Sudden Unplanned Epicness

It was Thursday night, and we were bored, dangeroulsy bored. The sort of boredom that leads to news reports, judicial inquiry's, and elevated serotonin levels (I don't really know what that means but it sounds so . . . . . cool) So we decided that we would canoing, we did not know where, we did not have a canoe, we were lacking adequate transport. But we were going to have and EPIC adventure. Asking the Furb for some fatherly advice we were pointed east to Montana, the land of beard combs and questionable open container laws, with a plan of floating down the Clark Fork from St. Regis to Plains, thirty miles in all. We did not get on the river till two or three in the afternoon, but it was high and flowing fast so we made really good time.

Transportation
The car and canoe of friends, I wish the canoe was mine, the car - well its a nice car but it is a little heavily scented


Remember how I said it's not my car. . .


Part of me was glad that people thought we were from Idaho

There is something about Montana that I love, or at least those parts of it I have seen, namely the Clark Fork River. I'm still trying to figure out what it is.

Climbing the trestle

Turns out that the river was 6ft higer than normal

One of 7 river crossings

Sundown the first night

Yes , its a T-bone, and yes it was delicious

Bow shot # 48

Sunbeam Shot # 23

Maybe somday REI will hire me . . . . one can dream

Roommate looking like he is planning my demise

Long exposer experiment # 12

The trip was great, I took to many pictures, over 40 minutest of video, and killed my camera.
Between sandy beaches, and white water rapids it made the great change.

If you are ever in Plains Montana, stay till Sunday, and on Sunday morning head over to the Plains Bible Chapel, Joel Banham is the pastor there, try to do more listening than talking, which can be hard, because Joel is a great listener. There are deep wells in Plains.

The last time I was in Plains I apparently made a lasting impression. I had quoted some lines form a novel/movie the title of which I won't write here - if you think you know well you probably are right. Joel had the same sort of breezy familiarity that I did with the work in question, and we proceeded to have a quote off of sorts. All in all I think I saw the man, and his for 15 hour tops that weekend. Fast forward 9 months when I show up in the sanctuary unannounced, and whereupon seeing me his wife says "Oh I remember you - you're the sensitive one" Really??? That's my claim to fame??? Oh well - I'd be lying if I tried to pretend that I did not get a huge kick out of such a title. We had lunch in a great little diner Benji's - which I whole heartily recommend, great little place. Their pepper jack burger is especially good.

The video is still being processed so come back if you care to see it.

Looking for eye gunk
I ended up leaving my contacts in for two days straight. I had no mirror, so used the camera instead - please ignore the uni-brow