I'd been rafting quite a bit when I was younger, mainly through various summer scouting trips. All of my previous trips had been down the same river, just upstream a bit down the Brown's Canyon run. I was a little concerned about the size of the rapids in the Gorge as depending on water levels they range from IV-V. All my previous experience topped out at III-IV. Luckily the water level was a meager 1200CFM or so, causing the Gorge to max out at IV. According to the lady we bought our pictures from, we apparently had one close call near the beginning of the trip where she thought we were sure to flip. Bhoj however betrayed no sense of alarm, or change of facial expression according to our pictures, and we made it through the rapid without any problems. Apparently AAE has nicknamed Bhoj "Little Buddha" since he's so calm and relaxed in just these types of situations, I would have to agree.
Anyways, I had a blast and would love to do it again next year if we can find the time for it.
The rest of our trip to Denver consisted of going to the Mile High Music Festival. This is the second year we've gone. It would be pretty hard to live up to last years lineup of Flogging Molly, Tom Petty & Dave Matthews, this year I was definitely excited to be seeing Tool, Incubus, Matisyahu, & 3OH!3 along with a myriad of other great acts.
The Tool set was going to be the second time I'd seen them, and I was hoping that it would be a better experience than the last time they were at the Mid-America Center in Council Bluffs. Sadly, I was disappointed yet again. It was the exact same set of songs as at MAC, meaning short and lacking a bunch of the songs I really wanted to hear. The volume was too low, low enough that we were able to have conversations without shouting and we were standing 30-40 yards away from the speakers. The lasers & video appeared to be the same from the last show I'd seen. The one difference was Maynard at one point stripped down to a speedo??! and did the rest of the set that way?? I dunno, Tool is one of my favorite bands, but they became a favorite through their older songs that they seem hesitant to play live, which makes me a sad panda ( ' _ ' ) At this point I'm done giving them chances to redeem themselves, fool me once... yada yada.
The rest of the acts however did not disappoint, they all lived up to and in some cases exceeded my expectations. One standout that I really took note of was John Butler, whom I had never heard of until Ryan said we should try to check him out. It was mostly just the guy and his guitar, but through creative playing and looping he was able to make a full sound as if 3-4 others were playing with him. At one point he was joined by a friend on the drums but for the most part it was just him. Finding musicians like Butler are why I love going to these huge music festivals.
A slightly humorous side note is apparently I need to stay in better contact with my friends here in Omaha as I found out last night that my good friend Sasha was down at Mile High as well with some of her other friends. We never ran in to each other while down there but it would have been cool to be in a group bigger than 3 people.
Wow this got long. But yeah, there is the account of our 2nd trip to Denver for Mile High Music Festival. Does it become tradition at 2 or 3 years in a row? I'm not quite sure. I'm willing to work on making it one, who's with me?!
