We went on a Colorado trip with our wonderfully real friends, Clint and Sherry Whetten. We went white water rafting and Razor riding in the mountains. We camped like teenagers and ate like adults (no dumb camp food). We camped just outside of Bueno Vista.
We discovered this crazy village. It looked like a movie set. When Sherry and I went exploring Benjamin and Clint met the owner of this community. He is from Tucson and is part owner in every main attraction in the neighboring community. He has a stake in the rafting company, the razor company, the hotel, and several shops.... And he is the same age as us. We asked him what he did for a living before this and he said he was a professional kayaker..we called him PK for short. Let's get real sir, you came from money. You cant' do all this from such a small following sport. We googled him and sure enough, he has as much as he said he did. Graduating Magna Cum laude from somewhere...how obnoxiously successful....
The actual water was insane. Colorado has had a very wet winter and spring. Every day they would raise the age limit for who was allowed to ride.
Our guide was an old river rat. He had been running this river for over 20 years. We came up to a part in the river that would flip rafts in the best conditions let alone these crazy high water conditions. We pulled over to the side and he walked and watched for at least 10 minutes to see what the flow looked like. Finally, he felt confident on the best approach to take. In the meantime several new guides came up to the spot and just went for it, several boats flipped and the horror on the rafters was scary enough. We rode it just fine because we had a knowledgeable guide who didn't take unnecessary risks. When others went to go for it he pulled over to watch the mistakes and successes.
The morning we suited up in our wet suits, I had to pick out a helmet and I thought last week I got a large helmet for when I went repelling...so I took off my marathon hat...so I could put on my wet suit for white water rafting...then it occurred to me...I'm crushing this midlife thing :)
The Razor riding was incredible. Clint is a race car driver at heart. He was going 80 mph turning on a dime down these small trail roads. We each took turns and had a blast. I ended up soaking everyone when I took the small stream crossing at full speed...messy but fun!
This was our campsite spot. The river was so loud and put us to sleep.
All the kids got to go on some kind of adventure this summer so I'm glad Benjamin got to as well. We had a blast. Its always a good time with Clint and Sherry!
