paddle and the rest of the night was beautiful. About 13 miles into the paddle we came to a large log jam and portaged around it. As we were putting our boat back in the water we saw two lights. We heard them holler log jam and I yelled back at them log jam. They were quite surprised to hear someone else on the other side. Scott paddled with us for about an hour and shared tips for doing the Texas Water Safari. One of the best things he told us was if an alligator comes at your boat they will normally just duck under the boat and go away. They are not aggressive unless provoked. We talked about navigating the bay and the types of food that he brings on the Texas Water Safari. This will be his first year doing the Texas Water Safari solo. Mike dropped back to check on Deb and Ginsie and they all caught up to us later. We attempted to keep up with their pace for awhile but we are quickly overrun and back on our own for the last 7 miles of the section. Our last big challenge was the portage around Gonzalez dam. The bank was very muddy and slick. We did the short portage down the rocks and learned later that the longer portage through the grass is much safer. This is a shot of us at midnight after 52 miles of paddling for the day!

Westerfield to Martindale

2008-04-18T13:15:00.010-05:00

This stretch is by far the most technical part of the river we have encountered so far. After about 3 miles you come upon "Old Dam" marked by an old concrete wall on river left. As you approach this rapid there is a drop on river left.The water was pretty shallow on the drop so we decided to take the eddy on river right and portage over the rocks. This approach got us through the first section of the rapid but it did not move us past the swift moving water that heads toward a concrete wall on river right. We attempted to cut the corner and not move into the wall but the force of the water moved us onto the edge of the wall that was slightly submerged. Joy leaned into the wall and was able to push us off of the obstacle after the water spun us around. As a safe route we may choose to go to river left and portage over the shallow section between the other wall and the shore. Our motto on this section is to play it safe and portage as needed. As rookies to the canoe world we are starting to control the boat and manage obstacles in slower moving water but we are still learning the techniques in swift water. This section of the river has the famous Cottonseed rapids. We portaged right and walked over the concrete wall and down a cow path to scout the rapid as it takes a sharp left curve. The rapid is full of rocks and very swift water. After looking at it we thought it best to avoid the entire rapid by portaging over the wall and down the path. We portaged Martindale dam and encountered our last large obstacle of the day. The water narrows shortly after the dam and funnels under a bridge. As the water funnels it picks up speed and heads toward a large rock. Bob walked us through the maneuvers required to avoid the rock and safely run this section. He explained that this is the type of rapid that builds character and confidence. He told us to drop into the rapid and then draw hard to the left. Both the bow and stern must do a hard draw to move the boat to the left and away from the rock. The river is clear of obstacles on the left side and when done properly this maneuver works well and will put you safely downstream. Joy and I were apprehensive of running this and were about to say we would do it another time when Bob said we still had a little ways before we pulled the canoe out of the water. I handed over my sunglasses and put on my life jacket and said "We Can Do It!" We managed the rapid perfectly on the first shot and finished the last 10 minutes on the water with very little daylight. When we pulled over at the bridge Bob shot a quick ending photo and we carried the canoe up the embankment. As a nice surprise Bob had picked up a pizza and we stood by the truck and had a wonderful dinner after a great paddle.

Zedler Mill to Palmetto

2008-04-14T14:16:00.011-05:00

Another Perfect day on the water!
Joy and I have used this mantra almost every day that we have paddled for the last 7 years. It is our belief that any day on the water is a perfect day and it always beats being stuck in traffic on Mopac on a Wednesday evening. Saturday morning was another perfect day on the water. We put in at Zedler Mill just above the dam and started our paddle with the portage around the right side of the dam. We decided to start here to practice carrying a loaded boat over the rough rocks. We managed the portage with no problem and immediately jumped into the rhythm of our paddle with tunes coming from my new waterproof ipod speaker system. It was great having the music to paddle by on this trek. I was battling a cold all week and talking would take extra energy so it was nice to have the music in the background. We experienced the portages for Zedler Mill and Ottine Dams and had absolutely beautiful weather on this paddle. The total trip was about 15 miles and we did it in just about 4 hours.

Our average pace was around 4.5 miles on this stretch of the water. We experienced nice rapids and practiced a lot of navigation around trees and branches. We were quite excited with how well we were controlling the boat and we are starting to understand what we need to do to make quick turns and avoid obstacles. This stretch of the water has one of the most dangerous obstacles on the Texas Water Safari... the Ottine Dam. The dam sneaks up on you as you come around a right hand corner. There is no warning sign and if you are not careful you will find yourself on top of about a 15 foot drop.

The portage is to the left and we learned there are two routes available for the portage. The low route takes you past old dam equipment and down the side of the dam with a lot of loose rocks. This is a shorter portage but a lot steeper. The second route goes up the side of the hill, under metal wires and down a dirt trail to the water. We chose this route and found we could rest the boat on the ground and inch it along without any problems and with very little effort. We came across two other paddlers at the portage and they said they normally go down the dam side. After we left they followed in our footsteps and found the dirt path a lot easier to navigate. They caught up to us right before the Palmetto bridge and helped us understand the easiest way to get out of the water at the bridge. About 15 feet from the bridge the bow paddler jumps out of the boat and then the stern follows. The water is only about 2.5 feet deep and it is easier to control the boat if you keep it pointing straight at the bridge. Putting the nose of the boat on the brace of the bridge I jumped up and helped pull the front of the boat onto the bridge. Joy followed and we safely and quickly had our boat over the obstacle. We only encountered one log jam on this section and it was an easy one to navigate over.

Live to Paddle... Paddle to Live!

2008-04-09T23:02:00.007-05:00

I took the time to see a documentary tonight called "The Unforseen" about urban sprawl and the impact on our environment. This documentary hits close to home because it is based on the urban development of Circle C Ranch here in Austin, TX. The film really made me stop and think about our environment and the day to day impact we make on the world around us.

Joy and I have talked about why we are chosing to do the Texas Water Safari and watching this film really made me analyze additional reasons why it is important for me to accomplish such a daunting task. One of the most basic reasons for me to do the race is the simple pleasure of spending time in the outdoors. When I am on the river there are no distractions, no cell phones, no computers, no one asking me questions or wanting my time. The river is a place of solitude, reflection and introspection. I have learned that we can paddle faster but it will still take a good amount of time to cover distance in the canoe. The process of paddling the boat and learning to slow down has taught me a lot about how I have been leading my life. I find that I have jumped from one thing to another without fully enjoying things in the moment. In a canoe there is no choice but to take in the world around you and cherish the moment.

Joy and I have talked about the simple things on the river that put smiles on our faces. We both wonder at the colors, reflections, shapes and movements as we quietly move our paddles through the water. I often wonder how long the river can be sustained and how much work we must all do to protect the river from polution and growth. The documentary focused on the impact to Barton Springs with the huge amount of growth and development in Austin over the last decade. In 1992 Save Our Springs Alliance won a battle in City Hall to protect the Springs and they still continue working on efforts to maintain this beautiful piece of nature within our city. A disheartening moment in the film showed a shot of Barton Springs in the late nineties when the water was extremely clear and a follow up shot showing cloudiness in 2004.

About the movie from the web site: http://theunforeseenfilm.com/blog/about/

An ambitious west Texas farm boy with grandiose plans tires of living at the mercy of nature and sets out to find a life with more control. He heads to Austin where he becomes a real estate developer and skillfully capitalizes on the growth of this 1970s boomtown. At the peak of his powers, he transforms 4,000 acres of pristine Hill Country into one of the state’s largest and fastest selling subdivisions. When the development threatens a local treasure, a fragile limestone aquifer and a naturally spring-fed swimming hole, the community fights back. In the conflict that ensues, we see in miniature a struggle that today plays out in communities across the country.

“The kind of transformative viewing experience that has made the current period a golden age for nonfiction film.”

Robert Koehler, Variety

“The best film at the 2007 Sundance Film festival, hands down…”

Gavin Smith, Film Comment

“Laura Dunn’s The Unforeseen is a rare gift. Plainspoken yet urgent, it makes the wrist-slashingly depressing topic of real-estate development somehow transcendent. The Unforeseen is the movie An Inconvenient Truth wanted to be.”

So what does this have to do with my motivation to paddle 262 miles from San Marcos to the Coast? Well rivers are some of the most isolated reminders of the purity and importance of our environment. We need to protect the rivers and remember that our livelihood depends on the flow of water. So I am living to paddle and in many ways paddling to live as I explore nature and remind myself of how far we have moved away from the simple pleasures in life.

San Marcos River City Park to Westerfield

2008-04-09T22:38:00.009-05:00

We took the chance on making it to San Marcos on a Monday evening to paddle the first portion of the river from City Park to Westerfield. Total distance on this section is only about 5.5 miles. Although this is a short paddle we have many things to learn about this section. It is difficult for me to imagine navigating this narrow piece of water with approximately 100 other boats.

Our strategy is to play it safe and make it thru the section without water in the boat. Our first big challenge is the Rio Vista dam. Many of the racers will run this dam thru the channels with ease. Our fear is that we will tip after the first drop and be stuck attempting to get water out of a fully loaded canoe. We are choosing to portage all three sections of the dam and put our boat safely in under the bridge. The portage has a very easy walk way and ends on a concrete dam allowing us to quickly get back in the canoe and continue paddling.

This section of the river has a lot of low hanging branches and strainers in it. We did not encounter any complete log jams, but we did have a few tricky areas where exact draws and ruttering were necessary to avoid the obstacles. Our next portage was around Thompson island. At this point in the river you have the option to follow the channel to the left and take a longer portage or stop river right and get out on the concrete barrier. We chose to go river right which works well in a short boat and would not be a good move in one of the longer 6 man canoes.

It is an easy portage and the river is moving well below the obstacle but it does have quite a few tricky corners and low hanging branches to avoid. At 4 miles we were reminded why people get confused at the intersection of the Blanco river and the San Marcos river. The wind can make it look as though the Blanco river is the downstream route. We continued to the right and picked up our pace in this open section of the river. The final obstacle is the Cummins dam where you have the option to lower the boat using ropes or walk the boat around the dam. Again we choose to walk the boat for fear of dropping the canoe or losing things out of the boat. The quick trip to San Marcos turned out good and we are planning to repeat this section Saturday morning and continue further downstream.

So I missed myself in this shot and got a lovely image of Joy :)

Palmetto to Gonzalez TWS Training

2008-03-31T10:45:00.005-05:00

Yesterday began our first leg of training for the Texas Water Safari. We planned a trip from Palmeto State Park on the San Marcos River 25 miles to the Gonzalez 183 Take-out. The total trip time was 6.5 hours with 5.5 hours of total moving time on the water. We averaged 4.5 miles per hour on this leg of the river with our maximum speed of 8.1 miles per hour. During the trip we encountered many obstacles and we enjoyed the experience of conquering the obstacles and finding the best route around or over the obstacles. The first major obstacle that we came to was a herd of cows in the middle of the river. We joked later in the day that the black cows were playing "chicken" with us. The last cow had some good bragging rights because he let us get within about 2 feet before jumping out of the water and onto the safe bank.

I told Joy we could name our team "I see tree people" because I often see things in the shapes of the trees. I primarily see people and animal shapes. Along this stretch of the river I noticed a Donkey lying on his back sun bathing, a headless and armless naked woman lounging on the bank, a jack rabbit - Joy thought this looked like an old time plow, a hippo, an alligator and various other faces... Joy said she was glad I told her these things on a short trip so she wouldn't think I was totally hallucinating on our long distance paddles.

Real wildlife that we saw on the trip included about 5 or 6 Blue Heron, A red winged Hawk, 5 snakes sunning themselves on branches, lots of turtles including a high diving turtle that we gave a score of 8.5 due to the dorsal fin causing a splash, black cows, brown cows, a black lab in a golf cart, 3 tubby guys with shirt turbans drinking beer in a fishing boat, 2 redneck guys fishing on the bank, and many fishy splashes as we paddled over them!

We maneuvered around 4 log jams on this stretch of the water. The first log jam was fairly simple to get over because it was big enough to stand on the log. Since we were out of the boat we took advantage of the opportunity to pee and we marked our territory on the log.

Now if you have never paddled this stretch of water you might find peeing on a log strange, but you do what you gotta do on this race to save time and take care of all of your personal needs when you can! If you are already out of the boat it is a prime time to relieve yourself.

Around 13 miles into the paddle from Palmetto we came across a huge log jam that required us to portage the boat up the bank and around a fallen tree. The path is to river left and is fairly easy to navigate and get back in the water.

We were not too sure of the portage point at the Gonzalez dam but we finally figured out that it is about 15 feet from the drop on the right side. The portage is marked by a rope on the tree and the roots of the tree make it easy to climb the bank.

We spent a lot of time talking about food options for the race including ways to get our coffee fix during the 3 day journey. We both agree that tuna packs and whole wheat tortillas will be in our food supplies. We will continue to ask people what they normally take on the trip to keep from crashing out. We tried out an espresso goo yesterday that wasn't too bad. I liked that the goo actually had a coffee taste and it worked pretty good without upsetting my stomach.

Last but not least we had an amazing moment on the river when a blue heron flew in front of us and lost a feather. The feather floated gently above us and swirled in the wind. The feather reminded me of the peaceful balance of nature and the joy of spending time outside.

I will add pictures of the trip to this post soon. Stay tuned for more Safari adventures to come. We are on the water Monday and Wednesday on town lake this week and Thursday on the San Marcos River.

World's Toughest Canoe Race - Texas Water Safari

2008-03-25T18:16:00.003-05:00

What makes someone decide to paddle a canoe 260 miles down a river for three days non-stop? That is a good question and one I am attempting to figure out. I have always said the Journey is the Destination and I am about to take that quote to the extreme. We started training this week consisting of 6 to 10 miles on Town Lake three days a week and between 15 and 45 miles on the rivers on the weekends. This weekend we will paddle from Palmetto to Gonzalez for about 27 miles. I talked to Ginsie and Debbie last night and they said we will encounter at least one log jam and a dam on this paddle and so the adventure begins.

We will cover every stretch of the river between now and June 14th and then we will paddle non-stop from June 14th to June 17th. We have to take everything we need in the boat including any food, clothing, safety essential etc. Our team captain will follow down river and meet us at checkpoints. He can only exchange water bottles and give us ice. The Safari is nicely called the "World's Toughest Canoe Race" and from the stories I have heard I can certainly understand why it has that reputation. Joy and I have paddled together for about 7 years mostly in kayaks and we are both excited to take on this personal challenge.

Stay tuned for updates on the blog of training adventures and Safari stories...

Clear sky, blue water!

2007-12-16T13:24:00.000-06:00

I am sitting in my office looking out the window at the beautiful crisp blue sky thinking I would much rather be out there than in here. Today is the first clear day this week and I am ready to go enjoy a little sunshine. I am hoping to be on the water canoeing with Joy by 3pm. On December 8th I attended a day long canoe instructor course. The course was designed to teach the basics of canoeing and provide the instruction materials needed to teach intro to canoeing classes. I am very excited to broaden my paddling experience by entering into the canoeing world. Starting this week Joy and I will begin training for long distance canoe races.

Joy is putting together a team to compete in the Texas Water Safari a 260 mile kayak/canoe race from San Marcos, TX to the Gulf of Mexico ending in Seadrift, TX. The plan is to have a 4 woman team with me as the team captain. As captain I will follow the team on land and provide assistance with water and ice. Taking on the role of team captain will allow me to better understand the dynamics of the race and learn the ins and outs of surviving such a grueling adventure. The race is non-stop and lasts about 3 days. The only outside assistance that teams can receive is ice and water. If the team requires medical attention or other assistance they are disqualified from the race.

Info taken from Texas Water Safari Website: http://www.texaswatersafari.org

Legend has it that back around 1962 Frank Brown and Bill "Big Willie" George decided to take their "V" bottom boat, without a motor, from San Marcos to Corpus Christi. They accomplished their mission in about 30 days and decided that other people should have the opportunity to experience the same journey. So in 1963 they set up the first Texas Water Safari.

The Safari is a long, tough nonstop, marathon canoe racing adventure, which traverses 260 miles of challenging rivers and bays. Although the rate varies from year to year depending on water conditions, in previous Safaris as few as two teams out of sixty starters managed to reach the finish line. Many participants enter the Safari with no intention of winning, but with aspirations of joining the elite group of finishers and earning the coveted Texas Water Safari patch.

Entrants must have all provisions, equipment, and items of repair in their possession at the start of the race. Nothing may be purchased by or delivered to a team during the race except water and/or ice. Each team must have a team captain (18 years old, or older) whose responsibility it is to follow the team by vehicle (car, truck, or bicycle) to keep track of their location and condition and give them water and/or ice. During the Safari, teams may not receive any assistance of any kind except verbal. Teams must be prepared to travel day and night, nonstop to be competitive, but teams who occasionally stop for sleep have been able to reach mandatory checkpoint cutoff times and cross the finish line by the 100 hour deadline.

In the 2007 race a 6 person canoe split in half in the first 19 miles of the race. The participants used duct tape and other supplies to repair the boat and despite all obstacles they finished the race. The Texas Water Safari is a great testament of how much you can accomplish if you simply put your mind and body to the task. Shortly after the Safari I will compete with Joy in the CR100 race from Bastrop, TX to Columbus, TX on the Colorado river.

I am excited about the many adventures ahead of me on the water!

7 Songs

2007-11-20T11:04:00.001-06:00

Anna tagged me with the challenge of listing 7 songs that I am into right now so here goes... My music taste is centered around singer/songwriter folksy tunes with incredible lyrics.

1) Soul Suckers - Amos Lee "Did you believe them when they told you they discovered you? And that everything is free as long as you do everything they tell you to?" This song hit me a few months ago and it has been a constant theme for me as I consider returning to my art. I played the song for my friend Wendy Colonna because I really believe she is on the verge of being discovered.

2) Hole in my pocket - Ruthie Foster "Show me ways to save my soul..." Shannon played this one night while we were sitting in our garage lounge having a conversation and it caught my attention.

3) Walking with a Ghost - Tegan and Sara "No matter which way you go, no matter which way you stay, go out of my mind, out of my mind" This song is a bit catchy and high pitched but I like it anyway.

4) Happy Phantom - Tori Amos "Woooo Hoooo Things are getting better!" Yes things are getting better!

5) Caught in the Rain - Doria Roberts "What do you do when you are caught in the rain do you run for cover do you stand in the middle of it?" I would stand in the middle of the rain and enjoy the pleasure of the water on my face.

6) Strange - Suzanna Choffel "Strange how the heart works so fast,
moves in love, moves out love quicker than the past just passed you by. yeah, it just passed you by. It's impossible to go back to a minute. Recognize how you feel so you know it when you're in it, know it when you're in it. Then you won't have to lie to yourself. no you won't have to lie to yourself." I am finding it is not so strange to experience emotions and to be able to recognize how you feel in the moment, I am enjoying my moments daily.

7) Captain Kirk - Bob Schneider "I just wanna feel good, I don't wanna hurt no body. I just wanna get good time outta my life" As I am forging new paths in my life I am really enjoying finding the things I love most about life and going after them.

Fall down, get right back up again

2007-10-30T12:07:00.001-05:00

Sometimes you have to fall to fully understand what it means to climb up. Yesterday I learned the lesson of falling the hard way. I challenged myself to go a step further to conquer a piece of the rock wall I had previously not attempted. I was successful in making it to the top and then quickly realized I did not know how to get down. As I was hanging on the wall I had the fear of falling and the fear of being seriously injured. I attempted to make myself climb back down the wall and each time I came to a road block and failed to lower myself. I tried to go up or to traverse over to another route and my muscles failed me. After a few minutes my hands grew sweaty and my arms and legs started to shake. I knew that it was inevitable that I was going to fall from the wall. I was not harnessed in I was simply hanging about 15 feet in the air with no where to go. I had two people below me spotting but I was too high for them to really help. I knew the mat was below me but that did not give me a lot of consolation that I would not be injured. Eventually the inevitable came true and I slipped off the wall. I landed on my feet and rolled over backwards. Needless to say I am a bit sore today but the good news is I did not seriously injure myself. We all take chances from time to time and I knew that overcoming that last step on the wall was a challenge. I succeeded in the first challenge and failed to realize the next obstacle. The fall gave me perspective and let me know my limits. I now understand the importance of the top rope when mastering new moves and the security provided in using the safer method. I will continue to push myself with the thought of falling to keep safety in my mind. I am sure I will have more falls both on the wall and in life as I venture into uncharted territory. I cherish the opportunity to push beyond my limits and the reality of knowing where the limits are. I did not let the fall deter me in climbing the rest of the evening, instead I put on my harness and went right back up the wall.

Trinidad and Tobago pictures

2007-10-27T16:18:00.001-05:00

Trinidad and Tobago October 19th

2007-10-27T15:49:00.000-05:00

A trip to the Caribbean wouldn't be complete without a good dose of sunshine. After two days on the water and sand Shannon and I were still looking pretty white. We decided we would make one last trip to the beach and we both made the decision to forgo the sunscreen. Apparently it only takes about 2 hours to turn two of the whitest women around into lobsters. We spent time laying in the sun and swimming to enjoy our last morning on Tobago. We were scheduled to take the ferry from Tobago to Trinidad at 1:30 pm. We left the beach around 11am and decided to make lunch, pack and figure out how to get to Scarborough to catch the ferry. When we got back to the house we ran into Eleanor and made arrangements to pay for our stay. Without access to and ATM we had to pool together US and TT$ to pay our dues. She asked us what time we were leaving and we said 1:30pm.
Eleanor said oh my you should be to the ferry 2 hours early to make sure you get your boarding pass. With that information we had to kick into high gear to make lunch, eat, pack and find a way to the ferry. We were ready to leave around noon and we made an attempt to get a route taxi outside the house. Our first attempt did not work because the gentleman was scheduled to take another route. Next we decided to go to Roshakies place to see if the same guy that gave us a ride to the beach would drop us off at the ferry. Thank goodness he decided to give us another ride and we made it to the boat on time. The ferry was amazing! The government purchased two brand new ferry boats in the last couple years. The boats transport cars and people from one island to the other for 50TT or about $8US. The seating area was set up as if you were on a luxury cruise liner. I was a bit nervous that I would be sea sick but I quickly realized that the boat was large enough that the waves really did not have an impact. The old ferries took over 5 hours to get to the Port of Spain. The new boat drops you to the other island in about 2.5 hours. Jose picked us back up at the ferry and transported us to the airport where we stayed at the Bel Air hotel on the edge of the airport. This ended up being the most expensive and worst place we stayed during the trip. We had a lot of time to kill so we decided to take some fun pictures around the hotel. At dinner we had a good laugh at the decor and the fact that the bread was served on a plate with a longhorn on it.

We had a 5:30am wake up call and we boarded the plane to Houston. At the airport we made it through all of the security check points and we were hanging out by our gate when we were approached by a man from security and immigration. He asked to speak with us for a few minutes. The man looked at Shannon's passport and then he looked at me and said and you are Kimberly, correct? This freaked me out because I did not have my passport out yet and he did not see any of my IDs. He said they were doing random checks on visitors to the country. He asked us questions about why we were in the country and where we stayed. He informed us that they had some issues with people staying at our first guest house and he was confirming that everything was OK. I think he was also trying to make sure we were not smuggling anything illegal out of the country. Thank goodness he realized we were very innocent and a bit naive about things we would possibly be taking out of the country. He let us go and we waited for our plane. Our flight took us across the Caribbean and we cruised over Cuba. When we landed in Houston we went through customs and had to put our bags back through security. Shannon purchased a bottle of rum and we didn't think about the fact that it would need to go into our checked bags. When security found the rum we had to take Shannon's backpack back to security and check it. We finally made it to our gate for the last leg of our journey.

Trinidad and Tobago October 18th

2007-10-27T15:25:00.000-05:00

We started our day with another adventure to find breakfast. We walked to the Hotel on the corner hoping they were serving food and again found out that the kitchen was not open. We ended up purchasing some fresh fruit from a local produce stand. On our way back to the guest house we stopped at the store and picked up some eggs, bread, yogurt and granola to complete our breakfast. The local store is an adventure in itself. As you can see from the picture there is nothing telling you that it is a store and it is difficult to imagine the mix of items in this small location. The lady at the produce stand gave us a wonderful avocado that we used for our sandwiches for the next two days.

Instead of booking trips with the guys at Store Bay we decided to book a trip from Johnson's Sea Tours right outside our guest house in Buccoo Bay. On the day we were scheduled to go out on the boat we had a thunderstorm hit right as we were supposed to go out on the water. We were afraid the storm was going to disrupt our plans to see the reef and to snorkle. We talked to the ladies in the tour stand and they said we could go out at anytime. We took the opportunity to return to the house and take a nap and we were pleasantly surprised with good weather in the afternoon. Around 1:30pm we went back across the street and we met up with Captain Johnson to go out on the boat. Captain Shabah Johnson took us out to Buccoo Reef on the Glass Bottom boat Bretana. The boat normally holds 14 to 18 passengers but we were the only tourists in town so we were excited to have a private tour. We were able to see the coral bottom as we drove over the reef. Shabah took us to the far edge of the reef and let us jump in and snorkle for about an hour. The reef has more than 40 species of fish and many types of coral. It is easy to see where the reef is in the water by watching where the white caps hit. This was my first experience snorkeling in the ocean and I was impressed with the coral and many colored fish. Shabah then took us to an area called Nylon pool where the water is crystal clear. Nylon pool is only about 3 feet deep and the locals will tell you that a dip in the pool will make you feel years younger!
After our trip we decided to head to another beach about 2 miles down the road called Mt. Irvine beach. As we started to walk out of town one of the locals asked us where we were off to this fine afternoon and offered to give us a ride to the beach. We gladly accepted the ride. We spent the afternoon at the beach playing in the water and drinking rum and coke. I had the opportunitiy to take a sit on top kayak out with a guide and I really enjoyed the opportunity to paddle around the bay.

Trinidad and Tobago October 17th

2007-10-27T12:47:00.000-05:00

After a long day and and evening of Caribbean beers we woke up and decided to head out for breakfast. We walked through Buccoo and did not find any where that served breakfast. We found a hotel at the main intersection with a restuarant but it was also closed. We quickly realized that most of the restaurants are limited in service because it is not tourist season. We attempted to catch a route taxi and it took us about 30 minutes to catch a ride. When the driver picked up up he drove us to Store Bay in Crown Point. Store Bay is a very popular destination right around the corner from the airport. The Bay has vendors that serve local food. We decided to try some crab and dumplins and a chicken roti. The lunch spot served hard shell crab and dumplins soaked in a curry sauce with plastic utensils. As you can see from the picture we attempted to use our hands to eat the food and we made a good mess. In the front of the picture is the remains of the chicken roti. Both dishes had the same curry sauce and they both provided a nice challenge for eating. The roti came complete with chicken bones! After we finished eating we walked down to the beach. Store beach is very small beach with beautiful water. The beach is lined with chairs and umbrellas that you can rent for $20TT about $3US. As soon as we approached the beach we had a guy named Jerry approach us about setting up a trip to Buccoo reef. He was attempting to sell us a boat ride and a BBQ. We said we were not interested at this time and about 5 minutes later we had another guy trying to sell us a trip. He said his boat was called "Cool Runnings". We returned to Buccoo Bay and took a much needed nap during a thunderstorm. We then decided to get ready and go to dinner at the Italian Restaurant next door to the guest house. The restaurant was very upscale for the location. We enjoyed some calamari for an appatizer and we each enjoyed a pasta dish. We finished dinner with some excellent Gelato desserts.

Tobago October 16th continued

2007-10-23T12:20:00.000-05:00

After our trip to ASA Wright we headed down the other side of the mountain toward the airport. We had extra time to kill before our flight to Tobago so we took a few extra detours along the way. The first stop we made was to Trevors a local bar to sample our first Caribbean beer. Jose bought us our first beers.

We had one more stop before our flight at a Monastery high up on a hill. We had an excellent view of the valley from here.
Next stop was to the airport for a quick 20 minute flight to Tobago. We were scheduled to leave at 8pm and everyone said to get to the airport early. We arrived at 6pm and discovered that a flight was leaving at 6:45pm and we were able to make it on the flight. We arrived in Tobago at about 7:15pm and hired a route taxi to take us to Buccoo. We made arrangements at a wonderful guest house near the water in Buccoo Bay. The driver took us to the house and we were greeted by two happy dogs. The hostess was not expecting us for another couple of hours and at first we were not sure how to get into the house. I ended up calling her and she came down from her upstairs accommodations to greet us at the gate. She showed us around the house and let us know how to get in and out on our own. We were the only guests at the house. With no A/C there were several fans around the house to make it a comfortable stay. Elenor is from Germany and was very pleasant to deal with. We asked her if there was anywhere to eat and she let us know that it was a little late for dinner but that we could walk down the road and get some food from the local shops. We ended up at Shirl's finger licking for some fried chicken, cole slaw and fries.

After dinner we made our way to the local bar for a few more Caribbean beers. We sat on the patio of the bar and played cards and memory games for a few hours. We made up a rule that every time you had to drink during a game you had to say "Buccoo Cheers!" If you failed to do the cheers you had to take 5 drinks. Turns out that Shannon is much better at remembering to do this than I am. We had the opportunity to talk to several local Toboggans at the bar and we had a great evening. Good thing for us the bar is only two doors down from the guest house. As the guide book explained Seaside Gardens is within staggering distance of "Sunday School." Sunday School is a local party that happens every Sunday in Buccoo. People come from all over the island for the weekly party where they enjoy time on the beach and at the local bars. Buccoo is also famous for the yearly goat races and the race center is right next to the beach.

Trinidad and Tobago October 16th

2007-10-23T10:51:00.000-05:00

Tuesday Morning we started an all day tour of Trinidad. The tour began with a drive along the North Coast Mountain range. The views were magnificent along the drive. Our first destination was Maracas Bay. The picture above was from a lookout just before we arrived at Maracas Bay. During the tourist season Maracas Bay is one of the most popular beaches in Trinidad. Due to the recent rains the beach facilities were flooded out at Maracas Bay. We arrived at the beach at about 10am and the area was deserted. There was one couple sitting on a bench enjoying the sound of the waves hitting the beach.

We walked on the beach for a few minutes and then headed down the road to Las Cueves Bay. The facilities at Las Cueves were in much better shape. They maintain the beach showers and restrooms by charging $1TT everytime you use the restroom. There is not an entry fee to the beach so it is very resonable to charge and maintain wonderful beach faciliities. We decided to change and take a quick swim at this wonderful beach. Aside from one man on the beach with his two dogs we were the only people around. Jose said that the beach gets very busy later in the day. We arrived just as the faciliities were being opened up.

The swim was very refreshing and we enjoyed the clear blue water and soft sand under our feet. We did not have a lot of time to stay on the beach because we were scheduled for lunch at the ASA Wright Nature center at noon and we were still about an hour and a half drive to get to our destination.

The drive took us on the highest road on the island. Jose kept saying we are going to the "Tippy Top" now. Along the drive we encountered a whole bunch of trucks with asphalt working on repaving the road. Jose explained that the government is quickly repairing roads in an attempt to show improvements prior to the upcoming November 5th elections. Jose was very into the upcoming elections and we listened to quite a few radio talk shows centered around the elections during our travels. He was amazed at how many trucks were out on the road getting the paving done. Jose kept saying wow so many "truckses and truckses!" He said that they would use the total number of miles paved as a part of the campaign against the opposition.

When we arrived at ASA Wright we were immediately overwhellmed by the number of birds and the amazing sounds of being so deep in the jungle.

We had a wonderful lunch at ASA Wright that included Lamb, lentels, fresh salad, and an eggplant cassarole. Our tour guide Darrel was great. He carried a large digital camera with him and stopped anytime he found an interesting butterfly or frog along the trek. At the start of the hike we could hear a Bell bird somewhere down the hill. We followed the path until we tracked the bird down. We had two other ladies on the tour with us that were from the East Coast, USA. They were very into birding and they were excited anytime we saw a new bird along the route. The hike was beautiful and very relaxing. ASA Wright has rooms that you can stay at while in Trinidad and I would highly recommend staying there for a couple of nights if you are interested in birds and nature.

Trindad and Tobago October 14th - 15th

2007-10-22T12:58:00.000-05:00

Despite that fact that we talked about going to Trinidad and Tobago for over 6 Months we waited until the very last minute to make any plans. The week before we left we purchased two round trip tickets to Port of Spain on Continental. Our flight took off at 10am from Austin with a stop in Houston. The flight from Houston to Port of Spain was approximately 5 hours. When we landed in Port of Spain at 7pm and it was dark and poring down rain. It took us about 40 minutes to clear immigration and customs and get our bags. Our driver Jose DeSilva was holding up a sign with Shannon's name on it when we walked out of the customs area. Jose went to get the car and we started our adventure. The drive took us through downtown Port of Spain. The city has some modern high rise buildings contrasted against small shack like businesses. Traffic was good and this was my first experience driving in a country with right hand drive vehicles. It took me a few minutes to adjust to the driver making turns from the left lane across traffic. I quickly realized I would not be able to drive in the city without a lot of practice. It was a little late for most restaurants and Jose was kind enough to stop for some take away food. We ended up with some BBQ chicken, cole slaw and fries. The restaurant was a walk up Chinese place with a lot of chicken plates as options. When we walked up there were 4 local boys waiting for food. They were carrying on a conversation in a local dialect that I could not understand at all. Both islands speak english but they also have their own language and it was very difficult to understand anything they said. We also learned quickly that the locals will speak very softly when speaking to us. This made it difficult to hear a lot of things they said.

We arrived at Monique's Guest house at about 8:30 PM. We ate our dinner and crashed for the night. We had accomodations planned at Monique's for the first two nights of the trip and all other plans were still up in the air. The hotel room was fairly basic with two double beds, AC, and a TV. It appeared to be pretty clean and the hotel staff were helpful. The driver that picked us up from the Airport ended up being a tour guide and we ended up hiring him as our main transportation while in Trinidad.

On Monday morning we spent about an hour looking at our travel guide book to determine where we wanted to stay and the activites we wanted to do on the trip. We decided to walk to a restaurant called Adams for lunch. On our way to the cafe we had our first experience with a Trini man. He poked his head out of a shack and said "Well Good Mornin my snowbunnies, and how are you today?" We laughed and said good Morning back and kept on our way. From the outside Adams doesn't look like much but it ended up being a very nice bistro style cafe. For breakfast we tried the Trini to da bone special that included buljoi and cocunut bake. We also ordered a hummus plate and a chicken sandwich. Buljoi is a mixture of salt fish, tomatoes, onions, and spices. We put the buljoi on the cocunut bake bread with a little hummus. The combination was a little strange for breakfast but it all worked out.

We contacted Jose and asked him for assistance in getting around the city. He ended up taking us to a travel agent to get a flight to Tobago, the ATM for extra cash, and the ferry landing for a return ticket from Tobago to Trinidad. When we were done with errands Jose drove us to one of the highest points around called Fort George for a view of the city. Fort George has a lighthouse and it housed many cannons to protect the bay. This gave us a great perspective of how large Port of Spain is.

At about 6pm Jose dropped us off at the Kapok hotel for dinner and we decided to take a route taxi back to the hotel later that night. We had dinner at the Bois Cano restaurant. The restarant waas very nice and we had a wonderful table outside on the patio. We started with a couple of frozen drink and we ordered a few different items to share. Our dinner consisted of a garden salad, stuffed crab backs, cassava fries with garlic sauce, and chicken samosas with a tamarind sauce. After dinner we attempted to catch a route taxi.

Route taxis are any car in Trinidad with a H on the license plate. It is a bit of a challenge to see the plates at night and we tried to flag a car down for about 10 minutes. We decided to walk up the street a little ways and ended up taking a detour to the Haagendas store for some ice cream. It is fun going into retaurants and seeing items like an ice cream cone listed at $24 dollars. Of course that is $24TT which is about $4 american at a 6.3 exchange rate. After our ice cream adventure we again attempted to flag a route taxi down. A car stopped that did not have an H and we took our chances on it. The driver had his music cranked up with island music and we were driving with two other riders. The ride only cost $8TT to get us to the hotel, just over a dollar and you are dropped at your location!

Backpack Adventures

2007-10-12T16:28:00.000-05:00

After talking to a friend this weekend about the book "The Secret" I contemplated a thought of feeling prosperous. It seems that the thought turned into a result this week. I went to my mailbox and inside I found a wonderful REI gift card from my brother. The gift was for my Birthday back in July, but the timing could not have been better. While getting ready for my trip I was trying to figure out how I would transport my items in an efficient manner. The REI card proved to be the perfect solution. I trekked over to REI and picked up a beautiful backpack that I can use for this trip and many hiking adventures. The pack is a beautiful red and grey with black straps. I took some time this morning and packed all of the things I would need for the trip and I realized that I still have a lot of room to bring things back. I found the different pockets very useful for separating items and organizing my gear.

The backpack is made by Osprey.

Ariel 65
Backpacking, Mountaineering Light

An ideal size for the majority of backpackers, the Ariel 65 will carry what you need - whatever your favorite adventure.

* Lightweight women's design
* AirScape suspension
* IsoForm harness
* IsoForm CM™ hipbelt

For eight years we have been sewing labels listing the Principles of Leave No Trace into our larger packs. We look at it as a friendly reminder, from us to you, of your responsibility to the environment you enjoy with our packs on your back. Do your part by learning more about these principles and teaching them to others. Participate in the harmony of nature and leave no trace of your passage.

Principles of Leave No Trace

Plan Ahead and Prepare
Travel and Camp on Durable Surfaces
Dispose of Waste Properly
Leave What You Find
Minimize Campfire Impacts
Respect Wildlife
Be Considerate of Other Visitors

Can you tell that I am excited to start my adventures?

Travel

2007-10-10T15:52:00.000-05:00

Today marks the beginning of my world travels. We booked a flight last night to Trinidad and Tobago. In the true spirit of adventure we are leaving many details up in the air on this trip. We plan to book at least one nights stay and then take it from there. Beaches, kayaking, snorkeling and biking are on my list of activities for the trip. This will be the first stamp in my passport and I am excited to add other countries soon.

I feel a mix of excitement and anticipation for the trip. Over the last few months I have made focused decisions to make positive changes in my life. I am looking inside for the the things that I am truly passionate about and taking steps to go after those things. Exploration has always been on my list and I realize that I do way too little of it. I seek to explore the outdoors and to better understand other people and cultures.

I am sure that the travel bug has officially bitten me. Ship ahoy! I am ready to sail!

Sacrifice

2007-10-01T16:34:00.000-05:00

"What are you willing to give up in order to follow your call?" Sacrifice says Thomas Moore, is "the shadow in the calling." It reminds us that we pay a price for every choice and that life doesn't hold still. It constantly gives over this for that; it wears down its banks and changes course; it's a propeller that spins so fast it only appears to be solid, but you don't dare try and grasp it.

From Sacrifice The Shadow in the Calling

As my life continues to transition I am asking myself what I want, what I am willing to give up and when I am going to make the change to follow a more meaningful path. Last week I made a choice to end a long term commitment to my softball team. As trivial as this may sound it has a far reaching impact on an entire team of people. They have counted on me for three years and they were expecting that I would be there for them again next year. I experienced a sense of loss in letting go of the team and the commodore and yet I also felt the rush of freedom and excitement at the new opportunities to come.

So what do I plan to do with my extra time? I have already put the wheels in motion to work on my art, to volunteer and to travel. I seek to expand my knowledge and understanding through reading and study. To move forward and gain new perspectives sometimes we simply need to make a decision and accept the price of that decision. We cannot get to second base if we keep our feet on first. Funny how this statement rings true for me in my quest for a higher understanding of life.

Birthday re-birth

2007-10-01T06:33:00.000-05:00

I asked her what she was doing for her Birthday and she said I have a date with myself. She went on to explain that it had been nine months since her break-up and she felt as if this day signified a kind of re-birth. She wanted to start over and create a new life. I am tired of telling the story, she said. I don't want to talk about what happened anymore. I wish to celebrate my life and I feel empowered. She talked to me about making a creativity box. The box represents her dreams and ideas and thoughts and is a place of exploration and release. I could hear the strength and conviction in her voice as she proclaimed her new found freedom. As she stood before me she was beaming with energy.

So, why is it that we fail to maintain that freedom within our relationships? When do we lose our sense of individualism and fall into patterns and habits based on our partners? How do we set appropriate boundaries and respect the boundaries of others enough to form a lasting partnership, yet remain true to ourselves? What sacrifices are we willing to pay for the price of love? When is love enough and when do we need to relinguish love in order to live? Now that she knows the feeling of empowerment will her approach to relationships change or will old habits and patterns of behavior kick in?

It is wonderful to witness her sense of self and to see the strength she is drawing from within. We all have the power to remain true and to share and to set boundaries and to let our inner self shine!

Distraction

2007-09-30T15:28:00.000-05:00

When is distraction, well distracting? When we stop living in the present and distract ourselves from what is really going on we limit our abiltiy to experience life as it is happening. After about 30 days of riding an emotional roller coaster I finally stopped, took a deep breath and attempted to focus again. I realized I was biting off more than I could chew and it was eating me up. When I finally stopped I realized that my insecurities were begining to rise to the surface and I was questioning every step I was taking. My life was bouncing from event to event and person to person with little purpose. Screeeeech, put on the brakes, STOP!

When did I realize enough was enough? Well it came to my attention after about 6 hours of pure distraction and avoidance. I spent an entire morning at work playing on facebook and overwhellming a friend by expressing thoughts and emotions via facebook, text, and email. I basically barfed up my emotions and let them out uncensored. The benefit to getting it all out was that I was not bottling up the thoughts and dwelling on them. What I did not consider was the impact it would have on the person having to read and listen to all of my emotional garbage.

I cannot control the past and I cannot guess the future. I am learning to sit with the thoughts, recognize what triggers the emotions, and to accept where I am. I am sure I am not done with distractions and I am sure that I will have pit falls when dealing with my thoughts and emotions. For now I am excited about the new adventures that await me and I am content with where I am.