My trip to Colorado started with a text from Stephen. . . “Van died.  I am on it.”   Now what is that supposed to mean less than 12 hours before I am supposed to get on plane to live in the big red van for a week.  Well. . . what it meant was that the van stopped working thursday on Stephen’s way to the Homestake Creek Race.  Now being that this was thursday and no one seems to work on the weekend (can’t blame them, I don’t), the fuel filter that the van needed wasn’t going to get there until monday.  Which ended up being the fuel regulator, and we didn’t get out of Vail and the van wasn’t fixed until Wed.   So, we spent the first five days in Vail, CO sneaking Black Dog and Sera up the stairs in a hotel room.  Welcome to Colorado.

 

Now the kayaking part.   The Teva Mountain Games were super fun.  Saturday was spent watching the pro freestyle finals, making sure the dogs behaved, and taking lots of pictures.  Stephen came into finals first, however a stomach bug which included dry heaving and a case of the sharts, dropped all energy from him and he ended up fourth.  No worries, he was still the sexiest one out there.  Did I mention my hobbit loops bigger that your boyfriend?  Hee hee.   If you want the official results, I am sure if you search hard enough you can find them.

 

Sunday was the the 8 ball, and I have never seen anything like this before.  It was hilarious.  It is basically a boatercross with 4-8 large men in kayaks (8 balls) trying to prevent you from winning and trying to drown and kill you in the process.  The more blood the better.  It was awesome, Clay made the hole in Vail super sticky so there were several group surfs and people getting hit in the face all over the place.  Stephen and I were lucky enough to be the finish line judges so we had a front row seat for all the action.  I don’t remember who won.  I think it was the person with the biggest hospital bill. :-)



 

This isn’t the end of the story.  We got the van back from some really nice people on Wed, and headed out to Salida for FIBark and National Freestyle Championships.  More pics and stories to come.