Good news, I made it home from Parker, Arizona in one piece after paddling "Another Dam Race"! Us novice crew that went had such a fantastic time this past weekend and we all cannot wait for this race next year. The weekend started on Friday with the four hour drive to AZ, we were really lucky to not hit any traffic on the way there, we arrived right around noon, grabbed some lunch at the Cantina (not the best place to eat) and headed to River Lodge where all of our canoes were waiting for us to be rigged. We rigged the canoes, hung out by the river for a little bit and then headed back to the Blue Water Resort & Casino to check in. Once we were all settled in we met in the bar for a little something something and after perusing Yelp and my Verizon Navigator app, we found a really great restaurant (Strokes) not to far from the hotel to have dinner at! Now this is where the fun really began, 13 of us loaded into an RV that part of the team rented and cruised down the highway to dinner, OMG, I have not laughed that hard in a long long long time. Lets just say we were packed in there and it was totally unsafe, the RV was probably bouncing down the road and it is not a good idea to have 12 backseat drivers, a special thanks to Jeff for driving and acting as if he had done this a million times minus the part where he could not get the windshield wipers to turn off. Sheila We walked into Strokes with drinks in hand where they kindly greeted us and took them away, I played decoy while Sheila we drank up before handing the glasses over it was hilarious. We proceeded to walk in so loudly that I am sure the ENTIRE restaurant heard us and quickly ate their food to get away from us. We ate, drank and were so merry, it was awesome. The RV ride was freakin hilarious, Buck was the entertainer/DJ and lets just say when I laugh hard I start to cough and I coughed the entire ride back and in the morning woke up coughing, he was that funny. After we got back to the hotel, it was time to put our swimsuits on and head to the water slide (cause it is only normal to be 30+ and ride on the water slide after dinner). I am so bummed I did not get pics of the pool, it was really neat, plus it was really awesome that they threatened to bill you $50 if you took a pool towel home.
Just a glimpse of the fun!
Saturday we headed up river to the race start line, it was a beach start and it was nuts. First off, I was not anticipating my boat to take off like it did, so I had to run after it and once I got to the boat it was deeper then I thought and I could not get in the way I planned so I had to hurl myself in, yes it looks like I got beat again. Our boat did great with the exception of me who steered us into some chaos and cost us third or fourth place, total fail, oops! All in all we had a great time, we paddled well and it was nice to have the help of the current. After the race we loaded the boats, hung out at the Cantina for awhile and then headed to the ampitheater for the raffle, awards and lunch. It was such a nice day hanging on the lawn in the shade (it was 90 degrees out) and enjoying everyone's company. Once all of the festivities were over we headed out onto a Pontoon boat and cruised up the river to Roadrunner's for a couple cocktails and some greasy food (dude, I am still paying the price for all the onion rings I ate). Let's just say that we kind of exceeded the weight limit for the pontoon and at one point the front went under and started taking on water, no bueno. It kind of freaked me out, as in how was I going to swim to shore without getting my phone wet (the important things people), anyways after redistributing some of the weight we made it there dry but had to take two boat loads of people back to the hotel.
What a pretty sunset!
Sunday it was time for all of the fun to come to an end, we put our "Dam" shirts on, packed our bags and we headed back home :( , talk about a great way time! I cannot wait till next year! I am so stoked that now I can say I have paddled to Catalina and down the Colorado River.
Thanks to all that organized this!
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