hup all night.....and totally bummin'

if there's anything you can say about my dad, it's that he is all about business when there's something to be done. he will do whatever it takes at full speed until it's done. but sometimes your best just doesn't beat the odds.

after an assortment of ideas about what to do with the kids, we decided that i would stay at the cabin saturday night with the kids, and the rest of the fam would go to grayling for the race. my mom decided to try and make it, and nic went along so mom could have an option if it was just too much.

the race started out great. dad and garth were ahead of their goal time. then, troubled waters. not in the river, but in garth's belly. apparently, he got pretty sick at one of the check points and kept getting sick for a few more check points. when exhaustion meets dehydration...quite a volatile mix. my dad said even he had some wild moments in the midst of the night. at one point he was hallucinating. he thought he saw nathan up a tree with a stop watch. and then he kept seeing animals. he asked garth, "do ibuprophen make you hallucinate?" he didn't have a good grasp on reality at that point, but at least he realized it b/c he thought, "i'm hallucinating...i need to put on my life jacket in case we dump".

they were disqualified at loud dam when they were ten minutes behind the cut off time. but after we got them out of the water, my dad said, "let's go to the finish line. i want to see the end of the race." he was totally bummed, but he still had a good attitude. that's just my dad. joking with the race officials, giving garth a big hand shake, and taking us all out for a desi's lunch.

so we're all pretty bummed, but that's just one bump in the road.....or should i say a log in the river.

next year.


~~for those of you that might think i misspelled my title, i didn't. "hup" is what the paddlers say to each other when they need to switch their paddles from one side to another. so, a lot of feed crews and paddlers have t-shirts and cars with "hup all night" painted on them.~~

Now I (nate) would like to add my two cents. Christina was the real champ here, I think that she wanted to more than anyone be with the family at the start of the race for her dad and not to mention the fact that TODAY IS HER BIRTHDAY. Hello we should all be cheering and screaming.

As far as the race goes - I have to add that I was very proud of g-train (grant) for getting as far as they did considering their circumstances. See what most of you don't know is that the canoe is there "home" for 6-7 hours at a time before they get out and run down a dam to only get back in the water and keep going. Needless to say I saw a lot of "wet noodle legs" from paddlers who have been sitting for to long. All paddlers will use their boat for eating, sitting, and taking care of business (if you will). I say that so you won't be sickened but to understand when one partner tosses the cookies and is feeling sick the other partner may get more than what he bargined for. Those guys went through a lot with a sick one in the back and a "bull in a china shop" in the front - meaning grant was the engine to that locomotive.

After all is said and done the winners finished the race in 14:33:50 which is a very good time. Grant and garth had they continued on would have had another 4 hours of paddling to go from the winners time. Thankfullly they were safe out on the water (especially with those visions grant was having) and lessons learned. So here's to you big man - I say that respectfully given my smaller size and your gerth and strength :-)

Happy Birthday to the one I love and adore. She is the best thing that has EVER happened to me and the ACE man. She is a true work horse here at home keeping this "pig" clean and my "pen" spotless. Thank you babe for all you do - and on behalf of your little blogging world HAPPY BIRTHDAY.